THE MARIANO Marcos State University has joined the international telecommunication network project organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Russia that aims to bolster agriculture in communities.

Dubbed as ASEAN-Russia, the 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,” MMSU said.

“The sessions will later on be packaged into manuals and films to be used in cascading innovations to their respective stakeholders,” it added.

Other members of the network are the Moscow State University, Udanaya University in Indonesia, Savannakhet University in Laos, Vietnam National University of Forestry in Hanoi, Vietnam and the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand.

The 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.

Professor Charles Batin of MMSU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Sustainable Development said that the project is a product of the university’s long-time partnership with the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry and Vietnam National University.

“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 said.

“Based on the data we collected, we are now set to identify the wastewater treatments for Paoay Lake,” he added.

The MMSU team is composed of students Julius Pablico, Amabel Achuela, Karen Joy Bonuen, Justine Rose Teneza, and Jacob Altair Agtarap.

The team will collaborate with other participating universities as part of MMSU’s internationalization program.