Agrikulturang Pilipino (Agri-Pinoy) is the overall strategic framework for the agricultural services and programs of the national government for 2011-2016. The four guiding principles of Agri-Pinoy are sustainable agriculture, food security and self-sufficiency, broad-based local partnerships, and support services from farm to table.
Eleven priority regions for implementation have been identified – Caraga, Cordillera Administrative Region, Regions IV-A, IV-B, V, VI, VII, IX, XI, and XII, and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. A major feature is Oplan Seeding Project to promote collaborative undertakings from organizations and institutions outside the government.
Among Agri-Pinoy’s priority thrusts are irrigation services, extension services, establishment of trading centers, organic agriculture, and public-private partnerships. The government is setting up trading centers nationwide with warehouses, cold storage, commercial areas, processing centers and post-harvest facilities.
Under the program, mitigation measures were carried out for the vegetable industry in Benguet during the frost in January 2011. Nueva Vizcaya has emerged as the country’s second major “salad bowl”. It helped to restore and rehabilitate communal irrigation systems in Davao. The help of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PRRI), in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and other plant breeding institutions, is being tapped to develop new and improved rice varieties adaptable to environment change and emerging pests and diseases.
In the next five years, the program, given enough support and impetus, is expected to boost government as well as private sector efforts to attain food security and self-sufficiency for the nation.
