THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture granted the Central Luzon State University a P304.5 million grant for the implementation of four projects.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar and CLSU President Edgar Orden signed a memorandum of agreement last week under which the university will get funding for four projects— the Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases, Precision and Digital Agriculture Center, Organic Vegetable Production Technologies Using Vertical Farming System, and Seed and Seedling Production for Vegetables and Fruits.

Dar, in his keynote speech, lauded the CLSU for being one of the top universities in agriculture and in veterinary science and medicine.

He challenged the scientists and researchers to generate technologies for the betterment of the agriculture and fisheries sectors.

“If you do your best in terms of the objectives and targets under the memorandum of agreement, then there will be more resources to come,” he said.

The Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases will serve as the lead agency for risk analysis, investigation, diagnosis, mapping, and emergency management of Transboundary Animal Diseases such as African Swine Fever, Newcastle Disease, and Avian Flu.

The Precision and Digital Agriculture Center, on the other hand, will address the challenge of increasing the productivity and sustainability of the agriculture sector by generating Precision/SMART platforms through the conduct of research and development focusing on integrating remote data acquisition and wireless and sensor technologies on plant-soil-water-climate relation, aquaculture, livestock and poultry management, invasive species detection and management, natural resources management, and mapping and forecasting.

Orden thanked the DA and its attached agencies for the project grant.

Members of the CLSU Board of Regents, some key officials of the DA, and representatives of the Bureau of Agricultural Research, Bureau of Animal Industry, National Meat Inspection Service, Philippine Rice Research Institute, Philippine Carabao Center and National Food Authority witnessed the signing of the agreement.