The Department of Trade and Industry Region 8 under its Rural Agro-Enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development (RAPID) Growth Project successfully turns over a 2.073 kilometers farm-to-market road rehabilitation to support coconut farmers and traders of Barangay Tinambacan, Jaro, Leyte on August 4, 2023.
This project forms part of the detailed investment plan for Leyte to boost the coconut industry cluster and empower coconut farmers through sustainable partnership with leading coconut processors. It started its implementation last June 8, 2022 with a total project cost of Php 32,270,741.79 where PHP 4,400,555.70 was funded by the Local Government unit and the large chunk was from the RAPID Growth Project.
The location is home to Brgy. Tinambacan Coconut Farmers Association. For 11 years now, over 140 active farmers have consolidated themselves to cultivate approximately 155.37 hectares of coconut plantation in the barangay. Over time, the group also engaged in producing high-valued crops within the municipality; 14 hectares are planted with calamansi and 98 hectares with banana.
The association is identified to be one of the potential largest coconut producers in Leyte that can be linked to high-value market buyers in the industry. Thus, to facilitate its road toward entrepreneurial development, market reach expansion, and eventually grow as a main industry player, it would take government intervention and support from stakeholders to capacitate these farmers and help address challenges.
One of the projects considered by DTI thru the RAPID Growth Project is infrastructure improvement. The investment of farm-to-market roads (FMR) is an efficient and effective means to foster agriculture-based market development since it is most evident in such projects how business activities and services thrive with improved infrastructure.
According to DTI Usec. Ireneo Vizmonte, “Based on what the DTI is looking into - job, business, and consumer, this road is a very significant one because it means opportunity.
Opportunity for livelihoods, and opportunity to transport the products to another town at a lesser price. It will be an opportunity for all, not only for you (farmers) but also for your neighboring barangays so that you will be able to totally progress.”
The rehabilitation and improvement of this access road will lead to higher farming productive capacity of the majority of the smallholder farmers that collectively account for the 2,535 hectares of agricultural land within the vicinity of Barangay Tinambacan and of the direct road influence areas.
The farm-to-market infrastructure is one of the proposed projects in consultation with various local stakeholders such as the farming communities, Local Government Unit of Jaro, Kalipunan ng Malilit na Magniniyog ng Pilipinas (KAMMPIL) Agriculture Cooperative as an identified coconut processor and potential buyer from Brgy. Tinambacan, among others.
The areas within the FMR are actively cultivated and farmed with coconuts, corns, bananas, calamansi and other high-value and high-yielding crops. That is, farmers within these areas would benefit most through increased market accessibility; reduced transportation costs; retained high product value with lesser damages and spoilages while in transit; and increased productivity by facilitating farm inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, machineries and other farming implements.
The road will also usher employment opportunities in other off-farm activities. It is expected that while agricultural yields of various crops farmed in the area will increase, new agricultural business activities will arise and employment opportunities will widen among partner farmers and other value chain actors.
Mayor Jassie Lou Tañala of Jaro, Leyte expressed his gratitude to DTI and its partners. He was determined that this project was essential to his constituents. “This road is not only, in the first place a walkway. It is a lifeline of the municipality, and a lifeline of the barangay,” says Mayor Tañala.
The project is one among the identified FMRs in Leyte to enhance the connectivity between rural entrepreneurs and mainstream market actors at that, production capacity of farmers is expected to increase and their opportunity to access bigger markets with the intervention of DTI RAPID Growth Project.
Be among the first to receive the latest news and updates from the RAPID Growth Project straight to your email address. Subscribe now!