I’m tempted to use superlatives, but
that is not necessary. I’d just like to
describe briefly what some UPLB scientists are doing silently which could
affect significantly our national policies regarding three important areas of
concern: one, increasing the shelf life of minimally processed fruits in the
supermarkets of this country; two, formulating
highly significant policies regarding our fresh water resources; and
three, deriving energy from our abundant biomass wastes.
Yesterday, the Evaluation and
Monitoring Committee of the Emerging Interdisciplinary Research Program of the
University of the Philippines System (EEMC), conducted its normal research site
visit to hear the presentations and progress reports of EIDR Research Grantees
at UPLB. Currently, the EEMC, chaird by
the Vice President for Academic Affairs of UP, is comprised of the following
Professor Emeriti: PE Cion Raymondo (UPLB), PE Mae Mendoza (UPLB), PE Ed
Salcedo (UPLB), and PE Lex Librero (UPOU), and Dr. Wilson Garcia, of UPD’s
National Institute of Physics. I
understand two more are joining the Committee soon. They are: PE Cleo Cervancia (UPLB), and PE
Flor Merca (UPLB). Except for Dr. Garcia,
we’re all retired, but as Professor Emeriti we’re called upon by the University
to undertake academic and intellectual activities for the institution. So, here’s a brief report on one of the
things we’ve been asked to do.
The first project that we visited was
the research project of Dr. Katherine Israel titled “1-Methylcyclopropene
(1-MCP) Applications to Prolong the Shelf Life of Minimally Processed Fruits
and Vegetables. Dr. Israel is a new PhD
graduate, and her study is a continuation of her PhD dissertation. I shall not go into description of the two
studies under this research project, but I wish to point our certain issues
that could be influenced by the results of this research project.
First, Dr. Israel and her team are
looking at the possibility of prolonging the shelf life of minimally processed
fruits and vegetables. “Minimally
processed” refers to fruits and vegies that are peeled and cut up, then
packaged to be sold in the supermarkets.
Recall the last time you were in the supermarket and you saw those
cut-up fruits being sold, ready to eat?
Well, if the preparer is not careful, these could be contaminated, and
frequently they are not consumed and are left for sale until they’re fully
rotten. In our supermarkets, we
frequently see rotting food items (quality control is probably the least of the
concerns of those responsible).
Well, to make a long story short, the
EEMC members asked plenty of questions that included concerns about microbial
contamination, what happens to rotting fruits being sold by side-walk vendors
if those are not ultimately bought, etc.
There are a lot of studies to do, but
perhaps an important result of this study is that the group of Dr. Israel would
try to formulate a set of policies that could be recommended for adoption by
the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the
supermarket system in the Philippines.
The second research activity is a
research program. This is a big undertaking. Titled “Toward Good Water Governance for
Development: A Multi-Case Analysis,” is headed by Dr. Agnes Rola as Program
Leader. The general objective of this
program is “to be able to formulate location- and culture-specific surface
water governance mechanisms that can minimize if not totally eradicate present
and future water conflicts.” The
coverage of the research are Laguna, Iloilo, and Benguet. They dropped Davao because of the research
expense it would have taken to include too many research sites. There are a lot of observations that the team
of Dr. Rola has taken note of, but one that Dr. Rola refers to as highly significant
is that there seems to be no water governance in the country to speak of. Agencies have different concerns and issue
policies that frequently are not in consonance with one another. This becomes particularly problematic when
one looks at the issues involving domestic and agricultural water usage. This
research is highly interdisciplinary and involves researchers from various
campuses of UP (UPLB, UP Visayas, and UP Baguio).
When completed, this research shall
have formulated the following: “a) characterization of water governance in
three types of communities (tribal, urbanizing, urban communities); b)
conducted an actor-based assessment of water governance at the local level
focusing on representative of the three types of communities; and c) developed
a platform for adaptive collaborative water governance specific to the
community type.” According to Dr. Rola,
what we can expect from this research program shall be a “model of good
governance that articulate the local aspirations but consistent with national
laws.”
The third research project that we
visited was Dr. Menandro Acda’s “Wood to Energy: Use of Fast-Growing Plantation
Tree Species as Fuel Pellets in the Philippines.”
In general, what Dr. Acda is trying to
fulfill here is to study technical, economic, and environmental feasibilities
of using woody biomass from fast-growing Philippine hardwoods and agro-industrial
residues to produce fuel pellets to generate energy for the Philippines.
This study is really a series of
studies and what we visited was simply the second phase of an otherwise lengthy
process. Previous to the current study,
Dr. Acda’s team tested the technical feasibility of their idea of producing
wood pellets from woody biomass. When
they established the technical feasibility, they proceeded to the current
study, which is generally to assess the economic viability of the technology
using specific raw materials available locally.
Upon completion of this study, Dr. Acda’s team shall proceed to study
the possibilities of up-scaling the wood pellet production so that they could
produce materials to be used in the massive generation of energy.
The Emerging Interdisciplinary
Research (EIDR) Program of the University of the Philippines is implemented by
the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. This Program was approved by the UP Board of
Regents in its 1272nd meeting on 25 August 2011. It has a funding of P80M/year for five
years. Lest we make a mistake in saying
that “so this is the only research fund of UP?” it should be made clear that
this program is really a variation of the previous research program implemented
by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Under the tenure of the next President of UP,
there certainly would be another variation which shall be provided with
appropriate funds, perhaps depending on the priorities set by the President of
the university.
###
