Faculty of Agriculture UGM in cooperation with University of Queensland (UQ) and Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, Australia conducted End of Project Showcasing ACIAR (The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research) project HORT- 2009-056 (2013-2018) and Mitigation Meeting of New ACIAR Project SLM 2018/145.
These were to review research collaborating with ACIAR and discuss further research. Lasting from 19-21 February 2019, the event was attended by Dr. Stephen Harper, ACIAR Project Leader from Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, and Dr. Robert Edis, ACIAR Manager of Soil and Land Management.
Also in attendance were Prof. Neal Menzies, Dean of School of Agriculture and Food Science, The University of Queensland, researchers from Centre for Vegetable Research in Lembang, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), ACIAR Jakarta Office, reviewer of ACIAR Project from Agricultural Research and Development Centre and University of Melbourne. In addition, farmers from Bantul, Brebes and Nganjuk doing ACIAR Projects, Dean and Vice-Dean, lecturers, students and alumni took part in the event.
Dr. Mirwan Ushada, STP. M.App.Life.Sc, UGM Research Directorate Secretary, appreciated ACIAR that had collaborated with UGM researchers to publish scientific writings in international journals, as well as educating students.
“With this cooperation, both parties are expected to improve capacities and help farmers in three commodities of excellence, chilli, shallot, and garlic, which are the interest both of Indonesia and Australia," said Mirwan Ushada at UGM on Monday(25/2).
Furthermore, signing of scholarship contract for doctoral students from John Allwright Fellowship (JAF) Desi Utami (Agricultural Microbiology Department). Each year as many as 13 researchers from 35 partner countries that have projects with ACIAR take doctoral programme in Australian universities.
Dean, Dr. Jamhari, said hoped with this programme Australia would accommodate Indonesian researchers to be involved in vegetable areas research. A meeting that followed would discuss the next research collaborations.
Prof. Siti Subandiyah, ACIAR Leader Project at UGM, said ACIAR had much supported collaborative research at UGM through Pest and Plant Disease Department since 2000, focusing on pest and plant disease management, including Huanglongbing disease in oranges, wilting in banana, diseases in shallot and chilli and mango fruit fly. Furthermore, UGM lecturers were reportedly enthusiastic to join ACIAR projects in capacity building areas.