Food and Fertilizer Technology Center - News

  Date: July 13, 2021 (0900 – 1600 GMT+8) Global fruit production is steadily increasing, especially tropical fruits such as pineapple, mango, papaya, litchi, and dragon fruits. Fruits are diverse and rich in delightful colors, flavors and smells that please consumers, and rich in vitamins and nutrients that help prevent many human diseases. However, more than half of the global population cannot consume enough fruits to obtain these benefits. Can global/ local GAP certification enhance market opportunities for dragon fruit and other tropical fruits? What are the cost and benefits? What are the challenges and strategies? FFTC is organizing a 2021 DFNet Workshop entitled “Global / Local GAP Certification to Enhance Market Opportunities - Challenges and Strategies”, in partnership with the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) and Tai-Chung District Agriculture Research Extension Station (TCDARES) of Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture, and DFNet partners. Experts from the Asia-Pacific will be invited to share their views from the global, regional, and national perspectives. We are cordially inviting all tropical fruit growers, academic and industry players, and enthusiasts to join this video conference. We sincerely welcome your participation. For workshop information and registration, please click on the link: sites.google.com/fftc.org.tw/2021dfnetworkshop  Registration is free!

  Since 2018, FFTC and Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) have been conducting Proficiency Testing (PT) of soil testing and plant analysis to evaluate the capability and performance of laboratories of soil testing and plant analysis in ASPAC countries. Every year we get positive feedback from representatives of participating laboratories and received more and more applications from new laboratories. Because of this, FFTC and TARI have decided to continue the event this year! This PT project will be conducted free of charge to all representatives of participating laboratories, but only limited to the first 100 registrants. Kindly register early so that you can be assured of a slot. Deadline of registration: June 26, 2021 For more information, please check the Scheme. To register, please download the participant’s form Here.

The Center’s Executive Board recently approved 11 projects for 2021. The activities in the projects include nine workshops, three networks and one seminar for our 50th Anniversary Event. Because the ongoing pandemic cannot allow us to hold face-to-face meetings, all of our projects would still be done online with seven of these having onsite counterparts in our home base in Taipei. Also including in our list of activities are the continuation of our Agricultural Policy Platform (now on its 9th year), our project on Enhancing International Collaboration for Tropical Fruit Value Chain for Global Markets (now on its 4th year) and our Proficiency Testing of Soil/Plant Analysis (now on its 4th year). Below is the Center’s Projects for 2021 which will be updated on this site from time to time. PDF file download link: http://bit.ly/3oVLqZW

The establishment of the FFTC Agricultural Policy (FFTC-AP) Platform in 2013 is directed toward collecting and disseminating the latest information on agricultural policies from various countries in the Asian and Pacific region, including Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. The information sources include invited and submitted analytic and research papers by agricultural professionals and policy experts mainly in Asia, as well as the latest news from academic and country reports. The main objective of the FFTC-AP Platform is to establish a database of national agricultural policies for sharing and exchanging agricultural policy information across different countries. To date, more than a thousand articles have been published in the Platform under 30 categories. The categories include topics such as Food security and safety, Overview of agricultural policy, Production policy, Smart agriculture, Farmers' welfare and retirement system, Agricultural human resources development, Agricultural science policies and technology development, Agricultural marketing policy, Agricultural e-commerce, Trade liberalization countermeasures, Import regulation and quarantine, Agricultural circular economy, Eco-friendly agriculture (satoyama and satoumi), and Rural development, etc. There are two ways to publish your papers on FFTC-AP Platform (the first one is preferred): 1. Submit manuscripts to contracted partners (please click here for their contact information). 2. Submit manuscripts directly to FFTC. All the manuscripts will be under paper review, which is coordinated by FFTC-AP contracted partners and the FFTC-AP management team. The review process will be normally completed within 14 working days. The authors should then revise their articles, according to reviewers’ comments, and send back to the original contact channel. Once the papers are accepted and published on the FFTC-AP website, certain amount of remuneration will be paid to the author(s). For more information on paper submission, please contact Ms. Natalie Lu via natalielupy@fftc.org.tw We warmly welcome you to submit agricultural policy related papers (at least 1,500 words) to us. Join us and be part of our team! For more information, please visit FFTC-AP website.

  Highlights of FFTC’s major accomplishments and activities for 2020, and a summary of the Center’s projects for 2021 are now available online at the FFTC website. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and international travel restrictions, four of the Center’s 11 projects for 2020 have been postponed. While face-to-face workshops and seminars took a backseat for the time being, the FFTC management has adapted the videoconference mode in the conduct of its activities, with two conferences done both onsite and online. For a broader reach, we also livestreamed most of our conferences for the year via Facebook. The 2020 Annual Report also features the Center’s regular program comprising the production of its publications and the continuous operation of various websites on Asian agriculture, plus other activities which FFTC embarked on last year. To read and download the Annual Report 2020: www.fftc.org.tw/en/publications/main/2303