SEARCA News

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) hosted an online seminar on 13 October 2020 to promote the enhancement of calamansi products and enterprise development in Oriental Mindoro. With the theme “Waste Utilization and Product Development Opportunities in Calamansi”, the seminar aimed to enable the participants to have a good grasp of the calamansi processing industry and the opportunities and challenges it presents and to recommend interventions and strategies for potential calamansi products and enterprises. Dr. Pedcris M. Orencio, SEARCA’s Program Head for Research and Thought Leadership welcomed the participants, which included farmer-leaders, processors… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on actions for the benefit of rural fisherfolk and smallholder farmers in the region. SEARCA Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio and NACA Director General Dr. Jie Huang inked the accord in an online ceremony on 7 October 2020 with witnesses from both intergovernmental centers. Dr. Gregorio said “SEARCA and NACA share the mandate for rural and smallholder farmers development, with NACA concentrating on aquaculture as a major sector of agriculture. Such partnerships… Read more

Writing a competitive research proposal requires an understanding of the writing techniques, tools, and skills to articulate scientific ideas and concepts into a clear and concise proposal while bearing in mind how the proposals are going to be evaluated. In this light, a virtual training-workshop using the SEARCA Online Learning and Virtual Engagement (SOLVE) platform held on 14 October 2020 titled “Higher Education Institutions’ Training-Workshop on Research Project Development for Agriculture 4.0” was organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in collaboration with Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Philippines. The training-workshop aimed… Read more

As agricultural research on omics as an emerging field of scientific technology that involves the study of molecular interactions found in living organisms becomes important especially during the pandemic, Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), discussed the importance of integrating omics in crop breeding program up to commercialization in the Mindanao-Wide Webinar on Omics Research, Moving Past Pandemics: Omics in Agriculture on 9 October 2020 held via Zoom. The webinar series organized by the Philippine Genome Center Mindanao kicked off with a discussion of omics research in… Read more

The Provincial Government of Laguna (PGL) and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for institutional cooperation on 15 October 2020 at the Provincial Capitol Extension in Calamba City, Laguna, Philippines. Under the MOU, SEARCA and PGL committed to partner on a number of programs and projects, including joint capacity building activities and exchange scientific materials, publications, and information. SEARCA Director Glenn B. Gregorio emphasized that SEARCA puts premium in establishing “a better, bigger, and smarter academe-industry-government relationship in line with its 11th Five-Year Plan (2020-2025)” and that… Read more

Continuing its commitment in improving access to unbiased science-based information, SEARCA teamed up with the United States Embassy Manila and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) for the virtual Webinar on the Global State of Animal Biotechnology and the Need for National Policy Support held on October 6 and 8, 2020. The activity was also organized in collaboration with the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS), and the Committee on Science and Technology of the Philippine House of Representatives.      Developed for members of Congress and the Judiciary, the webinars served as an… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA, Philippines - The ASEAN Climate Leadership Program (ACLP) commences with its first module on 6 October 2020 via online mode. The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and  the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH under the Climate-Smart Land Use (CSLU) Project in ASEAN financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)  jointly organized this online leadership program. With the theme “The Role of Land Management for Food Security and Climate Change,”  the ACLP aims to strengthen (informal) key leadership skills in initiating and facilitating change processes… Read more

Institutional and thought leaders will convene in a Stakeholders Forum organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) to strategize together for a transformative agricultural and rural development (ARD) in Southeast Asia in the new normal brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. To be held virtually on 28 October 2020, the forum will discuss the status of ARD in Southeast Asia by showcasing and highlighting strategic lessons from institutional experiences, both in the science and practice of ARD in the region, in the past five years. Dr. Paul Teng of Nanyang Technological University… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) unveiled on 14 October 2020 its Emerging Innovation for Growth Program powered by the SEARCA innovEIGhts model of open collaboration for academe-industry-government partnerships. During the virtual launch event livestreamed by Facebook and Zoom, SEARCA Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio said “the current situation has given us more opportunity to highlight the importance of agriculture. Moreover, technology and innovation, especially digitalization in agriculture, is more than ever crucial in the time of COVID-19.” He noted the challenging task of ushering our farmers from obsolete ways of farming, limited… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines – The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) is unveiling its new program Emerging Innovation for Growth, supported by the “SEARCA innovEIGhts” model of open collaboration with academe-industry-government partnerships. Dr. Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA Director, in his invitation letter to potential institutional collaborators, said that the Emerging Innovation for Growth Program, powered by SEARCA innovEIGhts Model, will be launched through the SEARCA Online Learning and Virtual Engagement (SOLVE) platform on 14 October 2020 in a public event titled “Launching ATTAIN AGRi 4.0.” “The Emerging Innovation for Growth is our flagship program in… Read more