DA seeks 18.8% increase in annual research budget

The Department of Agriculture is pushing for an 18.8-percent jump in its annual research budget to help bolster the Philippines’ prospects amid regional efforts to build an integrated economy in Southeast Asia.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said Monday the DA was asking Congress for an allocation of P1.33 billion for the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) in 2016, to top the P1.12-billion budget this year.

Alcala said jacking up the research budget was needed as the DA strives to promote science-based agricultural development.

He added that a much bigger funding would enable the DA to match agricultural research and development programs and projects with the actual needs of the agriculture sector, especially small farmers and fishers.

“We need to identify specific areas where the results of researches will be actually used for the betterment of the lives of our farmers and fishers,” Alcala said.

“We do not want these to remain in research journals and gather dust in libraries,” he added.

BAR director Nicomedes Eleazar said that in the face of economic integration among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the bureau intends to implement responsive programs to improve both productivity and competence, “delivering relevant technologies where and when they are needed most.”

The Asean has set a target of having a harmonized market by the end of 2015.

Also, the DA is pushing for R&D activities that involve biotechnology, with support is spread out among various agencies as well as state colleges and universities toward developing better agricultural commodities.

In particular, the DA is pushing for the development of better rice, abaca, coconut, tomato, eggplant, papaya, cotton, water buffalos, sea cucumber, pili and high-value aquatic species.

Antonio Alfonso, director of the DA’s Biotechnology Program Office, said the use of any available techniques that allow researchers to achieve their target of producing superior varieties of agricultural crops and other commodities was welcome as long as safety and sustainability are taken into consideration.

Alfonso said that such techniques may include conventional hybridization, induced mutation, tissue culture, use of DNA markers and even genetic modification. Ronnel W. Domingo