SEARCA in the News

“Breastfeeding is essentially the first food of the human body,” said Dr. Maria Asuncion Silvestre, president of Kalusugan ng Mag-Ina, Inc. (KMI).  She said those words during the online forum which revisited current health systems through first-hand accounts of experts and grassroots community workers on pediatric education, re-lactation, and optimal infant feeding practices. According to Dr. Silvestre, breastfeeding is not just about the product that is the mother’s milk, but also the process wherein the mother serves as the primary food producer. She pointed out that the first food for the first 1,000 days of an infant starts in utero… Read more

A roundtable discussion shone a spotlight on breastfeeding as the first food system and the importance of the mother’s milk as the first food of newborn humans. Jointly organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and LATCH Los Baños (LATCH LB) and supported by Kalusugan ng Mag-Ina, Inc. (KMI) and Arugaan, the online forum revisited current health systems through first-hand accounts of experts and grassroots community workers on pediatric education, re-lactation, and optimal infant feeding practices. Breastfeeding is not just about the product that is the mother’s milk, but also the process… Read more

Competing for $20,000 grants, young Filipino researchers joined their contemporaries from Indonesia and Vietnam in a recent mentorship workshop that helped them improve their proficiency in crafting research proposals. According to Dr. Glenn Gregorio, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) director, the mentorship workshop was convened by SEARCA in partnership with the Sweden-based International Foundation for Science (IFS). 'With the long view of improving the quality and effectiveness of research in agriculture and food systems, the workshop is an integral part of the IFS-SEARCA Mentorship Program for Advance Grants for individual and collaborative research… Read more

LEADING up to the landmark United Nations Food Systems Summit in September this year, the Southeast Asian Regional Center on Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and Singapore-based CropLife Asia (CLA) convened a virtual dialogue on "Transforming Pathways: Working with Farmers in the Agri-food Systems." According to SEARCA and CLA, to transform food systems, farmers need access to appropriate, affordable, profit-enhancing technologies and sustainable crop systems that do not result in ecological degradation or social conditions. Dr. Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA director, said the dialogue discussed the use of digital technologies in producing safe and nutritious food and developing policies… Read more

THE Community-based Participatory Action Research (CPAR), which is funded by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), bared recently some of its success stories highlighting stakeholder engagement in Lamut, Ifugao; San Fernando, Camarines Sur; and San Luis, Batangas. These stories were shared in a recent forum jointly organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and DA-BAR. SEARCA was commissioned by DA-BAR to conduct the project “Building Up from the Gains: Lessons from and Improvements for Effective Implementation of the CPAR Program.” DA-BAR has supported CPAR as one of its banner programs… Read more

A ROUNDTABLE discussion shone a spotlight on breastfeeding as the first food system and the importance of the mother’s milk as the first food of newborn humans. Jointly organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and LATCH Los Baños (LATCH LB) and supported by Kalusugan ng Mag-Ina, Inc. (KMI) and Arugaan, the online forum revisited current health systems through first-hand accounts of experts and grassroots community workers on pediatric education, re-lactation, and optimal infant feeding practices. Breastfeeding is not just about the product that is the mother’s milk, but also the process… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna --Transforming rice farms to be more resilient to climate change needs more science and technology enabling “transfarm” to produce climate change-ready crop varieties as well as quality seeds, mechanization and digitalized farming, nutritional revolution in farming through smart fertilization, and water-saving technologies such as drip irrigation. This was the gist of the message of Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) at the first of three webinars in a series dubbed “Pagtugon sa mga Hamon sa Pagbabago sa Klima” organized by the National Academy of… Read more

Farmer-leaders from the Philippines joined other countries in an international dialogue where they urged countries to transform food systems by giving farmers access to affordable and sustainable technologies.The Southeast Asian Regional Center on Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and Singapore-based CropLife Asia (CLA) recently convened a virtual independent dialogue on “Transforming Pathways: Working with Farmers in the Agri-food Systems”. With a view to enhancing farmers’ collaboration with academe, industry, and government (AIG) towards transformed food systems, more than 30 farmer-leaders from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam participated in the three-hour dialogue. The dialogue was conducted in the… Read more

In the process of transforming food systems, smallholder farmers need access to appropriate, affordable, profit-enhancing technologies and crop systems that are sustainable and do not cause ecological degradation or social conditions. The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and Singapore-based CropLife Asia (CLA) thus convened a virtual independent dialogue on "Transforming Pathways: Working with Farmers in the Agri-food Systems" in the lead up to the landmark United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) in September 2021. The dialogue discussed using digital technologies in producing safe and nutritious food for all and developing policies that promote… Read more

A TECHNO-demo-learning farm established under a Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) project has been turned over to Mindoro State University (MinSU) in Victoria, Oriental Mindoro. The ceremonial turnover of the "Upgrading the Calamansi Value Chain towards Improving the Calamansi Industry of Oriental Mindoro" project to showcase good agricultural practices (GAP) was held part virtually and part on site. Presiding were Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA director, and Levy Arago Jr., MinSU president. "SEARCA put up the techno-demo-learning farm at the MinSU campus with technical assistance from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, a partner… Read more