“Deliver results not only research outputs.”

This was the challenge of Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar during the opening ceremony of the 111th Foundation Day Celebration of the College of Agriculture and Food Science of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB-CAFS) on March 3, 2020.

Dar said the academe should change their mindset and start focusing on developing impactful researches.

“You should not only be happy with the number of researches you have published but see to it that the research will have an impact on the lives of farmers and fisherfolk,” Dar said.

In his keynote speech, the Secretary announced that the Department of Agriculture through the Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) will provide additional research funding support to the college institute amounting to P485 million (M) this year. To date, the agency has released P388 M for the UPLB-CAFS ongoing project.

The UPLB-CAFS received about P2.4 billion (B) in a research grant from DA-BAR, which produced 700 projects, from 2000 to 2019.

Dar urged the UPLB-CAFS to help in resolving various issues faced by the department such as the African Swine Fever (ASF), Fall Army Worm, and upscaling the coconut industry.

The Agri chief also urged the academe to align their research program with the eight paradigms of the ‘New Thinking of Agriculture’ and include agribusiness and value chain system.

“We need a holistic point of view in unlocking the full potential of the agri sector,” Dar said.

UPLB Chancellor Dr. Fernando C. Sanchez, Jr. accepted the secretary’s challenge and stressed that part of their mandate is to “downstream” all their researches. He added that they are willing to tap the private sector.

“Part of our plan is to create an office, which is an office of the Institutional Development, to be approved by the board. Wherein, UP will proactively go to different SUCs and ask what they need and how can we assist,” Sanchez said.

He also said that there is an on-going research with the Michigan University on related to ASF studies. ### (Kristel Merle, DA-AFID)