Introduction
A. Background
University Network for Tropical Agriculture (UNTA) was established on December 13, 2012 as a result of the Roundtable Discussion during President’s Forum on Agriculture for Leading University in Southeast Asia in National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. This network aims to implement integration and to create closer ties in order to improve higher education, training and research in the area of tropical agriculture (https://unta.npust.edu.tw/).
UNTA as established by ten universities, namely Bogor Agricultural University (IPB, Indonesia), Brawijaya University (Indonesia), University Putra Malaysia and University Malaysia Sabah (Malaysia), Kasetsart University and Maejo University (Thailand), Thai Nguyen University (Vietnam), National Pingtung University of Science and Technology and Ming Dao University (Taiwan), and Wehenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Science (Germany). UNTA opens for registration of new members of UNTA.
In conjunction with The 50th Years Anniversary of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), UNTA 2013 meeting and seminar is held at IPB, Bogor , Indonesia on September 3-4, 2013. The theme of the event is “Industrial Agriculture for Sustainable Food Security and Rural Development”. It expected that this event will strengthen agricultural higher education networks to respond to the opportunities and challenges in developing sustainable agriculture through collaborative education and research.
B. Objectives
The objectives of meeting and seminar are twofolds, namely:
- To strengthen international networks in developing tropical agriculture
- To increase the attractiveness of agricultural higher education