DR. RAMON C. BARBA, 3RD UMALI AWARDEE FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
- Monday, 21 November 2011
- Written by Calamba Super Administrator
LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, November 14 -- Dr. Ramon C. Barba, the noted Filipino plant scientist from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) will be the third recipient of the Dioscoro L. Umali Achievement Award in Agricultural Development (Umali Award) to be presented during a program to be held at the Los Baños-based Philippine Government hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) here on Wednesday, November 23, 2011.
Seventy-two-year old Ramon Barba will be recognized because of his important and exceptional scientific contributions to Philippine agriculture. This includes the discovery of a flower induction technology that revolutionized the mango industry in the country. Barba’s use of potassium nitrate to motivate flowering is a landmark and is the chief stimulus to the expansion of local mango production.
Dr. Barba is known to perceive simple solutions to complex problem and produce results with minimum resources. His research on induced mango flowering was a private initiative that had cost less than P500 to complete.
Other achievements of Dr. Ramon C. Barba include banana micropropagation, sugarcane tissue culture, and tissue culture of calamansi, and all have left an impact on the abribusiness potentials of these commodities in the world market. He never enforced his patents on his discoveries, so that it could be used freely by everyone.
The Umali Award is a collaboration among SEARCA, the National Academy of Science and Technology, and the Dioscoro l. Umali Foundation. It comes with a cash award of US$10,000.---Leah Lyn Domingo ( LLD/ ACO, PIA-Laguna)
photo: searca.org
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 06:08