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The FFTC Strategic Action Plan Focusing on Holding Workshops and Seminars in 2021-2024 gives the Center management a clear guide to help prioritize goals, maximize resources, increase the organization’s effectiveness and make better decisions. This means that all major activities for this year and the succeeding four years, will be underpinned based on the following five program themes: 1) increasing productivity by strengthening agricultural R&D and investments; 2) enhancing food value chains and consumer oriented production; 3) promoting climate-smart and resilient agriculture; 4) fostering circular agriculture; and 5) strengthening resource management and rural development.

Now that the world is still in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face workshop, seminars and training courses will have to take a backseat for a while as the Center slowly makes an online transition and adapts to the videoconference mode as a way to conduct its activities for the rest of the year.

As the 13th Director of FFTC, I am deeply honored to serve the Center and continue the work of my predecessors in doing our humble share of collecting and disseminating agricultural technologies and policy information to help our farmers in the Asian and Pacific Region. Written in the pages of this annual report for 2019 are the major activities of FFTC which we all documented and summarized. These include three international workshops, four symposia, one training course, two research networks, and one collection of information. We also have our regular program comprising of the production of our publications and various websites on Asian agriculture, plus other activities which we embarked on to increase our Center’s visibility. This year, we have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) as well as a Memorandum of Agreement with the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB). Another notable accomplishment we did for 2019 is the completion of the drafting of our Strategic Action Plan for Holding of Workshops and Seminars for 2021-2024 which we hope to present to the members of our Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) when we meet up middle of 2020.  This action plan, which is basically made up of five program themes, will be the main guide that will help us prioritize our goals, maximize our resources, increase our effectiveness and help us make better decisions. All our major activities for this year and the succeeding four years, will be underpinned based on the following five program themes: 1) increasing productivity by strengthening agricultural R&D and investments; 2) enhancing food value chains and consumer oriented production; 3) promoting climate-smart and resilient agriculture; 4) fostering circular agriculture; and 5) strengthening resource management and rural development. Moreover, it is also in 2019 when early work started for the preparations of FFTC’s 50th anniversary celebration next year. All of these accomplishments, of course are only made possible with the unwavering support of our stakeholders and partners in the region, who share FFTC’s vision for Asian agriculture. Being relatively new to the Center's management team (I took office on March 1, 2020), I am happy to be a part of this dynamic international agricultural organization whose aim is to improve farming efficiency, increase farmers income and foster sustainable agricultural and rural development in the Asian and Pacific Region. I am looking forward to working with everyone and to be of service to help our Asian farmers achieve a better quality of life. SU-SAN CHANG Ph.D. Director Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific Region