The Jackfruit Project headed by Dr. Wolfreda T. Alesna, as Project Leader, facilitated the training on Cleft Grafting and Nursery Management on March 24, 2015 at the Abuyog Experimental Station (AES) in Abuyog, Leyte.

Participants of the training were 19 jackfruit farmers and 8 agricultural technicians (ATs) from Bontoc, Sogod and Maasin City, Southern Leyte.

The training was conducted upon the request of the farmers during the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) conducted by the project leader and co-project leader, Dr. Editha G. Cagasan.  The farmers said that during the lecture-demonstration conducted in a classroom situation in 2014 was “not enough” to make them learn cleft-grafting and nursery management.  That is why the project leader and the co-project leader decided to arrange with AES of the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office No. 8 to conduct another training at the AES-Abuyog.

They were taught the process of generating quality jackfruit seedlings—from the production of the rootstocks, to the culturing of the scions, and to the actual cleft-grafting exercises—where the scion is united with the rootstock. The jackfruit variety used was the highly recommended EVIARC Sweet which is now in demand in the market.  Each participant had the chance to experience cleft-grafting.

When asked what new knowledge did they learn from the training, the majority of the participants said that “the culturing of the scion” is really new to them because this was not clearly explained in past trainings they have attended. They thought that all they need to do is cut the selected twig and join it to the prepared rootstock and that’s it.

The training participants were thankful of Ms. Alicia Bulawan, the resource person, who painstakingly explained and demonstrated to the participants the whole process with the assistance of some AES personnel.

The training was made possible through the support of Jackfruit Project 6 – Design and Implementation of Communication Interventions for the Promotion of Jackfruit Technologies in Eastern Visayas which is funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), one of the councils of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).  WTAlesna

The 11^th National Congress for Veterinary Medicine Students (NCVMS) with the theme “Veterinary Students: Excellence and Camaraderie Gearing towards ASEAN Economic Integration” was recently held at the University of Southern Mindanao, Kabacan, North Cotabato.

The congress was participated in by eight veterinary colleges from all over the Philippines and only the Visayas State University delegates represented the Visayas. The six VSU delegates who took the challenge to march forward to venture beyond their comfort zones were: Dr. Melvin A. Bagot as the coach-adviser of the group, along with Mr. Carl Leonard Pradera (DVM-5), Ms. Nannette Joy Bercades (DVM-4), Mr. Edu Gelo Orig (DVM-4), Mr. Steven Tan (DVM-4), and Mr. Perkin Charles Ong (DVM-3).

The three-day congress kicked-off with a parade. The first day was filled with seminars about Asian integration and animal welfare, updates about swine breeding, nutrigenomics, understanding diversity, and scientific research presentations. The seminar-series imparted new knowledge on the advancement and updates of the current trend of the veterinary medicine field. The teambuilding activity followed which was geared towards building strong bonds among the participants and foster camaraderie.

The second day assessed the skills of the students in terms of communicating their thoughts through the different literary and academic quiz contests. Mr. Steven Tan placed 1^st Runner Up in the extemporaneous speaking contest; Mr. Carl Leonard Pradera was the 1^st Runner Up for the essay writing contest; Mr. Edu Gelo Orig came in 2^nd Runner Up for the poster-making contest; and the VSU Team composed of Mr. Pradera, Ms. Nannette Joy Bercades, and Mr. Perkin Charles Ong finished 5^th place in the national academic quiz contest.

Also, as part of cultural integration, the congress visited the Institute of Middle East and Asian Studies, which was a school and at the same time a mosque.

 The last day was aimed to promote community awareness and extension via the Anti-Rabies Vaccination drive held at Barangay Osias, Kabacan, North Cotabato.  In the said activity, application of the basic knowledge and principles were tested. It also taught the students how to be flexible and innovative in any situations.

During the congress, new officers were elected of whom Ms. Nannette Joy Bercades became the new Vice President for the Visayas of the National Executive Council.

The Congress was a wonderful experience for students to learn beyond the four corners of the classroom. Melvin A. Bagot/CVM

The Visayas State University (VSU), through the University Student Services Office, recently released the official results of the VSU Entrance Scholarship Exam Passers for the First Semester of School Year 2015-2016.  Among the 1,289 fourth year high school students from the different high schools in Leyte, Southern Leyte, Bohol and Cebu provinces, 10 of them qualified as Entrance Full Scholars while the top 5 places in the Entrance Partial Scholars automatically become waitlisted Entrance Full Scholars in case some of them will not enroll or opted not to enjoy the Full Scholarship at VSU. 

