RP, 3 Pinoys tapped for agri-food market project

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – Three Filipino economics and management experts have been tapped to play key roles in an international research project that focuses on the global agriculture-food market.

They are Dr. Nerlita Manalili, Research and Development Department manager of the Los Baños-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA); Dr. Larry Digal, dean of the University of the Philippines Mindanao (UPM)-School of Management in Davao City; and Dr. Sylvia Concepcion, UPM School of Management professor.

Dr. Manalili has been chosen as regional coordinator for Southeast Asia of the three-year project titled "Regoverning Markets: Securing Small Producer Participation in Restructured National and Regional Agri-food Systems."

Drs. Digal and Concepcion will do a country scoping study on supply chain for two selected commodities – semi-temperate vegetables (cabbage, carrot, tomato, etc.) and processed mango.

The project was initiated by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) based in the United Kingdom, the Royal Tropical Institute (RTI) of the Netherlands, and Red de Informacion de Metodologia de Investigacion de Sistemas de Produccion (RIMISP) of Chile.

Funded by the UK-Department of International Development, the study will cover Southeast Asia, South Asia, East and Southern Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central and South America.

The project aims to describe the changing structure of the agriculture-food market, and analyze their impacts on the smallholders and their livelihoods.

Among those involved in the international research effort are SEARCA, which is hosted by the Philippine government on the UP Los Baños campus.

Currently headed by Director Arsenio M. Balisacan, a former Agriculture undersecretary and an economist, SEARCA is one of the 15 "centers of excellence" of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), an intergovernment body founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the areas of education, science and culture.

Dr. Balisacan, a UP Diliman professor in economics, welcomed the project "as a way of meeting the special needs of agricultural economies."

Dr. Manalili had earlier done research works in Southeast Asia on, among other fields, supply chain management and small and medium enterprises.