2022 Annual Crop Science Research Conference held at NPUST

For over a decade an annual conference has been bringing together experts from throughout Taiwan to share results from cutting edge R&D taking place in the field of agronomy. This year, the 2022 Annual Crop Science Research Conference was held through cooperation by the Agronomy Society of Taiwan, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), and National Chiayi University (NCYU).

Special invitations were given to the Director of the Taiwan Council of Agriculture’s Tea Research and Extension Station, Tsung-Chen Su, and the Deputy-Director of the World Vegetable Center, Yann-Rong Lin, to participate and lecture at the conference.

On August 17th 2022 at 10:00 AM, the opening ceremony was held at the NPUST Library and Conference Hall. The conference brought together experts and scholars from around the country to publish the latest results of the research and experimentation they are conducting in the three categories of “Biostatistics/Crop Cultivation”, “Crop Physiology/Biotechnology”, and “Genetic Breeding”. The goal is the help provide a new way forward for agronomic development in Taiwan. The convention also afforded an opportunity for the Agronomy Society of Taiwan to conduct its (2022) General Meeting for Selection of Supervisors, at which Prof. Hung-Liang Lai, Director of the NPUST Department of Plant Industry, was elected to serve as the 17th chairman.

During the conference, the main themes of the scientific lectures included ‘Towards a New Future of Taiwan’s Tea Industry: Drinking Tea and Tea Drinks’ and ‘Multigrain: Towards Diversified Agriculture’. The aim is to create a discourse focused on providing a clear path for Taiwan’s tea and grain crop industries to follow in their future development.

In the group reports, the Biostatistics/Crop Cultivation presenters published a variety of studies on improved methods for cultivating grains and edible/special use crops, including the use of imaging and big data platforms to analyze cultivation data. Those presenting on Crop Physiology/Biotechnology looked at technical R&D related to multigrain crops, edible crops, special crops, and special medicinal crops—also addressing related impact. Finally, the Genetic Breeding group presented reports exploring disease and cold resistance and variety improvement for rice, wheat, peanuts, bitter gourd, wild rice, bananas, staghorn ferns, soybeans, and sorghum. In recent years, in the face of challenges related to the climate and water resources, there have been output imbalances, changes in production periods and many other factors that affect agronomic development. Hopes the information on crop cultivation technologies that was shared at the conference will find widespread application in Taiwan, and agricultural development will be able to advance towards a brand new milestone.