By Danilo P.Padua, PhD
This time, I am giving way to an article of Dr. William D. Dar, a former DA secretary and Director General of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in India. The article actually appeared very recently in Dr. Dar’s weekly column at a national daily, The Manila Times. It is first of 2 parts. It is slightly cropped by me for a purpose.
I find the article very relevant, conveying great prospect for progress. Maybe this could be used as a model for similar activities in CAR or elsewhere in the Philippines. A proper appraisal and implementation of this could really redound to the upliftment of the lot of farmers and fisherfolks.
Here goes: “With the advent of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), there is also a need to put into place a “localized” program where the focus is on the advantages offered by a district, province or region, and where raw agricultural produce are processed in industrial centers and tourism can also be one of the supporting growth drivers. This can be realized through an approach called Institutionalization of District-wide Agro-industrialization, Innovation and Tourism (iDAIT) Platform initiated by Ilocos Sur Congressmen DV Savellano and Eric Singson. iDAIT is an Ilocano word which means “to sew.”
The iDAIT platform ensures food security, prosperity and environmental sustainability through the following: Strategic investments in agricultural modernization and agribusiness; developing the “Ecohistourism” and services sector; and attract investments in manufacturing (agro-processing) and allied industries.
iDAIT is also innovation-driven and market-oriented, and is thus anchored on participatory development approach by actively engaging stakeholders in value chain integration in any geographical location or area. And last but not least, iDAIT takes into account local assets, land, natural resources and opportunities as the source of competitive advantage of communities on which the program/project is located.
The end result should be the creation of jobs, income opportunities and reduction of rural poverty.
There is shortcoming when it comes to implementing some national programs: they do not take into account other growth drivers unique to a certain region, like tourism and the presence of ports and seaports vital for exporting products. Also, I have yet to see a national program to establish agro-processing centers for crops that are unique to a certain region or locality, which also requires the delivery of innovations (from research and development efforts) to support the manufacture of products from raw farm produce. If that were the case, then the country would now have lots of industrial parks devoted to agro-processing.
Indeed, agro-processing should be a vital component of poverty reduction efforts in the countryside.
When it comes to developing agribusiness and agro-processing, iDAIT advocates a public-private partnership initiative, with a mission to benefit the small holder farmers through an inclusive market-oriented approach comprising of agricultural innovation, entrepreneurship development and value addition technologies by integrating family-based enterprises and scale up to micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs).
One good strategy to integrating small family-based enterprises is the “common brand” approach, where farmers are taught good agricultural practices to produce quality raw materials that are consolidated, processed and packaged in a facility. The products churned out by the agro-processing plant carries only one brand even as many farmers contributed to its raw materials. The agro-processing facility can also be common shared facility established by the local or national government that can be rented out to MSMEs or farmer cooperatives and organizations.
Although businessmen can be counted on to establish agribusiness companies, the farmers and farmer cooperatives should also be trained by government to become agripreneurs, so they can adopt innovations and technologies to transform their raw produce into finished products that have higher value added and longer shelf life.
iDAIT also takes into account the role of tourism as a driver for growth in the countryside, especially in areas that host historical sites. Thus iDAIT also focuses on promoting travel for leisure, recreation, and holidays, which targets to package UNESCO historical sites, local practices and traditions that appeal to tourists, health and wellness, pilgrimage and religious pilgrims.
While attracting foreign and domestic tourists is a vital component of the iDAIT framework because they are also a market for food and processed agricultural products, they are not still the main market for processed farm products; it is still the export market.
Since the local government is actively involved in iDAIT and is actually one of its main implementors along with the departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Interior and Local Government, Trade and Industry, and Environment and Natural Resources, it must devote infrastructure programs that will propel the establishment of agro-processing or industrial parks, support tourism and provide safety nets for small holders.”