TACLOBAN CITY- The regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) spearheaded a briefing on the implementation of the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) here in the region held at Hotel Alejandro on July 22, this year.
PRDP is designed to establish an inclusive and market-oriented agri-fishery sector through strategic investments in priority commodity value chains. The program will collaborate with local government units and private sector in providing key infrastructures, facilities, technology, and information that will help increase incomes, productivity, and competitiveness in the rural areas, said Jenny Lyn Almeria, regional focal person of the PRDP.
According to Almeria, the main objectives of the program are as follows: to have at least 5 percent increase in annual real farm incomes of PRDP household beneficiaries; make a 7 percent increase in value of annual marketed output and increase of 20 percent in number of farmers and fisheries with improved access to DA services.
There are also program components under PRDP and these are I-PLAN (Investments in AFMP Planning at the Local and National Levels); I-BUILD (Intensive Building up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development); I-REAP (Investments in Rural Enterprises and Fisheries Productivity) and I-SUPPORT (Implementation Support to PRDP).
The implementation of the six-year program is to start next year and is funded by the World Bank at a cost of P27 billion.
Among present during the briefing on the program were Director Bernadette San Juan, regional executive director of the DA; Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla and representatives of member agencies of the Regional Program Advisory Board. (VALERIE COLE C. LIBARIOS, LNU-Intern)
