Filipino graduate students were among the most visible presenters at the 11th University Consortium Graduate Forum in Selangor, Malaysia, where more than 50 officials and researchers gathered to explore how academic work can translate into food security solutions.
Held August 18 to 19 at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), the forum was organized by the UPM School of Graduate Studies. The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) serves as secretariat of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources or UC.
Themed “Building Research Capacity for Food Security: Innovating Solutions for Sustainable Systems,” it brought together 36 master’s and doctoral students from 13 UC member universities.
Laguna-based SEARCA Center Director Mercedita Sombilla urged young researchers to look beyond publications and leverage collaboration and emerging technologies for sustainability.
UPM Vice Chancellor Dató Prof. Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah, in his keynote “Giving Impact to Agriculture and Food Security: Transitive Journey from Postgraduates to Subject Matter Expert,” challenged them to view their studies as the start of a larger mission. “Your postgraduate degree is a vector. It’s not a static journey,” he said.
Across six parallel tracks — sustainable food security innovation, policy and governance, technology, interdisciplinary approaches, community action, and nutrition and food safety — students presented research on agriculture, food systems, public health, and community resilience. Filipino presenters anchored three tracks with work grounded in local realities.
Julius Pablico of Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) presented on the effects of brown seaweed meal on blood glucose, growth, meat quality, and intestinal health of Ross 308 broiler chickens, exploring seaweed as an alternative feed additive using a coastal resource abundant in the Philippines. Enrico Bargamento of Visayas State University (VSU) brought a social science lens with “Negotiating Modernization: Tenant Lived Experiences with Rice Farming Technologies in Rural Philippines,” documenting how access, land tenure, and local knowledge shape how tenant farmers experience new rice technologies.
Precious Joan Sibulburo of Central Luzon State University (CLSU) focused on community action with “Community-Based Solar-Powered Tower Gardening as a Pathway for Bridging Research and Action Toward Food Security,” a low-cost, off-grid vertical gardening model for limited land and water.
All three received Best Oral Presenter Awards, sharing the honor with two other researchers. Thabed Tholib Baladraf of IPB University, Indonesia, was awarded for “Leveraging Predictive-Prescriptive Technology for Sugarcane Supply Chain Optimization: A Machine Learning and Meta-Heuristic Approach Toward Sustainable Food Security,” which showed how AI models can optimize sugarcane logistics to cut losses.
Siti Nabilah Karim of UPM was awarded for “Comparative Evaluation of Traditional Beef Rendang Under Different Cooking Durations and Coconut Milk Formulations Using Food Metabolomics and Zebrafish Embryo Models,” combining metabolomics and zebrafish embryo assays to assess nutritional and safety profiles of traditional cooking methods.
Plenary sessions emphasized interdisciplinary cooperation. Assoc. Prof. Ahmad Faizal Abdull Razis, SEARCA Regional Professorial Chair Awardee for AY 2026-2027, discussed genomic tools for authenticating village chicken breeds through breed-specific biomarkers for sustainable poultry production. Participants also visited Farm Fresh and UPM’s Animal Anatomy Museum for experiential learning and networking.
UPM School of Graduate Studies Dean Prof. Zalilah Mohd Shariff said she hopes the forum leads to continued exchange and joint initiatives for regional food security. The annual graduate forum promotes transdisciplinary research and academic mobility, with SEARCA supporting partnership building across the region.