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BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO LOS BAÑOS, Laguna (December 16)—The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture-Agri-Innovator Program (Searca-AIP), a short-term training program, is advocating for a human-centered approach combining "design thinking" as a mindset and "lean startup" as a methodology for developing agricultural innovations. According to Dr. Glenn Gregorio, Searca director, this program contributes to responding to an era of change when the vulnerabilities, uncertainties, complexities and ambiguities of a fast-evolving environment dictate the way agricultural challenges are appraised and addressed for agri-ventures and their innovations flourish in Agriculture 4.0. Gregorio noted that Searca-AIP, which will feature weekly sessions, was form...

OPS PHOTO MANILA (December 15)—President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. scored big in his meetings with various European companies, securing billions worth of investment pledges on Wednesday. The President, who is on the final day of his visit to Brussels for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union (ASEAN-EU) commemorative summit, sat down with European companies Unilever, Ocea, Acciona, and SEMMARIS to discuss current investments and expansion plans in the Philippines. The chief executive has secured a P4.7 billion investment from multinational consumer goods company Unilever as the firm gears towards automating and digitalizing its operations in the Philippines. Unilever officials, led by its global business group president Matt Close, said the multibillion-peso i...

BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO LOS BAÑOS, Laguna (December 13)—The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently launched a pioneering program on Transformational Agricultural Innovation Systems for the New Future (Trains) to provide innovative solutions to the rising challenges in agriculture and the environment. According to Searca Director Glenn Gregorio, there are 30 participants from various Southeast Asian (SEA) higher education institutions, government ministries and agencies, non-government and farmers' organizations, and private and civil society organizations who are involved in research and extension activities. Trains is a nine-week online training w...