A FOURTH year BS Agriculture student delivered lectures in line with the current innovative agriculture system in the Philippines at the Gwanak Campus of the Seoul National University (SNU) in South Korea as part of a study tour on June 22-July 5.

Mitch Glydelle S. Cacatian talked about the current varietal improvement in rice, contour planting in corn, cloning and embryo transfer in buffalos, solar water pump, and the current trends in Philippine organic agriculture. Her audience was composed of 29 other students from Korea, India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, USA, and the Philippines, including some SNU professors.

Her lectures were the highlight of her participation in a study tour sponsored by the Asian Association of Agricultural Colleges and Universities (AAACU), a federation of 46 agricultural colleges and universities of 16 Asian countries with the main mission of improving world agricultural science by promoting cooperation, amity, and exchange between member-institutions.

The study tour was a two-week intellectually stimulating program for 15 students from member-institutions who had productive interactions with their 15 counterpart Korean students. It was designed to enable the students to understand Asian agriculture and culture through field trips to agriculture research institutions, lectures and discussions, and cultural experiences in Korea.

Cacatian was one the seven Filipino students from Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology, Southern Luzon State University, Laguna State Polytechnic University, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Romblon State University, and University of Southern Mindanao who joined the tour.

In her lecture, Cacatian presented the trends in the varietal improvement activities for rice in the country. She recommended three high yielding rice varieties recently developed by Filipino rice breeders and have been released by the National Seed Industry Council: Tubigan 23, Tubigan 25, and Japonica 3.

Given her knowledge in genetically modified organisms incorporated in some varieties of corn through genetic engineering, Cacatian urged her student counterparts to consider the Bt corn varieties developed in the Philippines and the drought-tolerant rice that have become a super-hit among farmers in the semi-

She also shared the current organic agriculture project of MMSU which promotes environmentally, socially, and economically sound production of food that excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers and pesticides.

Cacatian is the third agriculture student from MMSU who has participated in the AAACU study tour.  Alecsis Villarin, then a third year student, joined 13 other students from seven top universities throughout Asia in 2011 at the Universiti Putra Malaysia while Romeo H. Yapit Jr. participated in 2013 at the Universiti Putraya Malaysia.