In her Manila Timesitem of 01 August 2020, “Officials Bat For Agripreneurship[1]” Eireene Jairee Gomez says:
To cope with the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on the country’s agriculture sector, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria “Joey” Concepcion 3rd and Agriculture Secretary William Dar pushed for agripreneurship under a new-normal setting.
I will now make a fine distinction between private-oriented entrepreneurship, as Mr Concepcion has it, and farmer-oriented entrepreneurship, as Mr Dar has it.
Mr Concepcion says, “The opportunity for many who have lost their jobs is to move into agri – whether you are in rural areas or whether you are at home, you can start your own agribusiness.”
I’m concerned more with PH farmers as entrepreneurs trying to escape penury. An inveterate blogger since January 2007, of mice, men & minds, here I cannot separate inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD, that I first learned about when Mr Dar was still Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, taking me in as international consulting writer based in the Philippines. ICRISAT was/is based in India.
Among the Friday webinar panelists were enterprise-minded heads: Department of Science Technology, DoST, Fortunato de la Peña; Mat Maderazo of Planters Products, and Cherrie Atilano of Agrea Philippines.
Miss Gomez says:
The webinar also presented opportunities that aspiring and practicing agripreneurs can consider to (kick start) their own agribusiness ventures in addition to government programs to support the development of such enterprises.
Along with Mr Concepcion’s traditional agribusiness, I see Mr Dar going after untraditional agribusiness. I know he would prefer they are inclusive of the poor farmers, that is to say, the agribusiness is an act of liberating them from poverty and reaching the level of sustainable prosperity.
For that, IMOD has a different kind of market-orientedness. The way I understand it since 13 years ago is that the IMOD pursuer must see to it that the market becomes a friend of farming and not a fiend, at the very least not William Shakespeare’s Shylock exacting his pound of flesh!
Miss Gomez says Mr De la Peña said the DoST offered agripreneurs millions of pesos worth of Niche Centers dedicated to R&D and 17 Food Innovation Centers across the country. “’Science for the people’ is our tagline.” Actually Sir, Mr Dar came up with a more memorable phrase when he was still DG or ICRISAT years ago:
Science with a human face.
To systematically cultivate entrepreneurship in agriculture, you need Science. To sustainably cultivate farmers, you need Science applied via Cooperatives successfully applying economies of scale for many poor farm families in the countryside. (coop entrepreneurship image from Drexel Coop[2])
Yes, for farmers to exit poverty. I do believe in:
Science With Coop Hands!@
[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/08/01/news/top-stories/officials-bat-for-agripreneurship/748468/?fbclid=IwAR0gQ4C2KyPGipFgcWyji8KQQ8vJZkdMZWDx_GRM3p3PTucMg9Z6yz1aMtA
[2]https://drexel.edu/close/programs/co-op/
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