Nine national research administrators and senior regional program officers of the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) visited BIOTROP on 22 February 2013 as part of their capacity building program cum study tour being organized by the University of the Philippines Los Banos College of Economics and Management Alumni Foundation in cooperation with the DA Bureau of Agricultural Research.

SEAMEO Deputy Director for Program Dr. Jess C. Fernandez welcomed the group and briefed them on the program thrusts and research and training activities of the Centre under its 9th Five-Year Development Plan (2012-2017). As they requested, the group also received an orientation on the Centre’s experiences on sorghum development for food, feed, fuel, fiber fertilizer and biological control of pests and diseases from Dr. Supriyanto and Dr. Sri Sudarmiyati, respectively, both BIOTROP scientists.

The said capacity building cum study tour program of the group aims to (1) expose the participants to agricultural research undertakings, new ideas and different research and production protocols from other countries in Southeast Asia; (2) engage them to an exchange of knowledge and experiences with their local counterparts in the countries to be visited, and (3) learn from the lessons and experiences of other countries that could be emulated, replicated or modified under Philippine setting.