Barragán graduated in 2018 and, throughout his university career at UTEQ, he was an outstanding student, which allowed him to achieve the highest average of his class.

In 2017, during the preparation of his thesis "Relationship between water and morphological parameters and yield of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) as a selection criterion for tolerance to water deficit", a delegation from MARS "La Chola" visited UTEQ to learn about the cocoa research work led by the university and its thesis students. This approach allowed Luigy to be considered for a selection process within MARS, later becoming one of its collaborators.

Barragán is now a successful professional who contributes his knowledge to MARS, and as a researcher he was part of "Make the difference" a programme that celebrates the best of business, participating among 1500 applicants from all over Latin America, from which only 36 projects qualified for the regional final, in which the commercial, environmental and social impact was evaluated. The winner was the project "SMART nutrition program in Cacao Crop" led by Luigy Barragán and Carmen Gutiérrez.

The result of this project is: 11% increase in production, fertiliser savings of up to 40%, 19% reduction in CO2 and NO3 emissions from fertilisers. Winning this competition will allow them to represent MARS at the Latam "GLOBAL FINAL MTD" next October in Washington.