President Chin-Lung Chang of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) and Mads Talaue, who is both deputy mayor of Santo Tomas City, Isabela Province, the Philippines and CEO of Magnus Corporation, signed a letter of intent for strategic cooperation in the First Meeting Room at NPUST on June 8th, 2023. Academic-industry cooperation and talent cultivation will be carried out under the agreement, as the parties work to promote technological development and innovation in the field of agricultural. The initial stages of the project will focus on the transfer of agricultural methods and technologies for rice production. In future, they will work to expand the joint activities to the entire province of Isabela by cooperating with local agriculture groups.
NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang delivered a speech, saying “the intensive probiotic rice cultivation method developed by NPUST’s International Service Center for Irrigation R&D is a friendly-farming approach that can effectively reduce carbon emissions. The quality of the rice grown through our technique has been praised domestically by the Moss Burger restaurant chain and large-scale supermarkets, which have signed raw materials contracts with our school for commercial products. The agreement we are establishing today is expected to promote our technology internationally. In the future, technology transfers will be carried out with hopes of assisting local people [in the Philippines], by introducing them to enhanced probiotic rice cultivation. In this way, farmers can increase output, reduce resource consumption, maintain soil quality and, more importantly, contribute to carbon reduction.”
Deputy-Mayor and CEO Mads Talaue said, “by collaborating with NPUST on the probiotic rice farming methods they developed, I firmly believe that we will be able to greatly improve upon the agricultural mechanisms and strategies used in the Philippines, thereby achieving better yields with each harvest and increasing the income of local farmers. We also plan to turn Santo Tomas into a rice production demonstration site and then spread this technology to other cities, provinces and agricultural regions.”
Santo Tomas, Isabela is located on the northern end of Luzon Island in the Philippines. It is a land of plenty and can be said to be the granary of the Philippines. Now, by cooperating with NPUST, individual farmers and the overall agricultural industry in the area will be able to enjoy better economic development through the use of improved practices.
