SEARCA photo contest seeks food stories by Sept. 30

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture is inviting Filipinos to submit entries to its 20th SEARCA Photo Contest, themed “Food for All, Food for the Future,” before the Sept. 30, 2026, deadline.

The competition opened July 16 and is open to Southeast Asian nationals, except SEARCA staff and their immediate family members.

This year’s contest asks photographers to look at food long before it reaches the plate. It seeks images of the people and systems that grow, handle, protect, move, sell, prepare and share food, showing what keeps those systems nourishing, safe, accessible, resilient and ready for the future.

SEARCA is encouraging Filipino photographers to document farmers adapting to heat, drought, floods or storms; fishers protecting catch quality; women leading food enterprises; and cooperatives sorting and packing produce.

Other subjects include vendors keeping food safe, families growing and sharing nutritious food, and young people using drones, sensors, mobile apps and other tools.

The contest seeks visually strong, authentic photographs with journalistic impact that communicate why a moment in the food system matters.

Photographs may be entered under six subthemes:

• Nourishing Families and Communities
• Markets, Movement, and Access
• Safe Food, Healthy Lives
• Innovation for Future Food Security
• Climate-Ready Food Systems
• Women in Food and Agriculture

Contestants may submit an unlimited number of entries, provided each photograph meets the official specifications.

Entries must be original color photographs in JPEG format, measuring at least 3,000 pixels wide for horizontal images or 3,000 pixels tall for vertical images, at 300 dpi. The submission portal sets a maximum file size of 8 MB.

Each entry must include, in English, a photo description of no more than 400 characters, the selected subtheme, the location and country where the image was taken, and the complete date it was taken.

SEARCA emphasizes authenticity. Images generated or composited using artificial intelligence, misleading staged images and heavily manipulated photographs are ineligible.

Only basic cropping and minor adjustments that preserve the image’s truthfulness are allowed.

Submitted photographs must not have won previous contests, been published elsewhere or been submitted to other competitions during the 20th SEARCA Photo Contest period. The same or similar photographs entered in previous SEARCA photo contests may not be resubmitted.

Contestants must own their photographs and authorize SEARCA to use them, with proper credit, in its publications, exhibits, advocacy materials and other platforms. Photographs featuring identifiable children require permission from a parent or guardian.

Entries will be judged on relevance to the theme and subtheme, 40%; technical quality, 30%; and impact, storytelling, authenticity and public communication value, 30%.

The first-prize winner will receive USD 1,000; second prize, USD 800; third prize, USD 500; and the SEARCA Center Director’s Choice award, USD 500. All winners will also receive certificates.

Entries must be submitted through the official SEARCA Photo Contest website by 11:59 p.m. Philippine time, or GMT+8, on Sept. 30, 2026. Contestants are advised to read the complete guidelines before uploading their photographs.

Now in its 20th year, the contest provides a regional platform for visual storytelling on agriculture and rural development.

For its milestone edition, SEARCA is asking photographers across Southeast Asia to make food systems visible through images of their landscapes, produce, labor, risks, innovations, relationships and possibilities.