Philippine policy linkage scoping study

• SEAMEO Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, Philippines

This is a scoping study which will review the economic and policy environment in the Philippines, especially for the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. It will assess the importance of this environment as a constraint to the adoption of ACIAR funded project outcomes. A workshop will be held in the Philippines to consider the findings and determine whether there are follow-up projects on some of these issues which could achieve some changes in the environment and thus improve the likelihood of future adoption. If appropriate it will develop a project proposal for the follow-up activities.

Agricultural productivity levels in the Philippines have been declining in almost all commodities. Overcoming the problems that hinder productivity growth has not been easy despite the institution of well-formulated policy reforms aimed at getting steady growth and development in the agriculture sector. There has been a relatively low uptake of agricultural research results which is partly attributed to policy and institutional bottlenecks that slowdown the dissemination of benefits. Of the projects reviewed during this study, very few indicated some uptake, most of which was based on assumptions. Policy research activities in two possible areas would benefit the agricultural sector in the Philippines; one to do with activities to bring about policy reform on a broad front, another to do with policy analysis relating to particular technical project areas.