International Symposium: Agriculture Waste Utilization Towards Sustainable Development in ASEAN Countries and Japan

Cập nhật lúc 13:59, Thứ hai, 05/12/2022 (GMT+7)

The international symposium “Agriculture Waste Utilization Towards Sustainable Development in ASEAN Countries and Japan” was organized via zoom online from 29 Nov to 1 Dec 2022. The objectives of the symposium were facilitating dialogues between scientists/researchers and policy-makers to embed scientific findings into the SDGs policy formulation in line with JASTIP research focus (energy and environment, bioresources and biodiversity, disaster risk reduction and prevention). The symposium was organized under framework of the project “Tapping the Values of Agricultural Waste for Resource Recovery and Empowering Circular Economy in Japan and ASEAN Countries for Sustainability” funded by Japan-ASEAN Science, Technology and Innovation Platform (JASTIP): Promotion of Sustainable Development Research.

There were 200 symposium’s participants, who were representatives for Japan and 6 Asian countries including Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia. From Vietnam Natiional University of Agriculture, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Huu Cong – Vice Dean of Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment (FONRE), Assoc.Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Lam – Department of Environmental Management. During the symposium meeting, Vietnam had shared 3 topics for discussion:

• Topic 1: Agricultural waste production and management in Vietnam, Dr. Cao Viet Hung, MARD

• Topic 2: Innovative resources recovery from agricultural wastes in Vietnam, Presented by Assoc.Prof. Dr. Vo Huu Cong.

• Topic 3: Initiative on circular economy from agricultural waste resource recovery in Vietnam; Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Thanh Lam, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam National University of Agriculture.

The key finding of the symposium were: (i) Production using agricultural products as raw materials generates some quantities of agricultural solid wastes; (ii) About 280 million tons of waste in ASEAN from oil palm, sugarcane, coconut, rubber and rice industries with accompanying health risks and threat to ecosystems; (iii) Agricultural wastes produced in large tons and burnt in open-field or allowed to accumulate in some developing countries may be channeled toward biomass generation. Vietnam has 156 millions tons of by products in 2021 and it can bring 4-5 Billion USD if by-products can be efficiency used (reuse, recycle). A number of practices were shared during the symposium meeting: biochar and compost making, using EM or bioproducts to make agricultural waste into useful products. All participants agree that Agricultural circular economy requires awareness, benefit sharing among participating actors, high technology, and human resources.