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The
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR),
and PCARRD held a seminar workshop to firm up plans for assessing
the impact of ACIAR-funded projects in the Philippines.
The
Australian agency had previously given more attention to the uptake
of its research results to maximize the impact to the Filipino farmers.
The planned collaborative impact assessment initiative is seen to
support this aim.
Dr.
Danilo C. Cardenas, Deputy Executive Director for Research and Development
of PCARRD expressed PCARRD’s keen interest in the planned
joint initiative.
“The
collaborative impact studies would capture the relevance of our
programs to the agriculture sector and to the socio-economic status
of our beneficiaries,” Cardenas said, “and help add
more value to our R&D funds.”
The
meeting concluded with the formation of a core impact assessment
group composed of PCARRD, the Philippine Council for Aquatic and
Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD), the University of the
Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB), the Philippine Rice Research Institute
(PhilRice), the Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Agricultural
Research (DA-BAR), and the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Statistics
(DA-BAS).
The
group will assess five projects, focusing on the three broad areas
of technology, capacity, and policy.
The
team is now preparing a detailed impact assessment program proposal,
which it will submit to ACIAR this month. The team expects that
all five projects would have been evaluated by April 2008. (Jhoanna
Frances S. Valdez, S&T Media Service)
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