What do climate change models, microbial inoculants, feed supplements, and drought-tolerant varieties have in common? They all reigned supreme at “Innovations” – the PCAARRD-hosted seminar for recently graduated scholars.
Aiming to increase awareness of the Council’s Industry Strategic S&T Plans (ISP), “Innovations” was primarily conceived to provide a venue for graduates to present part of their graduate research work to specific audiences.
Further, attendees witnessing the paper presentations will develop a better understanding on the how-to’s of technical paper writing and presentation.
Finally, Innovations aims to facilitate the dissemination and use of the scholars’ research results for policy and decision-making as well as to identify follow through R&D activities.
With funds administered by PCAARRD, the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource and Development Program (ASTHRDP) of the Department of Science and Technology Science Education Institute (DOST SEI) supported the 17 graduated scholars who presented papers at the seminar.
Papers were grouped into three clusters: environmental science, crop science, and livestock with six papers presented in each cluster.
Papers were selected based on three criteria: (1) topic’s alignment with the commodity foci of the ISPs, (2) thesis/dissertation grade not lower than 1.25, and (3) author’s submission of a publishable paper excerpted from his/her thesis.
Emerging as the best technical paper in environmental science was “Assessing potential impact of changing climate on corn productivity in the
Philippines”.
In this paper, Arnold R. Salvacion of the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) explored the possible effects of projected climate change on corn productivity in the Philippines.
Using four climate change scenarios for three time periods (2020, 2050, and 2080), Salvacion showed that the extent of the impact depends on the location and cropping season.
Across different climate change scenarios and time periods, he showed that the wet season cropping would be the most negatively affected by climate change. He also predicted that yields would decrease during the wet season through all time periods.
Edwin R. Abucay, also of UPLB, won the best technical paper presentation for his paper “Modeling the spatial distribution of rainfall-induced landslide susceptibilities in Infanta, Quezon, Philippines”.
Abucay showed that Barangay Magsaysay in Infanta, Quezon is susceptible to landslides mainly because of the properties of its soil and because more than 50% of its forest cover has been replaced by annual crops.
Aside from soil properties and vegetation, the area’s susceptibility to landslides is also a function of slope and land use. Abucay then developed a Landslide Susceptibility Index (LSI) model using Geographic Information System (GIS). The model can be used to classify sites according to their susceptibility to landslides from stable to highly susceptible at different levels of rainfall (rainfall thresholds).
The crop science cluster named Maria Alma S. Sanchez of UPLB as the winner in the best technical paper category for her paper on ‟Genetic variability and interrelationships among traits for drought tolerance in white maize (Zea mays L.)”.
Sanchez stressed the difficulty of breeding for yield when yield is depressed by drought. Thus, she aimed to identify traits that are correlated to yield and that can be used to evaluate corn varieties under drought conditions.
Sanchez noted that for self-pollinated families (S1), good performers in normal conditions will be good performers in drought conditions. For families with the same two parents (full-sib families), breeders would have to carry out a complicated drought stress trial in order to distinguish which among the families are drought-tolerant.
On the other hand, Dr. Pet Roey L. Pascual of the Cebu Technological University delivered the best technical paper presentation on “Microbial inoculants and organic amendments in radish production”. He described the effects of composts in combination with different fermented activators and effective microorganisms (EM).
Pascual found that radish plants that received compost, produced longer and larger roots than both the control treatments (no fertilizer or 14-14-14). Furthermore, the formulated compost and commercial EM combination increased yield by 21─39 times over the controls.
For the livestock cluster, Ronilo O. De Castro of the Livestock Research Division of PCAARRD won as best presenter for his work on the “Effect of supplementing high aflatoxin diets (HAD) with toxin binder (TB) of herbal liver conditioner (HLC)
alone or in combination on the performance of broilers”.
De Castro sought to counteract aflatoxin poisoning in poultry by supplementing their feed with a commercial TB, HLC or a combination of both. He showed that under the limitations of his study, TB was most effective in counteracting the adverse effect of HADs on the performance and profitability of broilers.
On the other hand, Dr. Robert C. Agatep of the Laguna State Polytechnic University in Siniloan, won the best paper for “Microsatellite-based genetic diversity and relationship analysis of three genetic groups of domesticated Mallard ducks (Anasplatyrhinchos domesticus L.) in the Philippines”.
The lack of quality breeders in the local duck industry spurred Agatep to examine the genetic differences among the Philippine Mallard, Khaki Campbell, and Pekin ducks. Specifically, he found that the Philippine Mallard and Khaki Campbell are more closely related to each other than either is to the Pekin. This and other related data will determine which genetic resources should be used in designing and carrying out a sustainable breeding program in the country.
Dr. Ofelia K. Bautista, adjunct professor of UPLB and lead evaluator for the best technical paper, praised PCAARRD for pioneering the recognition of graduate work and for supporting the publication of such work in refereed and ISI-listed journals.
In explaining the criteria for selection, she pointed to the factors that make for world-class publications and expressed her hope that the Council would continue to support similar endeavors as well as fund the publications and the training of young researchers in writing journal articles.
For his part, PCAARRD Executive Director Patricio S. Faylon expressed pride in the accomplishments of the scholars and called them the upcoming leaders in S&T in the country.
He also committed to providing a publication incentive of P50,000 to those scholars who can publish in refereed and/or in ISI-listed journals. This publication, he said, would be a valuable contribution to S&T development in the country.
Dr. Elaine F. Lanting, director of the Council’s Institution Development Division, led the conduct of Innovations and closed the seminar by handing out cash awards to the various winners.
Best paper winners received P10,000 while best presenters got P5,000.