Three cooperatives will become beneficiaries of a project for enterprise development after the city council passed a corresponding resolution for it.
On Tuesday, the city council passed measure authored by the Committee on Agriculture and Food chair Councilor Ralph Abella, for the Implementation Management Agreement (IMA) of the Tapak Farmers Marketing Cooperative (TFMC)- Abaca Processing and Marketing Enterprise; and the Enterprise Agreement (EA) for Biao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (BARBCO)- Chocolate Processing and Marketing Enterprise; and, Tawan-Tawan Multi-Purpose Cooperative (TMC) – Tablea Processing and Marketing Enterprise.
Based on the committee report, the funding for the sub-projects will come from the Government of the Philippines (GOP) as it has obtained $501 million a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development World Bank.
Based on the committee report, the Implementation Management Agreement (IMA) sets out the commitment of the Department of Agriculture under Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) and the city government for the implementation of the sub-projects while the enterprise agreement (EA) will cover the implementation of the sub-project based on the agreement between the city government and the cooperative.
Josephine Martin of the City Agriculturist’s Office said: “Forty percent of the project will come from World Bank, 20% from Department of Agriculture, 20% from City Government of Davao and 20 % equity from the beneficiaries.”
Lassie del Mundo of the City Budget Office said that the city government counterpart is available and that ready for release as it is just waiting for the approval of the agreements.
For the TFMC, the total cost of the sub-project is P13 million and that cooperative will shoulder the 20% through the land that it owns, labor, other facilities and cash.
Raian Latawan, chair of the cooperative, said their cooperative is already engaged in abaca farming and processing but its goal is to increase production and enhance its quality to meet global markets by using high quality machineries and equipment.
He added that the sub-project will provide more employment opportunities to the Lumad Community as it will allow them to construct abaca processing building, provision of abaca processing equipment and hauling/delivery and marketing of abaca fiber.
Meanwhile, the cost of BARBCO’s sub-project is P10.370 million.
“The PRDP grant will allow the cooperative to upgrade its existing facilities, value-add from fermentation of dry beans to chocolate processing, provision and upgrading of machineries and construction of processing facilities which will allow them to create processed chocolate products for mass consumption, competing with other chocolate brands but at an affordable price,” said Jun Andoy of BARBCO.
For TMC, the total cost is P6.376 million. “The PRDP grant will upgrade its current operation through the provision of tablea processing machineries and equipment, working capital and delivery of hauling/delivery van,” said Rolando Suico of TMC.
