Gearing towards inclusive growth, the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) is committed to serving farmers and residents in rural communities through the multi-million interventions funded by the Project.

Among the items highlighted during the North Luzon leg of the Second World Bank Implementation Support Mission in Angeles City, Pampanga were the foreseen benefits to emerge from the proposed and approved sub-projects to influence barangays, households, individual farmers, rural workers and residents in general.

The Project, through its infrastructure or I-BUILD component, targets to reduce hauling cost by at least 28%, reduce travel time from the farms to the markets by at least 50% and increase traffic count by at least 56%.

“This project would enable not only residents like us but also our neighbor barangays to have easier transactions on important matters,” said Charlie Del Rosario, a resident of Barangay Banuar, Cabarroguis, Quirino. Del Rosario is among the project beneficiaries that will benefit from a road project in Quirino worth P146.6M.

As reported by Luzon A Cluster Project Director Andrew Villacorta, almost 300,000 individuals are targeted to benefit from the 122 infrastructures proposed under the PRDP. The cluster currently has 33 approved sub-projects – 8 from CAR, 2 from Ilocos Region, 13 from Cagayan Valley and 10 from Central Luzon. These road projects will serve 47,596 households and increase employment rate in influence areas. About 3,900 local jobs are expected to generate through PRDP.

“We will do our best to take good care of it, if there would be a problem someday, we will make sure to fix it by ourselves and not just depend on our government to do everything for our barangay,” said Barangay Captain Ruben Ibbay on the implementation of an FMR in Sinait, Ilocos Sur.

Another major component, the enterprise development or I-REAP aims to strengthen and develop viable enterprises through efficient value chains. Through numerous proposals, seven provinces have successfully acquired the approval of the Project, with 28 cooperatives to be served and granted a total of P128 million.

One of these cooperatives is Nueva Ecija’s Pulong Buli Multi-Purpose Cooperative, a recipient of a PRDP-funded onion enterprise worth P9.1 million.

“As soon as the Project was launched, our cooperative was already seen as a potential proponent group, because of the large volume of onion produced here in Dolores, Sto. Domingo,” said Romeo Gallardo, a member of the Pulong Buli for almost ten years. Gallardo added that the cooperative’s main problem now is on marketing, and PRDP’s involvement would cause a huge boost in the onion industry.

Dam-ay Guinayen, Municipal Agriculturist of Besao, Mt. Province shared that if the province’s coffee project becomes successful, the socio-economy of the farmers will be uplifted. “One problem we have is that the yield of the coffee is too low. So through the assistance of the PRDP, we hope for the increase of the yield,” added Guinayen.

As of March 31, the cluster has identified 122 infrastructures and 158 enterprises worth P10.6 billion and P495 million respectively for the establishment of a modernized, inclusive, value-chain oriented and climate resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. (Kayla Arceo, PSO InfoACE)