UPLB and DA celebrate 30 years of partnership
- Written by Lawrence Garcia
- Published in News
© OVCRE/Lawrence N. Garcia
UPLB officials, headed by Chancellor Fernando C. Sanchez, Jr., welcomed representatives from the Department of the Agriculture and several LGUs to the UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding on 7 March 2017 for the UPLB-DA Partnership Visit in commemoration of 30 years of continued cooperation between UPLB and DA.
The event, themed “Strengthening 30 Years of Partnership Towards a Sustainable Philippine Agriculture” featured a showcase of initiatives, achievements, and collaborations of UPLB and DA.
Dr. Rex B. Demafelis, Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension, presented the different programs that UPLB is currently working on to achieve the Chancellor’s vision of becoming a globally competitive graduate and research university contributing to national development.
He emphasized the importance of projects like Edible Landscaping and the Dairy Breed Development Program for food security.
Project SARAI under the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM), which sends weather advisories to farmer stakeholders to empower them with information to make informed decisions, in addition to the Carrageenan Technology for Rice of the National Crop Protection Center which increases crop resistance against the Rice Tungro Virus among others, help farmers improve their yields.
Also showcased is the UPLB Nanotech Program’s Fruitect initiative uses nanotechnology to coat and delay the ripening of fruits such as mangoes to improve our mango exports. Microbial bio-fertilizers developed by the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology were also featured.
Moreover, a site visit tour of various UPLB research centers including the Institute of Plant Breeding, the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH), the Center for Agri-Fisheries and Biosystems Mechanization (BIOMECH), Agricultural Machinery Testing and Evaluation Center (AMTEC), Dairy Training and Research Institute (DTRI), and the National Crop Protection Center (NCPC) to showcase UPLB’s products, technologies, and services were also conducted.
