Davao del Norte, January 26, 2015 – Some 500 farmers in the municipality
of Sto. Tomas, this province, benefitted from the Multi-Pass Rice Mill project
with mechanical dryer of the Saint Michael Multi-purpose Cooperative
(SAMIMUPCO).
The P7.6-million project located in Barangay
Kinamayan was made possible through the Community Fund for Agricultural
Development (CFAD) component of the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP).
The cooperative put up a counterpart funding
of P4.6 million for the project, which also serves farmers in the barangays of
Esperanza, Talomo and other neighboring villages.
Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario led the inauguration
of the project, assisted by Mayor Benigno Andamon and Miguela Ebquila, Deputy
Regional Program Coordinator of the MRDP, along with other local officials.
The governor lauded the cooperative for
raising enough counterpart to complete the project.
He encouraged other cooperatives to follow the
example of SAMIMUPCO, which capitalized on available government funding to
enhance the profitability of their business ventures.
SAMIMUPCO Chair Rene Bongabong revealed that
aside from increasing the income of the cooperative by over 10 percent, the
project also allowed them to extend milling services to other rice traders in
the town.
It has also benefitted the both the traders
and consumers by reducing the transportation cost of milled rice.
The project has a capacity of 20 bags per hour
at 50 kilos per bag, with the mechanical dryer also churning a capacity of 6
tons per batch using biomass fuel as its heating unit.
Del Rosario further asked the local government
units to actively involve and take advantage of huge funding now offered by the
Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), which is an upscale version of the
MRDP.
The new program is a 6-year national
government platform for an inclusive, value-chain oriented, and climate
resilient agriculture and fisheries sector.
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