University professors and agriculture experts from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have long been observing international trends in agriculture and exploring the transformative effects that climate change, aging/insufficient labor forces, and agriculture education are having on traditional production models. To explore related topics, the concerned parties organized the International Symposium on Machinery and Mechatronics or Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and began holding it in rotation. Convening every two years, the symposium gives researchers the opportunity to share their results and hear keynote speeches from renowned scholars on the latest development trends in agricultural machinery.
The 10th symposium (ISMAB2022) was held in Taiwan— organized by Taiwan’s Chinese Institute of Agricultural Machinery (CIAM) and co-organized by the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) Department of Biomechatronics Engineering. The symposium was conducted in a hybrid model this year with some participants joining online and others convening in person at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center in southern Taiwan. NPUST Vice-President, Prof. Shang-Ming Ma, and CIAM Chairman, Prof. Yi-Chich Chiu, jointly hosted the opening ceremony, with opening speeches delivered by Taiwan Legislative Member Chung Chia-pin, Council of Agriculture (COA) International Division Director Chia-jung Lin, and Kaohsiung City Agricultural Bureau Deputy Director Cheng-Yi Wang.
Professor Takashi Okayasu, the former chairman of the Japan Institute of Agricultural Machinery (JIAM), gave the first major lecture at the symposium, speaking on the topic of “Data-Driven Agriculture”. He was followed by Dr. Kangjin Lee, chairman of the Korean Institute of Agricultural Machinery (KIAM), who shared on South Korea’s smart agriculture policies and related results in academic research and development. The final lecture of the morning was given by Professor Yi-Chich Chiu, who discussed “Taiwan’s smart agriculture”.
Papers submitted for the symposium covered 15 topics including harvesting machinery, agricultural product processing equipment, smart agricultural facilities, field robots, AIoT, image recognition, and other solutions to labor shortages on small farms. A total of 134 papers were accepted for the conference, and around 250 participants from Japan, South Korea and other Southeast Asian countries attended the gathering. On the afternoon of the first day and throughout second day, oral presentations, online publications, and poster presentations were presented in concert, giving participants access the maximum amount of information the shortest amount of time. Adding to this, a technical tour was organized for the third day of the symposium (11/17). On the tour, the participants visited Timing Pharmaceutical, the NPUST Wildlife Conservation Center, Smart Agricultural Center, Taiwan Tea Co, and Angel Garden. The locations selected for the one-day excursion provided foreign guests with a solid look at the sustainable agricultural business models that agriculture practitioners in Taiwan are applying to the industry.
