Food and Fertilizer Technology Center - News

In light of maintaining and improving the quality of soil/plant testing laboratories in the Asian Pacific Region, this proficiency testing (Briefing as PT) program is designed to offer the participating laboratories the opportunity of comparing their analytical results with those of other laboratories. The program is one of the annual activities of the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) from 2018 to 2020, and is conducted by the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI).   The projected participants will be the soil/plant testing laboratories in the Asian Pacific Region. Participation in this program is free, and participants will not be charged any fees. We welcome and encourage all the soil/plant tissue testing laboratories in Asian Pacific Region to participate this activity! Application Deadline on April 20, 2020 Slots are limited. Apply Now! Participation form downloads: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14iqHkf7QGoXtFz42ih7J0xOOPXkY-A09/view?usp=sharing More information please checks the following link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=13oMq3bi6qx0zafXkc_7e3uHp1HRNY_FH Or contact Ms. Jennifer Lii Tel: +886-2-2362-6239 ext. 14 E-mail: jennifer@fftc.org.tw  

The chain of events coinciding FFTC’s 50th anniversary celebration has been postponed to a later date, considering the recent developments on the continuous spread of the COVID-19 virus. The TAC meeting, which is originally scheduled on April 21 at the Howard International Hotel, has been postponed to July 21. Meanwhile, the FFTC Symposium and 50th Anniversary celebration, which was originally set on April 22 at the NTUH Convention Center, Taipei has also been reset to October 21. Those who have received the original invitation letters for the April events will receive notifications of its postponements. 

The Center warmly welcomes Dr. Su-San Chang, the 13th Director of FFTC, and the first woman to head the International Center. Last February 24, FFTC Deputy Director Dr. Akira Hasebe introduced Dr. Chang to all the staff members of the Center during a meeting at the Center board room. An agricultural chemist and soil scientist, Dr. Su-San Chang first worked for 15 years as a Research Assistant and an Associate Researcher at Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI). After that, she held various positions in the Council of Agriculture (COA), Executive Yuan for 25 years. She has accumulated lots of experiences in policy making, administration and project implementation on international affairs, multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) matters, regulations on pesticides and animal drugs, planning and development and management of science parks, etc. Prior to her appointment as the new Director of FFTC, Dr. Chang used to be the Director General of Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park (PABP), a position she held for 3 years and 7 months. She was posted in the Permanent Mission of Taiwan, Penghu, Kingman and Matsu to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland as an Agricultural Counselor during 2003 and 2008. From 2008 to 2013, she was the Director General of COA’s Department of International Affairs. After that, from 2013 to 2016, she got promoted and became the Director General of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ). A doctorate degree holder in soil science from the University of California at Davis, USA, in 1992, Dr. Chang got her Masters and Bachelor degrees in agricultural chemistry from National Taiwan University in 1976 and 1978, respectively. She replaced former FFTC Director Dr. Kuo-Ching Lin, who recently retired from the Center on January 31, 2020.  

For seven years now, FFTC has been working with agri-economists and agri policy experts of its partner countries to publish agricultural policy and other related papers. This is part of the FFTC-agricultural policy platform project of which the Center started in 2013. To date, close to a thousand articles on agricultural policies have been published and uploaded in the FFTC agricultural policy website under 30 categories ranging from trade liberalization countermeasures to farmers welfare and retirement system to agricultural marketing policy, etc. They are written by agri policy experts from more than 10 countries in the Asian and Pacific region. As of March 20, 2019, the number of registered visitors to the FFTC-AP website has reached 12,022, a growth rate of 21.9% compared with 9,382 accumulated registration nine months ago. Of this figure, the Philippines ranked on the top (27.3%), followed by Malaysia (14.6%), Vietnam (6.0%), Taiwan (5.3%), Thailand (5.3%), Indonesia (5.1%) and India (4.5%). The number of hits per day during the recent three months (Dec. 14, 2018 to March 19, 2019) is 7,552 and the accumulated number of hits of the FFTC-AP website is 6,543,059. With the AP project proposal for 2019 approved by Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) last February 26, the FFTC management has bigger plans to improve the whole project. First in line is the redesigning of the AP website to give it a new and fresher look. Its outline has already been drafted and discussed in the recently held AP advisory group meeting, and plans are now underway to construct a more attractive, friendly and interactive AP website. In this light, FFTC is inviting all researchers, agri economists and agri policy experts to contribute agri policy related papers for publishing in the FFTC-AP website. Come visit us at http://ap.fftc.agnet.org/ for more information or send us an email to Ms. Natalie Lu at natalielupy@fftc.agnet.org.tw         

FFTC has recently produced a new corporate video as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. The eight-minute video, summarizes the highlights of the Center’s milestones in its 50 years of existence, and enumerates some of its major achievements and humble contributions to the development of agriculture in the Asian Pacific region.