RAFC-10 meet NorMin’s agri-fishery sectoral reps for a planning workshop and consultation to craft appropriate agri-fishery policies and plans, recommend relevant programs and projects, to address issues and concerns besetting the agri-fishery sector.

 

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – To recalibrate Northern Mindanao’s Agricultural Policy Agenda, the Regional Agricultural and Fishery Council-Region 10 (RAFC-10) convened the region’s agri-fishery sectoral representatives for a two-day Planning Workshop and Consultation on March 10-11, 2022 in this city.

The consultation primarily aims for the formulation of appropriate agri-fishery policies and plans, and recommends relevant programs and projects to address emerging agri-fishery issues and concerns in the region.

In the gathering, industry representatives of various agri-fishery commodities – coffee, cacao, fisheries and aquaculture, rice, corn, poultry, livestock, coconut, fruits and vegetables, and rubber, assessed the industries’ current situation to forge ways forward in scaling up the agri-fishery production, post-production, and marketing.

Proposed programs and projects were conceptualized by revisiting the region’s preceding policy agenda, taking into account the impact of climate change and opportunities for international trade and export and agri-fishery mechanization (AFMEC), in consonance with the country’s agri-fishery development frameworks.

DA-RFO 10 Regional Technical Director for Operations, Carlota S. Madriaga urged the sectoral representatives to take off from the current industry practices and initiatives to implement breakthrough approaches to augment the region’s agri-fishery output.

“This workshop is a way for us to come up with a policy framework applicable for our region. This is an avenue for the government and industry players to come to terms in identifying what to be done and how it must be done to improve our agri-fishery production” she said.

In his part, DA-10 Regional Executive Director Carlene C. Collado, enjoined the region’s agri-fishery sectoral representatives to consolidate the output of the consultation, and come up with a unified agri-fishery development proposal for endorsement and for funding of the agency.

“The role of the Agricultural Fishery Council (AFC) is indispensable to our efforts in promoting inclusive and progressive agricultural development in the region. Our continued partnership goes a long way in helping our farmers to attain quality livelihood,” he emphasized.

The planning-consultation calls for the creation of a regionwide commodity-focused organization that will serve as a lead group to access potential assistance, and forge multi-sectoral partnership in capacitating small farmers and fishers towards being competitive players across the whole agri-fishery value chain.

Farm and fishery clustering and mechanization, post-harvest processing modernization, marketing assistance, access to financial support, product development research, agri-fishery infrastructure, and public-private partnership are among the identified focus areas for policy recommendation of the RAFC.

The recalibrated Northern Mindanao agri-fishery policy agenda will be endorsed to the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF) as a reference in crafting policy guidelines for the regional agri-fishery development framework.

The RAFC-10 Planning Workshop and Consultation was facilitated by RAFC-10 Chair, Reynaldo Cabanao and Cora Dumayaca, RAFC-10 Regional Executive Officer.#(ATalib)