📋 Tender Overview
Investment in agriculture can help revive food production and create jobs following a crisis and enable rural communities to recover.According to Agriculture Secretary William Dar the government must continue to partner with the local government units and the private sectors to increase food sufficiency levels and modernize and industrialize the countrys agri-fishery sector.Emphasizing the role of agriculture in the recovery efforts of the Philippines post-COVID-19 Dar called for the continuous support to the local farmers and fishers to enable the rural communities nationwide to adapt to the new normal.During the kick-off meeting of the 10th World Bank Implementation Support Mission to the Philippine Rural Development Project PRDP on June 15 2020 Dar emphasized the need to push for the development of an agriculture-driven economy and a country that is food-secure and resilient with prosperous farmers and fishers.Following the transition to new normal PRDP will align its regular menus including I-BUILD Infrastructure Development Component and I-REAP Enterprise Development Component subprojects with the Plant Plant Plant Program of the Department of Agriculture DA.As such the project which is now in its sixth year of implementation will launch initiatives to address gaps in the food supply chains and logistics of various agri-fishery produce through the establishment and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure. PRDP will also focus on the provision of support services to jumpstart agribusiness enterprises.According to PRDP National Program Director and DA Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan the PRDP aside from its usual menu of services under the I-PLAN I-BUILD and I-REAP components will zoom in the development of short gestating projects through the proposed 2nd Additional Financing for PRDP that aims to address gaps in the food supply chain and logistics and generate jobs in rural communities under the new normal.Undersecretary Cayanan highlighted in his message the achievements of the Project through the I-PLAN Component which developed a total of 119 value chain analysis VCA on 66 commodities.Also all the countrys 81 provinces have approved and updated their respective Provincial Commodity Investment Plans PCIPs which they leverage with other national government agencies and even the private sector.To date around P50 billion-worth of interventions are being funded to support various commodity value chains with PCIP as the main reference document.Under the I-BUILD it has constructed 813 kilometers of roads and established 468 linear meters of bridges reducing travel time by 31 percent and bringing down transportation cost by 25 percent in project areas. It has also provided 637 hectares of irrigation with more than 6000 households benefitting from potable water systems.More than 136000 individuals were directly benefited by the 623 approved subprojects ranging from micro to small and medium enterprises under the I-REAP. With 59 more subprojects for approval within the month additional 8000 farmers and fishers are expected to participate in viable enterprises consistent with Secretary Dars directives to level-up agriculture and fisheries through modernization and industrialization.To respond to the new challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis DA-PRDP will enhance its ICT capabilities by redesigning its capacity-building activities to take advantage of e-learning formats that are most appropriate to the ICT capacities of our stakeholders partners and beneficiaries. E-commerce platforms will be utilized for market linkages and online selling and buying of the products of the enterprises being supported by the Project.The 10th World Bank Implementation Support Mission will run from June 15 to July 3 2020 to assess the projects progress towards achievement of the Project Development Objectives since the last Implementation Support Mission in November 2019.Due to the crisis DA-PRDP officials together with World Bank Task Team headed by Team Leader Mr. Eli Weiss will conduct a virtual site visit of 10 subprojects in 8 regions of the country instead of inspecting these physically. This is a first for the project to do the virtual subprojects site visit utilizing the already mainstreamed Applied Geotagging Technology AGT.AGT has been developed by the PRDPs Geo-mapping and Governance Unit which has been adopted not only by DA and PRDP offices but also by local government offices contractors and national agencies that recognize the importance of the tool to avoid investment duplication.Also the World Bank has previously recognized the system as a critical tool in the promotion of transparency and anti-corruption naming the Philippines as the leading nation in utilizing AGT.
