National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) serves as the permanent secretariat of the University Network for Tropical Agriculture (UNTA), assisting the alliance schools in organizing annual membership meetings and facilitating exchanges and cooperation among global partners. This year’s (2023) UNTA annual assembly was held by the University of Brawijaya in Indonesia on August 8th/9th under the theme of “Innovation for sustainable agriculture production, ensuring climate-resilient and digital agriculture”. More than 250 people, including university presidents, vice-presidents, professors and students from 9 member schools in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan took part in the assembly.
The event began with a traditional Indonesian dance performance which was put on by students from the University of Brawijaya (UB). Dr. Mangku, the dean of the UB Faculty of Agricultural Technology, then gave a welcome speech, in which he mentioned that “climate change not only causes global warming, but has even led to extreme heat around the world and reduced crop yields. This year’s forum will discuss how agriculture can be transformed to cope with future climate change challenges—and we will be looking at things like genetically engineering plants or the promotion of agroforestry.” NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang said “we would like to thank University of Brawijaya for hosting this year’s annual assembly, and providing us the opportunity to gather with all our good friends in Indonesia. This annual assembly provides a valuable platform for communication, and allows us to share experiences, discuss cooperation, and work together to advance the development of tropical agriculture. In this challenging time, it is even more important for us to work together to solve the problems the tropics are facing.” Finally, the President of the University of Brawijaya, Dr. Widodo, delivered a speech, stating “UNTA is an alliance composed of universities in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It is committed to promoting cooperation in education and research within the alliance, especially in agricultural science and technology. The goal of inter-university cooperation is to strengthen research in the field of tropical agriculture in both directions.”
This year’s keynote speeches were delivered by the Dean of the NPUST College of Agriculture, Dr. Jue-Liang Hsu, who spoke on Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture Production, and, Professor Arifin of the UB Faculty of Agriculture, who discussed “Indonesia’s Corn Development: Trends, Strategies and Global “Corn development in Indonesia: trends, strategies, and global challenges”. During the meeting, it was also decided that the annual UNTA assembly would gather in Taiwan next year to take place in conjunction with NPUST’s 100th anniversary celebration. Member schools from various countries will be invited to participate in the event and discuss the feasibility UNTA summer camps and the creation of inter-school research teams. This year the university network also received application for membership from Universitas Sumatera Utara. So far, the UNTA alliance includes 29 member universities from 13 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.
