there is an excellent news that with increase in agricultural growth, enrolment in agricultural colleges have also increased. I am not sure about the data from India, will check up in a few days and get back. But the need for reform in agricultural education is so vital that it can not be ignored any longer.
key reforms needed are:
a: redefining social contract between agriculttral professionals and the communities by giving them a better understaning of the user needs
b) including entrepreneurship education
c) supply chain managament, ironically that they get employed in scm without learning much about it as a a part of curriculum
d) developing multi-media multi language databases and tehcing tools to make them more adept in addressing farmers\’ problem
e) on farm reserach without which much of teh adaptive technologies can not be developed in future
f) understanding about the potential of farmers and labourer\’s innovation
etc etc
| July 6, 2009 |
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| Is Agriculture Back?
A Daunting Challenge for the Academe Food shortages, global warming and energy crisis all point to a renewed agriculture as a way forward. Even the current global financial meltdown that has led governments back to strengthening their domestic economy somehow ends up with agriculture as our economy, like in most of the developing countries, is still heavily dependent on agriculture. Recently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that one in six people in the world is hungry. That’s 1.02 billion hungry people. 642 million of them are in Asia and the Pacific. FAO has pointed out that the key to reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development is in agriculture. As with FAO, World Bank recognizes agriculture as a vital tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty figures by 2015 considering that majority of the poor depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. The 2008 World Development Report is dedicated to guiding governments design and implement agriculture-for-development agendas for the rural poor. Agriculture is also weathering the global economic crisis relatively better than other industries with food prices coming down moderately after rising to record highs in 2008. In Northern Mindanao, Philippines Agriculture and Fishery grew by 7.1% in 2007, much higher than the national growth of 4.9%. This upward trend started in 2006. Despite national growth slowing down to 2.8% in 2008 due to reduced usage of fertilizers and heavy rains, production of livestock, palay and corn in Northern Mindanao continued to exceed national growth rates.
But has investment in agriculture really increased after more than 20 years of continuous decline? Has the public caught on with this reversal of trend? A tip off from the academe Enrolment provides a good indicator of public’s perception. It is a barometer of how parents perceive what opportunities are available for their children. Among students who nowadays have a bigger say in choosing the course, it could indicate what’s cool out there. It is therefore significant when enrolment among first year students in almost all agricultural schools in Northern Mindanao increased by double digits. Mountain View College (Bukidnon) increased its first year agriculture enrolment by 80%, Misamis University (Misamis Occidental) by 94%, Camiguin Polytechnic State College by 43%, Northwestern Mindanao State College of Science and Technology (Misamis Occidental) by 93% and Central Mindanao University by 189% (Bukidnon)[2]. In Xavier University College of Agriculture, the first year students increased by 68% totalling to 306 – the highest since 1980. The big winners other than basic agricultural sciences are food technology and agribusiness, an indicator of increasing interest in careers in the agriculture supply chain.
This increase in enrolment is reflective of the growth of agriculture in the region, the success of local agriculture entrepreneurs and perhaps the public’s perception of the uncertainty of a human labor export strategy. This offers a welcome respite after years of continuous decline. But can the academe cope with this development? Much of the criticism of our educational system falls on its inadequacies to prepare students for the real world. Year after year, we keep churning out graduates whose future careers hang in the balance. Studies tell us of the poor quality of teaching, brilliant concepts that are sadly boring out our students and a disparity between the graduates we produce and the needs of the industries that will employ them. How then should the academe rise to the challenge? Modernize agricultural education Improvements in the curricula and teaching methods have to be made to provide education that is relevant, current and will sustain students’ interest in agriculture. But instituting these changes is not the sole province of academic institutions. Preparing students for a working life means that they will have to be exposed to various career trainings — technical, research, business. It is also important to show the versatility of agricultural courses, that employment is not the only career option. Agriculture is a business too. The academe should likewise equip students with entrepreneurial competencies that will enable them to start their own agribusiness and be the ones to create jobs, especially in the countryside. Colleges and universities can partner with TESDA in offering certificate and diploma courses in various agricultural competencies particularly for students who might not have the resources to go through four years of college. Engaging the young in local agricultural development can be easier than it used to be with the help of existing information technologies. Can we shake them out of their everyday boredom in the classroom by holding conferences in Facebook? Certainly we can. If we maximize the use of new technologies by designing activities that are attractive to them, we have a better chance of getting their undiluted enthusiasm.
