New Ifugao road ups town’s economy with easier access of folks

By Elvy T. Estacio

MAYOYAO, Ifugao – The new road here is seen to boost economy of this town due to easier access as farmers can now bring their products faster to the market.   
    The Junction-Alimit-Nattum farm-to-market road was implemented
under the Dept. of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project and provincial government.
    The 4.96-km road now serves several barangays – Palaad, Nalbu, Alimit, Banao, and Nattum, all in Mayoyao.
It is the sole access road to these communities except for Banao.
    The P140, 528,029.99 road now is being used by around 550 households.
    It was proposed to support the heirloom rice production in the locality.
    Aside from DA and provincial government, project cost was shared by the World Bank (loan proceeds).
It is seven km from the municipal hall and public market in Poblacion.
    Several motorists were observed to be using it already.
    Several agricultural lots along the road are now planted with rice, legumes, ginger and tomatoes.
    Engineer Joy S. Salvio, one of project engineers of Alfalfa Construction said as kids, they used to walk for four hours just to reach the river located at Alimit.
    But with the road, she said kids nowadays need not to worry anymore walking for hours if they want to have fun at the river.
     “The involvement of the other units is very much appreciated especially the Social and Environmental Safeguards (SES) to ensure that the environment will not be gravely affected and to ensure the safety of the project’s social aspect,” Salvio said.
    Rural infrastructure Engineer Edwin B. Camhit of the DA-PRDP Regional Project Coordination office Cordillera said construction work started in 2019, but several factors affected timeline of the project.
    Aside from the pandemic restrictions especially in the past two years, landslides brought about by bad weather significantly affected construction.
    Camhit said there were other ongoing construction activities in other barangays which affected the movement of the contractor.
    “It may have been completed later than expected, but the development brought by the road improvement is really evident as it opened more opportunities for communities that the road serves,” Camhit said.