Agricultural sector is one of Indonesia’s excellent sectors. The implementation of technology in the agricultural sector is essential to support and enhance the quality as well as the quantity of Indonesian agricultural products. As one of the efforts to encourage the advancement of agriculture, Universitas Gadjah Mada holds the International Conference on Technology Agriculture (ICTA) from October 26 until 27, 2017. ICTA is an international conference that discusses agricultural technology. More than 84 participants from various countries attended the conference.
ICTA 2017 is divided into five symposiums consisting of Sustainable Tropical Forestry, Innovative and Emerging Agricultural Technology and Management, Sustainable tropical Agriculture, Sustainable Tropical Animal Production and Health, and Socio-economic Dimensions in Tropical Agriculture. By raising Integrated and Sustainable Tropical Agriculture as its theme, ICTA presented expert keynote speakers both from Indonesia and overseas, including Diogo Monteiro (Newcastle University, UK), Prof. Abdulrahman Aldawood (King Daus University), Takashi Okayasu, Ph.D. (Kyushu University, Japan), Dr. Allan Spessa (Swansea University, UK), Prof. Siti Subandiyah (UGM), and Prof. Agnesia Endang Tri Hastuti Wahyuni (UGM).
Diogo Monteiro delivered a presentation entitled Are Private Food Quality Standards Contributing to Sustainability and Trade? According to Diogo, the food quality standard arises from the need to reduce transaction fee as well as determine the product and process characteristics to simplify the transaction between the seller and the buyer.
Codex Alimentarius FAO and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have set product characteristic and food quality standard that are implemented by the industry and government.
“Food quality standard is the norm and regulation which is designed to ensure that the products have certain attributes or follow the production method,” said Monteiro.