SEARCA Director Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr. together with the organizers, co-sponsors, and knowledge-partners of ICAFS 2014
SINGAPORE, Singapore – As SEARCA embarks on its 10th Five-Year-Plan, it intensifies its effort to address the issue of food and nutrition security in Southeast Asia. It is in this context that SEARCA supported as knowledge partner the second International Conference on Asian Food Security (ICAFS), which the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, organized on 21-22 August 2014 in Singapore. Led by Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr., the SEARCA delegation included heads of SEARCA’s core programs on Graduate Education and Institutional Development, Research and Development, and Knowledge Management namely, Dr. Maria Cristeta N. Cuaresma, Dr. Bessie M. Burgos, and Dr. Maria Celeste H. Cadiz, respectively.
Themed Towards Asia 2025: Policy and Technology Imperatives, the Conference, which took place at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, tackled major issues and drivers of the Asian agri-food sector and offered insights on Asia’s response towards the thinking horizon of 2025. ICAFS 2014 covered the following topics: Trends and challenges to food security; Supply and demand – improving productivity growth and supply chains; Market integration, trade and economic access to food; Financing and investing in agricultural innovation and technology; and Charting an integrative approach for Asia towards 2025.
SEARCA co-organized with NTU NTS, RSIS the inaugural ICAFS that took place on 10-12 August 2011 in Singapore.
Dr. Saguiguit of SEARCA presiding over the UC Special Meeting on 23 August 2014.
Representatives from the Southeast Asian University Consortium on Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) participated in ICAFS 2014 and held a back-to-back meeting on 23 August 2014. Joining SEARCA were Dr. Jose V. Camacho, Jr., from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Dr. Masyhuri, from the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Dr. Poonpipope Kasemsamp, Dr. Wiboon Chongrattanameteekul, and Dr. Somsakdi Thabtimthong of Kasetsart University (KU), Dr. Edy Hartulistiyoso of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), and Dr. Machito Mihara and Dr. Suzuki Kojiro of Tokyo University of Agriculture (Tokyo NODAI). In the side meeting, the UC identified priority research, education and knowledge management projects within its Umbrella Program on Food and Nutrition Security for Southeast Asia, 2014-2019, which the UC members will jointly implement in the next five years. (Bessie M. Burgos)
Southeast Asian University Consortium on Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) representatives during the ICAFS 2014.
