Los Baños, Laguna—Masters and doctorate scholarships to three Filipinos, along with eight Southeast Asians, were awarded by the German Embassy in the Philippines under the In-Country/In-Region Scholarship Programme by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst or DAAD).
The scholarship was through the Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) based at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
The Filipino scholars are Edchelle S. Flores, pursuing MS in Community Development, and Marla V. Relloso and Zyra May H. Centino, both pursuing PhDs in Agricultural Economics.
According to Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, SEARCA Director, DAAD is one of the regional center’s staunchest and longest partners in its human resource development program.
“We have more than 380 DAAD-SEARCA scholarships that have been awarded, 90 percent of which have been completed since 1975,” Dr. Gregorio said.
The scholarship certificates for academic year 2019/2020 at the UPLB were presented two eight of the 11 scholars in a handover ceremony presided by Mr. Kai Tomzig, First Secretary for Cultural Affairs, at the German Club in Makati City last November 25. Also present was Katja Becker-Sliwa, DAAD representative and lecturer at UP Diliman and SEARCA representatives.
The other DAAD-scholars are from Cambodia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam who are pursuing graduate programs in applied nutrition, environmental science, plant pathology, animal science, and agricultural economics, Dr. Gregorio added.
Moreover, there are also 14 DAAD-SEARCA scholars studying in Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia, Kasetsart University (KU) in Thailand, and Universiti Putra Malaysia in Malaysia, who received scholarship grants for academic year 2019/2020.
SEARCA is mandated to strengthen institutional capacities in agricultural and rural development in Southeast Asia.
Dr. Gregorio said that in the next five years, SEARCA will focus on promoting inclusive innovation and academe-industry-government interconnectivity towards Agriculture 4.0 and the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
