Agriculture pushes anti-poverty projects

P5-B rural infrastructure plans partly funded by ADB
 
ATOTAL of P5-billion rural infrastructure projects funded with assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that aims to combat poverty in 779 of the country’s poorest municipalities are currently being implemented by the Department of Agriculture, an official said Monday.

Agriculture department Undersecretary for Field Operations Jesus Emmanuel Paras said the $150-million Rural Productivity Enhancement Sector (InfRES) Project involves the construction of farm-to-market roads, community-owned irrigation systems, potable water supply as well as capacity-building programs for local governments that will benefit from this anti-poverty initiative.

Paras said that the Agriculture department has already completed 76.2 percent of the physical infrastructure component of the InfRES project.

The project, which is being carried out in partnership with the local government units of the beneficiary-towns, covers 779 of the poorest towns in 41 provinces in Southern Luzon, Bicol. Eastern Visayas and the whole of Mindanao, Paras said.

Paras, who is the director of the InfRES project, said that of the targeted 1,478 kilometers of FMRs, 1,092 kilometers are either finished or in the final stages of completion, representing an accomplishment rate of 74 percent.

“Out of the targeted 1,454 hectares to be serviced by the project’s community-owned irrigation systems, 1,454 hectares are now irrigated for a completion rate of 100 percent, while 18 [percent] of 49 percent out of the targeted 37 potable water systems have been built,” Paras added.

Paras explained that the bulk of the funding went into the roads, irrigation systems and potable water systems.

Of the 144 contract packages awarded under the project, 56 have been substantially completed and 88 are being implemented full blast.

Released funds have totaled P1,054,510,639 billion so far or roughly one seventh of the total loan, Paras said. A total of 81 percent of the released funds have been liquidated at the local government level.

“All the projects under the ADB-funded initiative were and are being closely monitored through consultation visits by our Department of Agriculture Regional Field Units, whose staffs also extended technical aid to the LGUs concerned,” Paras said.

According to InfRES Program Manager Director Roy Abaya, “for the roads and irrigation systems to gain maximum impact in the fight against rural poverty, the partner towns were required to draw up their own agriculture intensification plans [AIP], which they are bound to implement.”

“Lessons drawn from towns that have prepared and implemented their plans have been used in developing a template for those LGUs that have yet to draw up their own plans as part of the whole development package,” Abaya added. –Ira Karen Apanay, Senior Reporter, Manila Times