YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA- A few days after the commencement of the Sustainability Transitions Summer School 2017, the participants coming from different countries in Asia and Europe have already created a good bond while learning.
Through the series of interactive lectures, discussions and group works centering on transitions of Agro-Forestry Farming systems, the students gained a better understanding of the links between the different components in the ecosystem and how each component may affect food security in the advent of changing climate.
The students also visited a demonstration of integrated dairy goat and cacao processing at Pusat Pembibitan Kakao where the government supports smallholder farmers association to use the available resources, specifically cacao leaves to feed their goats and at the same time produce cacao fruit. These cacao fruits are then processed into different products at UGM's agrotechnology hub called the Taman Teknologi Pertanian.
More so, the students visited the Wanagama Educational & Experimental Forest managed by UGM's Faculty of Forestry. The forest was rehabilitated from a degraded land when it was donated to UGM in 1964. The tour allowed the students to understand the various components in the forest ecosystem, and how it has adapted to the changing climate over the years.
The students are expected to conduct their week-long immersion in a local community beginning on 14 July, and come up with their case study presentations on 21 July 2017.
This year's Summer School is a joint activity of the ERASMUS+ funded Master of Science in Food Security and Climate Change (MS FSCC) and the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC). Co-organizing the Summer School are Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) of Indonesia, and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) of Vienna, Austria.
The Summer School has been a regular activity of the UC, as hosted by its members on a rotating basis. The UC also conducts an annual graduate forum, collaborates on research projects, and provides grants to student and faculty of UC member institutions. The UC members are Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) and UGM in Indonesia, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in Malaysia, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in the Philippines, and Kasetsart University (KU) in Thailand. Tokyo University of Agriculture (NODAI) is an Associate Member, while SEARCA is the Consortium Secretariat. This year, Universitas Brawijaya (UB) of Indonesia is a new affiliate member.
