By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
This corner had always advocated for agri-ecotourism, especially in the Cordillera region. It is the way to go in places like ours as it will help not only as a source of additional livelihood, but also in environmental protection. Of course, agricultural production is also a factor.
An example of the viability of this type of tourism is the decision of organic producers in Benguet to charge fees for people visiting their farms, just what others are doing in some places in the country.
In Taiwan, leisure farms in the countryside are part of their agriculture and tourism landscape. They are actually business operations that are important sources of income. At the moment such farms have still to take root in the country. They could serve as model, especially in a mountainous region like the Cordilleras.
There is a new development in the local tourism scenery. It is something that could really help promote an honest-to-goodness agri-ecotourism industry. It is an initiative by state universities and colleges. Am referring to the offering of a degree, Bachelor of Science in Agri-ecotourism Management(BSAETM). Only one state university in the Philippines is offering this, and it has been there for more than 10 years. This is the Central Bicol State University of Agriculture (CBSUA), based in Pili, Camarines Sur.
BSU in La Trinidad, Benguet had been wanting to offer such degree years earlier but unable to do so. The university started to search universities offering a similar course elsewhere. After finding that a school had been offering it, relevant communications were made until a workshop was conducted about it last week, right in La Trinidad. Naturally, BSU was the host through the initiative mainly of Dr. Lita Colting, who was a member of the Benguet provincial tourism council.
For one, the university had been at the forefront of the agri-tourism industry. Among others, the strawberry farms are found within its reservation, it has its organic farm, has natural museum, a nature park, an animal genetic resources project primarily for native animals, and many more. In short, the university is in a very good strategic position to lead in the offering of BSAETM. In fact, CBSUA students of the course had done on-the-job-training in some agricultural projects of the university. They also had been learning from a café in Sagada. Such OJTs point to Cordillera as an excellent region to develop agri-ecotourism into a cutting edge advantage.
The BSAETM is actually being developed based on the experiences of CBSUA and BSU. Also using tourism-related degree courses and relevant CHED memos, the workshop conducted came up with a proposed curriculum that is more fitting to the local conditions. It is intended to be refined and presented to the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, then ultimately to the Commission on Higher Education. All within this year. The Pampanga State Agricultural University and Tarlac Agricultural University are the two other universities involved in the workshop.
I hope the Department of Tourism will take cognizance of this and help in the crafting of a suitable curriculum, and in the offering of the course initially in state universities. If this happens, it will serve as a pattern of cooperation between schools and the DOT in the promotion and continuous improvement of the tourism industry.
Just last week, tourism secretary Wanda Teo was talking about attracting investors from other countries like China and build tourism facilities in various regions in the country. And CAR was not even mentioned. We need to show that agri-ecotourism is best implemented in the region, and that DOT should include it in the scheme of tourism.
But first, the agency should actively help in the development of the BSAETM course.
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