In the two-day forum, the first-day topic was agriculture crop cultivation, and the second-day topic was aquaculture farming. The 10 representatives of alliance university, including National Chung Hsing University, National Ilan University, National Chiayi University and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, were invited to have conversation with the scientists from South Africa, Nigeria and Soomaaliya, to discuss on the topics such as agricultural production bottlenecks of extreme climate, the intelligent management combining statistic analysis and AI control, microbial control strategy for provisions production, and the conversion of agriculture and aquaculture waste into sustainability. There were almost 400 Taiwan and Africa participants, from the fields of intelligent agriculture science, aquaculture farming, marine resources management and biological technology, joined the forum in the only two days.
Charles Lin, the Vice President for International Affairs of NCKU, delivered a speech showing appreciation to the participants. He mentioned that in the context of global climate change, Taiwan and Africa have a close bond expected to be deepened through this forum. Also, there are about 120 African students studying in NCKU per year. Professor Lin believed that biotechnology could bring new hopes to both the agriculture and aquaculture fields.
Ju-Ming Wang, the Dean of NCKU college of Bioscience and Biotechnology, showed special thanks to the distinguished guests from Africa and the representatives from alliance universities. The purpose of the forum was expected to start on the long term communication between the academia of Taiwan and Africa in various fields to share and grow together. Also, as the purpose of helping Africa talent cultivation, African students are encouraged to study in Taiwan.
“We are not only playing the roles of the scholars in the international society, but also hoping to give back to the international society.” Woei-Jiun Guo, the professor of NCKU department of biotechnology and bioindustry sciences, indicated that besides government efforts, NCKU also has the responsibility as an international citizen to extend our influence on improving Africa agriculture production limitation. “How to increase food production is an important issue focused on by the international society. The status quo of Africa academia and industry provided in this forum lets us think about the highly focused cultivation strategy in stress, including high temperature and diseases. On the other hand, through the communication this time, we hope Taiwan agricultural research and development momentum could give new inspiration to African academia, and establish a brand-new academic exchange connection between Taiwan and Africa.”
Speakers in the first day included Ying-Lan Chen, the associate professor of department of biotechnology and bioindustry sciences of NCKU, Zi-Bi Huang, the director of academy of circular economy of National Chung Hsing University, Tzean Yuh, the vice dean of office of international affairs of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Chen-Wei Liang, the assistant professor of the department of biomechatronic engineering of National Ilan University, Yung-Kai Lin, the professor of the institute of food safety and risk management of National Taiwan Ocean University. The issues the speakers discussed included the food demand under the trend of extreme climate, a further introduction of plant physiological mechanisms combined with intelligent agriculture (AI), statistical analysis, the symbiotic relationship between bacteria, microorganism and plants, the application of peptide message adjustment, the research on soil diversity, and the possibility of achieving the sustainable agriculture goals by using plant extraction.
On the second day, the forum theme was “sustainable marine resource and aquaculture farming industry”. Speakers included Hong-Thih Lai, the Dean of the college of life sciences of National Chiayi University, Jenn-Kan Lu, the associate professor of the department of aquaculture of National Taiwan Ocean University, Chang-Wen Huang, the associate professor of the department of aquaculture of National Taiwan Ocean University, Yu-Hung Lin, the distinguished professor of the department of aquaculture of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, and Han-Ching Wang, the distinguished professor of the department of biotechnology and bioindustry sciences of NCKU. The discussed issues, all related to the status quo and future sustainable development of aquaculture industry, included the automatic industrial the management based on massive data from advanced farming technology and algorithm, the aquaculture practice cases of translation application, and the application of water resources, species diversity cultivation, feed additive for marine species, and so on.
Professor Woei-Jiun Guo indicated that she hoped this forum could be the accelerator of sustainable development in agriculture, aquaculture for both Taiwan and Africa, and could provide example cases to African countries for further development and talent cultivation. African students, encouraged to study in Taiwan, are expected to drive the upgrade of the agriculture and aquaculture industry after going back to Africa, and help NCKU expand the global influence in the international sustainable development knowledge platform.
Find More:
Charles Lin https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57841472400
Ju-Ming Wang https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=8504026700
Woei-Jiun Guo https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55259544000
Ying-Lan Chen https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=56044627800
Han-Ching Wang https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7501741862
Shih-Ming Lin https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=36544182400
The opening of "Taiwan-Africa Smart Sustainable Agriculture and Marine & Aquaculture Forum''.
Charles Lin, the Vice President for International Affairs of NCKU, mentioned that in the context of global climate change, Taiwan and Africa have a close bond expected to be deepened through this forum.
Ju-Ming Wang, the Dean of NCKU college of Bioscience and Biotechnology, indicated the forum was expected to start on the long term communication between the academia of Taiwan and Africa in various fields to share and grow together.
National Cheng Kung University and National Taiwan Ocean University cooperated to hold the “Taiwan-Africa Smart Sustainable Agriculture and Marine & Aquaculture Forum” in NCKU Li-Hsing Campus from March 24th to 25th.
There were almost 400 Taiwan and Africa participants, from the fields of intelligent agriculture science, aquaculture farming, marine resources management and biological technology, joined the forum.