The Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) and the World Bank (WB) concluded its North Luzon leg from June 2-3, 2022, as part of the ongoing 14th Implementation Support Mission.
Fresh off from the South Luzon leg, representatives from the DA-PRDP and WB, visited two subprojects in North Luzon, namely, the Commercialization of Ilocos Garlic: The White Gold Treasure of the North Enterprise in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte and the Rehabilitation of Pug-Os-Nagcullooban Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) which traverses the municipalities of Sinait and Cabugao in Ilocos Sur.
The Bacarra Zanjera Irrigators Multi-Purpose Cooperative featured its overall operations, highlighting its achievements, beneficiary participation, socio-economic impacts, and sustainability plan. It is by far the biggest enterprise subproject in the Ilocos Region.
Meanwhile, the ongoing upgrading/expansion of the FMR was visited and assessed at its 71.29% physical progress rate as of April 2022. It is the largest implemented infrastructure subproject in the Ilocos Region under the DA-PRDP and is targeted for completion in September of this year.
During the North Luzon cluster presentation, World Bank Task Team Leader Eli Weiss applauded the seamless conduct of site visits during the mission.
“It was incredibly good to be back in the field after two years of the pandemic, to see and talk to all the stakeholders from the LGUs, proponent groups, to the beneficiaries, and see firsthand all the investments and the subprojects that have a transformational impact in the communities,” Weiss said.