AGRICULTURE Secretary William Dar and Central Luzon State University (CLSU) president Edgar Orden presided over the signing of the memorandum of agreement on the construction of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) Biotechnology Center over the weekend.
The facility will rise inside the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR)-National Freshwater Fisheries Technology Center (NFFTC) in the Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija.
The Fisheries Biotechnology Center (FBC) will be built on seven hectares of land covered by the CLSU Compound to be spearheaded by NFRDI, as it is the main research area of BFAR for the operation, maintenance, and implementation of projects and programs to be undertaken here to assist in development of scientific knowledge and technology to help fishermen and fishing.
So far, FBC is the third biotechnology center to be built in Muñoz along with the Livestock Biotechnology Center under the operation of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) and Crops Biotechnology Center operated by the Philippine Rice Research Institute.
According to Dar, the FBC will provide more opportunities to assist the fisheries sector through its research facilities.
He said biotechnology is of great help to address the problem of changing climate and to make the desired product designs to further increase the yield and income of fishermen.
“These three centers will not compete with each other. There will be co implementation and if we can’t yet cope separately with state-of-the-art equipment, we have to share facilities and equipment. That is the beauty especially if you are always in the ‘OneDA’ family framework,” he said.
CLSU president Edgar Orden said FBC will help further develop the skills of their researchers, especially the university because students can use it as a training ground so as to increase the quality of graduates and be competitive in finding a job.