Senator Cynthia A. Villar, Senate Chairperson on Agriculture and Food, lauded the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST-PCAARRD) SIPAG FIESTA as a vital science and technology diffusion strategy, which could impact on the lives of the country’s 11.8 million agricultural workers.
Villar served as keynote speaker on the third and final day of the event which gathered the agriculture-aquatic and natural resources (AANR) research and development stakeholders.
“SIPAG FIESTA depicts a bright landscape for the country’s farmers and fisherfolk, who in most cases do not have access to technologies and know-how and do not possess the necessary financial literacy,” Villar explained.
Villar said that an ordinary farmer in the country earns an average of P4,000.00/month, while a coconut farmer earns even lower at P1,500.00/month.
“These earnings are way below the poverty threshold of P5,300.00/month,” Villar said. “There is, therefore, a need to help our farmers produce more at lesser cost for them to be competitive,” Villar added.
Villar however, refuses to accept that the agricultural sector leads the dip in the country’s poverty threshold, noting the case of Benguet Province, an agriculture area, which registers a poverty index of only 2.8 percent.
“The country’s agriculture is not really that unrewarding after all; it is more of the right attitude and the adoption of the right technology,” Villar also explained.
Villar sees SIPAG FIESTA as a venue for the gathering of the best technological options for the benefit of the country’s farmers and fisherfolk, as she also praised PCAARRD and its partner agencies’ effort in providing the answer to almost every research and development gaps such as those that concern abaca, shrimp, rubber, and rice.
“With better technologies, particularly in rice, I believe that we can lower cost of production in the country to as low as P8.50 as in Thailand, or even to as low as P5.50, Vietnam’s rice production cost,” Villar said.
Villar also noted DOST-PCAARRD as a potential venue for “lakbay aral,” which according to her, is better than the premiere exhibits in Manila for similar concerns.
Alluding to the gains of Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines, Villar praised DOST-PCAARRD’s effort in providing farmers and decision makers with sound science-based judgments under certain situations, particularly in dealing with the effects of climate change, using science and technology based tools.
As Senate’s Chair for agriculture and food, Villar explained their vital linkage as tools towards achieving the country’s food sufficiency.
Villar likewise mentioned the important role of the University of the Philippines as a premiere institution for agricultural concerns in shaping up the fate of the country’s agricultural sector.