P1M for Western Visayas agri-consortium
Sustained research, development, and extension activities, strong partnership with local government units, and successful commercialization of technologies resulting to agricultural productivity have catapulted Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (Wesvarrdec) based at University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV) as the 2006 Most Outstanding Consortium in the country for the Ugnay Award, receiving 1 million pesos worth of grants.
Wesvarrdec bested other 14 consortia around the country in this bi-annual search.
The decision came out after the governing council of Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) has confirmed the recommendation of the Ugnay Evaluation Committee after the latter conducted a series of internal screening and field evaluation.
"At last we made it! Even if we encountered some difficulties in running the consortium, we still emerged as the winner. Our efforts have paid off," said Marilou Ang Lopez, Wesvarrdec consortium director, when she received the news from PCARRD.
According to Ang Lopez, Wesvarrdec’s feat would not realize without the full support of all member agencies, researchers, scientists and farmers especially.
She added that Wesvarrdec’s active linkages with non government organizations in the advocacy on organic agriculture, local government units in the implementation of Techno Pinoy centers, farmer groups on technology transfer and international organizations on agricultural development efforts have contributed a lot in its outstanding performance.
The consortium’s successful effort in the commercialization of technologies generated especially on vacuum sealed litson Darag, bamboo and mango products that contributed to the regional and national economy has likewise big bearing in winning the competition.
The prize the consortium receives will be used for its regular operations, implementation of an integrated research and development (R&D) program, R&D results utilization and capability building of its member agencies.
"One million is a big help for us in Wesvarrdec to continuously enhance our R&D services that ultimately benefit our agriculture, forestry, and natural resources (AFNR) sectors, " said Reynaldo Dusaran, Wesvarrdec Techno Gabay coordinator and dean of Central Philippine University (CPU) College of Agriculture.
The conferment of the award will be done during the PCARRD Anniversary Celebration on November 10, 2006 at Dusit Hotel, Makati City. A delegation coming from the region headed by Rochellir Dadivas, Wesvarrdec chair of the regional research and development coordinating council and president of Capiz State University (CapSu) will fly to Metro Manila to receive the award.
(Cleto H. Cordero)