General Santos City – In a bid to strengthen Sultan Kudarat’s flagship coffee development initiative, the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) Regional Project Coordination Office 12 conducted a three-day consultation and orientation workshop from May 6 to 8, 2025, in General Santos City.
The activity brought together key stakeholders, including the Provincial Project Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PPMIU) of Sultan Kudarat, local Farmer Cooperatives and Associations (FCAs), and representatives from the DA-PRDP’s Mindanao and national offices. The workshop aimed to consolidate data, fine-tune the business model, and align strategies for the proposed PRDP Scale-Up subproject, provisionally titled Integrated Coffee Enterprise.
Ms. Cherrilyn M. Baylon, Component Head of the PRDP’s I-REAP (Investments for Rural Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity) at the Mindanao Project Support Office, highlighted that while the project is still pending approval, early engagement with local farmers ensures the initiative is grounded in their needs and aspirations.
“This activity allows us to gather firsthand insights from the farmers and better understand how they envision the project. It’s important that their voice shapes the direction of the enterprise,” Baylon noted.
Participants included Sultan Kudarat’s FCAs, Marites S. Tanseco of PPMIU-South Cotabato, Jocelyn G. Tionloc of the PRDP-National Project Coordination Office, Hasnah B. Sarip of PSO Mindanao, SK Provincial Administrator Jimmy C. Andang, and DA-PRDP RPCO 12 personnel.
The workshop underscores the commitment of DA-PRDP and local government stakeholders to develop a robust, farmer-driven coffee enterprise in Sultan Kudarat, which is poised to become a significant player in Mindanao’s agricultural value chain under the PRDP Scale-Up initiative.