Research priorities for Philippine agriculture

This is one of three country case studies responding to long-standings request from the respective governments. Each one complements ACIAR Project 8607, and employs the methodology of the general global priorities assessment model, based on the concept of concept of consumer/producer surplus, developed under that project.

The Philippines has a long history of agricultural research, in which an important milestone was the creation of the Philippines Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research (PCARRD). Among other things, PCARRD has developed research-evaluation systems for the Philippines that provide a sound basis for the proposed study.

This project seeks to review and analyse agricultural development policy in that country and adapt and modify a comprehensive research priority evaluation system to ensure policy goals are being achieved. It will establish the necessary generation of information to support that system, empirically validate the system and analyse the policy implications of the results obtained, and develop closer links among the major implementing and funding agencies for agricultural research in the Philippines. Training elements in the project will expand the expertise of staff in the various planning agencies so that the evaluation system developed will be institutionalised after completion of the project. A longer-term goal is to adapt the approach to provide information of relevance to decision-making at the discipline/project level of research policy implementation.

The project will consist of three major phases. The first one - defining the important issues and scope - will heavily involve the potential users, through establishment of the consultative committee. The second phase will comprise modification and adaptation of the model to provide the type of information specified by potential users, and data collection, preliminary priority setting, and comparison with existing research resource allocation. The crucial training aspects will begin during this stage. In the final phase, further refinement of the model - based on initial reactions from potential users and investigation of improved data-gathering methods and sources - will improve the reliability of the information generated.

Thus, the project will continue the development of a more systematic and consistent approach to setting research priorities for Philippine agriculture and encourage inter-institutional collaboration in setting them. It will also improve the expertise of institutional staff in the methodology and theory of priority setting and the assessment of the economic impacts of research.

Coordination with the other three closely related projects should ensure that benefits flow to and from each of the four countries concerned: Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Thailand.