In 1997, SDC began funding a regional partnership program between 11 rice-growing countries in South and Southeast Asia and the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), named the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC). The countries involved are Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

This partnership program has helped to identify and address problems of each country’s irrigated rice production by developing and testing rice-growing technologies and crop-management approaches in farmers’ fields. The focus is on more efficient use of resources such as land, labor, water, and fertilizer leading to sustained, environmentally friendly increases in production.

The University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) is a regional state university created in 1978 by Batas Pambansa Bilang 12. Its mission is to provide access to quality education in all its mandated programs to deserving students and equip them with competencies in science and technology, dynamic leadership, entrepreneurial ability, and a deep sense of nationalism and cultural identity. Within this mandate, USEP is pursuing eLearning through the partnership with DepED and BEAM as a new delivery mode to make postgraduate award courses more accessible to teachers, school heads and administrators.

If you are a first-time user of this eLearning program, click on the forward arrow opposite to proceed to the ‘Getting Started ' section of the CD-ROM to find out how to navigate through the course and configure your computer. If you are an experienced user, click on the back arrow opposite to return to the welcome page.