SEARCA – To Transform PH Agriculture As Resilient Systems, DA Will Need Science

“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have noted with keen interest how the (Philippine) agriculture sector has managed to achieve a positive growth rate,” Searca says.

“A positive growth rate” – That is the rating that Director Glenn B Gregorio of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study & Research in Agriculture (Searca) gives at the Center’s website on the performance of PH Agriculture amid the Covid-19 pandemic. That is considering the 2% growth rate in the first half of the year.

Mr Gregorio does not mention it, but that is the overall achievement masterminded by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar (face in above multi-image). In effect, Mr Gregorio is saying:

“Mr Dar’s ‘OneDA Approach’ is working!”

After looking at the short-term, Mr Gregorio is looking at the long-term performance of PH Agriculture, as I understand him, assuming that the Covid-19 lockdown will not continue.

In the past several decades, I have been in and around the UP Los Baños campus, where Searca has its headquarters, and this is the first time I met a systems-oriented, intellectually active Searca Director. Mr Gregorio has my admiration in my independent advocacy for nationwide communication for development (ComDev).

To summarize his “position paper” of 817 words (title & text), Mr Gregorio has 3 major recommendations for PH Agriculture:

(1)   Overall: More resilient systems, decision-support systems; access to resources;

(2)   Science: More science-based and forward-looking reforms;

(3)   Extension: More sustained support for DA’s Province-Led Agriculture And Fisheries Extension Systems (PAFES).

The more I look at my own 3-point summary above of Mr Gregorio’s viewpoints on how to bring PH Agriculture to the next level, the more I see:

Science is the key and communication is the most crucial resource!

What is the best way to access science, resources, support systems? Extension. What is the best way to extend those? PAFES. And the best medium for PAFES is? Digital.

To DA, I have been proposing Stored Matter Adapted To Rural Terrain Translated For Johns Utilizing  Agricultural Notes, Notions, Novelties In Science (SMART JUANS) as design for storing (a) science-based knowledge and (b) experience-tested technologies & systems for everyone to access anytime anywhere. PAFES can simply access SMART JUANS – once constructed – and do any type of extension as the occasion demands, no sweat! Just a laptop and a WiFi connection.

To emphasize: The language of SMART JUANS, as a Knowledge Bank, must first be in popular English, understandable by a junior high school student. If the farmer does not have a high schooler, s/he can always ask the Municipal Agricultural Officer (MAO) for guidance. This will be part of the new orientation for MAOs and PAFES.

Mr Gregorio says:

Overall, what remains is the need to accelerate the transformation of the sector into a dynamic and highly productive sector through long-term institutional and programmatic innovative interventions to make the agricultural food system responsive to food security and poverty reduction targets.

I add: “Where crucial, PH Agriculture must be redesigned digitally to serve country food security and farm income security!”@517