From what I have observed in the country, much of the R&D efforts have not resulted in leveling up Philippine agriculture, which still remains largely unmechanized, suffering from low productivity, and has very little value adding. One proof of that is most smallholder farmers and fisher folk are still trapped in poverty. Perhaps one of the biggest problems of why R&D in the Philippines has made very little impact on the farming, fisheries, and forestry sectors is R&D is still viewed as simply, research and development, or the development of new technology. And believe me, many inventors, scientists, and researchers still have this obsession in developing new or repackaged technologies that have very little real-world commercial applications. Such efforts result in the waste of both public and private funds.

Dar, W. (2018, January 26). Why invest more in R&D. The Manila Times, p. B5.