THE Department of Agriculture said on Monday that its flagship Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Scale-Up is looking to fund the construction of more agricultural infrastructure like cold storage facilities and slaughter-houses.
“The PRDP Scale-Up will focus on the (projects) that will create a bigger impact on agriculture. This would include slaughterhouses, cold storage facilities, among others,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary and Spokes-person Arnel V. de Mesa told reporters.
The PRDP was a World Bank-funded program, originally implemented in 2014, aimed at increasing rural incomes and enhancing farm and fishery productivity in targeted areas.
PRDP Scale-Up continues the original program by improving the access of farmers and fisherfolk. It has a funding of $600 million from the World Bank awarded to the DA in November 2023.
“Scale-Up was designed to respond to the needs for investment mostly in agri-infrastructure and enterprises, beyond what was in the original PRDP,” Mr. De Mesa added.
The Scale-Up project is active in 82 provinces and is expected to benefit 450,000 farmers and fisherfolk, generating about 42,000 new jobs.
“The recently launched PRDP Scale-Up already has a portfolio of 75 approved infrastructure subprojects worth P11.44 billion… and 60 proposed enterprise subprojects amounting to P6.31 billion,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary for Operations and PRDP National Project Director U-Nichols A. Manalo said.
He added that 30 projects are under construction.
The original PRDP funded and completed 503 rural infrastructures worth P31 billion and 667 rural enterprises worth P2.93 billion, benefitting 3 million people, according to Mr. Manalo. — Adrian H. Halili