DA Pushes for more Public-Private Partnerships to Accelerate Agriculture Sector

William Dar, the Secretary of Agriculture, emphasized the need for public-private partnership projects, to accelerate the development of his sector.

“To accelerate the development and growth of the farming sector, we need to bring Public-Private Partnership – meaning build, operate and transfer – to attract big money from foreign and Filipino investors and the private sector,” Dar said during his visit at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB) on Tuesday.

Dar calls for universities and other academic institutions to urge legislators to provide much-needed substantial budgetary support to the Department of Agriculture. In his statements, he highlights the importance of food security to unlock the full potential of Philippine agriculture.

The DA defines food sovereignty as the components and measures in mitigating hunger and poverty, including production, distribution, consumption, and the actual food system itself. Furthermore, the DA stressed that food sovereignty calls for more trade and investment activities as it promotes control over resources, agrarian reform, tenure security for smaller producers, agroecology, and biodiversity, among others.

“Rooted at the grassroots food movements, food sovereignty involves the participation of not only the food producers but the citizens as well,” the DA said.

Dar and UPLB Chancellor, Jose Camacho Jr., signed two memoranda of understanding (MOU) for collaborative programs to support the local production of seeds and biotechnology.

“We welcome this partnership with UPLB because with all the global economic challenges brought by Covid 19 pandemic, compounded with the Russia-Ukraine crisis, we need to cushion the effects of these crises,“ Dar said.

“We can produce our own food if we unlock the potential of agriculture by providing a significant budget and funds so that science and technology, as well as research and development can grow side-by-side,” he said.

As part of the MOU, the DA will receive the expertise of UPLB through the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) for seeds and the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB). The partnership will help the public sector network of government, private sectors, farmers, and other stakeholders supply the national requirement on seeds and biotechnology inputs.

“The collaboration aims to support the research for development on seeds technologies and biotechnology, and other related items,” the DA said.

UPLB-IPB will undertake programs supporting the production of seeds/scions/stocks for priority crops of assured genetic provenance such as commercial crops (plantation, fruits, vegetables, legumes, root crops) and food staples crops (rice, corn, cassava, and adlay).

UPLB-NIMBB, on the other hand, will support the production of biofertilizers, feed ingredients/supplements, probiotics, and other products of biotechnology.

“The collaboration aims to support the research for development on seeds technologies and biotechnology, and other related items,” the DA said.

Source: Philstar