On the other hand, 37 qualified as Entrance Partial Scholars while 13 were waitlisted for Entrance Partial Scholars. All the scholars will enjoy the following privileges:  free tuition fee, book allowance of PhP200 per semester, and a monthly stipend of PhP1,000 for Full Scholars and PhP600 for Partial Scholars.  The new freshmen may process their enrollment on May 4, 2015.

            Below is the list of the VSU Entrance Scholarship Passers, First Semester, SY 2015-2016:

In observance of the Fire Prevention Month, the Visayas State University, thru the Security Services Office and in coordination with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Baybay City, conducted a Fire Prevention Seminar and Training on Mass Casualty Incident Response on March 26-27, 2015 at the VSU Garden Beach Resort Function Hall.  Participated in by 35 VSU staff and market stall owners, the two-day activity aims to provide leading practices and resources to assist the University in developing emergency plans for preventing, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from mass casualty incidents.

The BFP personnel discussed the following topics: Senior Fire Officer II Helcon Arnulfo I. Dela Torre – Overview of Crisis and Emergency Management Plan, Incident Command System, Tasking, Mass Casualty Incident, and Mass Casualty Incident Simulation; Fire Officer III Peter Galenzoga – First Aid; Fire Officer I Arjean Padayao – Bandaging and Splitting, and Earthquake Drill Procedure; Fire Officer II Marvin Matalines – Proper Carry; and Fire Officer I Dairyl Denosta – Triage. SMCLemos

Dr. Lucia M. Borines, professor of VSU’s Department of Pest Management (DPM), was awarded the John Dillon Fellow for 2015.  The fellowship is usually awarded to research collaborators of the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). Dr. Borines is the lone fellow from the Philippines among nine others from countries such as China (1), Bangladesh (1), Laos (1), Vietnam (2), Indonesia (2), Papua New Guinea (1) and Samoa (1). She underwent a series of trainings and traveled to different cities and states in Australia from February 15 to March 27, 2015.

The first was a “Research Communication Training” conducted on February 17-20 at Novotel, St. Gilda in Melbourne, Victoria. The training introduced her to the science of research communication such as writing a publishable scientific article, avoidance of plagiarism, how to get research papers to be published, how to respond to reviewers and editors, and other related things. It was conducted by two prominent Australians technical and social scientists, Dr. Margaret Cargill and Dr. Kate Cadman.

The second training was on “The New Leaders Development Program” held on February 23-27 at Mt. Eliza Executive Education, which is part of the Melbourne Business School of the University of Melbourne in Victoria. The training is all about how to become a good leader by first knowing about oneself, learning style, personality type, weaknesses and strengths how to overcome weaknesses to become a good leader, knowing the other people’s personalities, improving communication, problem solving, conflict management, understanding team culture and how to work in a team and lead a team, how to work in your organization and lead an organization. It was conducted by Dr. Edmund King and Dr. Abi O’neill.

The third was an “Agricultural Research Management Workshop” conducted on March 10-13 at the ACIAR office in Canberra, Australia’s Capital City. It was conducted by Dr. Robyn McConchie and Dr. Emma Walters of the University of Sydney.  This training included topics on developing a fundable research proposal, effective research leadership, motivation and teambuilding, management of human resources and finances, acquiring information from databases, managing information and databases, how to develop successful research partnerships, fostering linkages, etc. In Canberra, the fellows were given the chance to visit the Parliament House and were able to attend a parliament hearing with the prime minister and other politicians in Australia. In the same day, the fellows were awarded with their John Dillon certificates by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop herself at the Parliament House. The group also had a chance to visit the John Dillon family (3 generations).

Aside from those trainings, half of the fellows, including Dr. Borines, were given a chance to visit different research stations within Australia, such as the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAF) in different states in Western Australia to learn about their researches, organizational structure, see their laboratory facilities, equipment, visit their experimental trials such as the apple and other stone fruit breeding farms, the grains industry in Australia, animal industry, and many others.  The participants also attended to some seminars at the University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, and the University of Sydney that were incorporated in the fellowship.

