DOST’s Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development braces its position within the dynamic and evolving National Agricultural Research System (NARS) through various partnership agreements as formalized.
Departing from the basic traditional partnership agreements, the Council engages itself in what it considers as innovative partnership these being farmer-focused and technology-specific.
Most recent of such partnerships entered into by the Council include that with the Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute (TARI), Worldfish, International Potato Center (Centro Internacional de la Papa – CIP), and the Philippine-Argentina Technical Cooperation.
Signed in November 2013 and to take effect until 2017, the PCAARRD-TARI Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) focuses on joint research activities complemented by exchange of researchers/scientists and stakeholders and scientific information, among other sharing of resources.
Subject areas of cooperation for the first stage as agreed by the parties include varietal development and its related production system; integrated pest management (IPM); protected cultivation; and rapid bioassay for pesticide residues (RBPR).
Expected gains from the PCAARRD-WorldFish agreement signed in October 2012, on the other hand, include innovative and environment friendly technologies as well as technical support expected to benefit the country’s small-scale fishermen and farmers.
Other areas of cooperation include ongoing projects including those in the pipeline where parties have common interest.
For on-going projects, the commodities include abaca, mud crab, sea cucumber, milkfish, vegetables, tilapia, and coral reef.
Projects in the pipeline for 2015 are those on tilapia, seaweeds, mango, and milkfish.
The PCAARRD-CIP 2014-2019 Work Plan of Cooperation focuses on sweet potato, one of PCAARRD’s priority commodities under its Industry Strategic S&T Program (ISP).
An area being considered, in relation to climate change, is sweet potato’s contributory role in adaptation strategies of vulnerable production systems in coastal and upland areas and its role as a niche product for nutrition and general health.
Signed on August 24, 2011, the Philippine-Argentina Technical Cooperation depicts how two countries can expand and take advantage of their economic complementarities. Specifically, for PCAARRD, such cooperation is realized with its partnership with Argentina’s Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASA).
The cooperation centers on a project titled ‘Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing on Pest and Pest Management to Ensure Food Security and Food Safety in the Philippines and Argentina.”
Ms. Leilani Pelegrina and Dr. Ernesto Brown of PCAARRD visited Argentina recently to explore possible areas of collaboration between the two countries relative to pest and pesticide management in selected vegetables.
The PCAARRD staff visited SENASA at Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata, Argentina; the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria or INTA) at Castelar City, Argentina; and BIAGRO, a private sector in the industry of agricultural products at General Las Heras City, Argentina.