MANILA -- The Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) under the Department of Agriculture (DA) launched Thursday an investment guide that aims to help prospective agricultural entrepreneurs identify high-value crop ventures they could pursue.
The publication is titled "Financial Viability and Profitability Analysis of New Technologies and Enterprises: A Training Manual."
It guides its readers in evaluating costs and returns of target ventures.
"It helps determine profitability," BAR Applied Communication Division assistant head Rita dela Cruz said. "The manual's publication and launch is part of our efforts to promote agripreneurship nationwide."
Investors and other parties interested in getting copies of the manual can contact the BAR.
She said the BAR prepared the manual in collaboration with the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).
The BAR is the agency that leads and coordinates research and development (R&D) on agriculture and fisheries in the country.
SEARCA is an international non-profit organization that promotes cooperation in education, science, and culture across Southeast Asia.
The manual's launch was among the activities at the opening of the BAR's four-day 14th Agriculture and Fisheries Technology Forum and Product Exhibition in Metro Manila.
Among the topics to be tackled in the forum are financial viability of abaca, pineapple, and mushroom products, value-adding processing technologies for soybean, green corn silage production for dairy cattle, commercial production of native chicken, guyabano product development, application of algal paste technology in aquaculture, and microbial inoculant for pests and diseases.
The exhibition features BAR-funded research projects.
The theme for this year's forum is "Agripreneurship: mainstreaming agriculture and fisheries R&D by delivering technology breakthroughs to farmers and fisherfolk."
"We believe that given the right opportunities, training, and innovations, farmers and fishers can be agripreneurs," BAR Director Nicomedes Eleazar said at the forum's opening.
He said the BAR will continue disseminating its research projects' results, so the public can look into these and use the information to improve agricultural and fisheries output and possibly, eventually engage in agripreneurship.
"In this age of modern technology, farmers and fishers need to be equipped with the right information to make the right decisions," DA Assistant Secretary Roldan Gorgonio said at the event.
Gorgonio urged the public to patronize Philippine agricultural products.
Senate food and agriculture committee head Sen. Cynthia Villar also sees need to disseminate the results of BAR's research projects.
"It's important to create technologies or systems that can reach intended beneficiaries," she said.
Such technologies and systems are vital in further improving the performance of Philippine agriculture and fisheries, she noted.
Inanglupa Movement Inc. president and former agriculture chief and BAR's first director Dr. William Dar considers R&D and technology as among the keys to modernizing agriculture and fisheries nationwide.
Aside from helping create wealth for the country, he said modernization and industrialization will benefit local farmers and fishers.
"We have to make them very productive," Dar said.
The BAR continues its Community-based Participatory Action Research (CPAR) program, which focuses on verifying, demonstrating, and adapting agricultural technologies at the community level.
The BAR said CPAR aims to enhance the role of research, development, and extension in technology transfer and production management, aside from developing strategies for effective integration of support services for fisheries/agribusiness and enterprise development.
The program also aims to institutionalize active community participation in overall management of farm and aquatic resources.
Complementing CPAR is BAR's National Technology Commercialization Program (NTCP).
NTCP highlights R&D breakthroughs and mature technologies research institutions generated and developed.
"It also serves as a vital tool for development of enterprises and improvement of agriculture- and fisheries-related industries anchored on the use of appropriate activities, particularly emphasizing better technology transfer, promotion, adoption, utilization, and commercialization," the BAR said. (PNA)
