The saba banana, aside from calamansi and cashew, is also one of the top agricultural commodities in the Provinces of Oriental Mindoro and Palawan.

After approval of Palawan’s Value Chain Analysis (VCA) for saba banana, MIMAROPA prepares for a regional VCA of the said industry in Oriental Mindoro to address issues and concerns.

The VCA is a scientific tool that helps construct the commodity investment plans of each province or city. These investment plans then determine priority interventions that can be funded by the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) through the World Bank and Department of Agriculture.

In a recent visit in Calapan City on December, the I-PLAN Component with the Provincial Agriculture Office of Oriental Mindoro led a stakeholders’ consultation to discuss the draft VCA of the saba banana which will include both provinces.

The activity was attended by farmers, traders, and processors of saba banana as well as by Municipal Agriculture Officers and agency representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology, Bureau of Plant Industry, Philippine Statistics Authority, and Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology.

The discussion for the whole day was mainly about addressing the issues and concerns in the industry of Oriental Mindoro that need answers and interventions. Some of these, as enumerated by the farmers and traders, are issues on farm inputs, production, and suitability for typhoon-prone areas.

The agencies present during the consultation had also raised the need to update the data that will be used in the VCA. This is crucial in determining the real and current situation of the industry that the PRDP will provide assistance.

In addition, the consultation also allowed the stakeholders to be aware of the PRDP in terms of what the special project does and how it achieves its goal of improving the lives of the country’s farmers and fisherfolk.

The Provincial Agriculture Office was especially particular on eyeing potential proponent groups or people’s organizations who can propose enterprise subprojects under PRDP.

The completion of the VCA of saba banana in the future may open opportunities for the tackled issues to be addressed by PRDP through its enterprise and infrastructure interventions together with other responsible agencies. ### (Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

The farmers, traders, municipal agriculturists, and agency representatives from the different parts of Oriental Mindoro gathered to attend the Stakeholders’ Consultation for the crafting of the Value Chain Analysis for Saba Banana. (Photo by Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)