Despite the pandemic.
The World Bank report – Transforming Philippine Agriculture (During Covid-19 and Beyond) – is out, if late by 2 months. It’s in pdf, 128 pages.
Even the World Bank is an unwilling victim of the worldwide pandemic lockdown as countries’ reactions were uncoordinated even as rules had to be reviewed. That to me explains why the WB’s report came out 3 months later than its publication date: out of the press June2020, out to the world September2020. Somebody must have noticed some lapses in digitizing work; me, as Editor In Chief of 45 years on the broad subject of Science, I still see a few misses in editing, but nothing serious.
It was a World Bank team led by Eli Weiss, co-led by Anuja Kar, and comprising John Nash, Steven Jaffee, Roehl Briones, Carolina Figueroa-Geron, and Paula Beatrice Macandog. Joop Stoutjesdijk, Maria Theresa Quiñones, Roberto Martin N Galang, and Victor Dato gave additional inputs. (You can’t see the spelling error there; I have already corrected it.)
The report’s title of 7 words fully captures what Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has been directing national efforts in immediately dealing with from lack of farm produce in the markets to over-supply to over-pricing.
The customers must always be treated right!
And as soon as possible.
To the intellectual credit of the WB group, the report essentially follows Mr Dar’s “The New Thinking for Agriculture” that was already there when he assumed office on 05 August 2019. I quote from the report:
Policies being put in place by the current government are based on a “New Thinking for Agriculture” with eight paradigms for sectoral development and modernization: agricultural modernization, industrialization, export promotion, farm consolidation, roadmap development, infrastructure development, securing budget and investments, and legislative support.
If you want to go anywhere new and reach your destination, you have to have a new roadmap!
Underpinning these eight paradigms are the four pillars of the Department of Agriculture’s… agro-industrial strategy: inclusive sector, utilization of science-based tools, market-oriented interventions, and resilience to climate risks. This policy reorientation holds promise (of) transformational change that will produce a more resilient, inclusive, competitive, and environmentally sensitive sector.
The DA’s agro-industrial strategy is inclusive, science-based, market-oriented, and climate smart.
Mr Dar said of the WB report:
The message of this Report is clear: The transformation of Philippine agriculture into a dynamic, high-growth sector is essential for the country. It is the surest way if we are to speed up our economic recovery from the pandemic and achieve a meaningful poverty-reduction and inclusive growth.
We are thankful that despite the social paralysis and economic slowdown the pandemic has wrought, the agriculture sector remains resilient, even growing a quite surprising 1.6 percent in the second quarter. (image of Growth[1] from Red Zone Marketing)
And so we look forward to:
As the World Bank says, the “promise (of) transformational change that will produce a more resilient, inclusive, competitive, and environmentally sensitive” PH Agriculture.
As Mr Dar says, “Science with a human face.”@517
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