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Archives
April 1-30, 2003
DA creates open academy
for Philippine agriculture
by Rita T. dela
Cruz
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| ICRISAT Director General
William Dar (center) explains the need to establish
an open academy for agriculture during the convenor's
dialogue |
The establishment of an open academy for
Philippine agriculture was the main agenda of a convenors'
dialogue held on 10 April 2003 at the CERDAF Conference
Room. The creation of an open academy is in line with
the thrust of modernizing the agriculture sector by
empowering farmers and fisherfolk with the latest technology
developed through research and development (R&D).
The research institutions and organizations
that participated in the dialogue were DA, Philippine
Council for Agriculture, Forestry and atural Resources
Research and Development (PCARRD), University of the
Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Department of Science
and Technology (DOST), selected state colleges and universities
(SCUs) and local government units (LGUs). This dialogue
is on leapfrogging research-extension-and-farmers linkage
which was previously identified as one of the major
constraints why many important research results are
unable to reach the intended users.
Presiding over the dialogue were International
Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Director General William Dar along with Bureau of Agricultural
Research (BAR) Director William Medrano, Philippine
Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) Executive Director
Leocadio Sebastian, and BAR Senior Technical Adviser
Santiago Obien.
Dr. Dar provided the background and the
rationale for establishing the open academy. To realize
the vision of a modernized agriculture, Dar said, "ICT
should bridge the digital divide among different regions
in the country. In today's fast changing time, farmers
and fisherfolk should be empowered with an improved
access to technologies along with the demand of a modernized
agriculture. Conventional methods of information knowledge
sharing are no longer adequate and appropriate. What
is needed is to keep up with the on-going revolution
in information and communication technologies enabling
distance education and strong linkage with important
sectors in agriculture."
The main goal of the academy is, "to
educate, train and mobilize the key actors of agricultural
modernization, especially researchers, extentionists,
farmers, and support service providers." ICT will
play a very important role in this endeavor since the
whole idea plays along the concept of distance learning
and integrated communication media. The degree and non-degree
programs of SCUs complement and supplement the open
academy.
Aside from being the base of distance
education, the open academy will also be a repository
of timely information and knowledge to keep the farmers
and fisherfolk updated thus empowering them in making
good and wise decisions. The academy will also be an
arena for important dialogues and consensus among agriculture
stakeholders.
PhilRice is the lead agency for this project
while other member-institutions that include BAR, PCARRD,
UP Open University, selected SCUs, ATI centers, RIARCs,
and Asia-based CGIAR centers like ICRISAT, IRRI and
ICLARM are the supporting organizations. The academy's
operational hub will be based at PhilRice. The DA Office
of the Secretary shall provide the strategic management
to the academy. BAR, PCARRD, and ATI will fund and train
RIARCs, Farmers' Information and Technology Services
(FITS), and selected Centers to serve as learning hubs
for the academy while LGUs will partially fund participants
like extentionists and farmers to enrol in the programs
of the academy. The UP Open University will offer the
degree and non-degree programs for DA, LGU and CSO staff
on distance mode. Meanwhile, international organizations
like Winrock and ICRISAT will assist in the resource
mobilization and the establishment of the academy.
Following the convenor's dialogue are
groundwork activities. On 8-9 May 2003, PhilRice will
be organizing a seminar-workshop on e-extension to be
held in Maligaya, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. From this
seminar-workshop, an operation plan is developed and
submitted to DA Secretary Lorenzo. 
April 1-30 2003 Articles:
::
DA
creates open academy for Philippine agriculture
::
PCA
collaborates with international institutions to unravel
coconut genome
::
EU
tariff preferences benefit RP
::
Making
his mark
::
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application in irrigation emphasized
::
BAR
joins Asia IT and C workshop
::
Philippine
agri’l engineering standards launched
::
El
Niño and coping with it
:: What’s
ailing our sweet potatoes?
::
The
world’s first GM peanut
::: More April 2003 articles :::
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