New SEARCA director named

MANILA, Philippines — The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has named Glenn Gregorio as its new director.

SEARCA, an inter-government treaty organization, said Gregorio would serve for a three-year term until 2022.

Gregorio, an academician at the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) of the Philippines,  is the 11th to hold the top SEARCA post since its establishment in November 1966 by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.

He is currently a professor at the Institute of Crop Science of the UPLB College of Agriculture and Food Science.

Gregorio served the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for almost 30 years, including a five-year stint as IRRI’s rice breeder in Africa based at the Africa Rice Centre station at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria from 2004 to 2009.

Throughout his career, Gregorio has bred more than 15 rice varieties, most of which are salt-tolerant varieties that have greatly helped farmers in Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, and the Philippines.

He also led efforts to develop micronutrient-dense rice varieties to address anemia and malnutrition in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Prior to his appointment as SEARCA director, Gregorio served as crop breeding manager for corn at the East-West Seed Co. Inc. from 2015 to 2018 where he was the global lead of the sweet corn and waxy corn breeding programs for South and Southeast Asia, the Latin Americas, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Gregorio obtained his doctorate in Genetics, masters in Plant Breeding, and bachelor’s in Agriculture, all in UP Los Banos.