By Noraida Ahmad Zaimi
Photo by Noor Azreen Awang
SERDANG, Oct 18 - The International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences (ISSAAS) organised the ISSAAS Congress 2019 to deliberate on the country's unsustainable agricultural resources.
The congress was officiated by the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Dato' Mohd Sallehhuddin Hassan, who represented the Minister, Datuk Salahuddin Ayub.
Datuk Salahuddin in his speech text, read by Dato' Mohd Sallehhuddin, said that the congress fostered further cooperation among participating universities in an effort to bring continuous agricultural reform for sustainable development at the international stage.
"I believe that the sharing of knowledge and experiences among academics, researchers, innovators and practitioners will create effective strategies and action plans to address new challenges facing agricultural development," he said.
The President of the ISSAAS Malaysia Chapter, Prof. Dr. Abdul Shukor Juraimi, said that the congress aimed at gathering stakeholders involved in agriculture and to provide them with forums to discuss and present ideas, findings, strategies and innovative policies for agricultural development in Malaysia, ASEAN and Japan.
“The scope of the congress covers plant production and agricultural environment, agricultural chemistry, aquatic science, forestry and forest products, agricultural engineering, animal science, animal production, plant protection, agricultural development, agro business, agricultural economics, crop science and smart / digital agriculture,” he said.
The congress, themed "Creating Agriculture for Sustainable Development", was jointly organised by the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences (Malaysian Chapter), Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Tokyo University of Agriculture and The Society for Agricultural Education Research Development Abroad, Japan (SAEDA).
The ISSAAS Congress 2019 acted as a platform for the sharing of knowledge and experiences among academics, researchers, policy makers and policy practitioners to come up with effective recommendations for sustainable agricultural development.
About 300 participants from Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines attended the congress. - UPM
