About 30 staff members from various regional line agencies, provincial local government units, and state universities and colleges (SUCs) successfully completed the three-day training on Basic Research Methods conducted by the Regional Research and Statistics Committee (RRSC) on 2-4 December 2014 at the NEDA-RDC2 Building.

“As public servants and mentors, we have a duty to help our region achieve that much desired development, and our contributions in research will be a significant tool in finding ways and means to fill the gaps with the best solutions and recommendations,” said RRSC Chair Dir. Urdujah A. Tejada and the Regional Director of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The training was composed of workshops and lectures that were delivered by Mr. Rodger M. Valientes and Mr. Jefferson A. Arapoc, both Assistant Professors at the College of Economics and Management (CEM) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

Prof. Valientes, who is currently the Chair of the Department of Economics at CEM, lectured on the basic concepts and theories of research, the research problem, and the parts of a research proposal. On the other hand, Prof. Arapoc dealt on topics such as the research design, data gathering procedures and research instrument, and sampling techniques and statistical analysis.

For the workshops, the participants were grouped into six and worked on drafting research proposals that could address a selected development issue or gap identified in the Cagayan Valley Regional Development Plan (RDP) for 2011-2016. These include proposals on (1) the impact of upland migration on the forest cover in Baggao, (2) the factors affecting the productivity of palay in Cagayan Province, (3) the prospects of agri-tourism industry in Cagayan, (4) modeling of a climate change-resilient agroforestry farming system, (5) the factors affecting corn productivity in Region 02, (6) the determinants of a diversified agriculture industry in Region 02, and (7) on the issues and problems on the implementation of the One Town One Product (OTOP) program in Region 02.

These research proposals will be included as inputs to the Regional Research and Development Agenda (RRDA) being developed by the RRSC Secretariat for 2015-2017. #