IN SUPPORT of the enhancement of the agricultural and fisheries modernization plan, the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) has adopted the value chain analysis (VCA) to provide farmer-entrepreneurs relevant inputs.

Value chain analysis helps in identifying and developing the linkages and interrelationships between activities that create value, profitability, and competitive advantage of a certain commodity along with the segments of the value chain.

VCA is one of the innovations that the DA-PRDP has used where a firm identifies its primary and support activities that add value  to increase its manufacturing efficiency.

A total of 33 VCA’s have been formulated and packaged by the Mindanao cluster of DA-PRDP. These VCA’s have already obtained a “No Objection” except for BARMM which is currently working to comply with the recommendations set for mangosteen by the National

Project Coordination Office.

Currently, the Mindanao cluster through its I-PLAN component is updating the VCAs for five commodities which are rubber, abaca, mango, cacao, and cardava banana.

Aside from VCA updating, PRDP is also able to update 33 Commodity Investment Plans (CIP) in 27 Provinces and 6 Cities. These CIP’s are also subsumed in the 2018-2023 successor Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Plan (AFMP) of all six regions.

All of the 33 CIP’s have already undergone the 1st round of updating. 14 local government units are currently updating their CIP’s for the second round. 

All of the 33 CIP’s of Mindanao are now being adopted by their respective LGU’s and are currently being utilized by these LGU’s as their reference in investment planning and in leveraging investments for the agriculture sector. As of May 2020, LGU modules recorded a total of P51.32 billion worth of investments that are leveraged from PRDP and non-PRDP sources, a 16% increase since October 2019.

Moreover, six inter-agency convergence memorandum of agreements were already set in place and have secured three full board NEDA endorsements utilizing CIP in regional investment planning.

These inter-agency convergence initiatives played a role in institutionalizing and mainstreaming CIP’s into the planning and budgeting processes of convergence-member agencies like the Department of Agriculture, Local Government Units, national government agencies, and the private sector.

As an offshoot, these agencies have been investing their funds to further implement the interventions in boosting priority commodities in their specific localities.

The institutionalization and mainstreaming of CIP’s resulted in enhanced planning, programming, and budgeting guidelines that are being effectively mainstreamed across DA programs; mainstreaming of PRDP innovations equating to the broader support of local governments, national agencies, and the private sector; integration of

CIP’s in RAFMP and inclusion in the successor AFMP and used as a reference in other regional investment plans for the agriculture sector; creation of structures needed in PRDP implementation by LGU’s;

Forging of agreements between National Agencies and 6 regions; full endorsement of CIP’s of the RDC’s of regions X, XII and region XI; and lastly, the mainstreaming of PRDP initiatives which have played a significant role in not only the DA’s and LGU’s but as well as all convergence-member agencies which in turn has translated into an actual investment of funds of national agencies and the private sector to support the interventions in the CIP’s. Hence, as of May 2020, the LGU modules recorded a total of P53.45B which is a 20.68% increase from October 2019. (Recthie Tolinero/DA-PRDP)