www.damrdp.net

A monthly newsletter of the Mindanao Rural Development Program

MRDPulseVol. 7 No. 11 November 2014

MRDP projects wow Wor ld Bank senior official

Kapalong, Davao del Norte - A World Bank (WB) senior official has expressed his admiration of how development projects are being implemented here and and how it has changed the lives of its beneficiaries.

World Bank Regional Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Axel van Trotsenburg, who visited WB-assisted projects in Kapalong and Talaingod, Davao del Norte, said that he was impressed “how much they (beneficiaries) can make out of ” the little funding assistance given to them.

Trotsenburg ia referring to projects implemented under the Department of Agriculture’s - Mindanao Rural Development Program (DA-MRDP), which include a farm-to-market road (FMR) with bridge component and banana flour processing projects.

BANANA FLOUR AMSEFFPCO Manager Rizalie Calma (extreme R) shows the packaged banana food grade flour to World Bank Vice President Axel van Trotsenburg (2nd from L) and World Bank Country Director for the Philippines Motoo Konishi (2nd R) and MRDP Deputy Director Arnel De Mesa (extreme L). Photo by Gian Enrique

MORE INSIDE Remote Cotabato village

sustains livelihood in goats | pg. 3

by Noel T. Provido

> cont’d on page 2

“I was impressed at how the projects changed lives for the members of the community. This is actually the World Bank’s satisfying experiences, to see that projects can make a big difference in the communities.” He added that the projects empower communities and creates ownership for the projects.

“A simple investment can be extremely important. This is exactly the objective that we can make a small difference in the community,” Trotsenburg said.

MRDP Deputy Program Director Arnel De Mesa in his report to Trotsenburg said that the FMR with bridge from Barangay Dagohoy, Talaingod to Barangay Semong, Kapalong has benefitted 1,347 households, including indigenous peoples (IPs).

“The P10.2-million project enhanced mobility and decreased the travel time of farmers. It also decreased the hauling cost and postharvest losses of farm products,” De Mesa said.

IP farmer Ipos Bodyos of Tibukay village said, “Sangko sa langit ang among pasalamat (Our gratitude is up to the heavens).” He said that he used to walk 15 kilometers carrying their sweet potato, corn products and banana from his farm to the town market.

“A simple investment can be extremely important. This is exactly the objective - that we can make a small difference in

the community.”

N E W S

MRDPulse Mindanao Rural Development Program 2

He used to pay hauling cost of P4 per kilo of corn. With the presence of the FMR and bridge, he was able to save P1 as he now only pays P3 per kilo of corn.

Trotsenburg also lauded the P2-million MRDP assistance to the AMS Employees Fresh Fruits Producers Cooperative (AMSEFFPCO), which enable the co-op to expand their banana flour processing from feed grade to food grade.

“Instead of producing more feed grade flour, we will now reverse the production to food grade as it is more lucrative,” co-op manager Rizalie Calma said.

“It was a good way looking at the projects and listening where we can be supportive to the Philippines. I saw a lot of enthusiasm and do not want to discourage that. I want to stimulate them to take their own destiny (and) keep up the ambition,” Trotsenburg said while urging beneficiaries to sustain their projects.

INFRA PROJECT. Davao del Nor te Planning Chief Josie Jean Rabanoz (5th from L) briefs visitors on the FMR with bridge project in Kapalong, Davao del Nor te. In photo (from L-R) DA Regional Director Remelyn Recoter, Wor ld Bank (WB) Task Team Leader Carolina Geron, MRDP Deputy Director Arnel De Mesa, WB Country Director Motoo Konishi, WB Special Assis-tant Ye-rin Um, WB Security Specialist Richard Marcos, WB Vice President Axel van Trotsen-burg, and Kapalong Mayor Edgardo Timbol. Photo by Rommil Nuñez

PH facility improves income of DavNor farmers

New Corella, Davao del Norte – Rice production in this town exceeds the capacity of existing rice mills. The situation has become worse for farmers in the remote areas, as they have to pay for hauling cost for their produce to reach the rice milling facility.

“Although selling rice instead of palay is more profitable, most farmers in our association usually opted to sell fresh palay rather than wait and spent extra amount for hauling,” said Cerilo Buagas, president of New Cortez, Matin-

ao Sustainable Farmers Association (NECOMASFA).

Aside from inadequate milling facilities, lack of other postharvest facility such as thresher also affected quality of their produce.

“There area times that our rice would turn bahay or yellowish as we cannot harvest them on time. This lowers the price of our palay up to twenty percent,” said Gerardo Mulit one of the members of NECOMASFA.

by Noel T. Provido

Cerilo Buagas (seating extreme left), NECOMASFA president gestures as he shares how the MRDP assistance improve the income of their members. Listening intently (seating from right) are Wor ld Bank MRDP task team leader Joey Vir tucio, Wor ld Bank staff Stefanie Sieber, and Food and Agriculture Organization staff Douglas Forno. Also in photo is DA Region 11 director Remelyn Recoter (standing right). Photo by Gian Enrique.

> cont’d on pg. 4

Improving People’s Lives. Reaching Farther and Wider. MRDPulse 3

F E A T U R E

Sitio Medal is a far-flung community in the mountainous areas of Barangay Palao, Libungan, North Cotabato.

Going to the area was once a difficult trek and livelihood opportunities were few, observed Tarcela Tondag, a resident of the village and a farmer’s housewife.

