The Department of Agriculture shared priority sectors under the P6.6-billion Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project, which aims to help ensure food security and alleviate the poverty of indigenous peoples in the region over the next five years.
“It seeks to enhance resiliency and access to markets and services of organized farmer and fisherfolk groups in selected ancestral domains and value chains in Mindanao, including the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” the DA said in a statement.
The funds will be used to build infrastructure, including farm-to-market roads, bridges, small-scale irrigation projects, a potable water system, and an agricultural tramline system.
The DA said it would strengthen partnerships with local government units to reach Mindanao’s most isolated areas and provide market linkages to their farmers.
The Mindanao project will also provide agri-fishery enterprise support for micro, small, and medium enterprises to boost production and sales of rice, corn, livestock and poultry, and high-value crops.
“It will adopt DA-institutionalized strategies, including strengthened planning, resource programming and implementation processes, and an integrated application of scientific and market-based data and instruments for long-term resiliency and economic profitability,” the DA said.
MIADP is among the recently added seven high-impact projects of the Marcos Administration that the National Economic Development Authority approved. It will be funded through loans from the World Bank.
Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island, supplies 40 percent of food and contributes over 30 percent to the national food trade, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.