Food and Fertilizer Technology Center - News

  2022 marks another busy year for FFTC as the Center management announces its line-up of projects which include 8 workshops, 4 network projects, one TAC meeting and two regular programs. Approved by the FFTC Executive Board on its 106th Board Meeting on December 7 of last year, the 8 workshops include topics on climate change and food system, innovations on sugarcane research, healthy soil-plant interaction, intelligent production system for seeds and seedlings, livestock industry and aquaculture, circular agriculture for sustainable healthy diets, tropical fruit value chains for global markets and strategies for the industrialization of smart agriculture. Meanwhile, the Center will continue its 4 network projects on the FFTC Agricultural Policy Platform (AP), the Dragon Fruit (DFNet II), the Proficiency Testing (PT) programs of soil testing and plant analysis and the Knowledge Management (KM) Projects. All 12 Projects as well as the regular projects are aligned to FFTC’s Strategic Action Plan for 2021-2024. Below is the Center’s projects schedule for 2022 which will be updated on this website from time to time. PDF file download link: https://bit.ly/3EZJ3NA

  Date: Nov 11, 2021 (09:00 – 17:00 GMT+8) Nov 12, 2021 (09:30 – 11:10 GMT+8) Global consumption of animal products continues to increase sharply along with the growth of population. In livestock farming, antibiotics are usually used to enhance or promote growth or achieve better feed efficiency, thus leading to prolonged dose exposure of animal gut bacteria to these drugs and the increasing risks of building up anti-microbial resistance, a serious threat to human health. Therefore, the innovation and commercialization of animal vaccines and health-promotion feed additives as alternatives to antibiotics for livestock animals becomes an important challenge of the industry, in which the latter includes probiotics, phytogenics, fungi, micro-nutrients, and peptides etc. In light of this scenario, TLRI and FFTC are co-organizing an online international symposium entitled “Innovation and Application of Animal Vaccines and Health-Promotion Feed Additives for Antibiotic-Free Era in Livestock Industry.” There will be 4 keynote speakers and 17 other speakers, who have been invited representing government, research institutes, and private companies from 6 countries, to exchange and share knowledge on the development and application of animal vaccines and health-promotion feed additives, aiming for global human health by ensuring food safety and reducing risk of antimicrobial resistance. There will be 4 sessions covering various topics mainly related to animal vaccines and animal feed additives through 4 keynote presentations, 12 speakers who will deliver country reports and other technologies related to the topic, and 5 other representatives of private companies. Through this symposium, it is expected to increase and promote the awareness and application of animal vaccines and health-promotion of feed additives in Asia’s livestock industry. We are cordially inviting all researchers, industry players, farmers and enthusiasts to register and join this video conference. We sincerely welcome your participation. For symposium information and registration, please click on the link: sites.google.com/fftc.org.tw/2021-fftc-tlri-symposium Registration is free!

  Date: Oct. 20, 2021 (10:00 – 16:45 GMT+8) WebEx online meeting room Smart agriculture is seen as an important means in solving the problems along the agricultural value chain. Hence, governments of many countries are adopting various policy measures to promote smart agriculture. However, the adoption of smart agriculture is still in its early stage, especially among smallholder farmers in Asia. In addition, the prevalence of smart agriculture may lead to structural changes such as capital-intensification of farming, commercialization of collected data, and intensifying polarization between leading and small farmers. FFTC, ATRI, TARI and NACF are thus co-organizing an online international forum entitled “The Way to Smart Agriculture Value Chain for Small-scale Farmers – Policies & Challenges.” There will be 2 keynote speakers, 8 general speakers and 3 panelists, who will be invited from government offices, research institutes, universities, and private companies of 10 countries, to present the ongoing policy measures and strategies to promote smart agriculture, and to evaluate the possible structural changes that smart agriculture will bring and share the countermeasures. There will be the following 3 sessions which aim to provide comprehensive scopes of strategies, challenges, possible structural changes, and countermeasures: Session 1: Policy Measures and Case Study Session 2: Challenges and Countermeasures for Promoting Smart Agriculture; and Session 3: General Discussion We are cordially inviting all researchers, industry players, farmers, and enthusiasts to register and join this video forum. We sincerely welcome your participation. For forum information and registration, please click on the link: sites.google.com/fftc.org.tw/2021-fftc-ap-policy-forum Registration is free!  

  The Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) for the Asian and Pacific Region and the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) of the Council of Agriculture are collaborating in organizing the International Webinar on “Proficiency Testing of Soil/Plant Analysis and Workshop on Data Interpretation and Fertilization Recommendation,” which will be held on October 22, 2021. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the workshop will be held online via WebEx videoconference system for all speakers and participants. FFTC has invited Dr. Ichirou Uezono, the Laboratory Chief of Kagoshima Prefectural Institute for Agricultural Development, Osumi Branch in Japan, and Dr. FK (Frits) van Evert, Senior Research Scientist of Wageningen University and Research from the Netherlands to be our keynote speakers. Besides the keynote session, this workshop has three other sessions with the following themes: 1) The Final Report of Proficiency Testing Project; 2) Sharing of Experiences and Best Practices in the Application of Soil Testing and Plant Analysis on Rational Use of Fertilizers to Its Major Crops (Country Report); 3) Development of New Tools or Technologies on Sampling and Testing of Soil Testing and Plant Analysis; and 4) General Discussion. We are cordially inviting experts from government agencies or accredited laboratories especially those working on soil testing, plant analysis or fertilization recommendation to join us in this webinar. This webinar is only open for those who have registered to join the Cisco WebEx Event system. The registration system opens today at 12 p.m. Taiwan time (GMT+8). For more information about this event, please check the webinar webpage (sites.google.com/fftc.org.tw/2021fftc-tari-pt-workshop/home), or follow us on our FFTC Facebook page and our official website.

  Join us online on October 6 as FFTC celebrates its 50th Anniversary. Agricultural experts, researchers, academicians, members of the agri public and private sector in the Asian Pacific region will join the FFTC family in reminiscing and celebrating 50 years of the Center’s existence. Part of the celebration is the holding of a symposium entitled “Making Agri-Food Systems Sustainable.” The said symposium aims to share and exchange current perspectives and challenges on how the region can provide enough food with good quality while at the same time keep the agricultural environment sustainable. The symposium will have two sessions: 1) Sustainable Agri-Food Systems (Food Supply); 2) Nourishing Asia’s Growing Population (Food Consumption) and an Agricultural Policy Forum - Moving towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems under and beyond COVID-19 Pandemic. For registration and more information, visit the following link: sites.google.com/fftc.org.tw/fftc50thanniversarysymposium-l