This year’s Dr. Elvira O. Tan Awards honor three papers on agriculture, aquatic, and natural resources.
The award pays tribute to Filipino scientists and researchers for their exceptional publication of research and development (R&D) results, which support PCAARRD’s mission to advance the country’s national economic and food security.
For the agriculture category, Dr. Rosemarie dR. Josue of the Mindanao State University-Maguindanao was awarded the outstanding published paper.
Her paper titled, “Mass rearing and dispersal of biological control agents (BCAs) as interventions in Coconut Scale Insect (CSI) calamity areas in Basilan, Philippines” focuses on the development and transfer of mass-rearing and dispersal technology of biological control agents to address the CSI infestation among coconut plantations/farms in calamity areas in Basilan, Philippines.
The said technology has been transferred directly to 1,160 farmers through capability building activities and farmers’ involvement in actual field applications. It helped farmers to recover from the massive losses due to CSI infestation.
Meanwhile, for the aquatic category, Drs. Ronaldo V. Pakingking, Jr., Evelyn Grace de Jesus-Ayson, Ofelia Reyes, and Norwell Brian Bautista of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) were awarded the outstanding published paper in the aquatic science category.
The paper was titled, “Immunization regimen in Asian sea bass (Lates calcifer) broodfish: A practical strategy to control vertical transmission of nervous necrosis virus during seed production.”
The study provided results that clearly illustrate that annual immunization regimen with the inactivated NNV vaccine is an efficient method of sustaining NNV-specific-free sea bass broodfish reared in land-based tanks. It is also proven efficient in circumventing the risk of vertical transmission of NNV from asymptotic broodfish to their offspring under stress of repetitive spawning.
Lastly, for the natural resources and environment category, Drs. Jose Alan A. Castillo, Armando A. Apan, Tek N. Maraseni, and Severino G. Salmo III of the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-ERDB) were awarded the outstanding published paper in natural resources.
Their paper, “Estimation and mapping of above-ground biomass of mangrove forests and their replacement land uses in the Philippines using Sentinel Imagery” provided results that showed Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel 2 multispectral imagery can provide satisfactory results in the retrieval and predictive mapping of the above-ground biomass of mangroves and the replacement of non-forest land uses.
The awards were given during the S&T Awards and Recognition Ceremony held in commemoration of the 8th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD). The event was held at the Philippine International Convention Center, Pasay City.