Southwest Asia forum on agriculture opens at Yunnan University

Updated: Dec 14, 2023

Yunnan University hosts the Southeast Asia Forum on Geospatial Resilience in Agriculture Application. [Photo/ynu.edu.cn]

The Forum on Southeast Asia Forum on Geospatial Resilience in Agriculture Application was held at Yunnan University in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province, from Nov 30 to Dec 1.

The event was jointly sponsored by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the Alliance of National and International Science Organizations for the Belt and Road Regions (ANSO), the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency of Thailand (GISTDA), and the ASEAN Research and Training Center for Space Technology and Applications (ARTSA).

Over 40 representatives participated. Some are technical professionals and government officials from UN agencies, as well as Asian countries including China, Thailand, and Japan.

Other representatives are from international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center.

Hu Jinming, vice president of Yunnan University, Cao Jinghua, executive director of the ANSO Secretariat, and Pakorn Petchprayoon, director of the Geo-Informatics Product Innovation Office at GISTDA, delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.

The forum focused on discussions related to the innovative applications of geospatial technology in resilient agriculture, crop monitoring, crop diversity, and large-scale models for agricultural remote sensing.

Special sessions at the forum included a "Fireside Chat with Senior Scientists on Geospatial Information Supporting Resilient Agricultural Development", "High-level Discussions on Agricultural Monitoring Applications", "High-level Dialogues on the Potential Applications of Geospatial Information in Southeast Asian Countries", and "Case Studies of Geospatial Information in Agricultural Monitoring".