Our Journey at a Glance

1977

Founding of SEARICE

1981

Formal registration as a non-government organization

1992

SEARICE began addressing issues on plant genetic resources.

1994

SEARICE became involved in the Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation (CBDC) Programme.

SEARICE was part of a group of development and research institutions that set up the CBDC Program, a global initiative that emphasized PGR conservation in addressing the negative impact of the green revolution.

2001

SEARICE established the Biodiversity Use and Conservation in Asia Programme (BUCAP).

SEARICE shifted its focus on enhancing farmers’ capacities in crop improvement. At the same time, it promoted extension service support and plant breeding programs to initiate the process towards legitimization of farmers’ work in the context of national agricultural plans.

2005

CBDC and BUCAP were merged into one and became known as CBDC-BUCAP.

The programme adopted a convergent framework of strengthening the capacities of both farmers and State research and extension institutions in PGR conservation, development and use (CDU) work. The programme also emphasized the linking with governments, non-government organizations, and academic institutions for the mainstreaming of PGR CDU in agricultural systems.

2008

SEARICE implemented the Participatory Plant Breeding Mainstreaming (PPBM) Programme.

Riding on the early indicators of success of CBDC-BUCAP, PPBM program was initiated to generate more active support from public research institutions and to fast-track integration of PPB in national agricultural policies and programs.

A parallel program in policy advocacy was set alongside CBDC-BUCAP and PPBM.

2010

Marked the completion of the last phases of the three programs

By this time, SEARICE had worked with close to 800 communities, more than 24,000 farmers, and almost 400 development workers in five countries. Our mission and our collaboration with farmers and partner-institutions resulted in significant impact on the state of agricultural biodiversity and advanced efforts in the restoration of farmers’ rights.

2011

SEARICE launched a new program called Democratizing Agricultural Research and Extension (DARE).

Laos Field Monitoring Interview with PAF

TOT on PGR in Vientiane Laos, 2012May 23

The program supported the continuing strengthening of capacities of partners in on-farm agro-biodiversity practices, which includes plant breeding, on-farm conservation and on-farm seed production.

2012

With the focus on the indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers (IPSHFs), the SEARICE embarked on a new program titled Putting Lessons into Practice: Scaling-up People's Biodiversity Management for Food Security.

Aside from capacitating the IPSHFs in seed security and PGR, the program was able to contribute in improving the capacity of IPSHFs and their communities to adapt to climate change.

2013

The program, Building Resilient Community Managed Seed Systems towards Climate Change Adaptation, was implemented by SEARICE to empower farming communities and built the capacities of men and women farmers to manage the genetic diversity of rice.

The two-year implementation of the project Building Resilient Community-Managed Seed Systems towards Climate Change Adaptation made significant contributions towards the technical empowerment of farmers in 55 project communities in seven (7) and nine (9) provinces in Cambodia and the Philippines, respectively.

2014

Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security (SD=HS) was the next program SEARICE became involved with. This is a four-year program that is expected to be completed this 2018.

The SD=HS project used the 4-pillar approach, which was developed by Oxfam Novib, to effectively scale up our work on seeds for food and nutrition security. SEARICE was assigned to implement the Pillar 1 (Scaling up Models) and Pillar 3 (Women, Seeds and Nutrition).

2017

Another ongoing project of SEARICE is the Policy Research and Awareness Improvement on Seeds (PRAISE). This is a two-year project that is expected to be completed in 2019.