But changes gradually took place when the local government unit (LGU) engaged the community for a goat production project through the first phase of the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) in 1999.

“Before the project, we had a hard time sustaining our livelihood. We didn’t have any livestock and we just depended on kaingin. We cannot even send our children to school,” Tondag said.

During the assessment with the Palao Women’s Association and the LGU, goat production was identified because of the village’s sizeable land area and amount of forage for the livestock.

As president, Tondag organized the women in the community and encouraged them to join the project to improve their household income.

“Instead of other projects like putting up retail stores or swine production, we identified this because it was very manageable and our children can look after and take care of the livestock,” said Tondag.

With a start-up capital of P150,000, the women bought 54 goats with 49 females for breeding. They also prepared the area for forage and fodder plants like napier, rensoni and madre de cacao.

by Jay M. Rosas WATER RESERVOIRS here in Brgy. Impalutao, Impasugong, Bukidnon are modeled like the traditional banga, only bigger. Water from these reservoirs flow to community

tap stands (inset) where the residents access clean and safe water. The potable water system in the community was funded under the rural infrastructure component of the

MRDP. The P3.4-million project, funded by the World Bank with LGU counterpart, is serving 300 households in four barangays. Photo by Rose Paasa, RPCO 10

According to the association’s members, raising goats is more convenient and helpful since breeding usually takes 45 days.

When the project started, the goats were raised in a communal area. But when their children, who used to take care of the livestock, began to go to school, the women opted to individually look after their own goats. They built individual sheds and planted their own forage and fodder plants.

“The buyers usually just come here to buy the goats. They already know that our village here in Medal produces and sells goat of better quality,” said Tondag.

She added that this scheme has become more advantageous to them since they would not shell out money for fare.

The buyers, who usually come with their own vehicles, come from the neighboring town of Midsayap, while

Remote Cotabato village sustains livelihood in goats by Jay M. Rosas

Buyers from nearby towns go to Sitio Medal in Libungan, North Cotabato to get quality

goats. The goat production project was started by the village’s women’s group with a seed fund from MRDP. Photo by Jay Rosas

> cont’d on pg. 4

MRDPulse is a monthly in-house newsletter of the Department of Agriculture- Mindanao Rural Development Program (DA-MRDP). Views of the writers in this publication are not necessarily endorsed by DA-MRDP. For your comments, suggestions and articles e-mail us at: mrdp_info@yahoo.com. Visit us at: www.damrdp.net

To:

From:The Editor-in-Chief

MRDPulse 2/4 Flr. Alvarez BuildingAngliongto Sr. Ave., Lanang, Davao City www.damrdp.net

Noel T. Provido Jay M. Rosas Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor

Gian Kristoffer D. Enrique, Rommil P. Nuñez Circulation Managers

Contributors:Regional InfoACE Focal Persons

Advisers: Lealyn A. Ramos - Program Director Arnel V. De Mesa - Deputy Program Director

some come from Pigcawayan and from Libungan also.

The organization is empowered enough that they can command better price for their goats, observed Ruben Pedrero, agricultural technologist and municipal facilitator of Libungan.

“I think they (association) has really managed the project well. They are empowered because they were able to sustain the project,” he said.

He added that the group has now ventured into new projects including carabao breeding, corn production and vegetable production under the second phase of MRDP.

According to Tondag, they identified carabao production as a follow-up project because aside from being draft animals, they are also able to sell the offspring of the carabaos.

“Before, people here don’t really have decent houses but now their conditions have improved. Ten years ago, the mud in this area would be knee-deep, but now we have a passable road, electricity, and children are able to go to school, while some were able to acquire land, with the help of our goats,” she said.

GO FOR GOATS Beneficiaries of the goat production project in Sitio Medal in Libungan, North Cotabato tend to their goats in an area planted with forage and fodder plants. Their women’s association is a beneficiary of a livelihood project under the Mindanao Rural Development Program. They have since ventured into other livelihood projects like carabao breeding and vegetable production under the second phase of MRDP. Photo by Jay Rosas

Remote village > from page 3

To address the need for adequate post harvest facilities, NECOMASFA sought the assistance of the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional office for their association to acquire post harvest equipment and install a milling facility. The DA endorsed their proposal to the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) and access funds worth P500,000.

“Out of the amount we have accessed, we have established a fully accessorized rice mill (baby cono type) with an input capacity of 900-1000 kilograms per hour. The building and the area was our association’s counterpart,” Buagas said.

He said other post harvest facilities were also acquired such as one single drum thresher and one unit transmission to power their existing trailer truck that delivers their milled rice to the market.

NECOMASFA is now servicing 250 hectares of rice fields both for member and non-members.

“Those who availed themselves

of our thresher during harvest season pays one sack of palay for every 13 sacks collected. For milling, we are charging P2 per kilo of milled rice,” said Rosemarie Cales, the association’s treasurer. The amount collected were use for maintenance of their facilities.

Out of the money collected they were able to fix their potable water system and now charge P15 pesos per month for member household while P25 for non-member households.

“We now have three sources of income: the thresher, the rice mill, and potable water system. To date our association grossed at least P500,000 a year,” Cales said.

Mulet and his fellow farmers prefer to avail themselves of the thresher from NECOMASFA as the association provides hauling of their produce from the field to the rice mill.

“MRDP’s assistance helped us improve our income as we no longer spend for hauling cost. We can now harvest our yield on time so the quality of our produce is preserved enabling us to demand better price,” Mulit said.

Postharvest facility > from page 3