Rooster yearender: DOST; Pinoy entrepreneurs tap homegrown technology

MANILA, Philippines — Slowly but steadily, locally developed technologies and equipment are capturing the interest of Filipino entrepreneurs.

Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said 2017 was a banner year for the department as technologies and new products developed by local scientists and researchers were adopted for commercialization or used by small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“For the year, we held five (technology transfer) days in different regions, and out of those, we were able to close something like 148 direct licensing deals,” Dela Peña told The STAR.

The agreements, he explained, involved local manufacturers licensing mostly food manufacturing equipment that were designed and developed by the DOST’s Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) such as vacuum fryers, water retort machines, freeze dryers and spray dryers.

Dela Peña said the economic activity stimulated by the food processing of homegrown fruits and vegetables using the locally made equipment was a big contributor to productivity and generating employment in the countryside or “inclusive growth.”

“When the SMEs go into food processing, they drive up the demand for the fruit and vegetable produce of our farmers, driving up the price so our farmers earn more from their produce. These SMEs, in turn, are able to sell their new innovative and delicious products easily so they become more productive and profitable, so they are able to expand and hire more people,” Dela Peña said.

“Remember, these SMEs are all in the regions so we are able to deliver on the marching order of the President (Duterte) to bring development and growth in the regions,” Dela Peña said.

The DOST has distributed a set of these food processing equipment to Food Innovation Centers it has set up in selected state universities and colleges (SUCs) as well as private higher educational institutions (HEIs) where research and development are successfully being pursued to come up with new innovative food products from fruits and vegetables found abundant in a particular region.

An example of this is the development of powdered coconut water by University of the Philippines-Mindanao researchers who did their R&D at the Food Innovation and Processing Center set up at the Philippine Women’s College-Davao City.

Breakthroughs

Meanwhile, a recent breakthrough product of the DOST-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute – a plant growth promoter (PGP) made from irradiated carrageenan – has also become a “bestseller” among local agricultural manufacturers who want to license the technology and market it to rice farmers.

Carrageenan is an indigestible polysaccharide (a carbohydrate like starch, cellulose or glycogen whose molecules consist of a number of sugar molecules bonded together), which, when subjected to modified irradiation technology, can be an effective growth regulator.

Dela Peña said the PGP is also “a very hot item” in their technology transfer days.

He said tests have shown that application of the carrageenan PGP on a crop of rice resulted in an average increase of 23 percent in palay yield.

The technology transfer of the carragennan PGP, Dela Peña pointed out, did not only benefit the local agricultural companies that licensed the formula and distributed it, but also the country as a whole with the higher rice yield.

The DOST likewise achieved a breakthrough in the Electric Road Train (ERT) technology developed by their Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC) after initially suffering a setback.

After the Cebu City government first sought to try out the ERT as a possible mass transport solution to its traffic problems, the test run in the city was scrapped after major thoroughfares were found to be too narrow, and the motorists less than enthusiastic about the experiment.

Luckily for the MIRDC, the city government of General Santos through Councilor Dominador Lagare Jr. cleared the way for full blown, daily test runs of the 40-meter long, five-car ERT on major thoroughfares of the city, which will also serve the area’s thriving fish port starting this January.

Another hot product that has come out from local R&D is the Isabela State University’s development of a canning technology for kambing or goat meat dishes.

The DOST chief said the successful R&D of the ISU team led by one of its professors, Jonathan Nayga, discovered a processing technology for packaging goat meat dishes such as pinapaitan, sinampalukan, kilawin, kaldereta and adobo, and which had been supported by the department.

Dela Peña said any effort at full commercialization of this technology will also get  financial support of the DOST.

He said the licensing of the technology benefitted the DOST as well as its scientists and researchers whose developed technologies earn them royalties, however modest.

The DOST chief said these developments show that there are also financial rewards to be reaped in science and technology and encourage young people to pursue such career path.

He noted it is also the DOST’s mandate to develop a critical mass of Filipino engineers, scientists, researchers and technologists to serve as the country’s brain trust needed to  attain sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

The DOST always cites a UNESCO study, which states that for a country to attain sustainable economic development, it should have 380 scientists and engineers per million population.