THE newly created province of Davao Occidental is now ready to engage in the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), as the executive committee approved recently its Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP).
The PCIP is the basis of the provincial government to submit project proposal under PRDP funding, as well as funding source from other agencies. The identified priority commodities in the PCIP have gone through scientific tools like value-chain analysis, vulnerability and suitability assessment, applied geotagging technology and other innovations.
The PCIP will become the primary reference for PLGU’s and DA’s planning and budgeting processes to support the agriculture and fishery development in the province and in identifying PRDP investments. Also, it is the basis to leverage other agencies’ support to address gaps and constraints in the value chain of the prioritized commodities of the province.
Executive Resolution 1, Series of 2017 signed by Gov. Claude Bautista said the PCIP has identified five top priority commodities of the province: coconut, banana Cardava, abaca, cacao and cassava.
Davao Occidental PCIP for 2017-2019 is now endorsed to the PRDP Regional Project Coordinating Office (RPCO) and other agencies for possible funding of the priority projects.
“The crafting of the PCIP for Davao Occidental was fast because of the joint efforts of RPCO and Project Support Office [PSO] Mindanao,” said IPLAN Component head Cerenio Tila.
He said within at least two months, they conducted an orientation for the provincial personnel, assisted in the creation of the Provincial Project Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PPMIU) through the Special Order of the governor, conducted the prioritization workshop, the write-shop for the PCIP until it was technically reviewed by the PSO-RPCO team. Simultaneously, there was Proponent Group validation by the IREAP team and site validation of the IBUILD component
“It was not really difficult because we took off from their previous engagement to us when they were still part of Davao del Sur,” Tila said.
Another priority commodity of the province, which is the production and marketing of black pepper, is not yet included in the PCIP, as the commodity has still to go through the process of scoping sessions, rapid-market assessment and value-chain analysis as required by the project.
“Black pepper is an emerging commodity particular to Davao Occidental. Hopefully, we can include it in the PCIP during its updating phase,” Tila said. Sherwin B. Manual/PSO Mindanao
- Download
IMGP0055 .JPG
Image credits: Davao Occidental PPMIU