Project News

1. Monitoring survey and report writing

Each Task Force (TF) of the Project is now working on re-editing and proofreading to produce the final version of Annual Report of Monitoring Survey 2016/ 2017 whose draft version was submitted to the 2nd JCC meeting last June.

The Planning and Management TF began preparing questionnaire survey of YAU graduates' career paths and interview survey of the employers' perception of the YAU graduates who were employed by government agencies, private companies and others. The Education TF distributed questionnaires to the third-year students asking their motivation for the special research program (SRP) and the reason for selecting programs, and collected responses. In addition, it was decided that the result of the class-evaluation survey, which was conducted by Education TF as the monitoring survey by asking the students to evaluate the performance of classes provided in the previous semester, would be used as a reference material for the event of awarding "Best Lecture Subject" in YAU. The similar survey will be carried out in the second semester. The Research TF is in active preparation for holding the progress report meeting and the intermediate evaluation session to monitor the progress of each research group of the pilot research program. They are planned to be held in mid-October.

2. Implementation of Pilot Research

1) Research groups under the Pilot Research Program conducted fieldworks as follows.

• 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th August:
  RB03-1 group collected insects in 7 Townships in Nay Pyi Taw.
• 6th-8th, 11th-13th and 15th-17th August:
  RB01-1-1 group conducted field observation of the growing conditions of pulses and interviewed with farmers in Thonegwa Township in Yangon.
• 6th, 13th, 20th and 26th August:
  RB01-1-3 group collected information on farming practices of vegetables and the marketability in Pyinmana TS, Nay Pyi Taw.
• 8th August:
  RB01-1-2 group conducted surveys on farming practices and growth of wet rice in Phyinmana, Nay Pyi Taw.
• 19th -22nd August:
  CR-08 group visited DAR office in Nyaung Oo Township in Madalay to collect basic information of agricultural land use.
  23rd – 27th and 31st August – 2nd September:
  CR-08 group conducted interview surveys to farmers on agricultural land use in Bagan area in Nyaung Oo Township, Mandalay.

Interview to potato-growing farmer

Interview to the owner of agricultural materialｓ shop

Pin Laung Township on 5th August

2) Laboratory and in-farm experiments were also conducted as follows

• RA01-1-1(Plant Breeding, Physiology and Ecology group)
  About 100 cultivars transplanted in January, consisting of local varieties collected by the team, those provided by Seed Bank and breeding lines (F6) screened by the Dept. of Plant Breeding, were harvested at the experimental farm of YAU. The team almost completed the measurement of morphological and agricultural characters the varieties and they started to input data.
• RA01-1-2(Agronomy group)
  About 100 cultivars transplanted in January, consisting of local varieties collected by the team, those provided by Seed Bank and breeding lines (F6) screened by the Dept. of Plant Breeding, were harvested at the experimental farm of YAU. The team continues to measure their characters related to yield and dry-matter production.
• RA01-2 (Soil and Water Science group)
  Using the seeds of expectable varieties harvested and provided by RA01-1 group, RA01-2 began to grow them to screen tolerant varieties against drought and salinity.
• RA02-1(Plant Pathology group)
  Pathogens of rice blast and leaf blight collected in Zaya Thiri and Pyinmana were continuously cultured. The team began to cultivate 94 varieties of rice harvested by RA01-1 group to screen tolerant varieties.
• RA02-2 (Entomology and Zoology group)
  Using 93 varieties of rice harvested and provided by RA01-1, the team began to grow 93 varieties of rice in paddy field and pots to investigate tolerance against yellow stem borer.
• RA03-1 (Agricultural Economics group)
  The team is writing the paper based on the research results.
• RB01-2 (Soil and Water Science group)
  EC and density of soil samples collected from Phyinmana TS, Nay Pyi Taw have been measured. And the procurement of chemicals for analysis was done.
• RB02-1(Plant Pathology group)
  The group is studying the influence of nematodes on the growth of sesame and the density of cyst nematode in soils and roots of sesame by inoculating both sterilized and non-sterilized soils with cyst nematodes extracted from soil samples collected at sesame fields in Magway.
• RB-03-1(Entomology and Zoology group)
  Toward making a pest-warning model, the team continued to identify and count pests collected by the insect traps newly established in the NPT council and insect net.
• RC-01-1 (Agronomy group)
  Changes in the rate and vigorousness of germination, color and EC of collected sesame under storage have been continued to observe.
• RC-02-1 (Horticulture and Agricultural Bio-technology group)
  Changes in quality and physiological characteristics of mango fruits in the postharvest period have been continued to observe.
• RC-02-2 (Plant Pathology group)
  Cultivation of pathogens identified from mango samples are continued.
• RC-02-3 (Entomology and Zoology group)
  The group has continued the collection and identification of insects captured by the traps in Mya Nadi Mango Orhchard in Myittha TS, Mandalay.
• CR-03 (Agricultural Economics group)
  Writing the paper based on the results of research in Mandalay and Magway is ongoing.
• CR-04 (A Plant Breeding, Physiology and Ecology group)
  The group began to write a paper based on the results obtained from the fieldworks conducted in the deep-water-rice-growing area in Thanatpin TS, Bago, and set up an experiment to investigate the peculiar growth characteristics of the seedlings of deep-water rice.