New technologies should be utilized into important projects like establishing knowledge banks and conducting knowledge creation events that will address specific problems and improve knowledge sharing among stakeholders. Engage to be globally competitive In a network economy, there is no place for isolation. Open systems maximize growth because they make it easier to tap into a greater wealth. An agriculture sector that is connected can easily find new opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable if each stakeholder operated on its own. Agricultural colleges in Northern Mindanao should not be competing against each other for enrolment; they should be supporting each other’s niches. The Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) initiative to create a network of all schools offering agricultural courses is a step in the right direction. Their work on human resource development and knowledge creation should complement the master plan of the Regional Development Council. Similarly, employers should be working closely with the academe. They are concerned with the quality of college graduates, but they often have few connections with colleges and universities. Establishing networks can open opportunities for the academe to know the needs of the industries and at the same time for the industries to understand the constraints faced by academic institutions. The enrolment no matter how large will only have real value if students actually have somewhere to go to after graduation. Strengthen local knowledge and competencies While taking on a global perspective, the academe should build on its local competencies and available resources as agriculture to a greater extent is location specific. Most often than not, decisions are centralized and programs are universally designed unmindful of the local nuances. To be relevant, agriculture needs a decentralized process in which local capacities are strengthened, and knowledge generation and utilization are localized. LGUs, government agencies and the academe should invest in endeavors that address local needs of farmers. Consider, for example, the lanzones conundrum. Why hasn’t the lanzones of Camiguin (said to be the sweetest) been yielding good harvests lately? Is it because of the changes in climate? There has been no study yet to find out why. The reality is that even if lanzones is not a major export commodity of our country, majority of the people of Camiguin depend on lanzones production for their livelihood. If this local concern is not addressed, farmers may feel the need to migrate in search of other income sources. We need to develop a local agriculture development framework appropriate to Northern Mindanao. There is a need, for example, to balance the high agricultural growth in the region with a more equitable sharing of benefits. It should address the growing disparity where the top 20% of the population gets 46% of the income while the bottom 20% has to compete for its 5% share. Along this line, the academe needs to work closely with NGOs, cooperatives, Church and other CSOs in enhancing good governance and effective participation of the disadvantaged groups. Securing our future All of this is a long way of saying that we need to invest more in agriculture. It is encouraging to note that international organizations have called on governments to prioritize agriculture in their development agenda. Aid agencies and foundations have also joined in. We hope that local institutions invest as well because when food, energy and the environment that we live in are at stake, it is more reassuring when local citizens have extensive control. We enjoin local government units, local entrepreneurs, food processors, distributors, retailers and the consumers to secure our needs and the needs of the generations to come. It feels good to know that agriculture is back. The challenge now is how to sustain it.
Notes: [1] Dean and Information Officer of XUCA
References: Valdepeñas, Vicente Jr. Getting to the Basics of Regional Growth and Development. A PowerPoint Presentation to the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce, Cagayan de Oro City. June 26, 2009. “1.02 billion people hungry; One sixth of humanity undernourished – more than ever before”.FAO Newsroom. June 19, 2009. http://www.fao.org/news/story/ “Agriculture moreresilient to global crisis than other sectors”.FAO Newsroom. June 19,2009. http://www.fao.org/news/story/ “TransformingAgricultural Education for a Changing World” (PDF). Committeeon a Leadership Summitto Effect Change in Teaching and Learning; Board on Agriculture and NaturalResources; National Research Council of the National Academies. 2009.http://www.nap.edu/catalog/ “AFF Slows Down”. National Statistics Coordination Board.Fourth Quarter 2008.http://www.nscb.gov.ph/sna/ “7.9% EconomicGrowth For Northern Mindanao in 2007”. NSCB RD 10. July 28, 2008.http://www.nscb.gov.ph/ru10/ “Philippine economy stronger with a 7.2 percent GDP growth”. National Statistics Coordination Board. July 28, 2008. http://www.nscb.gov.ph/grdp/ “World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development” (PDF). The World Bank. October 19, 2007. http://siteresources. “Northern Mindanao posted highest growth among the Mindanao economies”. NSCB RD 10. July 10, 2007. http://www.nscb.gov.ph/ru10/ |
Anil K Gupta
