SEARCA News

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), in collaboration with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), conducted a Workshop on Modeling Management of Climatic Stress in Rice-based Cropping Systems: The Application of the AgPractices&Domains Platform on 7-8 October 2021 via SEARCA's Online Learning and Virtual Engagements (SOLVE) Platform. The two-day workshop was attended by 66 targeted and potential end-users of the tool from different Southeast Asian countries. The 66 attendees that have experience in agronomy, agriculture, and modeling systems, are members of the academe, research… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) convened the second virtual Governing Board Meeting (GBM) on 4-5 October 2021. SEARCA’s highest decision-making body is the Governing Board (GB). It performs an annual evaluation of the Center's work in the region and conducts an annual assessment of SEARCA's programs on graduate education, training, and research. The GB also examines the Center's financial health and operational performance in FY2020/2021. The GB is composed of representatives from the 11 member countries of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). The 69th GBM was chaired by Assoc. Prof. Dr… Read more

The Education and Collective Learning Department (ECLD) conducted an orientation for new SEARCA scholars for AY 2021-2022 on 20 September 2021, through the Graduate Scholarship and Institutional Development Unit (GSID). The orientation, hosted by Ms. Paula Grace M. Muyco, Program Specialist at GSID, is a regular event held at every start of the semester to acquaint the incoming scholars about SEARCA and their responsibilities as scholars of the institution. Before the pandemic, it was conducted in the different study posts of SEARCA.  Thirty-two scholars were invited to the orientation where Mr. Joselito G. Florendo, SEARCA Deputy Director for Administration, congratulated… Read more

SEARCA in collaboration with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) will be conducting a Workshop on Modeling Management of Climatic Stress in Rice-based Cropping Systems: The Application of the AgPractices&Domains Platform on 7-8 October 2021 via SEARCA’s SOLVE Platform. The two-day workshop aims to serve as a venue for presentation, discussion, and consultation of the AgPractices&Domains tool as well as to train targeted to potential end users of the tool from Southeast Asian (SEA) countries. The AgPractices&Domains tool provides integrated pest and disease management options in rice-based cropping systems. It aims… Read more

The Education and Collective Learning Department (ECLD) conducted a Special Graduate Seminar on 24 September 2021 with Dr. Muhammad Reza Cordova sharing his dissertation on macro and microplastics debris in Indonesian water. The online seminar was conducted under the SEARCA Online Learning and Virtual Engagement (SOLVE) platform. Dr. Cordova is a SEARCA alumnus under the Tokyo NODAI-SEARCA Joint Scholarship. He recently earned his PhD in Aquatic Bioscience at Tokyo University of Agriculture (Tokyo NODAI). Dr. Cordova talked about the inflow of riverine plastic debris and the quantification and identification of microplastics in the marine ecosystem. Based on his study, single-use… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) formalized its partnership with the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Malaysia, to cooperate on education, student and staff training and development, research innovation, and joint publications. “SEARCA is now aligned with UiTM’s mission to provide a strong foundation with world-class standards in producing globally competitive Malaysians. Most especially in the field of knowledge management where SEARCA’s main mandate to cultivate a cadre of agricultural champions throughout the region has been creating ripples more than ever,” SEARCA Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio said during the virtual ceremonial signing between… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has agreed to be co-publisher of the 52-year-old SABRAO Journal of Breeding and Genetics. This was formalized in a one-year memorandum of agreement signed by the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO) and SEARCA on 15 September 2021. An international society devoted to basic and applied aspects of breeding research in economically important plant species, SABRAO has been publishing the SABRAO Journal of Breeding and Genetics since 1969. For most of its history, the journal was published once or twice each… Read more

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the ClimateScience entered into an agreement for several collaborations on the many intersections of agricultural and rural development (ARD) and climate change. The virtual ceremonial signing of MOU was held on 27 September 2021. Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, SEARCA Director, and Mr. Eric Steinberger, CEO and Co-founder of ClimateScience, signed a memorandum with Mr. Joselito G. Florendo, SEARCA Deputy Director for Administration and Ms. Rochelle L. Bata, Partnership Officer and Continental Coordinator for Asia, Climate Science, as witnesses.  ClimateScience is a United Kingdom-based non-profit organization providing… Read more

A Regional Consultation Workshop will be held virtually on 23 September 2021, 09:00 – 13:00 (UCT+7), to review and discuss the proposed structure and content of the third volume of the ASEAN Regional Guidelines for Promotion and Adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). This is the second of the consultation workshops co-organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) to develop a third volume (Volume 3) that would complement the previous volumes by providing ASEAN Member States (AMS) with tangible guidelines on how to implement the CSA practices. On 7 July 2021, the first… Read more

SEARCA teamed up with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Embassy Manila, and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) for the 35th SEARCA Online Learning and Virtual Engagement (SOLVE) webinar entitled “SOLVE Public Info-sufficiency on Genome-edited Crops” held on 8 September 2021 via Zoom and Facebook. The webinar is part of the annual Biotech Outreach Program, which aims to provide a venue for knowledge sharing and learning with different stakeholders and contribute to improved understanding and acceptance of biotechnology in the country, with focus on genome editing technologies in crops. Dr. Carl Ramage, Managing Director… Read more