As the country gears towards attaining food sovereignty, the Department of Agriculture (DA) forges a stronger partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) through various projects that will sustain increased productivity and incomes not only of Filipino rice farmers, but also of their counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world.
“The significant way we can boost productivity is to apply science and technology, and support research for development (R4D). Innovations continue to be the hallmark of agricultural development, today and in the future,” said agriculture secretary William Dar, during his visit at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna on March 22, 2022.
“So let’s build this partnership between the Philippine government and the IRRI. Thus, we continue to respect, appreciate and recognize the work of IRRI, not only here in the Philippines, but throughout the world,” he added.
He also underscored the importance of a food systems approach in achieving food security as the Philippines aims for food sovereignty to face ongoing global economic challenges (including the Ukraine-Russia conflict) and climate change.
In line with this, he called for the participation of all stakeholders in the country’s food system — the private sector groups, local government units, and food producers — to help the Duterte administration attain the aspired food sovereignty for key food security commodities in the Philippines (e.g., rice, corn, sugar, cooking oil, fish, pork, poultry, vegetables).
“With all the challenges that Philippine agriculture is facing right now, we have responded to the urgent need to rethink current policies on food production. The DA is ready to propose and present to the incoming administration the food sovereignty roadmap,” he told IRRI officials, led by director-general Dr. Jean Balié.
For his part, Dr. Balié discussed priorities for DA-IRRI collaboration, including initiatives on crop diversification and conduct of more demand-South-South partnership, which aims to strengthen the research expertise and capacity of rice-growing countries in the region.
He also reaffirmed IRRI’s commitment to continue working with the DA to address the country’s food security and climate change challenges. He also recognized the DA’s major role in achieving the milestones on “Golden Rice,” which was approved for commercial farming in July 2021. Golden rice is a variety developed to complement existing interventions to address Vitamin A deficiency.
“The next step is embarking on a country programming framework and define together what would be the priorities for collaboration in the next few years and the timeframe,” Dr. Balié said.
This year, DA and IRRI, together with the DA Regional Field Offices (RFOs) will implement a rice breeding technology for province-specific direct-seeded rice varieties or the “OneRicePH,” an initiative to unify rice breeding and dissemination strategy for the Philippines, a five-year P300-million project.
Another joint project with IRRI is the Pest Risk and Identification, and Management (PRIME), undertaken by the DA’s Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI). The four-year project targets determining risk factors for pest outbreaks and identifying appropriate management strategies and tactics to reduce crop losses. It is slated to end this year. Under the project, a digital tool or a web-based application was developed that provides pre-semester and within-semester pest advisories based on data from pest surveillance and experiments. Thus, it was able to help mitigate yield losses due to major rice pests and diseases.
The two agencies have also developed product concepts for target rice market segments to strengthen the capability of national R4D and extension partners, and development of information and technologies to improve the productivity and resilience of rice farming communities in the Philippines, known as SERVE2 project.
Secretary Dar said the works of IRRI benefit not only the Philippines and other nations in the South East region but also the rest of the world.
During the two-hour meeting, he committed to support and co-sponsor the “International Rice Congress” in 2023, led by IRRI.
For his part Dr. Leo Sebastian, DA chief-of-staff and undersecretary for research, innovation, training and extension support, said IRRI can further assist DA on digital agriculture, climate change resiliency, and biotechnology. He added that under the “OneDA Reform Agenda” programs and initiatives of PhilRice are now aligned to support the DA-Philippine Rice Integrated Program.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fermin D. Adriano, DA undersecretary for policy, planning and research, said DA will be needing assistance on the massive promotion of Golden Rice in terms of communicating to the public its health benefits, other than being rich in Vitamin A, but more so its anti-cancer, anti-aging, and anti-Alzheimer properties.
He also described current efforts in evaluating the impact of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), and use of satellite imaging technology to generate data on current crop stand, production and harvest areas, typhoon damage monitoring, crop insurance coverage, and other uses.
The DA team also included: assistant secretaries Arnel de Mesa (operations) and Noel Reyes (strategic communications); PhilRice director John de Leon; Bureau of Animal Industry director Reildrin Morales; high-value crops development program and urban agriculture program director Glenn Panganiban; and Bureau of Agricultural Research assistant director Joell Lalles.
The other IRRI officials present were: deputy director-general and research director Ajay Kohli; Romeo Recide, Philippine representative; Sherwin Pineda, communications head; Ajay Poncin, portfolio management office head and executive officer to the DG; Dr. Alice Laborte, senior scientist and research coordinator for the Philippines; and Dr. Madonna Casimero, senior scientist. ### (Kristel Joyce Merle and Adora Rodriguez, DA-AFID)
