By Mary May A. Abellon
DIPOLOG
CITY – The Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB)-9 of the
Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) hasrecently
conducteda review on micro-enterprise sub-project proposals at Top Plaza Hotel,
this city.
Among
the projects presented by the province of Zamboanga del Norte were the Babuyan
niNanay: A Swine Fattening for Women,Abaca Fiber Trading and Marketingand the Village
Level Rubber Processing and Marketing Enterprise.
The
recipients of these projects are the cooperatives of Diongan, Macasing, Gunayen
and Sayaw Consumers Cooperatives in the municipality of Siayan, the Kasamahan
ng mgaMagsasaka ng Paraiso (KAMAGPA), Sampinitan and Agrarian
Reform Beneficiaries of Marcelo Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ARBEMCO)ofKalawit
and the Salug Small Coconut Farmers Cooperative ofSalug town.
Meanwhile,
the province of Zamboanga del Sur through Provincial Planning and Development
Coordinator MerilineLocsonalso presented their project on Seaweeds Production
and Marketing before the RPAB.
“The
RPAB will approve the project proposals, then endorse it for funding to the
Project Support Office (PSO) of DA-Mindanao Cluster,” Remedios Alejado of DA-9 said,
when asked by this writer about the role of RPAB.
Accordingly,
RPAB was created as one of the institutional innovations for the implementation
of the PRDP funded by World Bank.
It is
composed of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Interior and
Local Government (DILG), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of
Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR), Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) and the Regional
Agricultural and Fishery Council (RAFC).
PRDP was designed to create a
platform for a more modern, climate-smart and market-oriented agri-fishery
sector which will be implemented within six years from 2013 to 2018.
It partners
with the local government units and the private sector in providing strategic
infrastructure, facilities, technology, and information that will increase
incomes, productivity, and competitiveness in rural areas.