NATIONAL CONFERENCE: ESTABLISHING AN AQUITABLE AGRICULTURE BASED ON LOCAL WISDOM

On Wednesday (18/4/12), Faculty of Agriculture UNS presented a national conference entitled establishing an equitable agriculture based on local wisdom. This event is part of DIES NATALIS of the faculty, which was actually had to be celebrated on March.

This conference is divided as three main session. The first is Keynote Speaker session that was given by Prof Dr Gunawan Sumodiningrat MEc (Staf Ahli Bidang Sosial Kementerian Sosial  Republik Indonesia). He said that  the welfare of our farmers in recent years has decreased sharply, more than 50 percent. Hence we need to agricultural instructor that give counseling in area of good farming practices, good manufacturing practices, and sales. In addition, the officer also provide material about management in the financial sector. Hopefully, it could increase the farmer prosperity.

The second session was given by Prof Dr Ir Zaenal Bachruddin MSc (Dirjen Pengelolaan dan Pemasaran Hasil Pertanian Kementerian RI) and Prof. Dr. Bambang Pujiasmanto, M.S (Dean of Faculty of Agriculture UNS). Prof. Zaenal explained that improving competitiveness and value-added of agriculture product are needed, because imported product will enter this country continuously. This will give high-risk to domestic product. Prof. Bambang, on his papers, was explained about the importance of sustainable agriculture.

The last session is the session for supporting papers. In this conference, there were about 107 papers presented by researcher. The presentation is grouped as 5 research theme. Of course, the closest theme for me is food processing technology. However, I did not present my paper here. I am pleased enough to be part of the committee in this event.