“Food security is a pathway to inclusive and sustainable agricultural and rural development in the region, which is the over-riding focus if the Center’s new Five year plan,” affirmed Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr. SEARCA Director during the opening Ceremonies of the short course. He also expressed that with food security as a common area of interest, he looks forward to more collaborative activities with FSC in the future.
CEM students under the Agricultural Economics Program of the university participated in the short course which aimed to expose students to the different facets of food supply chains including quality management (assurance and safety), use of ICT for tracking and tracing, and comprehensive sustainability measurements.
On the fourth day of the course, the group visited the Soro-soro Ibaba Development Cooperative (SIDC) in Batangas City, a multi-awarded cooperative involved in various agri-enterprises including feed milling, contract-growing, savings and loans, member-savings, coop mart operation, meat stalls, hog selling pen, artificial insemination center, rentals, piggery farm, cable television & internet, rice milling, meat shop, gas station, communal farm, water refilling station, resort, aqua culture, and organic farming.
On behalf of the training participants, Mr. Guilhermino Da Cruz, an incoming PhD student from Timor Leste expressed his gratitude to SEARCA, CEM and FSC for organizing the course. The lectures, according to Da Cruz were very enlightening and has given them a glimpse of how an organized agricultural supply chain looks like. He likewise looks forward to applying what he learned for the benefit of his country.
Dr. Doluschitz and Dr. Hoffmann are both affiliated with the Institute of Farm Management, University of Hohenheim. Dr. Doluschitz concurrently serves as the Vice Director of the Food Security Center which is funding the said short course.
The FSC is a university center of excellence, which is part of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) program “EXCEED” and is supported in part by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
This is the second time that SEARCA will be implementing a short course as a strategic partner of FSC in the region. The first one was in 2010 when University of Bonn Senior Scientist Dr. Franz Gatzweiller lectured on Values and Institutions of Biodiversity and Ecosystems.
