SOME 132 researches are being reviewed by the panel of evaluators of the 18 member-agencies of the Ilocos Agriculture, Aquatic, and Resources Research and Development Consortium (ILAARRDEC) in on-going commodity reviews from Aug. 18 until Aug. 29.

Of this number, 24 are on forestry, agroforestry, environment, and apiculture; 19 on rice, rice-based farming, and tobacco; 19 on legumes, ornamentals, medicinal plants, vegetables, bulb crops, and root crops; 15 on fruit crops; 13 on other cereals, livestock, and forage; 15 on fisheries; and 27 on sericulture. These papers were either classified as development or research categories.

Studies under the research category are based on experimental or theoretical works that have been conducted to acquire new knowledge and were directed toward a specific objective. It may, however, be subjected to further research and field verification.

On the other hand, studies under the development category are outputs of systematic works, drawing on existing knowledge gained from researches that are directed towards producing new technologies. This may also include outputs of pilot testing projects that demonstrate the feasibility of using the technology.

Of the 18 member-agencies of ILAARRDEC, only eight are participating in the activity. These are MMSU, DMMMSU, PhilRice-Batac, PCC-Batac, UNP, ISPSC, DA-ILIARC, and PSU. DMMMSU tops the list of most number of papers with 60, while PSU, MMSU, DA, PhilRice, ISPSC, UNP, have 26, 19, 15, 6, 3, and 2 researches, respectively. PCC presented only one.

This annual activity of ILAARRDEC which evaluates all completed, on-going, and new research activities aims to identify which of these are classified as technology for generation, for adoption, for commercialization, and for dissemination, or for verification. These areas are on development, applied communication, and on-farm projects.

ILAARRDEC adopted the research and development (R&D) approach in evaluating the technologies that were developed, as well as the information generated by the researchers.

During the reviews, the researchers present the highlights of their studies. From these reviews, research papers are selected by the panel of evaluators which consists of the Regional Sectoral Experts’ Pool (RSEP) of the consortium, and the technical staff of DA-BAR and DENR-ERDB.

In previous years, farmer-scientists and members of the National Commodity R&D Teams were also invited as members of the panel of evaluators.

The selected papers are validated by the members of the Regional R&D Working Group for presentation in the annual regional symposium. This year, the symposium will be held in October.

The commodity reviews are hosted this year by UNP (for forestry, agroforestry, environment, and apiculture), ISPSC (for fisheries), PhilRice-Batac (for rice and rice-based farming system, and tobacco), MMSU (for legumes, ornamentals, medicinal plants, vegetables, bulb crops, and root crops), PSU (for fruit crops), DA-ILIARC (for other cereals, livestock, and forage), and DMMMSU (for sericulture).