A total of 11 student projects have received financial support from the Department of Science and Technology’s  (DOST) Academe Technology-Based Enterprise Development (DATBED) program.

The DOST-Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI), which is implementing the program, said currently, there are 11 completed student projects benefitting from the program. 

"These beneficiaries have successfully implemented their ‘startups’ that promote sustainable farming, improved agricultural productivity, and resourceful agricultural innovations,” it said in a statement issued by DOST-Science and Technology Information Institute (STII).

Based on the statement,  the projects presented agricultural solutions on manufacturing organic fertilizers, producing mushrooms, processing of cacao to high value products, and reinventing indigenous agricultural materials.

It noted that the Production of Multi-Purpose Indigenous Electronic LED Lampshade by the Cagayan State University in Lasam is one of DATBED’s assisted projects.

Seeking to develop the students’  entrepreneurial competencies, the DATBED program supports income-generating projects that are not yet tested in the market but are seen to have high market potential and possess technical viability when commercialized.

“Through this program, we hope to shape the future entrepreneurs with their technology-based enterprises,” DOST Officer-in-Charge Atty. Marion Ivy D. Decena said in a statement.

The 11 agricultural enterprises by the students that got funding from DATBED are the following: Organic Fertilizer Manufacture and Marketing, Organic Banana Fruit Production, Production of Organic Vegetables using Vermicompost and Citronella in Coconut and Cacao Livestock Integrated Farming System, Mushroom Production, Coconut Flour and Virgin Coconut Oil Production, Feedlot Cattle Production and Marketing, Processing of Cacao into Tablea, Cocoa Nibs, Coconut Livestock Integrated Production, Production of Multi-Purpose Indigenous Electronic LED Lampshade, Technopreneurship through Production and Nursery Management of Disease-Free Banana Seedlings, and Manufacturing of Togue (Vigna radiate) Fresh Pancit. Most of these projects were from Cagayan Valley. 

“We have provided comprehensive support requirements to the students in materializing their projects through a form of financial assistance,” said Mylene A. Alano, DATBED program manager.

The DOST-TAPI said the program has two stages. Stage 1 supports income-generating projects that are not yet tested in the market,  while Stage II provides continued assistance to DATBED Stage I graduate-beneficiaries for the commercialization of their Stage I projects, it said.