VSU upgrades tissue culture lab to mass produce bamboo planting materials

The Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory (PTCL) of the VSU Department of Horticulture (DOH) is now upgraded with new equipment and laboratory glassware to produce selected bamboo planting materials and other horticultural crops.

With the rising demand for bamboo products such as using bamboo in making furniture in replace of non-renewable traditional timbers for construction and the lack of planting materials for extensive bamboo farming, VSU DOH through the financial support of the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCCAARD) renovated PTCL to accommodate more tissue cultured bamboo species in the laboratory. 

In a project entitled “Upgrading of the Horticulture Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory of VSU” led by Dr. Catherine C. Arradaza, associate professor of DOH, the proposal was "to improve the laboratory facility by extending the sterilization area, inoculation, and incubation rooms at the back of the building and buying more analytical analysis machine to determine the genetic stability of the cultures.”

Major issues of the laboratory before included the small space and little equipment and sharing of the facility between horticulture students and faculty in doing class, thesis, and dissertation experiments which resulted in a high risk of contamination of the bamboo cultures and a low number of planting materials produced.

Photo courtesy of Gabriel Cillado

“The improvement and upgrading of the laboratory facility is expected to help ease the mass propagation of bamboo cultures and cope with the demand for quality planting materials from stakeholders, farmers, and bamboo growers, and also to other important horticulture crops,” as suggested by Dr. Arradaza in the project proposal.

With the renovated laboratory, VSU will soon commercialize tissue culture bamboo species as part of its incoming generating project.

Last July 11, 2024, the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCCAARD) officials led by Executive Director Reynaldo Ebora, inaugurated and unveiled the PTCL marker signifying its role in capacitating research, instruction, and extension services of VSU, especially in the sectors of agriculture, aquatic, and natural resources.

In her welcome message, VSU President Prose Ivy G. Yepes shared that the partnership between VSU and DOST-PCAARRD extends beyond the realized infrastructure, but across the development of communities. 

PTCL is one of the completed PCAARRD-funded projects in the university following the "Enhancement of the VSU SemenLAB: Semen Laboratory Applications and BioTechnology" headed by Dr. Santiago T. Peña, Jr., the Vice President for Research, Extension, and Innovation and ViCARP Director.

PCCAARD allotted 4.7 million pesos to enhance the tissue culture lab.

[This article is in line with Sustainable Development Goals: 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 4 (Quality Education), 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 15 (Life on Land), and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).]

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