DA to launch World Bank-funded program for farmers, fisherfolk

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is on track to launch a World Bank-funded rural development program for farmers and fisherfolk in July.

The Philippine Rural Development Project Scale-Up (PRDP Scale-Up) aims to improve farmers’ and fisherfolk’s access to markets and profitability in selected value chains.

In a recent meeting with the WB, DA assistant secretary and PRDP National project director Arnel De Mesa and national deputy project director Shandy Hubilla presented the progress of the team on the preparation for the project appraisal.

WB country director to the Philippines Diop stressed the importance of the timeline set by the World Bank for the PRDP Scale-Up.

“We’ve set this specific timeline so we can launch the PRDP Scale-Up by July and I can see that the PRDP team is doing very well in hitting the targets,” he said.

In a document uploaded on the WB website, the PRDP Scale Up project has a total project cost of $827.48 million.

Of the total, the WB will provide $600 million financing through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) while the balance of $227.48 million will be shouldered by the Philippine government.

The WB said the PRDP Scale Up project “would bring a strategic shift through a greater emphasis to bring transformative changes in value chains to improve farmers’ and fisherfolks’ profitability and enhance value chain efficiencies.

This project builds up on the ongoing PRDP, which has been operating for eight years and is focused on catalyzing the start-up, expansion and business orientation of micro to medium-scale agri-fishery enterprises.

This as the new project will focus more on public infrastructure interventions to improve supply chain connectivity and efficiencies, as well as support private sector-led common service facility development and operations.