IPB University Graduate School Students Join UC Graduate Forum at Maejo University, Thailand
The Graduate School (SPs) of IPB University sent selected student representatives to participate in the University Consortium (UC) Graduate Forum held at Maejo University, Chiang Mai, Thailand. The activity initiated by The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) raised the theme ‘Future of Agricultural Sustainability: Organic Intelligent Agriculture’.
The four representatives of SPs IPB University students include Fetty Dwi Rahmayanti from the Doctoral Study Program in Natural Resources and Environmental Management, Lutfi from the Aquaculture Doctoral Program, Ika Atsari Dewi from the Agricultural Industrial Engineering Doctoral Program and Isna Kumala Sari from the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Masters Study Program
Reporting from the official website of searca.org, UC Graduate Forum is a consortium of several universities in Southeast Asia for postgraduate education in agriculture and natural resources. The forum was established in 1989 to share expertise and academic resources. Today, the UC Graduate Forum has a network that connects with universities in Southeast Asia, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and Germany.
This year there were around 40 students from various UC Graduate Forum members presenting research papers with various themes such as (1) Smart Agriculture Technologies: Precision Agriculture, Vertical Farming, and Innovative Agri-Products, (2) Sustainable Agricultural Management: Biotechnology, Agroforestry, Agro-Tourism, Community Based Tourism, (3) Organic Intelligent Agriculture: A Way towards Ancient Farming Practices and (4) Digital Agro-Economy: BCG Model, Digital Economics and Farm Management.
The UC Graduate Forum is an annual event that aims to provide opportunities for graduate students from UC members to share new knowledge, research ideas and experiences in an open platform. The Forum also encourages transdisciplinary studies and promotes greater research integration through strategic partnerships among UC members and strengthening links between and among UC members.
Fetty Dwi Rahmayanti, one of the delegation representatives, had the opportunity to present a paper entitled Integrated Management Urban on Agro-ecology Approach in East Jakarta. East Jakarta is one of the regions in DKI Jakarta that is facing rapid growth in all aspects of development. The population of East Jakarta City is 2,206,732 people with a growth rate of 0.96 percent.
“The lack of open land in East Jakarta makes agriculture difficult to develop. The paradigm of the community in developing farming must use a large area of land accompanied by other supporting elements of agriculture. This is certainly quite difficult if you want to develop it in urban areas such as in Jakarta, especially East Jakarta,” she said.
However, Fetty said, with the continuous development of science and technology in the field of agriculture, currently land limitations are not the only obstacle to developing agricultural activities in urban areas. (HBL/Rz) (IAAS/ANF)
