The Philippines' Department of Finance (DOF) and the World Bank (WB) have signed a loan agreement of 600 million U.S. dollars to fund a rural development project that will modernize agriculture and improve infrastructure, the finance department said on Monday.

The DOF said the loan agreement was signed on July 7 for the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Scale-up, which is geared towards transforming agriculture into a modernized and industrialized sector through public infrastructure interventions and strengthening the commodity value chain.

PRDP Scale-Up, an initiative of the Department of Agriculture (DA), is an expanded response to the persistent challenges confronting the agriculture and fisheries (A&F) sector and rural communities in the country.

Specifically, the DOF said the project will boost farmer and fisherfolk access to markets, increase income from selected agri-fishery value chains, and improve efficiency in the food supply chain.

The DOF said the project entails direct investments in rural infrastructure and enterprise sub-projects, benefiting about 450,000 farmers and fisherfolk and generating nearly 42,000 new jobs.