Top economist, Dr. Jean-Paul Chavas¹, challenged PGPA² team leaders on getting inside the black box "… and figure out why things are, or are not getting better" for agricultural productivity.

Chavas pointed out that there are many factors affecting agricultural productivity. Among others, these include crop cultural management, environmental management, role of research and development (R&D), and productivity effects of public R&D versus private R&D.

Dr. Chavas also emphasized that while farmers' decisions are significant in agricultural production, currently it is not known how much of total factor productivity (TFP) growth can be attributed to crop cultural management.

In addition, Dr. Chavas highlighted the risks affecting agricultural productivity by presenting econometric models that factored in weather, pests, and diseases.

In the Philippines, the changes in agricultural land use are reflected in the remaining forest cover of the country. Though agriculture has partially solved the increasing demand for food, further intensifications can create environmental problems. Some problems include: soil erosion, chemical pollution from inappropriate farming practices, loss of genetic diversity, as well as problems on animal waste management for livestock and poultry farming.³

PGPA team leaders included Dr. Agnes Rola, Dr. Liborio Cabanilla, Dr. Asa Sajise, Dr. Zenaida Sumalde, Mr. Primo Rodriguez, and Dr. Yolanda Garcia, Ms. Nora Carambas, and Mr. Bates Batan from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Dr. Sergio Francisco from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Dr. Jesus Dumagan from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), and Dr. Michael Alba from De La Salle University (DLSU).

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¹ Dr. Chavas is a professor at University of Wisconsin since 1986, and an adjunct professor at University of Maryland-College Park since 2004. He bagged several awards, including Best Paper from the European Association of Agricultural Economists and Outstanding Graduate Teaching from the American Agricultural Economic Association.

² PGPA is a collaborative project among SEARCA, PhilRice, and Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR). It aims to determine the nature, sources, and causes of agricultural productivity; and to identify policy levers that can increase the productivity growth for the sector. The project was launched in March 2007 and ends in early 2010.

³ Briones, N. (2005). Environmental Sustainability Issues in Philippine Agriculture. In Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development Vol. 2 Nos. 1 and 2 pp. 67-78