Researchers from the National Crop Protection Center (NCPC), Mr. Eric Jhon D. Cruz, university researcher and Mr. John Julius P. Manuben, university research associate , were among the winners of an international online contest about sustainable crop protection.

The 14^th IUPAC International Congress on Crop Protection Chemistry conducted a contest to select participants for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Next Generation Agri Summit, a capacity building program for future crop protection leaders. From more than 500 applicants worldwide, the entries of Cruz and Manuben were selected. They attended the full Next Gen Program and the Main Congress (partly) with full sponsorship last May 19-24, 2019 at Ghent, Belgium.

Cruz’s research idea is titled “PestiSorb: remediation of pesticide rinsate using activated carbon derived from agricultural wastes” while Manuben proposed a research titled “Developing a controlled-release pesticide formulation from coconut waste.”

The Next Gen Program covered topics on sustainable crop protection, building networking skills, social media training, self-discovery through personal branding and behavioral analysis, entrepreneurship, pitching and presentation skills. The participants also attended parallel sessions and debates at the IUPAC Congress and joined laboratory and field visits.

From the selected ideas, 8 judges selected the five most outstanding and innovative ideas. The proponents of these ideas were declared as the Next Generation Agricultural Innovator (NGAGE) Champions and will be given €5000.00 each as seed funding to implement their submitted idea. They will also receive one-year worth of online training and mentoring. Cruz was chosen as one of the five NGAGE Champions. He also pitched his idea in one of the sessions of the IUPAC Congress.

As part of the Next Gen Program, the participants also developed a group project (except the NGAGE Champions) in line with the topic Educating the Future Generation on Crop Protection. The groups presented their proposed project to the Dragon’s Den, a group consisting of 4 judges. From the presentation, Manuben’s team – TNT (Youth for Today and Tomorrow) and team REdY (Researchers Educating the Youth) were declared winners and received €500 to implement their projects within a month.

The Agri-Summit was conducted to empower young scientists to explore innovative ideas to promote sustainable crop protection, provide youth with the tools to build and engage in impactful projects, and foster dialogue between youth and world-renowned speakers, academia, experts from the industry, policymakers and many others attending the IUPAC Conference. (ED Cruz, RG dela Cruz)