Marrying the gains of science and technology in the AANR with the Filipinos’ entrepreneurial spirit through DOST’s Outcome One…
The Philippines is basically an agricultural country, a provider of earth’s bounty in terms of food and sustenance not only for its own people but also for the entire global community.
Philippine agricultural exports prove to be an essential driver and assume a prominent role in the economy by providing foreign exchange earnings and additional economic activities.
Our agricultural prowess exerts much influence in our people’s means of livelihood. A great percentage of the country’s labor force is employed in the agricultural sector. It is therefore understandable why the Medium Term Philippine Development Plans (MTPDPs) of each administration recognizes the vital importance of invigorating and modernizing the agricultural sector in pursuit of genuine economic growth and development.
In meeting its contract with our people in terms of inclusive growth, it is therefore, imperative for the government to elevate the country’s agriculture and aquatic sectors to world class standard― dynamic, technologically advanced, internationally competitive, and at the same time environmentally responsible. This brings to fore the importance of DOST’s Outcome One.
DOST’s Outcome One seeks to” provide science-based know-how and tools that enable the agricultural sector to raise productivity to world-class standards.
Blessed with so much agricultural potentials which serve as the backbone of small-hold agricultural enterprises, there is a need to modernize agriculture and fisheries in the countryside. This can be done by providing our farmers and small businessmen with the required technology, information, and knowledge for them to be able to turn their produce to more valuable products both for local and global markets. In so doing, we marry two of the most enviable resources that we have—our agricultural resource and the Filipinos inherent business acumen and spirit.
Gifted with practicality, common sense, passion, confidence, self-reliance, and being a natural innovator, our Filipino entrepreneurs, particularly the MSMEs engaged in agricultural exploit, make good business and contribute much to the country’s economy. This is why they should be given all the support that they can get from the output of government’s research and development efforts.
Inspired by this goal, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development, embarks on various research and development initiatives and showcases its gains in various events. These gains shall once more be featured during this year’s celebration of the National Science and Technology Week (NSTW).
With the theme: Philippines Meeting Global Challenges, the NSTW will epitomize DOST’s concerted efforts of addressing poverty alleviation and pursuing economic development through science and technology.
Joining other councils, institutes, and offices of the Department of Science and Technology on July 24-28, at SMX Convention Center, Pasay City, PCAARRD shall showcase its effort and that of its partners in achieving economic development through various science and technology initiatives to achieve agricultural productivity, improve product quality, lower production and distribution costs, and strengthen the country’s rural-based MSME’s.
The exhibit will comprise of four pavilions (Crops, Livestock, Aquatic, and Agroforestry). Each of the pavilion will showcase research and development outputs geared towards empowering our people by providing them preferential access to productive assets in agricultural and aquatic endeavors.
To enable our agricultural producers to match the best in the Region, especially with the ASEAN Agricultural Community in the offing after December 31, 2015, PCAARRD will likewise feature in the exhibits the commodities that need science and technology interventions. In this pursuit, ten agricultural products have been identified: coconut, rice, mango, banana, abaca, coffee, milkfish, mudcrab, rubber, shrimp, tilapia and dairy goat.
Among others, the exhibit will feature such technologies as genetic enhancement and integrated pest management (IPM) for coconut; modernized agricultural equipment and high quality seeds for rice; good agricultural practices for mango; somatic embryogenesis for coffee; biofloc technology for shrimp; automated mechanical top and bottom feeder for shrimp; and DNA fingerprinting for rubber.
By and large, the NSTW and the showcasing of its various technologies will usher in numerous opportunities towards realizing inclusive growth for our marginalized brothers. In an even better plain, PCAARRD, in keeping with the task of DOST’s Outcome One, sees the event as another opportunity for the marriage of the gains of science and technology and that of the business acumen of our people.