Pangasinan’s pride in Agricultural Research

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

DR. JOVITA M. Datuin of San Carlos City, 52, is probably one of the busiest bodies in the Department of Agriculture in the Ilocos nowadays, as she is the lead person in the agency’s efforts of pushing livestock production in the region, most especially goats.

Jovy, as she is more popularly known, has hardly enough time to sit down in her office, as she is out most of the most time conducting farmers’ field schools for livestock raisers as well as following up the implementation of in the project with municipal agriculture technologists in the four provinces of the Ilocos Region.

One project that she has been hell-bent in implementing after finishing the Doctor of Philosophy in animal science at the Central Luzon State University in 2004 is goat production. Together with her team from the DA Ilocos Integrated Agriculture Research Center [ILARC], which is headed by Edmund Quinit, she has established demonstration sites in Bani, Bugallon, Mangatarem and Alaminos City in Pangasinan, as well as Galimuyod and Vigan City in Ilocos Sur.

In launching the technology demonstration projects, Datuin and Quinit were hopeful that the technology backlog could be minimized through strengthened efforts of local government units and the active participation of small farmers. 

They knew for sure that improving the production system and creating awareness on the advantages of the new goat raising technology would pave the way towards a more vibrant goat industry.

Indeed, goat production is not very difficult to promote since “goats serve as security assets, providing emergency cash in times of need for household essentials, children’s education and farm expenses,” said Datuin.

She noted that one positive effect of the project is the elimination of the government’s dole out system, which was earlier advocated in the livestock dispersal scheme.  Instead, the  farmers were empowered  through capability building.

Despite her busy schedules, however, she always finds time to write her research and development papers that almost always win awards at the regional and national levels.  For instance, her paper on the goat project won the development paper award during a regional research and development symposium in the Ilocos in 2005.  The same paper was selected as the best development paper during the national symposium on agriculture research and development that year.

Before she pursued the Doctor of Philosophy in animal science at the Central Luzon State University [CLSU] in 1999, she was already more popularly known as the Mallard Duck Queen, as her studies on this kind of duck had already earned for her a number of awards.

Among them were three best papers during the national research symposium of the DA Bureau of Agricultural Research: Performance evaluation of Mallard ducks, commercial hybrid ducks, and F1 of commercial hybrids, 1993; Egg production performance of Mallard ducks raised under intensive and modified extensive management systems, 1996; and Shelf-life evaluation of salted eggs cured by different processing methods, 1997.

Earlier in 1990, her paper on the use of golden snail as feed for Mallard ducks garnered the third best paper [livestock, poultry and dairy category].

Her paper titled “Energy and protein requirements of growing and laying Philippine Mallard ducks” was also selected as the best development paper during a regional symposium and agriculture and resources research and development in 2003.

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