Local governments told to avail of funds

WITH only P340-million budget for farm-to-market roads this year, agriculture officials urged local governments to avail themselves of funds from the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Program (Charmp) 2.

In his visit to Baguio City last week, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said the local government units (LGUs) should consider the Charmp 2 funds in financing major agricultural development projects like farm-to-market roads.

He admitted to have worked on the reduced sharing scheme for local governments, which pegs funding to be composed of 60 percent from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad), 30 percent from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and only 10 percent share for the LGU.

DA Assistant Regional Director Cameron Odsey said many local governments have already expressed interest in sourcing out funds in Charmp 2 since Secretary Alcala’s pronouncement.

With this, Odsey said projects like farm-to-market roads, irrigation and post-harvest facilities will come into fruition.

Second phase of Charmp will cover 37 towns in six provinces in the Cordillera region, to improve quality of life for rural indigenous peoples’ communities through development projects that would take seven years with an estimated total cost of US$66.4 million.

Earlier this month, governors and representatives from the region requested through a resolution for a reduced counterpart funding for the projects they wish to initiate.

Last year, the project was also rated as moderately satisfactory by the Ifad.

The rating was made by Ifad’s Supervision Implementation Support team after reviewing the project’s operations pursuant to agreements made during the First Supervision Meeting held in April 2010. The review was undertaken last March 7 to 22, 2011.

“Overall assessment of Project implementation progress is moderately satisfactory,” the team reported during the mission wrap-up meeting held at the Department of Agriculture central office in Quezon City last year.

The team’s ratings meant that implementers and stakeholders need to do more with better results. (JM Agreda)