The Netherlands
26 August 2022
Two representatives from Naktuinbouw Marjan Folkers and Moazzam Muhammad along with Marien Valstar from the ministry of LNV visited the Philippines from Aug 15th till Aug 19th. The purpose of the visit was to meet the officials from the Department of Agriculture, meet the stakeholders involved in the NSTP Project, fine-tune the project activities, and visit the facilities in the Philippines.
The visit was very well organized and took place in an interactive atmosphere
All relevant stakeholders were visited, and the project was explained. The dialogue was held that included a general exchange of information and views, what topics to be included, what activities to be included, and how to prioritize them in the coming two years. Relevant facilities were visited, and many contacts were made. The project team was pleasantly surprised by the high level of competence the Filipino colleagues showed and by the modern state-of-the-art facilities. To finalize this first planning stage, six Filipino colleagues nominated by the DA will visit the Netherlands. The Filipino colleagues will indicate their wishes for this visit. A draft revision of the activities for the remaining time of the project will be shared with the Philippine counterparts prior to their visit so that during and after their visit we can fine-tune and revise the activities to a more advanced and specific level.
The visit was a follow up of the request of Dutch Embassy in the Philippines in 2020
They requested the Dutch government to assist the Filipino government in the establishment of the National Seed Technology Park (NSTP). The long-term goal of the government of the Philippines is to cater to food security, improve productivity and alleviate poverty in the country as well as identify the Philippines as a major seed hub in the world.
Following this request, a scoping mission was carried out by Marien Valstar (LNV), Raoul Heagens (Naktuinbouw) and Laura Pinán González (Naktuinbouw). Based on the report of this scoping mission, the Dutch Enterprise Agency (RVO) approved funding to conduct a knowledge transfer and capacity-building project to assist the government of the Philippines in establishing the NSTP with the right knowledge, expertise, and experience from the Netherlands.
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