THE Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) in the Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9) is now implementing over P272 million worth of farm-to-market roads (FMRs) in four municipalities of Zamboanga Sibugay.
DA 9 Regional Director Constancio G. Alama reported that, as of June, five subprojects under the component of Intensified Building-Up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development are being implemented in RT Lim, Buug, Siay and Tungawan municipalities.
Alama said in RT Lim, concreting of two FMRs worth P76 million are under way. The Casacon-Tilasan segment covering 3.64 kilometers (km) worth P38 million is 52.7-percent complete as of end-June, while the Antonio-Lugami FMR measuring 3.5 km worth P38 million is 52.3-percent complete.
Another ongoing FMR concreting is the Pamintayan-Bawang segment in Buug covering 3.62 km with a total project cost of P46.95 million and physical accomplishment of 54.4 percent as of June 30.
In Siay the PRDP commenced the concreting of 6.96-km FMR, traversing three barangays: from Bagong Silang to Villagracia up to the remotest upland barangay of Magsaysay, amounting to P61 million.
Meanwhile, the groundbreaking of concreting of San Isidro-Little Margos-San Isidro-Sitio Limanon FMR in Tungawan worth P87 million covering 8.22 km started on June 29. The project is expected to be finished by October 2016.
Alama said these concreted FMRs, which connect trading centers and processing plants with production areas, will further spur the productivity and competitiveness of farmers in Zamboanga Sibugay, which is tagged as the “rubber capital” in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
The Provincial Agriculture Office of Sibugay has accounted a total of 22,154 rubber farmers producing over 3.15 million metric tons of lumps in a year from the 66,483 hectares planted to rubber.