THE VISAYAS State University took home awards from the 23rd Biennial Conference and General Assembly of the Asian Association of Agricultural Colleges and Universities held in Maejo University in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The five-day conference tackled a series of research paper presentations in agriculture and development.

Dr. Justine Bennette Millado won the Best Poster Award for her presentation — which was part of her PhD research at Nagoya University — titled “Functional analysis of Bombyx mori homologs of P53 negative regulators, Bonus, Mdm2, Rad6, Sce, and Synoviolin.”

Meanwhile, Sweety Jane B. Ocoy, a VSU alumna from the Western Philippines University based in Palawan, and her adviser Dr. Beatriz S. Belonias also bagged the Best Poster Award for their paper entitled “Nitrogen and Phosphorous Resorption Efficiencies of Selected Dipterocarp Tree Species in two Forestation Sites in Leyte.”

“The study aimed to compare the nitrogen and phosphorus resorption efficiency of four dipterocarp species including hagakhak (Dipterocarpus validus), white lauan (Shorea contorta), bagtikan (Parashorea malaanonan), and yakal-saplungan (Hopea plagata) while also determine which nutrient is limiting based on such parameters,” VSU said.

Dr. Anabella B. Tulin, dean of VSU’s graduate school, bagged the Best Oral Presenter Award for her study on “Enhancing the Growth, Yield and Tuber Quality of Two Purple Sweetpotato through Macro and Micronutrient Biofortification.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Catherine Arradaza also received the Best Oral Presentation award for her paper “Development of Tissue Culture Techniques for Sustainable Production of Quality Planting Materials on Selected Bamboo Species.”