The 13th Asian-Pacific Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (APFITA) took place at the VNU-UET (VNU University of Engineering and Technology) on 24 November 24. 2022. On the other hand, the INFITA (International Network for IT in Agriculture, Food and the Environment) board meeting decided the joint organization of WCCA (World Congress on Computer in Agriculture) with APFITA 2022. It aims at increasing the diversity of agricultural information technology exchanges. However, the conference has been postponed for two years due to the global pandemic. It has finally come to an end after the relief of pandemic situation.
In recent years, development of big data processing, artificial intelligence (AI) technology, IoT sensing, communication technologies, agricultural management technology have made great advancement progress. This symposium attracted participants from Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Australia, the United States and other countries, gathering experts and scholars in the field of agricultural information technology from all around the globe to exchange and communicate agricultural information. Knowledge sharing is major purpose of the event.
The symposium kicked off on 25 November. Agriculture is the fundamental industry for many countries. It is an important economic activity in Asia and the world. The development of information and communication technology is an important tool to assist the improvement of agricultural technology. This agricultural information technology seminar has been held in Japan since 1998. APFITA includes the countries from Pan-Pacific System, and representatives from the United States have also participated in the integration of WCCA. Prof. Jimmy Chou from GIS.FCU has been invited to give speech with the topic of Geospatial Technology for Smart Agriculture Innovation Application. He covered the application and development trend of spatial information in smart agriculture.
Dr. Frank from GIS.FCU has been invited as the meeting chairperson, themed “Information Communication Technology in Agriculture”. He also published “A Study on Real-Time Water Level Recognition of CCTV Cameras” to share the analysis methods and models of artificial intelligence image recognition capabilities. The study was carried out by using CCTV image recognition, and the height of water level to calculate water level instantly. It further replaces the original radar water level gauge or pressure water level gauge. Meanwhile, PhD student HSU,CHIN-HUANG published his study “Using Rasterized Weather Data to Improve The Accuracy of Agriculture Yield and Harvest Period Inference Models: A Case Study for Short-Term Vegetables”. The project took short-term vegetables as the study object, using gridded weather data to improve agricultural yield models and analysis.
Through a series of idea exchanges and discussions, this conference ended with fruitful results. APFITA will take place in Tsukuba, Japan in 2024. On the other hand, Director Jimmy Chou and Dr. Frank assisted Vietnam VIGMR (Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources) to build a landslide flow observation station in 2019. Thought this opportunity, they visited the site and discussed following-up cooperation and the content of future MOU.
