TACLOBAN CITY- “We should help bring in more investments in terms of agricultural infrastructures and livelihood, especially in areas severely hit by calamities. The opportunity is there under the project (PRDP).”
Thus said Director U-Nichols A. Manalo during the recent Philippine Rural Development Project(PRDP) Regional Project Coordination Office 8 (RPCO) and LGU Management Implementation Units’ 1st Quarter Coordination Meeting held in separate sessions at the Department of Agriculture -8’s office building, in Kanhuraw Hill, here.
He pointed out that the usual occurrence of typhoons in the region poses a major challenge for the agriculture sector.
“There are still areas in our region which have not yet fully recovered from calamities. Some displaced farmers still need badly our assistance for them to find better income opportunities,” the DA-8 director said.
“We have more work to do this year. It is high time we push ourselves higher and work together as a team for a much better performance this year,” he added.
In particular, Director Manalo cited the need to fast track the completion of the value –chain analysis and correspondingly, the formulation of the commodity investment plans of the different provinces.
“We could not proceed with any proposed enterprise and infrastructure subprojects without complying with this basic requirement,” he stressed.
Under the project enterprise component, Region 8 has already a total of 45 subprojects submitted with a budgetary requirement of P59 million, 44 of which were approved and funded while 3 more are still subject for approval.
On the other hand, under its infrastructure component, out of 39 subprojects requiring P2.5 billion, 4 are already under ongoing implementation, 7 more had been approved, and 29 are still in the pipeline.
Last December 19-20, 2016, a conditional approval was made by the Regional Project Advisory Board for the concreting of Brgy. Conception to Sitio Morena, Hampangan farm-to- market road, in Hilongos, Leyte involving a total cost of P136.6 million.
The board also unanimously approved 9 micro-enterprise subprojects for the different farmers associations in the province of Northern Samar requiring a sum of P11.3 million.
The funding support under the project for micro-enterprise subprojects partake as part of the DA’s rehabilitation assistance for the farmers affected by typhoon Nona.
“The challenge goes even enormous for Region 8 this year as we will be hosting two important activities for the Visayas cluster. First, will be the World Bank implementation support mission to be held possibly in April and, the mid-term implementation review in November,” Director Manalo said. (PR)
