QUIRINO, PHILIPPINES — The Korea International Cooperation Agency is giving a $9.5 million grant to boost agribusiness in the Quirino province in the Philippines, the Manila Times reported.
The most recent grant will cover the second phase of the Integrated Rural Development Project and covers a period from November 2018 to December 2022.
The first phase of the project was funded by a $5 million grant from the South Korean government and included construction of the Quirino Livelihood for Everyone’s 4-tonne feed mill.
The second phase of the project includes the construction of farm-to-market roads, establishment of mushroom production facilities, planting of fruit and forest trees for watershed protection, distribution of livestock, extension of microfinance, and training of farmers through demonstration of improved farming technologies for agroforestry.
Seonggu Hwang, QIADP project manager, said Phase 2 aims to reduce poverty by increasing farmers’ income, promoting agroforestry, developing the livestock industry through the establishment of a cattle breeding center and developing the value chain capacity.
He said the outcomes for the five-year project are:
- An educational farm for the training of farmers and tree nursery, and distribution of vegetable seeds and seedlings to 150 model farmers and beef cattle to 650 agroforestry farmers;
- A cattle-breeding center; breeding stocks and management of cattle-breeding center; roughage diet production for cattle and distribution of breeding stocks to 650 farmers;
- Establishment of the Q-Life Center and setting the processing lines for noodles, tea, meat and bread, and supporting Q-Life product marketing
The provincial government of Quirino appropriated funds as counterpart for the project to cover costs for securing land, right of way for farm-to-market and access roads; compensation and resettlement of affected residents; institutional development; and project administration, the newspaper reported.
