THREE Filipinos were among those awarded by the German Embassy in the Philippines master's and doctorate scholarships to 11 Southeast Asians under the In-Country/In-Region Scholarship Program by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The DAAD is one of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture's (SEARCA) staunchest and longest partners in its human resource development program. Since 1975, more than 380 DAAD-SEARCA scholarships have been awarded, 90 percent of which have been completed. The Filipino scholars are Edchelle Flores, pursuing MS in Community Development, and Marla Relloso and Zyra May Centino, both pursuing PhD in Agricultural Economics. The scholarship certificates for academic year 2019/2020 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños were presented to eight of the 11 scholars in a handover ceremony presided by Kai Tomzig, First Secretary for Cultural Affairs, at the German Club in Makati City on November 25. Also present was Katja Becker-Sliwa, DAAD representative and lecturer at University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City and SEARCA representatives. The other DAAD-scholars are from Cambodia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. They are pursuing graduate programs in applied nutrition, environmental science, plant pathology, animal science and agricultural economics. Moreover, there are also 14 DAAD-SEARCA scholars studying at Universitas Gadjah Mada in
Indonesia, Kasetsart University in Thailand and Universiti Putra Malaysia in Malaysia, who received scholarship grants for Academic Year 2019-2020. Headed by Dr. Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA is mandated to strengthen institutional capacities in agricultural and rural development in Southeast Asia. In the next five years, SEARCA will focus on promoting inclusive innovation and academe-industry-government inter-connectivity towards Agriculture 4.0 and the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.