ILOILO CITY, Sept. 25 (PNA) — Bringing of products to the market will soon be more accessible with the proposed concreting and improvement of farm-to-market roads (FMRs) in strategic locations in Western Visayas.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Western Visayas here announced that six FMRs with a total fund support of PHP731.32 million under the I-BUILD component of the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) have been approved this third quarter.
The projects already obtained a no objection letter (NOL) 1 that “signaled for the procurement activities/bidding to proceed following the usual accounting and auditing rules set by the project,” according to Dr. Joyce S. Wendam, head of the regional project coordinating office in Western Visayas.
“We are optimistic that these FMRs will soon be granted with NOL2 by the NPCO (national project coordinating office) upon submission of the bid evaluation report (BER) and other supporting documents relative to the FMR before this year ends and the construction will start early next year,” Wendam added.
One project each will be implemented in Capiz and Aklan to include the concreting and improvement of 18.117-kilometer (km) Hipona-Canapian-Quinabonglan FMR with bridge worth PHP197 million and rehabilitation/improvement of 12.74 km Banga-Libacao FMR amounting to PHP149.96 million, respectively.
Meantime, two projects will be in Negros Occidental composed of the 3.26 km Pontevedra, Gomez-Zamora FMR in Pontevedra that costs PHP45 million and rehabilitation of 10.108 km Hinicayan-Violeta FMR with Bridge in Silay City amounting to PHP145 million.
The other two projects are in Iloilo that include the concreting of 10.289 km Poblacion-Barasan-Tacoyong-Barirong-Tuyog FMR in Leon worth PHP117 million and rehabilitation of 7.88 km Parara-Jamog FMR in Tigbauan that costs PHP77 million.
As the projects gear for takeoff, she urged stakeholder support and cooperation for the fast tracking of their implementation.
“We should work as a team, help each other and see to it all activities must follow processes and procedure set by the project,” she said.
PRDP is a six-year national project that aims to establish a modern, inclusive, value-chain oriented, and climate resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. It is implemented through the partnership of the DA, World Bank and local government units. (PNA)