The Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) is a three-year rolling plan that rationalizes interventions in the commodity value chains. It also serves as the basis for identifying necessary infrastructure and enterprise development (I-BUILD and I-REAP) subprojects that can be funded by PRDP with counterparts from the local government units (LGUs).

On January 16, the PRDP South Luzon Project Support Office (PSO) piloted the joint local and national level planning (I-PLAN) and I-REAP workshop in the Province of Batangas for the matching and identification of enterprises from the PCIPs.

The joint workshop, which was attended by 28 municipal agriculturists and agriculture officers from 22 municipal LGUs in Batangas, primarily aims to orient the participants about the process of identification and prioritization of enterprise subprojects and proponent groups.

The Province of Batangas currently has two I-BUILD subprojects in the pipeline, namely, the Lobo and the Tanauan City farm-to-market roads. Batangas was chosen as the pilot site for the joint I-PLAN and I-REAP workshop, since there are no I-REAP proposals yet from the province.

To ensure that the use of PCIPs are maximized and to encourage LGUs to submit subprojects for I-REAP, potential investments for the seven priority commodities, namely, banana, coffee, dairy cattle, dairy carabao, mango, seaweeds, and coconut (particularly virgin coconut oil) that were identified and included in the Batangas PCIP were presented during the activity.

Based on the expanded vulnerability and suitability analysis (eVSA), the municipalities and cities that are top producers of the said commodities and of the region’s lowland vegetables undergoing Value Chain Analysis (VCA) preparation were also shown to serve as the LGUs’ basis in identifying strategic locations and proponent groups for the needed interventions.

According to PSO I-PLAN Component Head Rey Lara, the workshop was designed to help each locality identify which commodity and proponent group are most strategic for funding.

The workshop also aims to inform the LGUs on how they can help farmers and fishers groups in their localities to establish new businesses or expand their ongoing ventures.

Through the workshop, the participating LGUs now have a wider range of funding options that they can avail of the Project.

One of the participants, Rosario Municipal Agriculturist Pablita Quizon stated, “We hope that with this activity, we can move forward and have fruitful partnership with PRDP.”

The joint I-PLAN and I-REAP workshop will be followed by a participatory business planning workshop that will be facilitated by the I-REAP component. It will also be replicated in the 15 provinces and two highly urbanized cities in the cluster. (Lawrence Albert Bariring)