.::. BAR Chronicle .::. A monthly publication of the Bureau of Agricultural Research

Vol. 4 No. 14
Dec. 1-31, 2003
This year's PANTAS awardee
by Virginia A. Duldulao & Rita T. dela Cruz

Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) Director William C. Medrano received the 2003 Pantas Award for Outstanding Research Administrator. The awarding was held on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), which is also the main organizer of this annually held awarding ceremony.

Started in 1976, the Pantas Award is given to deserving and highly competent Filipinos who contributed significantly to the advancement of the country’s agriculture, forestry, and natural resources R&D.

Pantas is a sage. He is profoundly wise with genuine warmth and humility propagating knowledge so the place we live in becomes better.

To be given the Pantas award for Outstanding Research Administrator is not only an acknowledgment of Dr. William C. Medrano’s sterling characteristics and capability in the field of research management but also his characteristics as a person- profoundly wise, warm, and humble like the sage that his award represents.

As director of the Cagayan Valley Agriculture and Resources Research and Development (CVARRD) Consortium, vice president for research, development, and extension of the Isabela State University (ISU) and now as director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), Willy (to friends and colleagues) continuously manifests intelligence, dedication, creativity, perseverance, and resourcefulness.

As research administrator in the three positions he was assigned, he provided leadership as he coordinated efforts of different institutions for them to work as one. He established linkages, obtained support from various sectors and generated resources to augment those provided by government. As a result of Dr. Medrano’s excellent management, the institutions he served were able to accomplish significant outputs of far-reaching impact not only on individual beneficiaries but also on the communities, especially those in Region 2. It is also worthy to mention that the consortium where he was the director won the UGNAY Award four times, only one award away from the Hall of Fame.

Among the significant outputs, many were already utilized while some are ready for commercialization—the end goals of any R&D effort. Peanut, being one of the most important commodities in Region 2, has the most technologies developed and knowledge products generated. Under Dr. Medrano’s leadership, the first peanut variety (CV Pn 1) that yields 8.82 percent higher than the national check variety was developed.

His group has established an integrated nutrient management for peanut, developed a low-cost seed storage technology, a peanut grader and de-coater, peanut processing technologies that were introduced at the village level as a rural enterprise for women, and rice-peanut supplementary food recipes that mothers can easily prepare for their families. Moreover, important data and information were generated that can now be used as bases for decisions and policies for the peanut industry.

Region 2 benefits a lot from the technologies developed for forest trees and bamboo such as the clonal propagation of superior planting stocks of forest trees, rapid propagation of superior sapling of Philippine teak, commercial propagation of banana plantlets through tissue culture in13 barangays, propagation of bamboo using the one-node culm cutting of giant bamboo, and using biofertilizer for the propagation of tissue-cultured bamboo.

For livestock, Dr. Medrano and his researchers were able to upgrade Philippine native sheep by crossbreeding it with purebreds Katahdin and St. Croix. They did the same for native chicken using New Hampshire and the result are hens that lay 20-24 eggs compared to native chickens that lay 10-12 eggs. For the livestock and poultry raisers, they promoted the use of enzymes and beneficial/effective microorganisms to improve the productivity of their animals. The users of these enzymes and microorganisms include 57 swine raisers, 2 poultry raisers, 2 contract growers and one organic fertilizer producer. They determined the best feeds for caracalves and found that rice straw treated with 1 percent urea and molasses performed better by 38 percent. They are also now promoting the use to tamarind seed extract to deworm sheeps.

Other significant outputs from the agencies that Dr. Medrano managed include those on mungbean, forage production, development of stoves using agricultural and forest wastes as fuel, improvement of the BAI biogas system, a versatile hand tractor mounted with a seeder/fertilizer applicator, and a vegetable and fruit dryer. They are producing and distributing tricho cards in the municipalities of Cagayan and Isabela. They have made estimates of soil erosion on rangelands and came up with guidelines on hybrid rice postharvest. Above all, they installed a Community Audio Tower to assist them in technology transfer.

A research administrator is a wise resource generator because money is always a scarce commodity. For the past five years (1997 –2001), Dr. Medrano was able to source out P51, 082,662.00 from foreign sources and P82, 506,725.00 from local sources.

By itself, an institution cannot accomplish much so there has to be linkages with other institutions but the leader must have the initiative, credibility, dynamism, and charisma to gain the trust and confidence of the sponsoring agencies. Dr. Medrano has these characteristics so he was able to forge linkages with about 43 institutions for the past five years, three foreign and the rest are in the country. These linkages with corresponding memoranda of agreement or understanding were on R&D, capability building, institutional development, community development, infrastructure, training, education, and technology commercialization. Four were already completed and the rest are ongoing.

One mark of a good research administrator is his ability to innovate and introduce systems and policy initiatives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of his organization. Dr. Medrano keeps in touch with his staff, from the highest down to the lowest, and continuously discus with them the goals and targets of the organization; listens to their views and opinions regarding policy issues and concerns and devises ways to compensate overtime rendered even using his own resources.

Dr. Medrano considers his staff as the most important resource of the organization and as such they must improve their capability by going to degree or non-degree programs. As of CY 2000, 4 had completed their MS degrees and 21 ongoing; 4 completed PhD and 28 ongoing with a total of 49 ongoing and 8 finished. For CY 2001, there were 58 ongoing and 12 finished their MS degrees, 53 ongoing for PhD and 24 had completed with a total of 135. These scholars are from the member agencies of CVARRD. A total of 844 went for non-degree trainings on various topics and disciplines.

The development of their clients was in the form of workshops, conferences, and trainings. For the past five years, the total number trained is 12,385. These are students, farmers, researchers and research managers, LGU and NGO staff, university faculty, cooperatives, extension workers, private sector representatives, seed growers, entrepreneurs, livestock and poultry raisers, foresters, fisherfolk, housewives, youths, and PNP officers.

One factor that must have contributed to his success is, he is never detached from his people. He works and easily mixes with them. He looks at the person he is interacting with as if he is all that matters. And when he smiles, that is all that is needed to warm the heart.