Aggie R&D community pays tribute to Madamba

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna — The country’s agriculture research and development (R&D) community paid yesterday its last respects to a research administrator who had played a key role in the restructuring and strengthening of the country’s agricultural research system.

The final tribute was held for Dr. Joseph Madamba at the St. Therese Parish Church adjacent to the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus in this internationally known university town.

After the Mass and program extolling Madamba, his cremated remains were interred in the church’s Garden of Peace.

Other institutions and organizations, including the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice), earlier held their respective necrological services in memory of the departed research administrator.

Madamba died of a heart failure in his residence at the Pleasant Village here last April 3. He was 68.

He was the founding director general of the Philippine Councilor for Agricultural Research, now the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

PCARRD, established on Nov. 10, 1992, is the government body that coordinates, evaluates and monitors agriculture, forestry and natural resources researches conducted by government R&D and academic institutions that comprise the national agriculture and resources’ R&D network.

Over the past three decades, the country’s research system has evolved into one of the most viable and effective systems in Southeast Asia, with some countries adopting it as a model in restructuring their own.

Madamba served as an associate professor and director for business affairs of the UPLB, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (major in Animal Science) in 1954.

At the time of his death, he was a consultant of PhilRice and the Philippine Carabao Center, an agency under the Department of Agriculture.