The Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), along with its Consultative Bodies, gathered for its annual Year-end Joint PCAF, NSCs, and AFCs Performance Review and Planning Workshop on November 19 to 20, 2025 in Quezon City, setting the course for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 policy agenda.
The activity convened chairpersons and representatives from the 13 National Sectoral Committees (NSCs) and 16 Agricultural and Fishery Councils (AFCs).
The two-day strategic session focused on a comprehensive review of FY 2025 accomplishments, addressing operational gaps, and collaboratively developing FY 2026 strategies. These strategies are specifically designed to align with the overarching goals of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the PCAF Strategic Plan.
The primary aim was to harmonize grassroots insights from the regional and local councils with national sectoral priorities to produce actionable policy recommendations for the DA and the PCAF network.
Part of the output is the finalization of the Priority Policy Agenda Document for FY 2026. The document will serve as the basis for developing policy recommendations and resolutions to be endorsed to relevant entities for action.
Aside from this, the NSCs and the AFCs identified issues and concerns and provided recommendations from both national and local levels.
The consolidated list of operational challenges raised during the event, coupled with proposed solutions and actions, will be disseminated to concerned NSCs, AFCs, and operating units.
Recommendations and ways forward
The participants raised several significant recommendations and next steps across various operational and policy areas.
It was suggested that PCAF should review its target-setting processes to ensure proper alignment with performance measures and their resulting impacts.
The NSCs and the AFCs were also urged to highlight their respective accomplishments to articulate their key contributions effectively.
On the part of budget and funding, it was suggested to the agency to develop a proposal to significantly increase funding for the operations of the NSCs and the AFCs, addressing current funding gaps.
PCAF management acknowledged the concern and will follow up on a Regional AFCs resolution requesting a specific budget allocation per region in funding support from the DA-Regional Field Offices (DA-RFOs).
For the Participatory Monitoring and Tracking (PMT) activities, it was suggested that they will be expanded to include smaller DA projects and interventions, such as: cash and fuel assistance, with analysis broadened to include project distribution per province.
On the Sagip Saka Act implementation, PCAF will advise the Office of Sagip Saka to conduct orientations with Local Government Units, Civil Society Organizations, and DA-RFO procurement units to ensure a common understanding of the law, particularly regarding direct procurement of agri and fishery products.
They further suggested that capacity-building activities will be conducted to strengthen stakeholders’ roles in enterprise development.
For the operational directives, PCAF assured that they are already conducting a cleansing mechanism for Consultative Body membership to refine and intensify the effectiveness of the network.
The private sector-partners also suggested to PCAF to strengthen the implementation of the Contractor’s Performance Evaluation System for more transparent contractor assessment and to coordinate its activity schedules with other DA agencies and banner programs to prevent conflicts.
The approved policy agenda is scheduled for internal committee discussion and will be disseminated before the start of the 2026 consultations. | Jezebel Campaniel
