THE Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) has inaugurated an upgraded Philippine Mungbean Center at the Isabela State University-San Mateo.
The facility is the country’s primary research hub for advancing the production of mungbean or munggo, value-adding, and technology commercialization.
It will tap Internet of Things (IoT) technology to collect data and provide analytics, helping farmers on soil management and crop protection from pests and diseases.
The center will also give farmers access to new, improved mungbean varieties that are resilient to changing climate patterns and resistant to pests and diseases.
Aside from cultivation, the center will research ways to turn mungbeans into other profitable products, such as ingredients for animal feed, organic fertilizers, and other processed agricultural byproducts. It will offer production and value-adding activities to farmers and other clients.
“It is interesting to note how this functional hub would create additional windows for increasing farmers’ income and opportunities,” said Program Monitoring, Evaluation, and Linkaging Assistant Head Julian Lapitan.
The upgrade was funded by the DA-BAR through its Research Facility Development Grant program, which aims to modernize research and development facilities to better serve the needs of agriculture and fisheries communities across the country.
Mungbean is among the DA’s priority crops for 2026. The Philippines produces 45,000 metric tons (MT) of mungbeans annually. The province of Isabela accounts for about one-third of total production, with the town of San Mateo known as the country’s munggo capital.
There is a local demand for munggo processing, particularly for hopia munggo, ready-to-eat munggo soup, and lumpiang togue, among others, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. previously said.
However, munggo imports at 50,000 MT annually exceed local production. The DA’s goal is to be mungbean self-reliant by 2027.
