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farming in next decade
LOS BAÑOS – A core group at the Department of Agriculture (DA)
is set to rethink what farming will be about in the next decade.
They are top executives who are in key positions that influence
international relations, project and infrastructure development, agribusiness,
marketing and even those who write policy speeches.
They are attending seminars organized by the Southeast Asian
Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and
three top universities in Manila under the DA Umbrella Capacity Development
Program on Strategic Management and Policy for Agriculture Professionals and
Executives.
The program is managed by SEARCA and implemented by the Ateneo
de Manila University, University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) and the
University of the Philippines (UP)
Economics Foundation (UPecon).
SEARCA promotes, undertakes and coordinates research programs
related to the needs and problems of Southeast Asia. It builds the capacities
of institutions working toward agricultural and rural development through
graduate scholarship, research and development and knowledge management.
At the same time, SEARCA focuses on influencing leaders and
centers of excellence to generate a positive impact on agriculture.
The SEARCA seminars conducted by UPecon, for example, are
designed to encourage junior DA executives to rethink policy formulation.
Top and middle-level DA officials will also attend parallel
seminars at the Ateneo School of Governance (AsoG) on strategic leadership and
public management within the bureaucracy. The UA&P School of Management
will provide training on globally competitive agribusiness policy.
“Participants in the UPecon seminars are actually in positions
to influence policies as they are staff members of the Agriculture Secretary
and in key positions at the Central DA offices,” said Dr. Maria Celeste H.
Cadiz, Manager of the SEARCA Knowledge Management Department.
The seminars for junior executives on policy formulation “is an
opportunity to train a cohort of different groups at the DA, a first time
that's been across different concerns,” said Dr. Joseph J. Capuno of UPecon.
“This is a very strategic innovation,” he explained. “Imagine
they have the same framework, so when they reach the top, they have smoother
working relationships with each other.”
“We want to develop a cadre of homegrown, world class career
bureaucrats who will steer the DA into the future,” said Capuno who is a member
of the UP School of Economics faculty. “We need to train new people (because)
we have new information, new topics and new tools.”
“These are the next batch of leaders, the second-tier and next
in line to the division heads,” said Director Bernadette San Juan, Technical
Assistant for Special Concerns at the Office of the Agriculture Secretary.
Thirty-five technical staff and middle-level managers in the
policy development and operations departments are the first batch to train for
strategic management and policy. Most are in their 20s.
The participants – who are committed to attend three training
modules – come from varied backgrounds, from policy to planning to marketing.
They have started to train in economic analysis for agricultural development.
“They will be the ones who prepare policies and related
matters,” said San Juan.
The first module in June exposed participants to the basics “to
ensure that they speak the same language and have the same framework,” Capuno
said. They looked at the applications of economic analysis to the formulation
of agricultural policies.
A more specialized module in July will involve the principles,
rules and procedures governing agricultural and multilateral trade and the
World Trade Organization.
Participants learn trade rules and arrangements, then device
policies to facilitate trade in agriculture. They will discuss topics affecting
regional trade and world trade provisions as well as anti-dumping and
safeguards issues and the like.
It will enlarge the DA group that is familiar with WTO issues so
the DA can extend its competence on WTO issues, Capuno said.
The final one in August covers modern techniques in project
evaluation and program monitoring, including basic knowledge and skills to design
and implement monitoring and evaluation programs.
“Whether bureaucratic efficiency improves farming will be known
in the long term but the quality of policy is expected to improve in the short
term, hopefully in two or three years,” Capuno said.
“The challenge is to initiate innovative projects and to pilot
some governance innovations,” said Cadiz in reference to competitive grants
that the DA Umbrella Capacity Development Program will provide graduate
scholars and training alumni who will have completed their respective programs.
Using analytical tools learned in the program, they will make
informed and science-based decisions on, say, global agricultural trade, she
said.
It is all a part of the DA's desire to train and then retain a
corps of highly skilled senior and middle-level managers who will lead and
deliver effective, science-based programs and projects.
The program also provides 20 junior and mid-level DA staff
members with scholarships leading to Master’s degrees in development economics
and in public management specializing in strategic leadership for agricultural
development.
The program currently supports nine scholars studying at ASoG
and UP Diliman School of Economics. They are from the DA's bureaus of
agricultural statistics, fisheries and aquatic resources and the Southern Luzon
regional office. Five new scholars from DA regional offices will enroll this
school year. sciencenewsphilippines@gmail.com