Three subprojects of the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) in Tayabas City, Quezon aims to uplift the lives of those in the countryside. One word can encompass this goal—Aguyod.

“Aguyod,” which means walking towards one direction in Tayabas Tagalog, captures how successive city administrations partnered with PRDP to pursue development in rural areas. It also showcases the willingness of every community to pursue their dream in tandem with the government.

Under the PRDP’s enterprise development (I-REAP) component, the city currently supports three subprojects, which are among the CALABARZON Region’s eight microenterprises that have received approval through the issuance of No Objection Letter (NOL) 1. The subprojects of Tayabas particularly support the commodities of native pig, guyabano and yellow corn.

Three commodities

The Tayabas Federation of Rural Improvement Clubs, an all-women group, sees their future in the hands of individuals demanding for organic and healthier food.

Their subproject proposal worth P0.93 million is a native pig production business, which will organically raise pigs slated for lechoneros in the region. Likewise, the proponent group will practice native and traditional methods of rearing pigs.

The Mangosteen Producers of Tayabas Association wants to target health and educational institutions with their product. Their proposal, the guyabano puree processing, is worth P0.86 million.

Starting as personal business, it evolves into an enterprise run by the association after they saw the potential of guyabano, even if the group’s name is of different fruit. They have been participating in different fairs and trade shows to test their product.

Adapting the popular “buy now, pay later” scheme of retail shops, the Calumpang Corn Growers Association proposes the “plant now, pay later” scheme for corn production. The said system will help its members in producing corns and increasing their harvest. The proponent group’s subproject worth P3.48 million will primarily cater to the animal feed producers in Quezon and in nearby provinces.

Approaching Implementation

As of February 28, the three subprojects are only waiting for the fund release from PRDP before the proponent groups can start with the implementation of their enterprises.

“The PRDP helps them recover from the damage brought by typhoon Lando in 2015,” CALABARZON RPCO I-REAP Component Business Development Officer for Quezon Junie Pandela said. Projects proposed by groups in calamity-stricken areas were exempted from being based on commodities with Value Chain Analysis and included in Provincial Commodity Investment Plans.

With PRDP, these groups start to walk in one direction—the direction of development. ### (Lawrence Albert Bariring, DA-PRDP RPCO 4A InfoACE Unit)