22 November 2016 — Mr. Ian Marc Cabugsa, Lecturer and QA Laboratories Chair at the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU), called on Philippine Consul General Gina A. Jamoralin at the Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu on November 17.

Mr. Cabugsa, who teaches General Chemistry in ADDU and an analyst for the university’s Chemistry Analytical Laboratory (CARL) is undertaking research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on the activation of cacao rhizospheres by chelation.

This research is part of the Fellowship granted to him by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) Scholarship: the 2016 Cocoa Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Program (Cocoa Borlaug Fellowship).

He arrived in the United States in September 2016, and has since visited cacao companies such as Hershey’s, Mars and Camden International Commodities, and presented his research at the USDA headquarters and attended the World Food Prize.

According to Mr. Borlaug, his research study was particularly focused on cacao production especially since his hometown city of Davao is the primary source of cacao in the Philippines.

His study included analyzing soil chemistry and water, and measuring the impacts of contaminated soils on cacao growth to increase its production and hasten its growth and to create a coastal management resource for local government use.

Consul General Jamoralin commended Mr. Cabugsa for his research and expressed hope that his study will pave way for innovations in agricultural science and the cacao industry in the Philippines.

She also enlisted his assistance in creating linkages between the University of Hawaii, ADDU and the Philippine Government through the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute and the Department of Agriculture to facilitate transfer of technology in cacao production from Hawaii to the Philippines, and also to possibly forge joint ventures among these institutions. END