IN a move to raise farm productivity in Southeast Asia, the Philippine-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) convened on Thursday and today nine countries to push competency certification for agricultural workers in the region.

The conduct of the two-day Regional Workshop on Competency Certification for Agricultural Workers in Southeast Asia at Searca’s headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, is a collaboration with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) with support from the Food Security Center of Germany’s University of Hohenheim.