MANILA, Philippines - This year’s Annual Rice Forum (ARF) will be held on Nov. 26.
The forum, billed “Revisiting the Oceanic Fertilizer Issue in Rice,” is one of the activities lined up during the observance of National Rice Awareness Week in November. Theme of the month-long celebration is “The future is bright, the future is rice.”
President Arroyo, through Presidential Proclamation 524 issued on Jan. 5, 2004, declared November as National Rice Awareness Month to honor rice, the staple food of Filipinos providing fuel to the agricultural economy.
Venue of the rice forum is the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO SEARCA) based in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in Los Baños, Laguna.
Government-hosted SEARCA, headed by Director Gil. C. Saguiguit Jr. is one of the 15 regional “centers of excellence” of SEAMEO, an inter-government treaty organization founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science and culture. — Rudy A. Fernandez