Ilagan, Isabela - The PCARRD delegation and its media partners trooped to this town to join the Cagayan Valley Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium’s (CVARRD) celebration of its 31st year.
The celebration, with the theme “Agham at Teknolohiya: Tugon sa kahirapan tungo sa kaunlaran at maayos na kapaligiran sa Lambakang Cagayan,” was held on December 16-17, 2009 at the Department of Agriculture-Cagayan Valley Integrated Agricultural Research Center (DA-CVIARC).
The consortium dates back to September 16, 1976 when the Cagayan Valley Agricultural Complex (now CVARRD) emerged through a memorandum of agreement between the Philippine Council for Agricultural Resources Research (now PCARRD), Bureau of Plant Industry, and Cagayan Valley Institute of Technology.
Kicking off the event was the opening of a trade fair and exhibit of Cagayan Valley’s products. This was followed by an inter-consortium and inter-agency forum on the Magat Watershed.
A forum on the regional peanut industry was also conducted. PCARRD-Applied Communication Division Assistant Director Cesar M. Frias and DA-CVIARC Senior Agriculturist Rose Mary G. Aquino led the forum.
PCARRD’s Technology to the People (T2P) Media Conference was also a part of the celebration. National and local media practitioners participated in the activity.
At the conference, Isabela State University OIC Extension Director Jonathan Nayga presented the challenges of the goat and sheep industry in the Valley, while Rose Mary G. Aquino discussed “Deriving outputs from S&T (science and technology): Region 2’s peanut industry roadmap.”
A peanut cooking demo followed after the conference. A dinner fellowship called “Ugnayan Night” capped the first day of the celebration.
The second day started with an ecumenical thanksgiving mass. The awarding ceremonies of the CVARRD’s research and development (R&D) symposium followed. Aside from the awarding, another highlight of the event was the Consortium Director’s Report.
The celebration closed with the Regional Research and Development Coordinating Committee meeting.
T2P
“Small ruminants, such as goat and sheep, are an integral part of smallhold farming systems,” said Dr. Nayga.
According to him, goat grossed 13.29 percent higher in 2009 because of higher prices. Goat had a price increment of 16.95 percent.
There were reports of higher demand for goat from institutional buyers in Cagayan Valley, Zamboanga, and Bicol.
Nayga stressed that Region 2 has wide and fertile land resources that can be used for goat production. The region has a total land area of 3,640,300 hectares.
His presentation ended with what has been done in the goat industry. These included some projects in which PCARRD has an active part on, such as the Value-adding/Product Development Project, Technopreneurial Learning Project for Goat, and Rural Enterprise Development through Innovative Goat Production Systems.
Meanwhile, Aquino said that from 1993 to 1995, the peanut production area in Region 2 was more or less 22,000 hectares. Thus, the goal of DA is to support and sustain peanut production in 5,000 ̶ 10,000 hectares in Region 2.
She mentioned that DA will achieve this goal through R&D efforts on seed security, enhanced productivity, and enterprise development.
Incidentally, PCARRD has funded a project on “Peanut Seed Security Support Program in Region 2.”
Circle of winners
Winners in the 2009 CVARRD R&D Symposium received their trophies and cash prizes during the last day of the celebration.Winning the top honor in the research category was the paper titled: “Diversity studies and utilization of indigeneous vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi isolated from citrus plantations” by Jonar I. Yago, et al. of the Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU).
The second placer was the paper from Cagayan State University by Junel Guzman titled: “A GIS-based decision support system for solid waste recovery and utilization in Tuguegarao City”.
Coming in third was DA-Regional Field Unit (RFU) 2’s “Fertility mapping, profiling, and database building of corn clusters in Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino” by Generoso M. Oli, et al.
In the development category, the paper on “Science and Technology Based Farm on Peanut in Region 2” by Rose Mary G. Aquino, et al of DA-RFU 2 was adjudged as the best.
Placing second was the paper on “Rural enterprise development through innovative goat production systems” by Jonathan N. Nayga et al of the Isabela State University.
Finally, the third place was the paper titled “Achieving institutional development through seed production and processing” by Agustin B. Lunag of NVSU.