Twenty-five new members of the Agricultural and Fishery Council (AFC) took oath during the orientation of the newly recruited Mindanao AFC members on April 24 to 26, 2018 in Cagayan de Oro City.

The three-day orientation is part of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries’ (PCAF) membership recruitment process for the AFCs to be familiarized with the agency’s mandates, programs and projects, AFC Manual of Operations (MoO), and functions of the Advisory Special Bodies (ASBs).

The AFC is the mechanism for private sector participation in the development processes at the regional, provincial and city/municipal levels. Aside from the AFCs, the National Agriculture and Fisheries or NAF Council and the National Sectoral and Strategic Concerns Committees are also part of PCAF’s ASBs.

The new members are from Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, SOCCSKSARGEN, Caraga and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

The activity also acquainted the new volunteer-partners on the Department of Agriculture (DA), its bureaus and attached agencies’ programs and projects at the regional, provincial, city and municipal levels.

“We are thankful to our new volunteer-partners for being part of this activity. It is important to ensure better appreciation on their roles and functions as members and officers of the AFCs,” said Northern Mindanao Regional AFC (RAFC) Chairperson Edgardo Layug.

PCAF also presented the Expected AFC Outputs, briefed on how to accomplish necessary forms, and the 2018 targets for the AFC consultative meetings.

Aside from these, PCAF’s Monitoring and Evaluation Section Chief Cyril Soliaban discussed the roles of AFCs in participatory monitoring of DA and PCAF’s programs and projects.

Meanwhile, the newly recruited AFCs raised questions and issues that were answered and clarified by PCAF employees present during the activity.

The orientation is the first for this year and will be followed by two more island-wide orientations.– JC