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Bicol University (BU) has been given a P17-million financial grant for the implementation of curriculum enhancement interventions towards entrepreneurial development involving agriculture, forestry and natural resources (AFNR) through science and technology (S&T).

The grant is part of the P200-million program dubbed “Enhancing the Demand for AFNR Graduates through Science and Technology,” being undertaken by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

PCARRD executive director Patricio Faylon said Tuesday the program aims to take stock of the current state and future capacity of human capital in the sector and provide direct intervention to enhance the supply and demand for AFNR graduates.

Included in the programs are mechanism for human capital, innovation, and entrepreneurial development.

“Through the program, graduates become more than just scientists and professionals but a new breed of agribusiness entrepreneurs who can help fuel economic development in the countryside,” Faylon said.

The program would make BU graduates of AFNR courses the personification of knowledge and innovation to lead the innovation trail to be prime movers of development not only in the Bicol Region but in the whole country as well, he said.

PCARRD has instituted the program as a national effort to mitigate the crisis in the AFNR sectors. It is proactively implementing strategic programs in support of the government’s overall plan, he said.

AFNR remain the major sources of livelihood for most Filipinos and the lifeblood of the economy but underemployment in these sectors, which comprises 35% of the country’s employed workforce, has increased from 44.6% in 2007 to 46.9% last year making employment a not so bright prospect for the new graduates, he said.

“However, not everything in AFNR is gloomy. Knowledge and innovation remain constant and vital assets in the development process and the potentials of science as venue for knowledge generation, application, and development must be maximized,” he also said.

To achieve these, highly educated and innovative workforces must be created and sustained at the national and local government levels. These workforces must be empowered to generate and apply new knowledge, supported by policies and investments in developing human capital, technological innovation, and entrepreneurial development, he added.

As a strategy, he said,PCARRD is accelerating human capital build up in AFNR sectors through the program on enhancing the demand for AFNR graduates.

The P200-million program aims to increase enrollment in AFNR courses by an average of 10 – 15 %; increase employment for AFNR graduates by 10%; and establish at least 51 educational business projects with high S&T content among others, he said.

Faylon said the program will generate two major products: agricultural and natural resources management system adapted to climate change; and adaptation strategies for sustainable development.

“With all these efforts in place and running, the crossroad may be a great opportunity for agriculture to be more relevant and contribute more to the growth of the economy.

But first, agriculture must rise to the challenge,” he said.

Agriculture faces one of its toughest challenges. In the midst of two huge global crises – financial and climate change – agriculture becomes both sides of the coin.

With the impending destructive changes in the environment, the agriculture sector is seen to incur the biggest losses. This would impact on the sector’s ability to provide for the needs of the people thus, affecting its contribution to the overall economy, he said.

In a recent report, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) noted that “rice outputs may fall by 50 – 70 percent from its current levels by 2020 if efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change fail. The decline could continue until the end of this century if business-as-usual attitude prevails.”

“Moreover, climate change would seriously threaten the country’s economic development. This could mean 6.7 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP), which would dwarf the losses being incurred in the current global financial crisis, ” the ADB report said.

But not everything’s bleak for Philippine agriculture. Experts believe that agriculture may indeed initially pull down the economy as a result of climate change but would eventually assume a bigger role in addressing the two crises.

In fact, in 2008, amid the financial crisis, agriculture provided a positive growth of 3.2 percent to the national GDP of 4.6 percent. This was lower than its 2007 growth of 4.9 percent but the gap was a result of the drop in rice and corn production due to typhoon and high fertilizer cost, Faylon said.

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