The joint team of the Regional Project Coordination Office 1 (RPCO 1), Luzon A Project Support Office (PSO), and the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) conducted a pilot Rapid Appraisal of Emerging Benefits (RAEB) among the beneficiaries of the Small Livelihood Project (SLP) in Brgy. Primicias, Mapandan, Pangasinan on October 10-13, 2017.

Comprising of the I-REAP component, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit, Information, Advocacy, Education and Communication (InfoACE) Unit, Social and Environmental Safeguards (SES) Unit and Economists Unit, the RAEB is a PRDP initiative which aims to measure the instant impacts of enterprise and infrastructure subprojects in terms of social and economic benefits. It also aims to assess the extent of on-going and future support of local government units (LGUs) to PRDP-funded subprojects and is conducted after the completion or award of the subprojects.

After a Focus Group Discussion (FGD), household surveys, and spot interviews, the RAEB revealed that the members of the Women’s Unity for Progress and Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative have availed of 44% discount in hauling cost and 11% discount in land preparation.

The Cooperative is the first recipient of the SLP under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) in Region 1. They were given a four-wheel tractor, cage roller, rotary tiller/leveler, and heavy-duty trailer to help reduce farmer beneficiaries’ expenses on hauling and land preparation.

Before the award of the Project on January 26, 2017, hauling cost is pegged at P1,725 while land preparation costs P3,000-P3,500 per hectare.  Today, RAEB results show that hauling costs P1,087.5and land preparation costs P2,700 per hectare.

The RAEB also revealed that farmers only take four hours to till a hectare of land. This is two hours faster than the old tractor which tills one hectare of land in six hours.

The SLP is the Project’s response to the adverse effects of Typhoon Lando which struck the Luzon Island in October 2015. There are 53 farmer organizations which successfully availed SLP from the PRDP in Region 1, and will be subject to RAEB in the succeeding months. ### (Dessa U. Estrada and Vida V. Cacal, RPCO 1 InfoACE Unit)