Bayer Philippines Inc., a global life science company, is now a partner of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) for their Science Immersion Program (SIP) after signing a Memorandum of Agreement last June 22.
Bayer is opening the doors to its agricultural research and development centers in the Philippines as immersion sites for selected students to learn and gain hands-on experience on the science behind crop protection and plant breeding.
“The Philippine Science High School System is committed to providing Pisay students relevant learning opportunities to advance their scientific aptitude and interpersonal skills. Today we earned another collaborator to champion the worthy cause of science education,” said Lilia Habacon, PSHS director.
“I am thankful to Bayer Philippines for accommodating the PSHS System to the Science Immersion Program (SIP) for Grades 10-12 students.”
The Science Immersion Program is a required course where PSHS student-interns can learn science, engineering, and research laboratory skills and concepts; foster interaction with researchers, scientists, and technical personnel; be exposed to basic science or engineering principles applied in facility operations; identify possible research problems and establish linkages with institutions for collaboration.
“Bayer aspires for a world where there is ‘Health for all, Hunger for none’ – and science will help us get there. It’s in our purpose of ‘Science for a Better Life’ and it is integral to our Pharmaceutical, Consumer Health, and CropScience divisions,” said Bayer Philippines Inc. Managing Director Angel-Michael Evangelista.
“As a partner of the Philippine Science High School for their Science Immersion Program, we hope to help inspire our young scientists to take a deeper interest in agriculture, and to support science education in the country through hands-on activities in our research sites in Laguna and General Santos City.”
Selected students coming from different PSHS campuses across the country are slated to start their immersion with Bayer around August this year at the Agronomic Testing Center Southeast Asia (ATC-SEA) in Laguna, as well as Plant Breeding Station in General Santos City.
At the Bayer ATC-SEA site, PSHS students will gain a basic understanding of agriculture and crop protection research and gain hands-on experience in conducting laboratory and field bio-efficacy trials from insect rearing, field assessments, and analysis.
They will also be exposed to agriculture operations like seedling production, land preparation activities, crop maintenance, and safe use of crop protection products.
At the Bayer Seeds R&D Station in General Santos City, students will learn about plant breeding as both a science and a business. They will be familiarized with the activities of the Plant Pathology Lab, Seed Lab, and field and screen house nurseries.
They will participate in actual inoculum propagation, inoculation, rice emasculation, and hand pollination. They are expected to gain exposure to the end-to-end breeding process of rice and corn in an industry setting.
This includes the development of breeding populations, molecular breeding, testing and evaluation of lines and hybrids from early pipeline to the pre-commercial stage, as well as exposure to digitalization, mechanization, and automation of breeding operations.
Before the Science Immersion Program, Bayer scientists from India and the Philippines also conducted a plant breeding and biotechnology webinar across all PSHS campuses to share how Bayer DEKALB corn seeds from the lab to the farm have helped Filipino farmers increase their yield and improve their livelihood.
Aside from Bayer Philippines, other partners in the PSHS Science Immersion Program include private companies, government institutions, and universities.
For more information about Bayer in the Philippines and its solutions for agriculture, check out the Bayer CropScience Philippines website, visit their Facebook page at or subscribe to the Bayer AgricademyTV channel on YouTube.
