The 1st China-Korea-Japan Symposium on Smart Agriculture was held in Nanjing, China, on October 19th.

The symposium, co-hosted by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the Korea Rural Development Administration (RDA), and co-organized by the University of Tokyo, was held as a hybrid of onsite and online. Professor Sun Tan, Vice President of CAAS, Professor Kim Dooho, Vice Administrator of RDA, Mr. Woo Man Soo, Agriculture Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Korea in China, Professor Tsutsumi Nobuhiro, Dean of Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, and Mr. Mikami Yoshiyuki, Agriculture Counsellor, the Embassy of Japan in China, attended the meeting and delivered speeches.

The three parties conducted academic exchanges in key areas such as agriculture digitalization, agricultural robotics and artificial intelligence, and conducted on-site and live demonstration on smart agricultural robots and visual perception technology. As a result of the discussion, a platform for scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation was formed between the three countries in the field of smart agriculture.

Smart agriculture is a cutting-edge technology for improving agricultural productivity and sustainability, and securing food supply, according to Professor Sun Tan. He also suggested that, given that China, South Korea and Japan are major economies and smart manufacturing powerhouses of East Asia, the three countries should strengthen cooperation in the fields of smart agriculture, and make the East Asian region a global highland of smart agriculture technology to serve the high-quality agricultural development and rural revitalization of the three countries.

Mr. Woo Man Soo stated that the symposium will inspire future agricultural cooperation among the three parties and facilitate the transformation toward smart agriculture. Mr. Mikami Yoshiyuki said that the symposium is a positive response to the 3rd China-Japan-South Korea Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting and an important opportunity to strengthen future agricultural cooperation among the three countries.

More than 200 representatives from Chinese, Korean and Japanese research institutions attended the meeting. After the meeting, Professor Sun Tan met the agriculture counsellors of the Korean and Japanese embassies in China respectively.

By Zhang Shuai (zhangshuai@caas.cn)