SEARCA scientific journal steps up for global challenges

The Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) published by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has launched a new look for its 15th year of publication.

The news look is "symbolic of the pivotal turn in its publisher's goal to contribute in addressing regional and global challenges, elevating agricultural families' quality of life through sustainable and resilient livelihoods and access to modern networks and markets," SEARCA said in a statement.

The new AJAD look highlights the iconic "tree" emblem of its publisher. It shows a molave tree with an interlace of grain stalks and panicles wreathed under its roots. In the same way, AJAD intends to anchor on its roots while widening its reach to promote greater awareness of the latest findings in research, new methodologies, and policy concerns in agriculture and rural development in Asia.

"The evolving context of agriculture, rural development, and state of farmers, as aligned with the global goals, focus on the contribution of agriculture to hunger and malnutrition eradication, and to improving the standard of living of all in an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable manner," SEARCA Director Glenn Gregorio said.

He underscored the agency's commitment "to participate in the achievement of global priorities and contribute to developing awareness, changing mindsets, and initiating collective action in collaboration with its key partners."

In line with SEARCA's more aggressive stance of contributing to the state of agriculture primarily in Southeast Asia and broadly to global development targets, AJAD will continually improve the quality and relevance of published papers and broaden its reach across Asia and beyond.

The latest AJAD issue published last December, features six papers authored by researchers from four countries. The first two measure performances: first is the rice production efficiency in Myanmar using data envelopment analysis; and the second is a Philippine paper focusing on communal irrigation systems. Two other articles tackle conditions in Indonesia, with one discussing agricultural households' food demands, and the other on income inequality of oil palm plasma farmers. Another Philippine paper studies the technical efficiency and social capital in tilapia production, while the final paper discusses a transformative learning ground-up approach to sustainable development in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

First published in 2004, AJAD provides information and analysis on topics within the broad scope of agriculture and development. As the official journal of SEARCA, it publishes articles resulting from empirical, policy-oriented, or institutional development studies, as well as articles of perspectives on agriculture and development, political economy of rural development, and trade issues.

Regularly published twice a year in June and December, AJAD is indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index of the Web of Science, Ebsco Information Services, Research Papers in Economics, AgEcon Search, Socio-economic Research Portal for the Philippines, CAB Abstracts, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Citation Index, The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library, and Australian Business Deans Council.

AJAD accepts submissions throughout the year through the submission portal https://ajad.searca.org and all articles published in AJAD may be downloaded for free from the same link. Print editions may be purchased — intents may be emailed to . Electronic notifications for new issues may also be subscribed to by registering to https://bit.ly/AJAD-subscribe.