During the last nine days, the fellows went separate ways to meet with their collaborators in different parts of Australia. Dr. Borines went to Sydney and met with former jackfruit research collaborators, Dr. David Guest and Dr. Rosalie Daniel, who led her to visit the Plant Pathology Diagnostic Laboratory at the Sydney Botanical Garden. The current ACIAR-ICM project leader, Dr. Gordon Rogers, also brought her to the Sydney markets to see various kinds of vegetables and fruits from different areas in Australia for delivery to department stores and other market outlets. 

Dr. Borines also traveled to Yanco Agricultural Institute in Narrandera, Australia, the station where another ACIAR-ICM project leader, Dr. Sandra MacDougall, is connected.  Narandera is a typical Australian outback where hundreds of huge irrigated farmlands planted to grapes,  rice, melons, oranges, canola, wheat, cotton and other crops are located. In that place, Dr. Borines was able to experience the site of kangaroos really in the wild.  During the last two days in Australia, she traveled back to Sydney and had short hands-on laboratory training on RNA extraction and RT-PCR analysis for the detection of plant viruses at the Elizabeth MacArthur Agricultural Research Institute in Cambden Valley in New South Wales before her return flight to the Philippines.

A total of 114 fourth year high school students of the VSU Laboratory High School (VSULHS) were conferred graduates in the secondary level curriculum by the VSU President Jose L. Bacusmo during the 85^th VSU Laboratory High School Commencement Exercises in the afternoon of April 7, 2015 at the VSU Gymnatorium.  Miss Thich Eloise P. Paris, Class Valedictorian, led the last batch of high school graduates who were not affected with the implementation of the K-12 curriculum in receiving their diplomas. The certificates were distributed by Dr. Edgardo E. Tulin, VP for Instruction, for and on behalf of VSU President Bacusmo.

Dr. Victor B. Asio, Professor VI of Soil Science & Geo-ecology and VP for Planning, Resource Generation and External Affairs of VSU, delivered a SEARCA Professorial Chair Lecture entitled “Biophysical Characteristics and Sustainable Management of Marginal Uplands in the Philippines” on March 27, 2015 at the PhilRootcrops Training Hall.

Dr. Asio mentioned that marginal uplands are widespread in Southeast Asia and other parts of the humid tropics in which most of the resource-poor farmers in the developing world dwell on these risk-prone marginal environments.  Specifically, he revealed that the poorest, most vulnerable and most food insecure households in the Philippines are living and farming on marginal uplands because they [tribal communities] have been forced by more powerful groups to retreat from one site to another which resulted to losing control on their ancestral homelands.  Asio also quoted the Asia Forestry Network findings that poor families continue to migrate to the uplands due to failure of government policies and programs to effectively address unemployment and inequitable land and income distribution in the lowlands.

The SEARCA Regional Professorial Chair also said that, until now, there is no exact and standard definition of what marginal uplands is.  However, Dr. Asio defined uplands as the undulating and steep lands that range in elevation from near sea level to about 1,000m elevation.  It gave him the idea to postulate that marginal uplands are those undulating, hilly or steep mountainous lands having very low crop productivity due to poor soil quality, limited water availability, and unfavorable socio-economic conditions which is synonymous to “degraded uplands”.

Dr. Asio elaborated the biophysical characteristics of marginal uplands which are affected by climate, geology and geomorphology, vegetation, and soil constraints.  He pointed out that aside from being common on the humid tropics, undulating and mountainous topography, marginal uplands are also underlain by various geological materials and with low biodiversity.  “The soils are infertile due to one or more soil constraints to crop production caused by deforestation, shifting cultivation, and destructive land use which enhanced soil erosion,” Dr. Asio averred.  He also mentioned the various physical and chemical constraints which contributed to marginal soil infertility, such as: acid or alkaline pH, low organic matter content and low nutrient status, high electrical conductivity, shallow solum, compaction, low rate of water infiltration, low water holding capacity, and unfavorable slopes.

Finally, in addressing the above problems, Dr. Asio identified some sustainable management strategies that would somehow resolve the issues depending on soil characteristics, cropping systems, and socio-economic factors.  Among these are:  agroforestry, SALT agroforestry, integrated nutrient management for crop production, and rainforestation farming.

Dr. Asio has been conferred the SEARCA Regional Professorial Chair in 2014, together with other four awardees from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (3) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (1), for his outstanding contribution to agricultural research and development as academician in Southeast Asia who has championed inclusive and sustainable agriculture and rural development through his instruction, research, and extension activities in the country and in the region.  JFMBaldos