IN PROMOTING growth and addressing poverty reduction in Northern Mindanao, the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional office, through the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) or the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP), implemented 541 projects worth P515,433,727 in the region.
Mary Grace Sta. Elena, DA-RFO Northern Mindanao information officer, said the projects were implemented with the help of the different local government units (LGUs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) in the region.
Carlota S. Madriaga, BUB focal person in the region, said that BUB has utilized 75.5 percent of the total budget allocation for the project implementation under technical support services on December 31, 2014.
She said the program includes 337 livelihood projects, 73 fishery-related projects, 71 farm-to-market roads (FMRs), 14 small-scale irrigation projects, 46 post-harvest and other infrastructure projects and 10 carry-over projects from 2013.
Generated jobs
“The construction and rehabilitation of FMRs and multipurpose drying pavements and provision of farm tractors generated 130 jobs and influenced more than 900 hectares that assisted more than 500 beneficiaries,” Madriaga said.
She added that these projects lessened the cost of transportation, faster delivery of goods, reduced post-harvest losses, easier access of goods, higher quality of product, and efficiency in production.
She also said that post-harvest operations were achieved.
“Several extension support projects were conducted to provide additional source of income for the beneficiaries. These includes livelihood projects such as fruit and wine making, meat and fish processing, mushroom production, cassava processing and organic production which includes vermicast making,” she added.
Sta. Elena told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro that BUB would be implementing 234 projects amounting to P179-Million in the different municipalities in Northern Mindanao.
However, in a statement by the BUB implementing body, it stated that FMR projects would be under the Department of Interior and Local Government in Northern Mindanao funding and fishery-related projects will be implemented through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.