ORIENTAL MINDORO - In preparation for the implementation of the Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems (PAFES) and strengthen the capacity of LGUs to plan and implement multiple agriculture and fisheries programs in Oriental Mindoro, ATI MIMAROPA in collaboration with DA-RFO MIMAROPA spearheaded the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Agriculture and Fishery Extension System Development Workshop on Municipal Commodity Investment Plan (MCIP) themed "Firming up of Agriculture and Fisheries Development Plan" on May 30 -31, 2022 at ATI, Barcenaga, Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

The MCIP aims to create a localized basis for programs and interventions to assure that each municipality receives the most relevant projects based on their prioritized commodities.

“This activity is an important milestone in agriculture and fishery sector since this will serve as your basis in the implementation of PAFES in the province,” Mr. Erlan D. Pasana, Information Officer II/Officer-in-Charge of ATI MIMAROPA said during his welcome message.

Ms. Christine M. Pine, Provincial Agriculturist of Oriental Mindoro affirmed it, saying that this is much awaited activity of the province especially that the Local Government Units are in transition activity of the Mandanas-Garcia Ruling.

“We have to craft and finalize this so that our actions will be well-directed towards agriculture and fisheries development in our province,” Ms. Pine said.

In addition, Mr. Artemio Casareno, APCO of Oriental Mindoro motivated the participants to seriously take the workshop since they are the ones who will strengthen the MCIP towards PAFES’ success. “You are the key actors in the implementation of PAFES which will help the community, especially, the smallholder farmers and fishers improve their lives,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pat Andrew B. Barrientos reminded them thru a video message that “Convergence is the key. We need to synergize to achieve our goals for the betterment of the farmers and fishers.”

The activity included the discussion of Introduction and Rationale for conducting City/Municipal Commodity Investment Plan (C/MCIP), Investment Planning Tools, MCIP Outline and Matrix. They also explained the procedures on how to accomplish the template and shared samples from other provinces.

Highlight of the activity was the workshop wherein the participants crafted their own C/MCIP and presented it to the panelists for review and critiquing. Based on the participants, this activity was very much needed since the output of the workshop will serve as basis in the implementation of the PAFES in Oriental Mindoro.

Before the training ends, the participants agreed to have their next workshop planning presenting their C/MCIP final draft on the first week of August, 2022.

The workshop was attended by 61 representatives from the 13 municipalities of Oriental Mindoro, composed of Municipal Agriculturist, Municipal Planning Development Officers, Budget Officers, Municipal Engineers, and Agricultural Technicians.