To spread Japan’s wisdom to remote areas around the world

On July 6th, I attended a symposium (The Project for Development and Dissemination of Sustainable Production System Based on Invasive Pest Management of Cassava in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand) as an observer from the private enterprise sector at Battambang University.

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This is one of the joint projects between JICA and JST’s “Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development, or SATREPS”, Professor Takasu taking the lead and experts from institutes such as Nagoya university, Tokyo university, Tokyo Agricultural university, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, CIAT of Columbia gathers to discuss majors we can take to stop the spread of diseases caused by cassava worldwide.
http://www.jst.go.jp/global/kadai/h2708_vietnam.html
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I was invited to the last kick off meeting which was held in Hanoi, where an honorable decision was made to use AGRIBUDDY as a monitoring institute or testing the spread of diseases in cassava and the growth of healthy seedlings. At this meeting, we had to make a presentation on how AGRIBUDDY can be of use to the project, such as the majors of monitoring to the farmers and the data we are able to collect etc. Our COO, Brandon joined the meeting with me on this occasion.
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The thing that AGRIBUDDY is most proud of is that it we are connected online with the farmers living in remote areas, some of them who we have never met before and that we can contact them at any time. So, even in situations where the researchers have limited opportunities to go to the site, it is possible to acquire raw data from the farmers directly online.
And it is also possible to return results obtained by experts to analyze the gathered data and to give advice to farmers directly. This way, the wisdom of Japan is utilized to raise the productivity of farmers in remote areas that have relied on unfounded countermeasures until now, by being able to interact with “expert advice” directly. I hope such wisdom from Japan will be utilized to raise productivity in the remote areas in the future too.
Before the symposium, the members of SATREPS celebrated us for the award we received at NIKKEI Fintech.
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“Although we decided to plan a celebration, it was really difficult to find a cake in Battambang (a rural town of Cambodia)” said one of the members, “They tried to write Happy Birthday, so the cake is a little messy…” he said as he opened the box.

Oh Cambodia, you never betray my expectations…
To everyone at SATREPS, thank you for the heartwarming celebration. We will work hard as a team so AGRIBUDDY can bring your project success. Thank you for your continuous support.

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