The Northern Philippines Root Crops Research and Training Center won the Lingkod Bayan Award 2007 (group category) besting 25 semi-finalists for its research, "Development of Potato and Sweet Potato Varieties for the Cordillera."

     This was announced personally by CSC chairman Karina Constantino-David during the flag ceremony last Sept. 17 adding that the Presidential or Lingkod Bayan Award is one of the highest type of award in the country. She also encouraged the university to keep on submitting nominations for different awards in the future.

     The BSU team members led by Ines C. Gonzales are Donita K. Simongo, Cyntia G. Kiswa, Teresita D. Masangcay, Fernando S. Balog-as, Arthur T. Botangen, and Esther T. Botangen. The team also won 100,000 php aside from the award.

     The varieties developed in their research are the sweet potato varieties Bengueta and Haponita. Haponita is known to be high yielding and has high anthocyanin content that gives it a good processing quality. Anthocyanin are pigments also present in grapes and are responsible for the color of red wines which are clinically proven to be good for the heart. They also developed the potato varieties Igorota, Solibao, and Gangza known to be resistant to late-blight disease; they also have good processing quality and are high yielding. Igorota and Solibao took more or less 8 years to be developed. These varieties are already registered at the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC).