UP Mindanao’s NutriGIDA multidisciplinary research team reported that context-specific strategies are necessary for a comprehensive, long-term program for reducing malnutrition among Filipino children. Some of these strategies for context-specific adoption may include, but are not limited to, improving maternal health, education, and nutrition awareness, along with implementing school feeding programs, regular health checks, and ensuring access to clean water.
These findings were among the accomplishments of the NutriGIDA research program in its Year 1, as presented by Project Leader, Prof. Pedro Alviola IV of the School of Management (SOM), in a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Meeting held in UP Mindanao on September 1, 2025, with the funding agency team led by Ms. Marianne Joy Laya of the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD).
The M&E Meeting was part of DOST-PCHRD’s annual field visits to discuss target project accomplishments by the end of the year, projected budget utilization, and preparations for Year 2 renewal of NutriGIDA, or “Assessment of Nutrition and Development of Appropriate Food Product Intervention among Children in Flood-prone and Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas in Davao de Oro, Philippines.”
In the area of local government collaboration, NutriGIDA created linkages with nutrition officers of municipalities in Davao de Oro Province. In academic research, UP Mindanao students and fellow faculty members were trained through the project, and a research linkage was forged with Davao de Oro State College.
The project is now poised to develop nutritious emergency food products through UP Mindanao’s Department of Food Science and Chemistry (DFSC), as part of DOST’s Health-Nutrition & Food Safety priority area.
Towards this direction, the NutriGIDA team will hold a willingness-to-pay workshop on October 1-2, 2025, where consumer-focused econometric valuation methods will be applied to non-hypothetical food products (actual goods), for which DFSC’s expertise is key.
The research team will present these and other findings at the upcoming International Conference on Agricultural Economics and Development (ICAED 2025) to be held on September 10-11, 2025, in Davao City.
The top photo shows meeting participants (left-right) a/Prof. Jon Marx Sarmiento, Research Assistant (RA) Maria Angela Salazar, a/Prof. Imee Marie Acopiado, Prof. Juma Novie Alviola, Instructor Francis Levi Durano, Ms. Catherine Catoera of RHRDC-XI, Prof. Pedro Alviola VI, DOST-PCHRD’s Senior Science Research Specialist Marianne Joy Laya, Project Manager
Christel Leo Romano, Project Manager Raizsa Sharmi E. Buan, a/Prof. Shemiah Gail Placencia, RA Melissa Loquias, a/Prof. Roxanne Aguinaldo, and RA Christine Magadan.