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PRDP Caraga holds Mindanao’s first-ever PG summit
Closing out the year with a bang, DA-PRDP Caraga’s I-REAP component gathered nineteen Proponent Groups (PGs) across the Caraga region in its celebration of the PRDP I-REAP PG Summit from December 27- 29, 2023, at Butuan City.
The first of its kind in Mindanao, the summit provides PGs with the opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments throughout the implementation of their subprojects, create connections and collaborations, gain knowledge on new market opportunities, and showcase their best products through the mini trade fair.
Ameroche Caba, Organizational Development Specialist for Project Support Office (PSO) Mindanao, expressed her enthusiasm over the opportunity for PGs to network and form partnerships with other enterprises in the Caraga region. She further expressed her hopes that this will lead to linkages that go along the segments of the value chain.
With the theme ‘Cultivating Linkages: Working Together to Hasten Agricultural Sustainability’, the summit featured a mini trade fair of the PGs’ various products, lectures and forums on market and financial opportunities, coffee cupping, a ceremonial turn-over of completed subprojects, and an on-site visit of the Integrated Abaca Enhancement Enterprises subproject in Santiago, Agusan del Norte.
I-REAP Component Head Lynn A. Pareñas emphasized how DA PRDP, through its enterprise development component, aims not only to increase the profit of its PGs but also to empower them to become sustainable enterprises. This goal is illustrated by how the summit was graced by PGs with subprojects funded as far as DA PRDP’s Original Loan, which started in 2014-2016.
Deputy Project Director Jodel A. Tabada meanwhile expressed her gratitude for the PGs’ active and sustained participation throughout the various phases of the Project: “Without the Proponent Groups, none of us would be here.”
The summit featured Proponent Groups engaged in the production, processing, and/or marketing of rubber, abaca, bangus, coffee, banana, geonet, seaweeds, and cassava in the Caraga region.
