The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) is a non-profit organization established by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in 1966.
Founded in 1965, SEAMEO is a chartered international organization whose purpose is to promote cooperation in education, science and culture in the Southeast Asian region. Its highest policymaking body is the SEAMEO Council, which comprises the Ministers of Education of the 11 SEAMEO Member Countries, namely: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
SEAMEO also has Associate Member Countries, namely: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The Center derives its juridical personality from the SEAMEO Charter and possesses full capacity to contract; acquire, and dispose of, immovable and movable property; and institute legal proceedings. Moreover, SEARCA enjoys in the territory of each of its member states such privileges and immunities as are normally accorded United Nations institutions. Representatives of member states and officials of the Center shall similarly enjoy such privileges and immunities in the Philippines as are necessary for the exercise of their functions in connection with SEARCA and SEAMEO.
As SEAMEO's center of excellence in agriculture, SEARCA is mandated "to provide to the participating countries high quality graduate study in agriculture; promote, undertake, and coordinate research programs related to the needs and problems of the Southeast Asian region; and disseminate the findings of agricultural research and experimentation."
Specifically, the functions of SEARCA are to:
SEARCA is hosted by the Philippine government on the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in Laguna, Philippines.
It is axiomatic in modern management that structure should follow strategy. This means that because SEARCA has a new strategy embodied in its Tenth Five-Year Plan (FY 2014/2015 – 2018/2019), it must realign its organization structure accordingly, and recruit appropriate new expertise for the detailed action planning, execution, and monitoring of the new strategic thrusts and initiatives of the Center. Below is SEARCA's current organizational structure: