By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
If you were not able to visit the Oct 14-17, 2024 exhibit/agri-fair held at BSU at the BSU gym, then you missed to see and appreciate some of the good strides that the 6 SUCs in CAR had achieved so far. The exhibit was a usual side event of the CAR joint regional symposium and student congress (for research).
When I visited the fair for a couple of hours, I bumped into the former Benguet Vice Gov, and La Trinidad mayor, Edna Tabanda and the current L.T. Vice mayor Roderick Awingan. They were likely part of a panel of judges for the event. Not much time to chat with them as they were quite busy and I was also in a hurry.
We just contented ourselves with the usual photo-ops for posterity, having not met with each other for quite some time. Although many of those exhibited were of the normal type products, some were definitely improvements. Am sure the two known public figures have noticed that too.
Food processing was certainly a cause for jubilation for all 6 CAR SUCs in the fair. Coffee is a commodity that is almost given extra attention by all schools but three stood out: BSU, KSU, and MPSPC. Interestingly, almost all the SUCs have an Environment Protection program in place which is good for the future generations.
Understandably and expectedly, the exhibits of BSU were a cut above the rest. Obviously, the university has the wherewithal to be so. Some of its Centers/Institutes as a matter of fact had separate booths to themselves, showcasing some of their advancements-both in research and extension services.Food Science Research and Innovation Center, Northern Philippine Rootcrops Research and Training Center, Potato R & D Center, and Institute of Highland Farming System are four of the units of the university that displayed mature technologies which could be used, if not already being used, by farmers and private entrepreneurs. For those who are interested, they should contact those units for the relevant information.
All the 5 other SUCs have definitely leveled up. They also established relevant centers to address specific commodities/concerns for research and extension puposes.
Kalinga State University has its own Coffee R and D Center, Food processing Center that produces for instance a delectable and healthy cookies using calamansi peelings as a major ingredient. It has now a 2-year oldSilkworm Innovation Center which could become the leading silk producer in CAR in the very near future.
APAYAO State College is coming on strong with its own food processing Center, churning out products like dinengdeng cupcake, banana-based pastry production,sesame balls, rice-mungbean cookies, herb-infused salted eggs, ginger-turmeric tea, and many more.
Among others, ASCis encouraging food security through its Plant PlantPlant program, and its Fruit tree for every home program. Dragon fruit and guava are two of the fruit species that they are trying to work on for this. It is the only SUC that I saw that is zeroing in on cacao production which is actually a crop very suitable for the climate and hilly physiography of the entire Cordillera region.
They are now into Bio-fertilizer production. How they will do it is a big question though. For what they are doing, they presented it in good brochure.
The Ifugao State University is doing its best to develop its food and wine processing activities. Its handicraft displays are a sight to behold.
For its part, the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College is hard into developing further its Heritage Coffee and food processing. Its herbal plant advocacy is something to look forward to in the immediate future. Let’s await for their research milestones on these important plants.
The Abra State Institute for Science and Technologyis grinding its way into Chili powder, Miki, Banana chips, and Oyster mushroom chicharron production. It has also set its sight on fabric production.
Many of what the different CAR SUCs have displayed are not even touched here. This means that they are really doing their bestto contribute to the economic development in their own clientele area.
