ADB project to benefit RP, 4 other countries

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – Five Asian countries, including the Philippines, are the beneficiaries of a regional technical assistance project to be supported by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The three-year (2003-2005) "Livelihood and Livestock System Project (LLSP)" will be underwritten with a budget of $2.105 million (about P114 million).

Of the amount, 45 percent will be provided by ADB as grant, 14 percent from the Colombia (South America)-based Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), and 41 percent from the participating countries.

The project hopes to improve the livelihood of upland farmers through the development of more efficient crop-livestock systems using participatory approaches.

The other countries covered by the CIAT-coordinated project are the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

The project’s Philippine component is coordinated by the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD).

Dr. Patricio S. Faylon, PCARRD executive director, said the council will collaborate with the Regional Field Units (RFUs) of the Department of Agriculture (DA), academic institutions, local government units (LGUs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) in the project’s focal sites.

Focusing on the upland farmers in Cagayan Valley and Northern Mindanao, the project aims to contribute to the reductions of poverty in these areas.

"This shall be done by developing new and improving existing forage feed systems and providing capability-building activities through training programs to LGU technicians and farmers," Dr. Faylon said.

The project will also develop the ability of the upland farmers in the area of technology transfer, project monitoring and evaluation activities.

After three years, the smallholder farmers in the uplands of the focal sites shall have adopted integrated feeding systems for livestock that optimize the use of improve and indigenous fodders and crop residues. – RAF