More than half of the peanut production in the country come from Regions 1 and 2. This leguminous crop is a good source of edible oil, vegetable protein and fiber. The peanut capital of the Philippines lies in the municipality of Enrile in Cagayan, where growers plant and harvest peanut twice a year, during both dry and wet season as peanuts are climate adoptive.

On the other hand the Philippine Carabao Mango, known for its distinct sweetness is considered a priority crop and the third most important crop in the Philippines. In fact, it holds a record on the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s sweetest mango. The dry and tropical season stands favourable for mango growers in the country.

Prior to the finalization of the cluster’s Value Chain Analyses (VCA) for above-mentioned commodities, stakeholders and LGUs from Region 2 convened in a workshop on July 28-29 in Santiago City.

The success of the meeting and workshop signals the start of the preparation for the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) of Santiago City. The stakeholders’ consultation is a documentary requirement for the formulation of the VCA.

Participating in the event was Santiago Mayor Joseph Tan and his Executive Assisstant Engr. Rodel Diego who both expressed support in the involvement of the city in the Philippine Rural Development Project .

“Let us make this industry a promising industry that gives jobs and opportunities. Let us keep it sustainable and an industry our children and their future children can benefit from,” said Engr. Diego.

According to Regional Project Coordinating Office 2 (RPCO2) Focal Person and Regional Technical Director Lorenzo Caranguian, the stakeholders’ consultation is just one of many processes in packaging a proposal in order to obtain fund for the region. He announced that RPCO2 has submitted numerous proposals for the identification of the best champion commodity to be given infrastructure support.

“So far we have completed 17 identified commodities, and almost all VCAs are finalized,” shared RTD Caranguian.

To date, Region 2 has received the largest fund from PRDP amongst four regions in the cluster – almost P1.1 billion for IBUILD subprojects alone (sans Batanes, Nueva Vizcaya and Santiago City).

“We don’t want any province to be left out. We are targeting an additional P2 billion before the end of 2015 to achieve our P2.1 budget for the year,” RTD Caranguian added.

He also briefed the participating stakeholders about PRDP and how it commits to uplift and boost the existing agricultural industries in the region. “Each and every one of you plays a huge part to the contribution to the development of the sector.”

RPCO2 Planning Specialist Dr. Reynaldo Ame who spearheaded the training emphasized the purpose of the gathering and its significance to the formulation of both PCIP and VCA.

“We want to see each commodity as an industry, not just focused on the production but also its backward and forward linkages. We will look at the value adding from the input, primary production all the way to the processing.”

“Opportunities can be seen from every segment of the VCA,” added Dr. Ame. Participants who are separated into groups were able to identify constraints, opportunities and their corresponding interventions that will ease the constraint identified from the functions designated to them.

All outputs from the two-day activity will be forwarded to the Project Support Office (PSO) Luzon A to be incorporated in the Value Chain Analyses of the cluster. “Once issued with the No Objection Letter, we can improve the peanut and mango industry not just within the region or cluster but in the whole country,” added Dr. Ame.

Commodity-based enterprise subprojects are proposed under the PRDP, a World Bank-funded project that features a market-oriented approach providing market opportunities in priority commodity value chains. The Project aims to increase farmer beneficiaries’ income by 5%, value of farmer products by 7%, and farmers’ accessibility of services of the Department of Agriculture and other agencies by 20%. (Kayla Arceo, InfoACE PSO Luzon A)

Participants are divided into six groups with different designated topics (input provisions, primary productions, transformation, distribution, marketing and enabling environment) in which they will indentify the corresponding constraints, opportunities and interventions in relation to the commodity of their expertise.