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THE Philippines and the United States Department of Agriculture
recently signed a bilateral agreement in the areas of farm
productivity, food security and sustainable natural resources
management.
Agriculture Assistant Secretary Josyline
Javelosa, who accompanied Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap in
President Arroyo’s 10-working visit to the United States, said the
Agriculture department and its American counterpart are working on a
program that will have American equipment manufacturers providing
earthmoving equipment to the Philippines for irrigation maintenance.
Javelosa said the farm equipment program was
among the project proposals that Yap had taken up with US
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer right after the signing of the
Framework Agreement on Cooperation on Agriculture and Related
Fields, during the Washington leg of the presidential trip.
“Secretaries Yap and Schafer met immediately
after the President witnessed the signing ceremony of the
cooperation agreement were they discussed areas for immediate
collaboration,” Javelosa said.
The RP-US agreement was signed by Yap and
Schafer at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel on behalf of their
respective governments and witnessed by President Gloria Arroyo.
Javelosa said the framework agreement was signed
before President Arroyo’s meeting with Schafer, in which “the
President highlighted that the US and the Philippines should
prioritize collaboration in the rice sector.”
“Secretary Yap discussed the need for an
equipment program whereby the US will provide earthmoving equipment
to shift large amounts of earth, excavate and desilt canals in
support of irrigation rehabilitation and operation and
maintenance,” she added.
She said that Schafer, a former governor of
North Dakota, committed to assist Yap in meeting these needs by
making representations with Caterpillar, John Deere and Case
companies, three of the leading equipment manufacturers in the US.
Before returning to Manila, Yap said in
Washington that the framework agreement is meant to renew and
enhance “bilateral cooperation between the two governments in the
areas of farm productivity, food security, and sustainable natural
resources management through science and technology.”
The areas of cooperation under the new
Philippine-American pact include, but is not limited, to the
following: sanitary and phytosanitary measures; agricultural markets
and institutional development; rural development; biotechnology and
other applicable production, processing and postharvest
technologies; and agricultural trade and investment facilitation.
“Under the pact, cooperation on sanitary and
phytosanitary measures can lead to protocols that would allow
Philippine fresh fruits such as mangoes, bananas and pineapples and
fishery products, access to the premium-priced US market,” Yap
said.
“Moreover,” he said, “sustained support
for an agricultural biotechnology program can help the Philippines
benefit from modern agri-biotechnology applications, a fast-growing
market valued at $67 billion per year.”
-- Ira Karen Apanay
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