The students were accompanied by TUA Assistant Professors Nina Nocon-Shimoguchi (standing, 9th from right) and Shinichi Hangui (standing, 9th from left). Associate Professor Loida E. Mojica (standing, 7th from left) of the College of Economics and Management (CEM) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) served as the coordinator of the visit.
The delegation was the 28th batch of TUA bio-business students to visit SEARCA under the study tour program aimed to provide students with exposure in tropical agriculture and Philippine bio-business.
Dr. Mariliza V. Ticsay, Head of Knowledge Resources Unit (KRU) under SEARCA's Knowledge Management Department (KMD) (standing, 8th from left) and Ms. Carmen Nyhria G. Rogel, Program Specialist of the Research and Development Department (RDD) (standing, 7th from right), welcome the Japanese delegation and present SEARCA's activities and projects. Specifically, Dr. Ticsay introduced the Knowledge Center of Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Agriculture and Natural Resources (KC3) while Ms. Rogel provided an overview of the SEARCA-implemented Project on Value Chain Analysis of Carabao and Carabao-based Products in the Philippines.
A total of 577 students and 16 professors have visited SEARCA since the program's inception in 1999.