Dr. Glenn Gregorio, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) Director and National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines (NAST PHL) Academician, reinforced the need to build a culture of agri-innovation in action among the Filipino youth in the Sixth Session of the Webinar Series on Nanotechnology titled “Empowering Young Filipino Researchers for an Emerging Technology Ready Philippines,” organized by the Philippine Department of Science and Technology Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) on 20 January 2023.
PCIEERD is one of the three sectoral planning councils of DOST mandated to serve as the central agency in the formulation of policies, plans, and programs as well as in the implementation of strategies in the industry, energy, and emerging technology sectors.
The webinar series is part of Nanohubs, PCIEERD’s platform for nano-research and development (R&D), nano-education, and nano-entrepreneurship.
In his keynote presentation, Dr. Gregorio emphasized the innovations for transformational change and how to reinforce a transformed agricultural food system in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia.
He also discussed policy recommendations to sustain the growing interest in agriculture among young people and to promote and generate more agripreneurs.
“We must encourage full participation, particularly among the youth and women, through a number of systematic education and mentorship programs with sustained incentives and innovative training modalities with social safety net systems,” said Dr. Gregorio.
The SEARCA Director also expressed that young researchers must get themselves involved in more public-value driven research initiatives that are geared towards strengthening the welfare of their stakeholders.
He further stressed that the key to communicate the plight of farmers from the nano or micro level of poverty to the policy makers is to strengthen the agricultural extension system of countries and conduct integrative studies exploring how to capacitate local government units and agencies.
“Inventions happen in universities or higher education institutions. Partnering with the industry and commercializing these is where innovation happens. Thus, innovation is the way of transferring research results into profits towards economic, environment, and social gains. In the end, let us all remember that what matters the most is building relationships,” concluded by Dr. Gregorio.
