Entering its midterm, the DA’s Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) has disbursed a total of $16.5 million for its projects ranging from infrastructure, livelihoods, environmental protection and local-governance reform.
The amount is 19.71 percent of the program’s $83.752 million loan portfolio from the World Bank (WB).
The MRDP is a five-year program funded by the WB, plus the counterpart equity of the national government unit and local government units with a total program funding of $123.652 million. The program is implemented across the six regions of Mindanao covering 225 of the area’s 420 towns and cities.
Program director Lealyn A. Ramos, in her report to Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala, noted that the rural infrastructure (RI) component of the program has a total portfolio of P10.812 million with 970 subprojects at various stages of implementation.
The RI has completed160.44 kilometers from the 52 farm-to-market road projects amounting to P222.26 million; nine bridges with a total length of 83.6 linear meters; one irrigation project servicing a 100-hectare rice field; nine units of potable water systems and three units of solar driers with warehouses.
The program’s livelihood arm, the Community Fund for Agricultural Development (CFAD), got a total portfolio of P495.51 million spent in food-security interventions, community-managed livelihoods and small-support infrastructure.
Of the amount, P149.62 million are for 671 agri-based enterprises, P85.34 million for 365 livelihoods that are ongoing, and 953 projects amounting P260.56 million are ready for implementation.
The natural resources management component that focuses on environmental protection and conservation activities in critical-food production has completed seven on-the-ground investments (OGI) amounting P13.318 million; 24 OGIs worth P44.409 million are ongoing; 11 OGIs worth P19.203 are ready for implementation.
Other spending was devoted to trainings for the improvement of local governance, capacity building of the people’s organizations and program management.
“We have benefited thousands of households and individuals. In our CFAD alone, we have extended assistance to approximately 50,000 individuals and about 30 percent of them belong to indigenous peoples organizations, considered to be the most marginalized sector,” Ramos said.
“We are now seeing the impact of the collaborative efforts of the DA, our partner agencies like the DENR, NCIP, BFAR, BSWM, and especially the local government units who are at the frontline of implementations,” Ramos added.
