Effective agricultural extension

At long last, effective agriculture extension may soon be here. Next to a very ineffective rural credit system, weak agriculture extension was identified by the five-coalition Agri Fisheries Alliance as the second biggest culprit on why our rural 30-percent poverty rate is far worse than Vietnam’s 19 percent and more than double Indonesia’s and Thailand’s 14 percent.

The AFA is composed of five separate groups whose main objectives are agriculture growth and increasing farmer and fisherfolk incomes. These sectors are: Small farmers and fisherfolk, agribusiness, science and academe, rural women, and multisector leaders. The AFA cited the main cause of agriculture extension problem as the devolution of 17,000 extension workers from the Department of Agriculture (DA) to the local government units (LGUs). Though some LGUs have done excellently in agriculture extension, most have not because of structural deficiencies.

Disconnect

There is today a serious disconnect between the extension workers and the small farmers and fisherfolk they are supposed to serve. This is because, unlike the DA, the LGU may have other priorities and inadequate agriculture expertise.

There were four meetings with Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol that resulted in a groundbreaking meeting last Thursday, Jan. 18. The first meeting happened in a four-hour dialogue between the five AFA coalition leaders and Piñol on AFA’s six priority recommendations. Even then, Piñol already knew the failures of agriculture extension. The second meeting was when the Coalition for Agricultural Modernization of the Philippines (CAMP), the AFA’s science and technology component, was asked by Piñol to present a proposal for agriculture extension structural change. The third meeting was the submission of a proposed executive or department order submitted to Piñol during a Go-Negosyo pioneering agriculture event spearheaded by Presidential Adviser Joey Concepcion. The fourth meeting was last Jan. 18, when Piñol gave the directive to implement the suggested structural agriculture extension reengineering immediately in Ilocos Norte in Luzon, Samar in the Visayas, and Agusan del Sur in Mindanao. This proposal catalyzed by CAMP chair Emil Javier and president Ben Pecson (0927-2120351) is for a “collaborative provincial agriculture and fishery extension system.”

LGU leadership

At the center of this system is the leadership of the provincial LGUs. This is because the LGUs are closer to the realities of small farmers and fisherfolk in their respective areas and can therefore better address their unique needs and problems. They have economies of scale: Not too small like municipalities, nor too large like regions. Finally, they can provide sustained agriculture development budgets, provided they get some national government financial support.

This reengineered extension system has three major strategies. First is location-specific technology development and demonstration. This will be provided by today’s largely underutilized expertise at the state universities and colleges in strategic provincial locations with farmers, fisherfolk, and agribusiness.

Second is partnership building and engagement. This involves establishing and sustaining strong research-extension-farmers-fisherfolk-agribusiness linkages with corresponding institutional arrangements.

Third, and most importantly, there will be capacity strengthening. This aspect has been sorely missing since the agricultural extension workers were devolved to the LGUs. It involves the massive training of LGU agriculture extension workers, farmers, fisherfolk, rural women and the youth on improved agriculture and fisheries production, processing and marketing technologies.

Under President Duterte and Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, agriculture has reversed the downward agriculture trend from the previous six years. This positive development can be further significantly enhanced through a revolutionary change in agricultural extension: Provincial LGUs will now be empowered; the technical expertise of the state universities and colleges will be harnessed, and the provincial agriculture extension system will be re-engineered with all stakeholders participating in a change that has long been needed.