The Department of Agriculture (DA) partnered with the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija for the implementation of five major projects amounting to P304.5-million.

“I challenge the CLSU. While being excellent, you should also be very relevant and scale up your technologies with the help of funding agencies. If you do your best in terms of the targets that we have agreed, then there will be more resources to come,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said.

On September 23, 2020, Secretary Dar and CLSU President Edgar Orden along with key officials of DA and CLSU signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the establishment of the Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (CenTrAD) worth P234 million and the Precision and Digital Agriculture Center (PreDiC) worth P50 million.

The university will also implement the projects on Organic Vegetable Production Technologies using Vertical Farming System amounting to P5.5 million, establishment of nuclear farms for small ruminants amounting to P10 million, and P5-million worth seed and seedling production for vegetables and fruits.

Secretary Dar and University President Orden also led the ground-breaking ceremony for the CenTrAD and visit to the PreDiC project site.

The country’s first CenTrAD will handle transboundary animal diseases such as African swine fever and avian flu among others by developing technologies and tools for accurate disease diagnosis and prevention. It will be replicated in strategic centers in the country to ultimately protect the animal industry and the health of the local economy.

“This is very critical not only at the diagnostic level, but I also challenge the scientists and veterinarians of CLSU and the rest of the country. Let’s dream past by just having developed diagnostic tools, but having also developed the vaccine against these various transboundary and zoonotic animal diseases,” Secretary Dar said.

He also underscored the importance of translating the outputs of science and technology for the use of farming and fishing communities and the responsibility of higher educational institutions to bring the best of knowledge and of people.

“Ito po ay nangangahulugan ng pagtitiwala ng DA sa kakayahan ng CLSU upang ipatupad ang mga programang ito. These are the justifications that we are doing our share for the development of the agriculture sector,” Orden said as he accepted the challenge of the agri chief.

CLSU is one of the country’s renowned state-institutions for higher education and the lead agency of the Muñoz Science Community and the Central Luzon Agriculture, Aquatic and Resources Research and Development Consortium (CLAARRDEC). It is designated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as the center of excellence in agriculture, agricultural engineering, biology, fisheries, teacher education, and veterinary medicine. ### (Gumamela Celes Bejarin, DA-AFID)