Rural program to focus on market-driven farm production

A market-driven and climate-smart agriculture are the new approaches that the Department of Agriculture  (DA) will embark on to improve farmers’ productivity.

“The DA through the upcoming Philippine Rural Development Program  (PRDP) aims to increase farm and fishery productivity in 16 regions and 49 provinces through integration of market-oriented and climate resiliency agriculture support, technologies, tools and systems,” said deputy program director Arnel De Mesa.

President Benigno S. Aquino III during the recent NEDA Board meeting has approved the PRDP, which is a significant milestone that will pave the way for its take off within this year.

The program will have a six-year duration with a project cost of P24.54 billion pesos consisting of P20.553 billion loan from the World Bank; P3.579 billion as national government counterpart; P3.118 billion equity of the Local Government Units, and P287 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

As a scale-up version of the on-going Mindanao Rural Development Program, PRDP will introduce the value chain approach (VCA) in agricultural production where farmers will be link to buyers to ensure market of their produce.

“We will expand livelihood projects into agribusiness enterprise to improve farmers’ productivity,” De Mesa said.

 “While the program will provide adequate infrastructure and technical support to farming communities, it will also look into policies that will enable business sector to be effective partners of smallholder farmers, ” he said.

“To make this happen, PRDP will tap value chain approach as a tool to bridge the gap between agricultural production and marketing,” he added.

De Mesa said business sector such as the chamber of commerce will be invited to seat as member of the PRDP’s program advisory board.

In addressing agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change, De Mesa said PRDP will use vulnerability and suitability assessment (VSA) as a tool for prioritizing climate-smart investments.

“The VSA is a scientific tool that will help us identify areas that are less vulnerable to weather disturbances and where to put in place infrastructure and livelihood investments,” he said.

De Mesa said the local government units also paly critical role as they are the ones who will champion the development of agricultural commodities in their respective areas. (Noel T. Provido/DA-MRDP)