Two ongoing project loans for the Philippines, aimed at improving the livelihood of farmers and fisherfolk, are bearing fruit, according to the World Bank.

The Washington-based multilateral lender's latest implementation status and results reports for two investment project financing (IPF) approved for the Philippines in 2014 and 2023 showed "satisfactory" performance for the Philippine rural development project (PRDP) and PRDP scale-up, respectively.

Both projects are being implemented by the Department of Agriculture (DA).

But in the case of the newer PRDP scale-up loan, the World Bank downgraded its overall implementation progress to "moderately satisfactory" from "satisfactory" previously.

For the $600-million PRDP scale-up financing, "implementation and institutional arrangements are in place, including its systems and procedures which built on the experiences and lessons learned from another World Bank-assisted project (PRDP)."

PRDP aims to enhance farm and fishery productivity to increase rural incomes, while its scale-up targets to improve market access among farmers and fisherfolk, as well as hike incomes from selected agri-fishery value chains.

"To date, the project has approved 75 infrastructure subprojects (₱11.5 billion), where 30 subprojects (₱4.1 billion) are in the construction stage. In addition, 19 enterprise subprojects (₱2.3 billion) have been validated and confirmed eligible for project funding," the World Bank said.

To date, 7.7 percent—or $46.1 million—of loan proceeds have been disbursed. This loan will close in mid-2029.

As for the original PRDP that started over a decade ago, the World Bank said that it "remains on track in meeting the project development objective (PDO) outcome indicators."

So far, PRDP helped achieve a 24-percent increase in real household income of farmers and fisherfolk beneficiaries—still short of the targeted 30 percent; a 42-percent increase in income of beneficiaries involved in enterprise development, surpassing the 30-percent target; a 111-percent increase in value of annual marketed output, which exceeded the goal of 41 percent; and 1,323,712 farmers reached with agricultural assets or services—the target is 760,000—of whom 39 percent are women, nearing the 40-percent goal, the World Bank noted.

"Cumulatively, 603 infrastructure subprojects amounting to ₱41.97 billion have been approved, of which 503 (83 percent) have been completed. Approved enterprise subprojects total to 738, with 667 (90 percent) completed. Ninety-two percent of the completed subprojects are classified as operational (437 subprojects) and sustainable (175 subprojects)," it added.