Agriculture Secretary William Dar assured local chief executives (LCEs) that the Department of Agriculture (DA) will provide incentives for provinces that will strengthen their agricultural extension systems.

“Kung sino man ang mag-adopt nito ay bibigyan po namin ng maraming tulong,” Secretary Dar said on September 21 during the farmers’ forum in Benguet.

He shared that the World Bank has already committed USD500 million to implement the Provincial Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems.

“This time around, let us make the Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems work,” Dar urged.

The “One Province, One System” agricultural extension approach, which also includes cities and municipalities, serves as a strategy to address the lack of agricultural extension workers and slow transfer of technologies in the provinces.

Due to the devolution of power to local government units (LGUs), the agricultural extension function of the DA has been transferred as the responsibility of LGUs. Thus, Dar encouraged the LCEs to strengthen extension in their respective provinces. ###(Gumamela Celes Bejarin, DA-AFID)