Staff reporter
BATAC CITY—Following the investiture of Dr. Shirley Agrupis, seventh president of state-run Mariano Marcos State University here, she enjoined local government units in Ilocos Norte to strengthen partnership with the university to promote inclusive growth.
Backed by Ilocos Norte Governor Ma. Imelda Josefa “Imee” Marcos, the One Town, One Technology (OTOTech) project of MMSU primarily aims to sustain food production and development in the countryside.
“After getting the support of the governor, MMSU is setting a milestone for MMSU and the Ilocos Norte government to hit the landmark of pursuing development efforts in the countryside,” said Ms. Agrupis.
OTOTech is one of the research initiatives of MMSU featuring product development, process, and services that aim to identify, develop, process, and eventually sustain the needs, interests, and concerns of the rural communities.
In this program, MMSU imparts the knowledge and techniques in entrepreneurship to the people to sustain their needs for entrepreneurial activities.
According to Ms. Agrupis the OTOTech was born to realign the specific needs, interests, and concerns of local communities.
Aside from the Ilocos Norte government as a new partner, OTOTech has already been a modality of partnership between the MMSU, the 18-member institutions of the Ilocos Agriculture, Aquatic and Resources Research and Development Consortium (ILAARRDEC), and the Ilocos Norte Science Community (INSC).
Ms. Agrupis explained that the OTOTech will address farmers’ traditional practices and other stakeholders.
“These will be combined with the new technologies we have developed to enhance their practices for improved food production,” she added.
To implement the OTOTech project, they will zone and cluster the 21 municipalities of Ilocos Norte in terms of their own traditional farming practices, then, the local government units (LGUs) will cooperate with MMSU and other concerned agencies for the application of new research interventions.
Earlier, the MMSU president met with the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Ilocos Norte Chapter to explain the concept and solicited their support.
For Batac City government administrator Windell Chua, he said he expects the research and development agenda of MMSU under the Agrupis administration to uplift the lives of the marginalized sector.
In Batac City, the MMSU and the city government has agreed to collaborate in various projects such as the development of the southern portion of Batac as a showcase of all researches and technologies developed to facilitate its knowledge transfer to people.
“We are just lucky that we have a university president who is also a researcher. She has several published researches ready for utilization, said Chua in an interview on Monday.
Some of the possible projects for collaboration with both public and private stakeholders include proper labeling and packaging of products, knowledge on soil management, revival of the provincial fishponds for inland fishery, rehabilitation of small water impounding projects (SWIP) and silted waterways, improvement of the loomweaving designs, invasion of water hyacinths, improvement of high value crops, and the production of new and off-season crops such as dragon fruit cactus, among others.
Ms. Agrupis reported there are at least listed concerns of LGUs. She assured that they will consolidate and address all these immediately through the present technologies of MMSU through the help of technical experts.
“MMSU will seek the help of other research networks in case that one of these issues cannot be addressed to by our technologies so that the value of partnership and cooperation can be harnessed,” she stressed.