IFAD to invest $71 million in agricultural development projects in RP

MANILA, Philippines - The International Fund for Agricultural Develoment (IFAD) will invest at least $71 million in various projects in the Philippines as part of a five-year program that runs from 2010 to 2014 and focuses on strategic opportunities.

Sana F.K. Jatta, IFAD country manager for Asia and the Pacific, said there are three pipeline projects for negotiation, namely the Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Program, $20 million; the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Program, $30 million and the Coastal Resource Management and Value Chain Develoment Program, $20 million.

Since 1978, the IFAD has committed a total of $168.8 million for 12 projects related to agricultural development in the Philippines.

Targetted beneficiaries are upland poor households; entrepreneurial poor in selected rural areas and selected and marginalized poor communities dependent on coastal resources in Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao and in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Among the IFAD’s latest projects are the Northern Mindanao Community Initiatives and Resource Management Project; the Western Mindanao Community Initiatives Project; the Rural Microenterprise Promotion Program and the Rapid Food Production Enhancement Program (RaFPEP).

Yesterday, Jatta concluded and signed with Reynaldo A. Villa, chairman of the Commission of Audit (COA), the terms of references of a contract for COA to undertake the management and financial audit of paddy seeds acquisition and distribution activities under the Rapid Seeds Supply Financing Project (RaSSFIP) for the 2009/2010 cropping seasons.

Director Frisco Malabanan of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Rice program said the DA is targeting the procurement of 803,000 bags of 40-kilogram certified inbred seeds for distribution in an equivalent 803,000 hectares. Malabanan said the seed distribution program had started last month.

The RaSSFIP is one of two sub-programs that form part of the recently approved RaFPEP which is being managed by the Department of Agriculture.

RaSSFIP has a total cost of $23.44 million.

The total cost of RaFPEP is $42.24 million spread over seven years, starting in 2009. It is being financed by an IFAD loan of $15.9 million equivalent to about 37.7 percent of the program cost); a European Commission grant of $13.15 million equivalent; a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) technical assistance grant of $500 million; Philippine counterpart funding of $9.82 million; counterpart funding from local government units of $1.97 million; an in-kind beneficiary contribution of $400,000 and lastly a possible IFAD grant of $500,000 next year.

The financing agreement for the EC and IFAD contributions to RaFPEP was signed last Sept. 2.