23 ม.ค. 57 Special Lecture on Producing Food Sustainably and Zero Waste Agriculture

23 ม.ค. 57 Special Lecture on Producing Food Sustainably and Zero Waste Agriculture On Friday 24 January 2014, Associate Professor Dr. Wiboon Chongrattanameteekul, Assistant to the President for International Affairs, gave a warmly welcome speech for the opening ceremony of a special lecture on Producing Food Sustainably and Zero Waste Agriculture which was co-organized by Australian Embassy in Bangkok and Kasetsart University at the 9th conference room, Golden Jubilee Administration and Information Center Building, Kasetsart University, Bangkhen Campus. The lecture was given by Prof. Bernard Dell, Murdoch University and Prof. Anthony O’Donnell, the University of Western Australia in Australia. Prof. Dell gave a lecture that nowadays, the rapid growth rate of world population especially in developing countries for example, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, causes increasing of food consumption demand. However, there are many problems effect world food production such as drought, soil constraint, inefficiency irrigation system and over consumption in rich countries. Imbalancing of food sharing in the world causes inadequate nutrient problem of people in such countries. In order to meet the growing demand for food in the world, both Thailand and Australia, as food producer and export countries, are faced with the need to produce more food sustainably, to protect food form loss in the food value chain and to provide bio-secure and safe food. This lecture provided a brief overview of these three areas and examples of research in the region that address crop production, soil constraints, tolerance to abiotic stress, farming systems, grain quality, amongst others. It is concluded that there is a need for a co-ordinated long-term approach to address the broad issues of food security in the region. After that Prof. O’Donnell addressed his lecture on Zero Waste Agriculture that recent figures form the UNEP suggest that world-wide agriculture and livestock produces massive tons of biomass and also many amount of wasted food never makes it to the plate every year. These factors have significant environmental impacts. Methane gas which occurs from the waste cause of greenhouse effect is one of the problems. Obviously, minimizing food waste and recycling biomass has the potential to contribute significantly to mitigating the environmental impacts of agriculture. Zero Waste Agriculture refers to on-farm systems that seek to harness and manipulate the biochemical processing power of plants, animals and microbes to minimize agricultural wastes by producing diverse food, energy and fertilizer products. This research shows how manipulating the diets of grazing animals is being used to reduce methane emissions for ruminants and how recent advances in genomics are being used to optimize anaerobic digestion systems and the conversion of food and agricultural wastes into biofuels and soil and fertilizer amendments. This event will generate a great opportunity for all participants to explore, share and contribute their thoughts and ideas for any possible collaboration between the two countries and join hands in working toward the increasing global food security in the future. .

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