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Philippines - Priorities

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  2. Country Strategy
  3. Priorities
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Priorities

ACIAR has a program of consultations with key partner countries on a rolling basis to establish priorities for research collaboration. The most recent full program consultation with the Philippines was held in March 2006. A horticulture consultation workshop was held in September 2007, and during 2008–09 a number of meetings were held to design a new collaborative mariculture program. Priorities for collaborative research programs on integrated management practices for sustainable agricultural production on sloping lands were discussed in August 2009 at a consultation workshop in Manila. In October 2009 several consultation meetings identified researchable issues confronting the swine (pig) industry in the Philippines.

Agreed priorities for collaborative R&D programs are listed under four thematic areas.

Subprogram 1: Increasing the market competitiveness of Philippines horticultural products

  • Economic analysis of marketing chains and channels for perishables, and building of supply chains to improve alliances between suppliers, processors, institutional buyers and marketers
  • Nutrient and pesticide management to save costs and reduce residues
  • Adoption of protected cropping technologies and reduction of inputs
  • Disease management relating to bacterial wilt and other soil-borne diseases in solanaceous and cruciferous crops; and pest management systems for diamondback moth control in brassicas
  • Efficient production systems for seed potato
  • Germplasm evaluation and development of management packages for native vegetables
  • Improvement in postharvest handling, quality, and sanitary and phytosanitary standards for markets for salad and semi-temperate vegetables
  • Selection and clonal propagation of new high-quality mango germplasm
  • Improved cultural practices and control of major pests and diseases of mango, durian and jackfruit
  • Improvement in postharvest handling, quality, and sanitary and phytosanitary standards for markets for tropical fruit crops

Subprogram 2: Competitive and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture production

  • Adoption of mariculture-based strategies to provide livelihoods and enhance locally managed fisheries
  • Assessment of the impacts of aquaculture and mariculture on the community livelihoods of small fishers, and development of better management tools
  • Research to address opportunities and constraints in the supply chain for key aquaculture products, particularly grouper, mud crab and seaweed
  • Management of viral nervous necrosis of marine finfish
  • Assessment of policy constraints to the control and management of IUU fishing

Subprogram 3: Land and water resource management for profitable and sustainable agriculture

  • Development of more-comprehensive methods for characterisation of watersheds to assess watershed vulnerability and requirements for developing more-productive and sustainable farming systems in watersheds. Newer data capture and information management systems will improve knowledge on the current status of soil, water, farming practices and socioeconomic conditions. This will require research and synthesis of information on:
    • standard procedures for characterisation of watersheds
    • changes to soil profiles over time and their implications on soil fertility
    • hydrological parameters for better understanding of infiltration, storage, redistribution, drainage, evaporation and transpiration affecting the availability of water to crops
    • tools such as GIS (geographic information systems), remote sensing for mapping (soil water, land use, topography etc.) and information management systems to share and update relevant information
  • Analysis of the likely impacts of climate change on watersheds in the southern Philippines, and development of more-resilient and sustainable production
  • Use of biophysical, social and economic information to modify existing cropping systems and identify integrated soil, water, crop and nutrient management practices to make them more sustainable and profitable
  • Assessment of policy, regulatory, social and economic constraints to the adoption of ‘best management practices’, and analysis of approaches for managing resource use conflicts

Subprogram 4: Addressing policy and technical constraints to achieving improved returns from pig production and marketing

  • Analysis of laboratory and field diagnostic resources to investigate and control respiratory disease of pigs in smallholder and commercial-scale enterprises, and development of new capacity based on surveillance and outbreak investigations
  • Assessment of the marketing, biosecurity and social constraints of the emerging swine industry in Mindanao to supply domestic and international markets with pigs and pig products