With the approval of the MIADP and the PRDP Scale Up, PRDP is opening new doors of opportunities for farmers and fisher folk in Mindanao.

PRDP started in 2014 as a flagship program under the Department of Agriculture that was jointly funded by the World Bank, the national government and participating local government units with the aim of increasing the incomes of farmers and fishers in rural communities by establishing a modern value chain oriented and climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. With the end of 2022 also came the closure on the Original Loan and First Additional Financing. For their part, the Mindanao Cluster was able to post significant accomplishments in contributing to the overall Project objectives in particular in their planning, infrastructure and enterprise development components.

Under their planning component, the Mindanao Cluster was able to craft thirty-six (36) approved value chain analysis (VCAs) which have resulted to thirty-three (33) commodity investment plans used by local government units for the leveraging of their resources. These have resulted in P72 billion worth of investments generated throughout Mindanao in both PRDP funded and non-PRDP funded projects. Additionally, P36.6 million worth of investments were also made in support of the implementation of the of Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Plan (AFMP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

For infrastructure development, PRDP Mindanao was able to complete one hundred eighty-three (183) subprojects at a total cost of P9.19 billion. This constitutes one hundred twenty-six (126) farm-to-market roads (FMRs); ten (10) FMRs with bridge; fourteen (14) level 2 potable water systems; and three (3) communal irrigation systems.

Meanwhile for enterprise development, PRDP Mindanao was able to complete ninety-nine (99) subprojects with a total cost of P457.7 million.

PRDP is currently implementing the Second Additional Financing and European Union Co-financing Grant (AF2-EU) which aimed to expand PRDP’s support to address food security especially during the COVID 19 Pandemic as well as increase its inclusiveness by supporting more LGUs in Mindanao that experience poverty and conflict.

Under the AF2-EU, the Mindanao Cluster has eighty-five (85) ongoing infrastructure subprojects amounting to P2.35 billion and twenty-nine (29) approved enterprise subprojects amounting to PhP228 million and another twenty-two (22) subprojects in the pipeline worth a total of PhP88.38 million funded under the AF2-EU. These are targeted for completion by 2025.

Recently, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board greenlit the PhP6.6 billion Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project (MIADP) on February 3, 2023. This comes alongside another World Bank funded project, the PhP33 billion PRDP Scale-Up. Both big-ticket projects seek to build on and expand on what PRDP has established since 2014.

While the MIADP will seek to improve the economic situation of the indigenous people in Mindanao and further strengthen the capacity of LGUs (local government units) to implement support programs that address weak market linkages and poor infrastructure in geographically isolated ancestral domains, the PRDP Scale-Up will expand on what PRDP has implemented since 2014 by focusing on clustering and consolidation strategies and promoting productive partnerships with farmers’ cooperative clusters (FCAs) and the private sector. As the name suggests, it will also establish scaled-up investments to include small to large-scale enterprises as common service facilities and will include rice and corn as priority commodities.

In the past couple of months, PRDP along with the World Bank Team and their partners have been conducting technical meetings and discussions to prepare for the implementation of these projects both of which are set to start in 2023.

Together with the ongoing subprojects for AF2-EU, the MIADP and PRDP Scale Up are set to bring in more interventions to rural communities opening more opportunities to serve farmers and fishers in Mindanao. ( | )