Press Release
January 16, 2009

LEGARDA SETS 2009 COCAFM MONITORING AGENDA FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND SPURRING
GROWTH IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

COCAFM Chair Loren Legarda today set the priority actions of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM) for 2009 to strengthen the agriculture and fisheries sector and make it a force in alleviating poverty and spurring economic growth in the countryside.

In a meeting with top officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Loren said the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) could be used by concerned agencies in a lot of creative ways, partnerships, and as sources of innovative strategies using existing resources and mandates.

As chair of COCAFM , she told the DA officials that the monitoring of AFMA implementation will focus on the following priority and strategic areas:

1) Agrarian Reform - Pushing for the passage of the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law with amendments based on the recommendations of the three independent groups commissioned by COCAFM to conduct studies and assess the CARP implementation.

2) Agricultural extension - Ensuring that the farmers and fisherfolks get timely and comprehensive assistance from the Municipal Agricultural Officers (MAOs). Comprehensive assistance consists of technology dissemination, accessing credit in rural banks, ACEF and other sources like available Grameen organizations in the municipality, and creative marketing assistance like processing of farm produce instead of just selling raw food and non-food products.

3) Food Safety - Passage of a comprehensive bill on food safety that will ensure the highest quality of agriculture and fishery products for both domestic and international uses and rationalize the functions of concerned agencies such as the Bureau of Agriculture and Fishery Product Standards (BAFPS) and other regulatory agencies in the DA. The passage of Halal bill and other marketing concerns should be prioritized to recognize the Muslim concept of food safety as well as take advantage of investments and export opportunities in Islamic countries. The Philippines as a nation should recognize that the concept of food safety is culture-bound. The Muslim preference for porkless food reflects the religious belief that pork is not good for health. Filipino food producers should respect this belief by labelling food products.

4. Food Sufficiency - Increasing farmers and fishers' income from both farm and non-farm production will enable them to buy food--both rice and 'ulam'--for their families, however, as rice is the Filipinos' staple food, the DA should ensure provision for irrigation, post-harvest facilities and other support services are in place. PhilRice's Palayamanan or Bahay Kubo concept should be boosted.

5) Non-farm skills development - Enabling farm families to add non-farm skills in the household as a hedge against vagaries of nature and consequent damages against crops and inability of fisherfolks to catch fish. The TESDA should endeavour to lead TESDA-managed tech-voc institutions to do non-farm training on-site (in municipalities) in coordination with barangays and the MAOs. Non-farm training should include short-term courses in vehicular repair and maintenance, electricity, furniture making and carpentry, and other tech-voc skills identified by barangays as needed in the community. Tech-voc training in farm communities is also needed because of the dwindling supply of manpower as a result of overseas recruitment. TESDA should use the Tesda Skills Development Fund identified by AFMA as budget source for this purpose.

6) Adopt-a-Farm, Adopt-a-Fishfarm, Adopt-a-Forest by Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Students - State universities and colleges with agricultural, fishery and forestry programs should make the National Agricultural and Fishery Education System (NAFES) of AFMA work towards immediate linkaging with the MAOs to enable students in said programs to adopt a farm, fishing village or mountain as their laboratory. Each student can focus his/her training in assisting a farm, fishfarm, or forest. While the AFMA covers agriculture and fishery only, the DA, through convergence with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) can share the adoption strategy with the DENR. Reforestation of denuded forest areas ensure a sustained supply of water in lowland farms, prevents erosion and flooding that damage both farms and fishing areas.

7) Alternative Learning -The NAFES should ensure the provision of alternative learning systems for farm, fish and forest households so that adults could have functional literacy education in their basic needs concerns such as health, nutrition and sanitation and livelihood. The results of the use of the revised curricula in basic education based on AFMA should be assessed based on criteria of quality and relevance. NAFES should include among its member-agencies the DepEd Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS). NAFES should also include the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to ensure that our indigenous peoples get culturally-appropriate education in NAFES. The DA and CHED should agree on the manner of allocation of the NAFES budget under AFMA.

8) Agri-tourism - Enabling the farm households especially Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) to see other ways of getting high income from their land to discourage them from illegal conversion of their lands. They can turn a portion of their unutilized lands into little agri resorts where they can cook the delicacies in the community or grill inland fish and sell nature crafts. The DA should partner with the University of the Philippines (colleges involved in creative industries--College of Arts and Letters, College of Music, and College of Fine Arts) on how to put up creative industries in farm and fishfarm areas.

9) Research and Development - State universities and colleges with agricultural and fishery programs should endeavour to produce groundbreaking new knowledge in agriculture and fishery this year and ensure its dissemination under the Adopt-A-Farm, Adopt-a-Fishfarm program. Scientists should be given prominent recognition--through honors and cash awards from the ACEF (cash to be used for the application of new technologies in commercial production)--at the end of the year by the media to encourage others to become productive in discovering new knowledge.

10) Restructuring the Department of Agriculture - The efforts to restructure the Department of Agriculture according to function, rather than by commodity, should be pushed through. This is intended to ensure efficiency in the delivery of services for the sector. Along with this, the DA should devise ways and means to make it easy for the farmers and fisherfolks to access credit and other services, improve and increase production, and eliminate red tapes in procedures that delay production and marketing of products.

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