SEARCA News

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Officials and representatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Bodies, the Embassy of Switzerland in Jakarta, ASEAN Member States (AMS) Leaders and Social Forestry Focal Points, development partners, academe and international research organizations, civil society organizations, and the ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC) partner organizations will gather for the ASFCC Closing Event at the ASEAN Headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia on 25-26 February 2020. The ASFCC, over 10 years of implementation which began in 2011, addressed the interlinked issues of food security, poverty, and climate change, particularly in forested landscapes in Southeast… Read more

Two SEARCA Professorial Chair grantees, Drs. Norhashila Hashim and Teti Estiasih, delivered their papers in separate lecture seminars. Dr. Norhashila Hashim of Universiti Putra Malaysia, presented her paper titled, “Laser-based Imaging for Fruit Quality Detection” during the FRUTIC Symposium on 4 September 2019 at Asia World Expo, Hongkong. She presented the fundamental theory behind the development of laser-based imaging system. As a conclusion in her paper, laser-based imaging technique can be potentially used for quality inspection and sorting/grading process of agricultural products. Likewise, Dr. Teti Estiasih, Professor at Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia, conducted her Professorial Chair Lecture titled, “Developing Local Underutilized… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) will be hosting the Youth, Agriculture, and the Environment Session of the 3rd Philippine Environment Summit on 26-28 February 2020 in Cagayan De Oro City, Philippines. The summit is co-organized by Green Convergence and the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Under the theme, "Paradigm (re)Shift: Heeding Nature," the three-day event will present programs and projects that advance the country's socio-economic development while protecting the environment. In the youth session on February 27th, SEARCA will feature five young professionals who are leading initiatives to advance… Read more

LAGUNA, Philippines – SEARCA is supporting a benefit concert called "Coming Home: Lemuel Cuento in Concert" on 26 February 2020 at the D.L. Umali Auditorium of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). The concert is for the benefit of the Youth Program in Agriculture by the UP Rural High School (UPRHS). It aims to encourage Grade 11 students to pursue careers in agriculture, nutrition, and related fields that would help address issues on hunger and food production in the country. Mr. Lemuel Cuento, an alumnus of UPRHS, is a Filipino Tenor currently based in Munich, Germany. He studied… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), together with the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), spearheaded the Training Workshop on Modeling Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Agent-based Modeling Applications (GAMA) held 10-14 February 2020 at SEARCA Headquarters, Los Baños, Laguna. GAMA is an open-source platform developed by an international consortium of research teams under the IRD/Sorbonne Université International Research Unit UMMISCO (Unité de Modélisation Mathématique et Informatique de Systèmes Complexes). GAMA integrates a dedicated modeling language and provides a simulation development environment that allow modelers to build spatially-explicit, multi-agent simulations… Read more

NAGOYA, Japan – Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), was graciously received by Prof. Dr. Seiichi Matsuo, President of Nagoya University (NU), and his cabinet during his visit on 12 February 2020. The visit aimed to further strengthen the SEARCA-Nagoya University collaboration on joint scholarship support, academic and research cooperation, and academe-industry-government interconnectivity implementation to revitalize the agriculture sector in the Southeast Asian region. Through its 11th Five-Year Plan, Dr. Gregorio envisions SEARCA to be a gateway to the future of agricultural development by building an open… Read more

TOKYO, Japan – As a technology-dependent workflow increasingly becomes the norm, some challenges posed by the Industrial Revolution 4.0 that educational institutions must address were tackled by Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), at the SEAMEO-University of Tsukuba Symposium VIII held on 13-14 February 2020. Jointly organized by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and University of Tsukuba at its Tokyo campus, the symposium was themed "Education for Inclusive Growth of Society 5.0." SEARCA is one of the oldest regional centers of SEAMEO, which was… Read more

BANGKOK, Thailand – The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) participated in the Kasetsart University (KU) Academic Forum, which had the theme "Higher Education and Sustainable Development: Facing Realities and Implementing Change." The academic forum is the highlight of KU's 77th anniversary celebration on 2-3 February 2020. KU is a founding member of the SEARCA-initiated Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) and as such has been a strong partner of SEARCA since 1989. The Center was represented by SEARCA Deputy Director Joselito G. Florendo and Ms. Leah… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – Dr. Catherine Roween C. Almaden was named as the new President of Northern Bukidnon State College in February 2020. Dr. Almaden took her PhD in Development Studies at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and was a recipient of the SEARCA PhD Research Scholarship for her study on "Multidimensional Indicators of Adaptive Capacity of Rice-farming Households to Address Varying Conditions of Salt-Water intrusion in Northern Mindanao, Philippines." She finished her MA in Economics in 2007 at University of San Carlos. She has been with Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan since 1998 teaching Macroeconomics… Read more

SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center (SEARCA BIC) releases The Bt Eggplant Story, a new video series that documents the development of Bt eggplant in the Philippines and highlights the clamor of farmers for the release of the genetically modified (GM) crop. Eggplant farming is a major source of farmer income but the current situation puts farmers, consumers, and the environment at risk. Eggplants are susceptible to the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB), causing around 73% yield loss annually. To address this problem, scientists from the University of the Philippines Los Baños-Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB) are currently developing a GM eggplant that… Read more