The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) conducted the 1^st World Bank (WB) Supervision Review Mission for Visayas cluster at L’Fisher Hotel, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, January 21 to 23, 2015.

National Project Coordination Office Deputy Project Director Arnel De Mesa said the project aims to increase the rural income and enhance farm and fishery productivity, and increase by at least 5%  household incomes of the farmers and fisherfolk annually.

It also aims to increase by 7% increase in the value of marketed outputs, and while allowing more farmers to avail of DA services.

“The USD500-million government loan from the World Bank (WB) will provide infrastructure and enterprise development support to the Local Government Units (LGUs) through counterparting. The Visayas Cluster has P2.1 billion budget for infrastructure development and P86 million for enterprise support to the farmers and fisherfolk,” added De Mesa.

Carol Figueroa-Geron, WB team leader for PRDP, said that the review mission is aimed at checking the status of accomplishments and the readiness of the project implementation in Regions 6, 7 and 8.

Geron cited that the PRDP had extended the submission deadline of the proposals in the Visayas Cluster because most of the provinces were heavily affected by typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and she further encouraged the Provincial Project Management Implementing Units (PPMIUs) to propose sub-projects which would address the needs of the affected communities.

The PRDP has been approved by the National Economic Development Authority on June 26, 2014 and declared effective by the WB in December 3 last year, added Dir. De Mesa

Fifty out of 80 provinces nationwide have already signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) DA for PRDP partnership. In Visayas, 14 out of 16 provinces have MOA inked last year.

PRDP Project Support Service (PSO) Visayas Director Larry P. Nacionales said that there are several sub-projects which are soon to be approved in Negros Occidental, like the Fish Coral Rehabilitation and Fish Trading Support at Brgy. Rizal, Escalante; Fishing Equipment Rehabilitation for Tortosa Pumpboat Association’s swimming crab enterprise in Manapla; Negros Muscovado Processing and Marketing Support Enterprise at Bacolod City; Farm to Market Road (FMR) projects in Brgy. Caduha-an to Sitio Aluyan, and Sitio Magtu-od to Sitio Vergara in Brgy. Bug-ang, Toboso.

According to Dir. Nacionales, Negros Occidental has several on going sub-projects because of the strong support of their PPMIU.  A total of P191M is allocated for the approved subprojects in the province.

The PRDP sites, The Sitio Magtu-od to Sitio Vergara FMR project site in Brgy. Bug-ang, Toboso  and the blue swimming crab enterprise in Manapla, both in Neg. Occidental., and Guimaras Province, as GEF site were visited by the DA and WB team last January 22.

Dir. Nacionales encouraged the LGUs to propose other infrastructure projects like bridges, communal irrigation systems, potable water systems, fishery-related structures, and other eligible infrastructure projects under this six year- project of the national government to support the development of priority commodities.

For infrastructure projects, the counterparting scheme includes 80% from the WB loan, 10% from the Philippine government and 10% from the local government unit. Meanwhile, for enterprise development, the sharing will be 60% from the WB, 20% from the government and 20% from the local government unit. (INFOACE PSO Visayas/RPCO 6)

(From Left to Right) Site Visit of DA and WB Team to Sitio Magtu-od to Sitio Vergara FMR in Toboso, Blue Swimming Crab Enterprise in Manapla and GEF in Guimaras.