The Department of Finance and the World Bank signed a $600-million loan agreement last Friday for a project that aims to transform agriculture into a modernized and industrialized sector through public infrastructure interventions and strengthening the commodity value chain.
The Philippine Rural Development Project Scale-Up, an initiative of the Department of Agriculture (DA), is an expanded response to the challenges confronting the agriculture and fisheries (A&F) sector and rural communities in the country.
In particular, the project will boost farmer and fisherfolk access to markets, increase income from selected agri-fishery value chains and improve efficiency in the food supply chain.
In a statement, the DOF said the project will focus on areas where about half of the Philippines’ 109.03 million A&F population resides.
It will entail direct investments in rural infrastructure and enterprise sub-projects, which will directly benefit about 450,000 farmers and fisherfolk and generate about 42,000 new jobs.
Amounting to $818 million (P45.01 billion) in total, the remaining $218 million will be funded by the national government and involved local government units.
The World Bank has been supporting the project since 2014 and has provided two additional loans in 2018 and 2021.
Upon the completion of the project, the DA aims to facilitate its transition into a regular locally-funded program to ensure the continuity and sustainability of the project’s interventions.
As of July 2023, the total World Bank official development assistance loan and grant commitments amount to an estimated $7.94 billion.
