Regional agriculture officials broke ground Thursday on a PHP174.7 million farm-to-market road (FMR) connecting Crossing Blocon-Dalumay-Malawanit-Glamang in Magsaysay town, Davao del Sur.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) 11 program director Abel James Monteagudo said farmers and residents of Barangays Bacungan, Dalumay, Malawanit, and Glamang will directly benefit from the project.

The 8.81-kilometer PRDP 11 subproject in Davao Region is funded with a cost-sharing under World Bank-European Union loan proceeds, DA-11 through the Intensified Building-Up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development (I-BUILD) component and Magsaysay town government.

Monteagudo commended the municipal government for their active performance in complying with all the eligibility documents prescribed for the projects in close coordination with the PRDP project support office and the regional I-BUILD component office.

“The government program will come if someone asks for it. As per Commission on Audit regulations, there must be formal requests from local government units for projects they wanted to implement,” he said.

Monteagudo noted that the FMR will help settlers in the four villages improve their transport system, reduce post-harvest losses in transporting agricultural products, and easier access to homes and farms.

“This will improve the mobility of farmers especially while delivering their harvested crops (to the markets),” he said.

Magsaysay Vice Mayor Arthur Davin expressed his gratitude to DA-PRDP and the people behind the project noting that it was the third project that has been approved by DA-11 in their municipality.

“The government saw that the best way to address insurgency is not war but to provide a livelihood to the people, especially by providing them useful roads. A sign that the government is supporting them,” he said. (PNA)