By Daniel P. Tapaoan, Jr. 

The Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) is the only Philippine university that joined the international telecommunication network among the universities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Russia this year. 

Dubbed ASEAN-Russia project, this network serves as an avenue for the participating universities to analyze, adapt, and implement innovative agricultural technologies in their respective communities. 

Through the unified telecommunication platform, the member-universities will conduct teleconferences and training-seminars to discuss innovative technologies with specialists from scientific and business communities. The sessions will later on be packaged into manuals and films to be used in cascading innovations to their respective stakeholders. 

Prof. Charles B. Batin, MMSU coordinator from the College of Agriculture, Food and Sustainable Development (CAFSD), said that the project is a product of the University’s long-time partnership with the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF) and Vietnam National University in Vietnam. 

In sustaining the partnership, Batin said he regularly participates in the virtual meetings of the group leaders from member-universities every Friday. 

The MMSU team had already gathered preliminary data for their project that involves the Paoay Lake. “The team will identify its water body and gather secondary data related to soil, surrounding vegetations, water quality and resources,” Batin shared. 

Based on the data they collected, they are now set to identify the waste water treatments for Paoay Lake.

The MMSU team is composed of the following students: Mr. Julius Pablico (BS Agriculture), Ms. Amabel Achuela (BSA), Ms. Karen Joy Bonuen (BS Forestry), Ms. Justine Rose Teneza (BS Environmental Science), and Mr. Jacob Altair Agtarap (BS Chemical Engineering). 

Batin said the MMSU team was cited as the best presenter during the welcome meeting last February. He also assured that “we will do our best for the project and we will collaborate with other participating universities as part of our internationalization program.” 

Other members of the network are the Moscow State University (MSU) in Russia; Udanaya University (UNUD) in Bali, Indonesia; Savannakhet University (SKU) in Laos, Vietnam National University of Forestry (VNUF) in Hanoi, Vietnam; and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Proponents of the project are the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, while the MSU is the main proponent, along with the Vietnam National University of Science in Hanoi, Vietnam. (StratCom)