THE Department of Trade and Industry in Davao Region (DTI-Davao) will initially focus on enhancing the value-chain of cardava, saba, and lakatan bananas for Davao Region under its Rural Agro-Industrial Partnership and Inclusive Development and Growth (Rapid Growth) project.
Rapid Growth is a value-chain development project for small farmers which is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and focuses on the four sectors, namely the coffee, cacao, coconut, and processed fruits and nuts.
The project has an estimated cost of US$95.1 million which includes $62.9 million worth of loan and $2.5 million grant from IFAD, $9.1 million from the government’s contribution, $1.71 million from the local government units (LGU), $12.44 million from the financial service providers, $2.1 million contributed by the farmer-beneficiaries, and $2.84 million from the micro, small, and medium enterprises.
It is also being implemented in Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, Caraga Region, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
DTI-Davao assistant director and Rapid Growth program director Edwin Banquerigo said they have finished profiling the target beneficiaries on the cacao and coffee sectors and are now working on the coconut and the processed fruits and nuts.
“For the Davao Region, they [IFAD] choose banana. We refer to the cardava, saba, lakatan banana because our target is small farmers,” he said.
He said they are eyeing for the development of banana chip products for export.
“There are really banana chip exporters that are not operating at full capacity simply because of the undersupply. Because normally, banana is just boundary crop, nobody is planting,” he said.
He said for Rapid Growth, they will provide one seedling per one hectare of land as well as series of training on growing, production, processing, and financial management among others.
However, he also clarified they will also be developing other fruits in the region that has high export potential once the efforts for banana proved to be successful.
“If we feel [that] we have already provided the support of the banana industry, probably we can look into the durian or jackfruit,” he said.
Banquerigo explained the agency will also assess the demand of the global market and match them with the production of the farmers.
“Everything starts with a commercial partnership agreement. From that agreement, we capacitate the farmers from institutional, production, technology so that at the end of the day, the productivity of the farmers increases and at the same time, they can also benefit from the gains of the market,” he said.
“What is important is we bring the market. They [farmers] are just focused on the production and the market is there. And it is also our responsibility to ensure that the market will not exploit the farmers,” he said.
He said potential markets for banana chips are the United States (US), Europe, and China.
The project is expected to end by 2025.