Dr. Vo Tong Xuan, one of the Board of Directors of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), was recently honored as the first recipient of the Dioscoro L. Umali Achievement Award for Agricultural Development. The Umali Achievement Award is the first of its kind, which recognizes individual initiatives for the promotion of agricultural development in Southeast Asia. The award was given during the 42nd anniversary celebration of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) at the Umali Auditorium, SEARCA, College, Laguna, Philippines on 27 November 2008.

Dr. Xuan is a professor of Agronomy and rector emeritus at the An Giang University in Vietnam. He was conferred for his great contribution to the transformation of Vietnam’s agricultural economy from a net rice importer to the world’s second largest rice-exporter. Known in Vietnam as the ‘farmer doctor’, he successfully disseminated modern agricultural production techniques and introduced pest-resistant and high-yielding rice varieties to the farmers of Mekong Delta that led to the improvement of Vietnam’s agricultural production.

The Umali Achievement Award is named after the late Dr. Dioscoro L. Umali, SEARCA’s founding director and a Filipino National Scientist regarded as the prime mover of agricultural and rural development in Southeast Asia in his time. The award is a collaborative endeavor among SEARCA, the National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines (NAST, Philippines), and the Dioscoro L. Umali Foundation (DLUF).

To learn more about the award, visit http://www.searca.org/web/announcements/dioscoro_umali_award/index.html.

(Rochella B. Lapitan, SEARCA BIC)