Tag: UPLB

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Ping Lacson Wants to Change Pinoys’ Mindset on Agriculture from ‘Backward’ to ‘High-Tech’

Independent senatorial candidate Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson wants Filipinos to view agriculture as a major high-tech driver of food security and economic growth, and not as a backward sector for “poor” farmers.

Lacson said this is why he is preparing legislation that will prepare young Filipinos to take up agriculture and eventually make the Philippines a food-secure and agriculture exporting country, should he return to the Senate.

“We need to change our mindset. We must look at agriculture as high-tech and not the traditional image of a farmer manually tilling the land with a carabao. That is a very outdated impression of agriculture,” he said.

“In Europe, farmers become wealthy because of agriculture. It may be only in the Philippines where farmers are associated with poverty,” he added.

Related: Ping Lacson, Nais Baguhin ang Pananaw sa Agrikultura: ‘High-Tech,’ Hindi ‘Paurong’

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Ping Lacson Eyes ‘Kabataang Magsasaka Para sa Bayan’ Bill to Ensure Food Security

ROSALES, Pangasinan – To enhance our food security while encouraging youths to be farmers, former Senator and 2025 senatorial candidate Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson is eyeing a scholarship program for deserving students – especially children of farmers – who want to join the agriculture sector.

Lacson said Wednesday that such a program similar to the “Doktor Para sa Bayan Act” – authored by former Senate President Vicente Sotto III – would also expose young scholars to technological advancements in agriculture.

He plans to file the “Kabataang Magsasaka Para sa Bayan” bill should he earn a seat in the Senate this May.

“This is to encourage children of farmers to study new technologies through scholarships in agriculture courses. They will study new technologies and developments to improve their agricultural yield, instead of using traditional manual methods,” he said in Filipino at the “Konsultahang Bayan: Agenda para sa Agrikultura” held at the New Bagsakan Center of the Rosales Farmer’s Market here.

“We will enhance our agricultural productivity while increasing the interest of our youths in farming,” he added.

Related: Ping Lacson, Balak Maghain ng ‘Kabataang Magsasaka para sa Bayan’ Bill para sa Food Security

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More Budget for R&D Pushed Amid COVID-19 Threat

Despite measly state support, our local scientists have given us a major boost – and much-needed hope – in dealing with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), by way of test kits developed by local experts at the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Health (UPNIH). Tests using these kits will cost less than 1/6 of those using imported kits.

I have repeatedly raised the issue of the minuscule budgetary allocation for research and development (R&D) in the national budget year in, year out – an average of, lo and behold, 0.4% of the annual budget from 2016 to 2020, including 0.39% for 2020. For the same five-year period, the DOST’s average budget is only P20 billion or a meager 0.56% against the trillions of pesos that we pass every year as our national budget. This, even as I consistently amended the budget measure by augmenting the budgets of the Department of Science and Technology and its programs. For 2020, I sought a P50M increase for NICER, P100M increase for STAMINA4Space and a P100M increase for CRADLE; as well as P537.991M for UPLB’s National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.

Had our homegrown scientists been given the much-needed additional budgetary support for R&D, who knows how much more they can contribute? As it is, by not supporting them adequately, we’re wasting their talents and opportunities to help our nation.

This should be a wake-up call for our government officials who do not invest in research and development (R&D) through the budget, but instead are supplier-friendly “shopaholics” who choose to shop or buy from their “favorite” suppliers.

If only the kudos and support that our local scientists richly deserve, especially during these trying times, would be translated into increased support from our government.

Science entails research. Science can greatly help especially during looming disasters such as COVID-19. It is high time our government throw its support behind our homegrown scientists.

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