DA-CAR yearly in house review held
The Department of Agriculture – Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) Research Division headed by Dr. Magdalena Wanawan held their yearly in-house research review last July 25 – 26 in Ecolodge located at Lower Magsaysay, Baguio City.
There were 13 papers presented under the Various Research and Development, Food Staples Sufficiency Program (FSSP) and Corn Program. Among the 13 studies, 3 were completed, 4 are on-going, 5 were presented for information dissemination and 1 is a proposal paper.
Panel members consisted of research experts from the academe headed by Director Belinda A. Tad-awan of the Office of Research Services of Benguet State University (BSU) and Higher Education Regional Research Center, Director Andres Basalong of Northern Philippine Root Crops Research and Training Center (NPRCTC) – BSU, and Dr. Danilo Padua of College of Agriculture - BSU.
Dr. Tad-awan said that most of the problems/comments lie in the methodology of the studies. She suggested that the young researchers should read more research papers especially research journals. She also said that the researches should not be limited to in-house review presentations but should also be published in national and international journals and publications. There will come a time that researchers will have a free access or mobility to other countries because of the ASEAN Integration, she explained.
In general, among the 3 completed researches, the panel members have decided that the Survey on the Identification of an Unknown Yellowing Disorder on Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. Pekinensis) in Buguias, Benguet and the Field Trial Assessment on the Occurrence of Turnip Yellow Mosaic Virus Disease in Buguias, Benguet on Locally Available Varieties of Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. Pekinensis) will be packaged and presented as one poster while the On-Farm Location Trial of Strawberry in the Vegetable Terraces in Kabayan, Benguet will be presented orally during the upcoming Regional Symposium to be held in Ifugao.
Among the presenters, only 4 were permanent employees while majority are Job Orders from the Research and Field Operations Division. The in-house review according to DA-CAR OIC-Regional Executive Director Lorenzo Caranguian is an opportunity for the senior science researchers to expose the next generation of researchers in the field of technical research. He also added that the Rationalization Plan is almost done so it is a way of preparing the Job Orders who will be appointed as permanent staff in the Research Division. He added that he has high hopes to the new breed of researchers that they will bring dynamism in implementing and doing their work especially in research.
“Much is needed to be done in the research sector,” OIC-RED Caranguian said in his message. The Cordillera has a very specific and unique landscape or terrain, climate, and water because it flows naturally from the mountains and springs, this means that there has to be a localized research agenda.
Moreover, he announced that those who will be appointed as Agriculturist I, Research Specialist I or Senior Research Specialist will be required to come up with a research proposal. Because as stated in the guideline, they are given 6 months probationary period in the appointment, failure to submit research proposal will cause their appointment to be recovered. In this way, the department will be able to develop their manpower and OIC-RED Caranguian promised that the department will give the best that they can do to support them.//
