PILI, CAMARINES SUR – Enterprise development subprojects on cassava, coconut and swine being proposed for funding under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) in Bicol are now being crafted. PRDP-Bicol is currently assisting four municipal local government units and proponent groups in preparing business plans for the proposed Investments in Rural Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity (I-REAP) subprojects in Bula, Goa and Lupi, in Camarines Sur and Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte.
At the Business Planning Workshop for the Proposed I-REAP Subprojects in Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte held on July 30-31, 2019 at the Department of Agriculture regional office this municipality, PRDP-Bicol Business Development Officer Patrocinio Collao I discussed the PRDP I-REAP process, economic and financial analysis, and business plan outline which includes a description of the business enterprise, market analysis, operation plan, financial plan, economic impact and sustainability mechanism of the subproject. The Project’s Social and Environmental Safeguards (SES) Project Development Associate Cherry Soribello also oriented the participants on the Social Safeguards aspects of the business plan including the subproject beneficiaries, Grievance Redress Mechanism Framework, and social and environmental impacts of the subproject.
Members of the Municipal Project Management and Implementation Units (MPMIUs) of the aforementioned municipalities attended the activity along with the officers of their respective proponent groups (PG) that qualified during the PG selection namely the Bula Farmers Cooperative (BUFACO), the Maymatan Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative, Lupi Organic Farmers Agribusiness Association (LOFAA) and the San Rafael Small Coconut Farmers’ Association.
Collao and Soribello together with Business Development Officer Engr. Marianne Ariño, Budget Analyst Francis Llesis and I-REAP Project Development Associate Angelica Peñano assisted the participants in preparing their workshop outputs which consisted of the objectives of the enterprise, business overview, input, process, output (IPO) matrix, production assumption, marketing plan, investment needed and initial cost sharing computation.
DA-Bicol Regional Technical Director for Operations and PRDP-Bicol Deputy Project Director Adelina Losa sought the MPMIUs and PGs’ cooperation in complying with the requirements of the Project.
“Hindi namin yan magagawa na ma-approve by September kung walang cooperation from you (Without your cooperation, we won’t be able to have these business plans approved by September),” she underscored.
I-REAP is one of the four components of PRDP that provides technical, financial and infrastructure support to eligible groups in targeted project areas within the priority value chains identified under the Provincial Commodity Investment Plans (PCIPs). Through I-REAP, the PRDP aims to strengthen and develop viable agriculture- and fishery-based enterprises to achieve its project development objectives of increasing annual real household annual income of farmer and fisherfolk beneficiaries by at least 5 percent per year and raising the incomes for targeted beneficiaries involved in enterprise development by at least 30 percent. PRDP-funded I-REAP subprojects are also projected to increase the value of annual marketed output by 7 percent. (Annielyn L. Baleza, DA-RAFIS V)