World Bank gives satisfactory rating to PRDP Mindanao projects

DAVAO CITY– The World Bank said they were
satisfied with the implementation of the Philippine Rural Development Project
(PRDP) in Mindanao after the conduct of a review mission held here.

I am very happy with what I’ve
seen… a lot of planning and developing subprojects have come into actual
implementation,” World Bank Task Team Leader for PRDP Frauke Jungbluth said in
a press conference.

The World Bank Second Review Mission
for PRDP look into the planned, proposed and ongoing implementation of the
various project components including infrastructure, enterprise development,
planning and support to implementation.

Two teams from the World Bank
visited the recently approved cacao production and marketing enterprise project
in Barangay Subasta, Calinan in Davao City and a farm-to-market road (FMR) in
Barangay Binancian, Asuncion, Davao Del Norte.

Jungbluth said that the involvement
of the 18 cacao farmer cooperatives is a very positive impact in the attainment
of PRDP’s development objective.

Under PRDP’s enterprise development
component, proponent groups like farmer cooperatives submit business plans to
PRDP and are then evaluated to ensure the feasibility of the enterprise and
whether the income-generating scheme benefit the farmers themselves.

It is exactly the type of project
we would like to see more of… more value-chain oriented that addresses a large
number of farmers,” Jungbluth said.

The cacao project in Calinan is
worth P26 million and will be implemented by the Subasta Farmers Integrated
Multipurpose Cooperative in four clusters including Tugbok, Baguio and Marilog
districts.

From the total project cost, 60
percent is sourced from loan proceeds while 20 percent is shared by the
national government and the city LGU of Davao. SIFMPC provided a counterpart of
65 percent.

The implementation of the Binancian
FMR was also found to be satisfactory by the World Bank infrastructure team
headed by Engr. Raoul Azanza.

There were no critical issues found
along the road… the executed portions of the road was satisfactory,” he said,
adding that the progress must be sustained by the contractor until the project
completion.

Azanza noted the contractor’s use of
temporary sheds for newly placed concrete as a best practice, which he said
ensures the quality of the road concreting. On one hand, he suggested the use
of coco coir (geonets) as slope protection materials.

The P78.8-million FMR project covers
around 8 kilometers and will benefit around 1,900 residents of the community.
Currently, it has an accomplishment rating of 16.7 percent and is expected to
be completed by November 2016.

As of March 2016, Mindanao has a total indicative
portfolio of P12.87 billion under the infrastructure development component,
which is 30% increase from the first World Bank Mission when Mindanao only
registered P9.91 billion portfolio. Region 11 leads the portfolio with P3.2
billion worth of subprojects from only P1.6 billion during the last mission in
September 2015.

Under
the enterprise component, Mindanao has a total portfolio of P627 million. The
number of approved subprojects increased from two to eight subprojects with a
total amount of P176.33 million. Region 12 leads with four approved subprojects
amounting to P98.25 million.

PRDP is
a six-year special program of the Department of Agriculture focused on
establishing a modern, value chain oriented, and climate-resilient agriculture
and fisheries sector. (Jay
Rosas/PSO Mindanao)