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Experts who attended the recently concluded international symposium on circular agriculture talked about agri food loss, wastes, and innovative technologies for the reuse, recycling and value addition of agricultural wastes and residuals.

The Center has recently added to its publication list the book entitled “Implementing the Satoyama Initiative for the Benefit of Biodiversity and Human Well-Being,” edited by former FFTC Director Dr. Kuo-Ching Lin and Dr. Kuang-Chung Lee, Associate Professor, National Dong Hwa University. The Satoyama book is a joint project of FFTC and the Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station and Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture (COA), Taiwan, together with the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, COA, and the International Partnership of Satoyama Initiative (IPSI). The 269-page book encapsulates the articles written by experts from different countries who shared their knowledge and experiences on topics like conserving biodiversity, economic forest plantation, community conserved areas, environmentally friendly agricultural technologies, ecological engineering, etc.

Modernization of the agricultural processes is seen as one of the paths towards addressing the many issues of rice production, which is the major staple crop of people in the Asian Pacific Region. Through the integration and implementation of suitable Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) like smart phones, drones and robotics, precision agriculture can be harnessed and rice farmers will be more informed and empowered. To shed more light on this topic, in 2019, FFTC and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) organized an international symposium on “ICTs for Precision Agriculture” and invited 12 rice scientists from eight countries (Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia) to present papers on technology packages and country reports on precision agriculture particularly focusing on ICTs. A year later, these papers are now re-edited and published into a book (144 pages) containing three major sections: 1) Understanding Precision Agriculture; 2) Technology Packages for Precision Agriculture; and 3) Precision Agriculture in Asia. Edited by FFTC Deputy Director Dr. Akira Hasbe and the late Zolkafli Bin Aris, Director of the Engineering Research Centre of MARDI, the book is now off the press and is also available online.