Tabuk City, Kalinga – Bringing the Department of Agriculture’s extension services to the grassroots level amid devolution challenges, a Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension System will soon be established in the Province of Kalinga.
As part of its preparation, various local chief executives in the province with the academe and the private sector convened for an orientation on March 22, 2022.
During the program, Danilo Daguio, DA Cordillera Regional Technical Director for Operations, briefed that the institutionalization of the Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension System or PAFES aims to strengthen the collaboration of the DA, local government units, academe, and the private sectors in bringing extension services to the ground as preparation to the devolution of national government programs in the LGUs.
Daguio further explained that there are 4 pillars and key strategies in transforming Philippine agriculture, these are consolidation, modernization, industrialization, and professionalization.
The PAFES, he said, is under the consolidation pillar.
Daguio relayed that planning and executing agricultural programs are fragmented as there are separate offices for the agricultural services, namely the Provincial Agriculture Office, the Provincial Veterinary Office, the Provincial Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Office, and the different municipal and city agriculture and veterinary offices.
With PAFES, he said that the services will be coordinated by one body at the provincial level without disturbing the present situation, where there are separate offices for the agricultural services.
“The DA thought of the PAFES as a strategy so that the national goal of the agriculture sector as initiated by the DA will be properly coordinated, done at the ground level,” he said.
He added that the Department of Agriculture having some supervision over the local government units, relative to developing the agriculture sector, will plan the modernization of agriculture in the country with the LGUs as implementors in the field.
“The DA makes the national plan to modernize the agriculture sector and who will do that in the field, on the ground? Of course, the local government unit,” he said.
Meantime, there are 5 PAFES flagship programs identified which include agro-enterprise development; location-specific technology development and demonstration; capacity building; information or knowledge sharing; and institutional strengthening or social mobilization.
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