As part of its 42nd anniversary, SEARCA hosted a two-day international conference titled, "Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders in Agriculture and Rural Development: Responding to the Challenges of Globalization" last November 27-28 at Los Baños, Laguna. This event was tailor-made for the growing number of SEARCA scholars and graduate alumni.

The conference organizers and participants

During its opening program, SEARCA Director Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan said, “Technology has made a virtual village of our globe. In real time, we could communicate and see each other through means enabled by the Internet and other modern telecommunication technologies. But nothing beats face-to-face encounters such as what we will experience in the next couple of days.”

On the other hand, Dr. Alex Brillantes from the University of Philippines Diliman presented the results of his impact study on SEARCA Graduate Fellowship Program. He reinforced the past impact studies’ findings in ascertaining that the SEARCA Graduate Fellowship Program’s impact on individuals and institutions is positive and highly relevant.

He recommended that SEARCA pilot efforts in organizing and strengthening its alumni network. This can enable collaborations for greater individual advancement and institutional development, leading to greater impact on national and regional policy-making.

Aside from the plenary papers, there were also 22 poster presentations and 16 papers distributed in five parallel sessions with the following sub-themes:

SEARCA alumnus Dr. Zosimo M. Battad closed the conference saying, “Graduates are ambassadors of the institution. Great graduates alone are already marketers and advertisers of what the institution is all about… I view [this] alumni homecoming as a way of paying gratitude – gratitude to our mentors who nurtured us, who were our second parents, and who molded us to become who we are today.”

A total of 109 participants attended the conference representing the following Southeast Asian nations: Philippines (48), Indonesia (17), Myanmar (12), Cambodia (11), Thailand (10), Lao PDR (3), Malaysia (3), Vietnam (3), and East Timor (2).

The conference was co-sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Philippine Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), SEARCA Fellows Association of the Philippines (SFAP), and Commission on Higher Education (CHED).