Mayors leading agricultural extension work

Yesterday [October 11], we talked to a Department of Agriculture (DA) official who said there would be a draft to be circulated this month proposing that mayors lead agricultural extension work.

This move is welcomed by Alyansa Agrikultura, a coalition of 42 federations and organizations representing all major agricultural sectors.

This will be consistent with the Alyansa position that the long-neglected strategic Agricultural and Fisheries Development Zones (AFDZ) mandated by the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (Afma) will get their deserved importance under Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala.

History

Before the Local Autonomy Code was enacted, the government’s 17,000 agricultural extension workers reported to the DA. Since then, all have been reporting to the local government units (LGUs), mostly the mayors.

This is because it is the LGU, not the DA, that is primarily responsible for agricultural development in the community.

In many cases, these extension workers perform their agricultural duties well. But in other cases, they are diverted to nonagricultural functions by mayors who have not been oriented or empowered to take their agricultural responsibilities seriously.

The draft position on the mayor’s role in extension work is premised on the Afma mandate.

According to the Afma, there are three main groups involved in agricultural extension work.

The first is government. This includes the DA, and the state universities and colleges. The second is the private sector. This includes the extension workers of agri-business corporations, feed companies, input suppliers, and even people’s organizations and nongovernment organizations. The third is the local government, composed of governors and mayors.

To the credit of Secretary Alcala and Agriculture Training Institute (ATI) Director Asterio Saliot, for the first time, extension worker leaders from these three groups were assembled in every region to increase the effectiveness of extension work.

When they met, they jointly determined gaps and overlaps, as well as strengths and weaknesses. They voiced the need for a more cohesive, synergistic and united way to deliver extension work.

But even if this is done, a more basic problem has to be solved: What are the priority agriculture needs in a given municipality? More importantly, what is the short and long term agricultural plan for that particular municipality?

It was concluded that a good municipal agricultural plan with identified priority needs was missing in many municipalities.

Approach

While waiting for the draft extension work paper to be commented on by different groups like Alyansa Agrikultura, two conclusions can be arrived at.

One is that there has to be coordination and synergistic action among the extension workers from the three different groups identified in the Afma.

The second is that there should be a good agricultural municipal plan with identified priority needs so that agricultural extension work will be focused on the important areas.

Though the DA is no longer primarily responsible for agricultural development, it is primarily responsible for giving the support to the LGUs to enable them to make agricultural development successful.

Today, most LGUs are not equipped properly to do this. They need DA assistance. With the large increase in DA budget for this year and next year, this kind of assistance should now systematically be given to the LGUs, rather than DA offering a program that the LGUs must implement.

DA must now have a program to assist the LGUs to formulate good municipal agricultural plans.

They must then catalyze the meeting of these extension workers from the government, private sector, and the LGUs in each municipality so that synergistic extension will address the municipal agricultural plans and the identified priority needs.

After DA performs this role as a catalyst, the LGUs will now take over the mandate of agricultural development.

ATI budget

The ATI budget was increased from P300 million last year to P800 million this year. The Alyansa supported the initially proposed 2012 budget of P1.2 billion, but this was decreased. Nevertheless, the budget increase enabled the ATI to improve its reach from 200 to 400 municipalities. This is still small, however, considering these comprise only 25 percent of our municipalities.

Based on ATI’s good performance this year, the Alyansa supports the initial proposal of P1.6 billion for next year. Unfortunately, the budget being considered for next year is only P700 million.

With the two critical tasks of assisting the LGUs in formulating good municipal agricultural plans and synergizing the extension work from the three groups identified by Afma, it is imperative that the Congress decide on a significant increase, rather than a decrease, for the ATI budget next year. This way, with a clear plan and focused extension workers, the mayors can succeed in their important responsibility of agricultural development.

(The author is chairman of Agriwatch, former secretary for presidential flagship programs and projects, and former undersecretary for Agriculture, and Trade and Industry. For inquiries and suggestions, e-mail [email protected] or telefax (02) 8522112.)