SEARCA News

SEARCA, Philippines – The SEARCA Seed Fund for Research and Training (SFRT) Program held its Mid-Term Forum via Zoom on 12 March 2021. The five grantees from the latest cycle and their research team members participated in the event. This current batch of SFRT grantees and their teams have been implementing their respective projects under extremely challenging circumstances. The pandemic has resulted to changes in plans, methodologies, timelines, among others, and the pace with which projects are being done. Though the grantees have mostly upheld their commitment to their contractual obligations as best they could, it was deemed necessary to… Read more

The SEARCA Regional Professorial Chair Grantees for AY 2020-2021 have been conducting their public lectures online since last year due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The grant was awarded on 04 May 2020 to six outstanding experts in the academe from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Kasetsart University (KU) in Thailand, Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) and Visayas State University (VSU) in the Philippines. UPM and KU are founding members of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) with SEARCA serving as Secretariat. VSU became an affiliate member of the UC this year together with… Read more

The Southeast Asian Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) have formalized their institutional cooperation to undertake joint programs and projects on areas of common interest and exchange knowledge resources. Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, SEARCA Director, and Dr. Tarifa Al Zaabi, ICBA Acting Director General, signed the memorandum of understanding between their institutions on 15 March 2021 in a virtual signing ceremony witnessed by key ICBA and SEARCA officials and staff. Dubai-based ICBA is a non-profit organization that works in over 30 countries to strengthen agricultural productivity in marginal and… Read more

The International Women’s Month pays attention to women whose stories may otherwise remain unheard. One such story is that of Mary Ann P. Bautista, or “Meann,” the lone lady driver at the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). Driving for the big boss Meann is a Marketing Management graduate of Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba. As a marketing practitioner, she had a small business while she worked as a driver for an international organization. She later became a full-time manager at a supermarket in Bay, Laguna, but her heart seemed to be… Read more

The European Commission's Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) finished its evaluation of the Joint Master of Science in Food Security and Climate Change (MS FSCC) program developed by the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC). The project, funded by the ERASMUS+ Capacity Building for Higher Education program from 2016-2019, is undergoing institution among partner universities despite the restrictions brought by the pandemic. EACEA noted that the project team “demonstrated to be committed in developing a new joint Master programme.” The evaluation also recognized that “the consortium has fulfilled its objectives and… Read more

On this day, 16 March, one year ago the Philippine government declared a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. That lockdown along with countless other lockdowns worldwide was the beginning of sweeping changes of life as we know it that came with such unprecedented restriction of movement. To the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), the lockdown started a shift to work-from-home arrangements, cancelled field visits and other official travels, and a collective effort to find new ways to continue delivering on our mandate and stay connected with our stakeholders. “Agriculture is very… Read more

Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), has been appointed as one of the new Champions of the United Nations (UN) Food Systems Summit 2021. According to the UN, “the Champions Network mobilizes a diverse range of people in every region of the world to call for fundamental transformation of the world’s food systems. Champions are leaders of institutions and networks advancing food systems transformation and thought leadership.” Dr. Gregorio said being a Food Systems Champion “aligns well with SEARCA’s mandate and its focus on accelerating transformation through… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, PHILIPPINES - The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) hosted an online training on “Identification of Insect Pests, Beneficial Insects, and Diseases of Calamansi, and their Management” via Zoom platform on 04 March 2021. The training aimed to help the farmers to identify the insect pests of calamansi and their associated natural enemies, diagnose the common diseases, and understand the different management strategies to control these. Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, SEARCA Director, welcomed the participants which included farmers, nursery operators, technical staff from the agriculture sector in Oriental Mindoro, and other key… Read more

Paving the way for a broad digital transformation of agriculture in Asia, SEARCA in partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat (ASEC) and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) held a Knowledge Sharing Workshop for the project on “Enhancing Food Supply Chain Resilience and Food Security in ASEAN with Utilization of Digital Technologies” via Zoom on 22 February 2021. More than a hundred delegates composed of government officials from the agriculture and trade ministries of ASEAN Member States (AMS) as well as representatives from the academe and private sector participated in the activity… Read more

Engr. Philip Donald C. Sanchez shared his Master’s thesis titled “Application of laser-based imaging technique in the quality evaluation of Malaysia sweet potato varieties during postharvest storage” during the Special Graduate Seminar on 05 March 2021.The seminar was organized by the Education and Collective Learning Department (ECLD) and hosted under the SEARCA Online Learning and Virtual Engagement (SOLVE) platform. Engr. Sanchez received his Master of Science in Agricultural Process Engineering (MSAPE) at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) through the UPM-SEARCA Joint Scholarship Program. Currently, he works at Caraga State University in Agusan Del Norte, Philippines as Chairperson of the Department of… Read more