Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems (PAFES) in the Philippines: Approaches, Rationale, Objectives, Frameworks, Opportunities and Challenges

INTRODUCTION

  • The agri-fishery (AF) sector is indeed the backbone of the food economy especially among developing countries.
  • To maintain its relevance relative to the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the AF sector must be strategically oriented towards ‘zero hunger’ and ‘climate action’ goals.
  • Since the Philippines is one of the fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia, boosting its knowledge capital is considered essential for food security and climate resiliency.
  • In compliance with its international commitment, the Philippine government through the Department of Agriculture (DA) launched the “OneDA” Reform Agenda (DA-ATI, 2022). (Please refer to Figure 1.)
  • The “OneDA” Reform Agenda is a document that outlines the science-based strategies identified by Filipino experts to transform the AF sector.
  • This document highlights eighteen key strategies subsumed under four pillars of Reform Agenda, namely: consolidation; modernization; industrialization; and professionalization (DA-ATI, 2022).
  • With respect to ‘consolidation pillar’, one of its reform strategies is the Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems (PAFES).
  • PAFES is a formal inter-agency network that aims to enhance rural livelihoods through the dissemination of science-based knowledge to target farming and fishing communities and their associated enterprises.
  • In terms of scholarship, there is a research gap on unpacking the approaches, rationale, objectives, frameworks, opportunities and challenges of PAFES and their implications to AF development.

 

OBJECTIVES

  1. To identify the approaches, rationale, objectives and frameworks of PAFES;
  2. To identify the opportunities and challenges in the implementation of PAFES; and 
  3. To analyze the PAFES initiative in the context of agri-fishery development

METHODOLOGY

  • Policy issuances, operational manual, strategic plan and published articles pertaining to PAFES were uploaded to the Voyant tool, a web-based application for text and context analyses (Sampsel, 2018).
  • Content analysis (both manifest and latent) and critical review were employed in this study to educe the overarching categories and themes espoused by PAFES in literature (Bengtsson, 2016).

RESULTS

PAFES Approaches:

  • Pluralistic participation: Collaboration between public and private organizations 
  • Horizontal Linkaging: Cooperation among local government units (LGUs)
  • Evidence-based Knowledge Translation: Utilization of scientific research results in policy and practice
  • Scaling up of Governance: Leveraging regulation at the provincial level

PAFES Rationale:

  • Economies of Scale: Consolidation of several local government units
  • Regulatory Proximity: Access to farmers’ and fisherfolks’ communities
  • Financial Sustainability: Allocation of continuous annual budgets

PAFES Objectives:

  • Replication: Establishment of PAFES all over the country
  • Cooperation: Co-funding of PAFES centers for coordination
  • Networking: Linkages with national and international  agencies
  • Empowerment: Delivery of climate-resilient technologies

PAFES Frameworks:

  • Economic: “Masaganang Ani at Mataas Na Kita”; literally means “abundant harvest and high income” mantra  (DA-ATI, 2022).
  • Holistic: “OneDA: A Holistic Approach to AF Transformation” which is further founded on four pillars of “One DA” Reform Agenda (DA-ATI, 2022).
  • Legalistic: Proclamation No. 753, series of 2024 declares October month of every year as the National AF Extension Services Month to raise nationwide awareness about extension education (DA-ATI, 2025). (Refer to Figure 5.)

PAFES Opportunities and Challenges:

  • Digitalization of AF sector: The opportunity lies in the availability of technology while the challenge rests on ‘digital divide’ (DA-ATI, 2023). (Refer to Figure 6.)
  • Access to governmental support: The opportunity lies in the availability of governmental assistance while the challenge rests on the lack of information dissemination during implementation to target stakeholders.
  • Delivery of extension program: The opportunity lies in the proximity of disbursing officer familiar with the local problems while the challenge is centered on lack of funding, technical expertise, and political will.

Implications

  • While PAFES elicits pluralistic participation, it does not recognize the systemic inequality and imbalanced power relations that exist between the small-scale farmers and fisherfolks vis-à-vis giant market-cum-industrial players in the agri-fishery sector.
  • PAFES is inspired by Eurocentric paradigm of development centered on modernization and industrialization which are both leaning towards macroeconomic indicators of development espoused by the Global North.
  • PAFES is anchored on weak collaborative governance involving the convergence of state, market and civil society in regulating the AF sector.
  • PAFES is situated in the context of modernization and industrialization which are modeled after Western-style development and projected as the best path for other societies to follow.

Conclusions

  • The PAFES evokes pluralistic participation of both public an private actors which encourages vertical and horizontal institutional linkages.
  • The emergence of PAFES is a form of reinvention of knowledge mobilization which involves upscaling of governance oriented towards capitalist goal of profit maximization, competition, and marketization.
  • Since there are more challenges than opportunities associated with the implementation of PAFES, the program implementers must develop robust monitoring and evaluation system to ensure the attainment of PAFES’ goals and objectives.
  • PAFES was conceptualized and formulated as a response to the global call for food security and climate resiliency in the context of conflicting goals.

References

  • Bengtsson, M. (2016). How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. NursingPlus Open, 2, 8–14.
  • DA-ATI. (2022). Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems: Manual of Operations. Department of Agriculture. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI), Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
  • DA-ATI. (2023). Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Strategic Plan (2023—2028): Reframing Agriculture and Fisheries Extension and Advisory Services for Philippine Food Systems Transformation. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI), Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
  • DA-ATI. (2025). First National Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Services Month Set this October. ATI Central Office. https://ati2.da.gov.ph/ati-main/content/article/first-national-agriculture-and-fisheries-extension-services-month-set-october
  • Sampsel, L. J. (2018). Voyant tools. Music Reference Services Quarterly, 21(3), 153–157.

 

 

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