The government is seeking an additional $170-million loan from the World Bank to sustain inroads in the implementation of the ongoing Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).
According to World Bank documents, the six-year PRDP being implemented by the Department of Agriculture since 2014 showed “increase in household income, increase in on-farm income, increase in production areas, reduction in travel time from farm to market site, reduction in hauling costs of agricultural output, reduction in hauling cost of production inputs and more than doubling of traffic density in farm-to-market road sites” in the covered 81 provinces.
The PDRP was aimed at increasing rural incomes and enhancing farm and fishery productivity in the targeted areas by supporting smallholders and fisherfolk to increase their marketable surpluses and their access to markets, the World Bank noted.
The World Bank has provided $501.25 million in financing to the PRDP, equivalent to about three-fourths of the total project cost.
To scale up the program, an additional $212.5 million in funds would be needed, including $42.5 million to be contributed by local government units (LGUs), the World Bank said.
As such, a fresh loan from the Washington-based multilateral lender was proposed as an initial response to the request from the Philippine government for $450 million of additional financing from the World Bank for PRDP that is based on a pipeline of sub-projects requested for project support by LGUs, the documents showed.
“The additional financing is sought to finance the strong demand from LGUs for rural infrastructure support under PRDP, especially farm-to-market roads. It would also provide for the increased construction costs due to a government decision early in the implementation of PRDP that all roads should be constructed of concrete,” according to the documents.
Also, the additional loan would support the expansion of the institutional reforms embodied in the project through further cementing new ways of doing business across the DA.
Documents showed that the World Bank board approval of the proposed supplemental loan for the PRDP was being expected by Dec. 14 this year. —BEN O. DE VERA