Dear CoP members, Sanghun shared his wide range of global cooperation and knowledge sharing experiences in this interview.

Transcription

1 K-Developedia and Knowledge Hubs series 20 - EPIS (Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) Dear CoP members, For the 20th interview of the K-Developedia Series, we met Lee Sanghun, a manager of the international cooperation team at the Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS). EPIS was established in 2012 in an aim to strengthen competitiveness of Korean agriculture and promote the growth of rural area by nurturing capacity of agricultural population, providing reliable information and promoting informatization of agricultural system of the country. Sanghun shared his wide range of global cooperation and knowledge sharing experiences in this interview. 1

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3 Lee Sanghun, Team Manager of the International Cooperation Team 1. Could you please introduce yourself and your institution? EPIS (Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) was established in 2012 based on the legislation [Article 11 Section 2, the Framework Act on Agriculture and Fisheries, Rural Community and Food Industry] by integrating three other agencies that was in different agricultural business sectors (Education, ICT and Value Extension). At the moment of the establishment with those existing sectors, international part has been newly added as the recognition of the importance of international business and relations are increased. I have been working as a team manager of the international cooperation team in partnership with AFSIS(ASEAN+3 Food Security Information System) Secretariat and ASEAN member countries and built from my previous work cooperation with them since AFSIS Training in Korea(2015) hosted by Korean Gov t. Chulsoo Park, President of EPIS (The middle of the front line), Sanghun Lee, Manager of International Cooperation Team (The rightest of the last line) 3

4 Representing the Korean government at AFSIS meeting (2013) 2. Could you introduce your institution s knowledge sharing initiatives? EPIS are specialized in agricultural ICT and value extension. With these specialties we would like to extend the knowledge of agricultural ICT that can contribute to increase the agricultural productivity and ultimately to achieve improvement of food security on the regions. First, it is a start to extend the idea and the importance of ICT to the potential partners and beneficiaries in order to bring their interests on the ICT. Thus we will keep continue to focus on our current international cooperation network with government officials in ASEAN countries by yearly workshop and training, as well as to extend the scope of the network to other regions such as Southern Asia and Africa. Signing Ceremony of the Record of Discussion with AFSIS Secretariat in Thailand (2014) 4

5 Presentation of AFSIS cooperative project in the AFSIS meeting in Bangkok (2015) 3. Can you explain the key features and strengths of knowledge sharing of your institution? EPIS are specialized in agricultural ICT, such as automated Smart Farm (Greenhouse), Farm Map using satellite, Agri-Statistics, and has a number of experiences to educate various people like farmers who want to adapt those ICT in their own farms, consumers, and government officials in developing countries. Based on the experiences we can share these specialties with others who may wish to learn more about Korean agricultural ICT technology which is considered as one of the highest and advanced technology in the world. 4. Can you share the best practices of knowledge sharing programs of your institution? As mentioned, I have been working for over 10 years in international cooperation part in partnership with ASEAN and AFSIS Secretariat focusing on agricultural ICT extension in the ASEAN regions. As a relation, every year we hold the workshop and training two times in Korea inviting government officials in ASEAN countries and educating them about advanced technology in agriculture in a various method with theory, legislation system, and field learning. The knowledge obtained from personal experience which is to see the technology and how it is happening in Korea on own eyes could derive them a strong inspiration to adopt the technology in their own countries. Furthermore, we try to discover new partnership and project through the workshop discussion how to improve food security issues on the ASEAN+3 regions. As a result, we found the needs of some ASEAN member countries need to have an agricultural statistics and reporting system through online and since 2014 starting from Lao PDR we have been carried out an ODA project to establish the statistic system named NAIS (National Agri-food Information System) in six ASEAN member countries. 5

6 The Completion Ceremony of the Lao System The Server Room of the Lao System (Provided servers and computers) 5. What do you think are the most important elements when pursuing knowledge sharing projects? What the most important part in knowledge sharing project is what extent to be connected with the objective of the project with the partners. For example, we hold workshops and trainings every year but we do not invite anyone but only try to invite someone who seems to be directly related with our intention of the workshop/ training which is to advance food security on the regions using the ICT. The relation could be up to their jobs, experience, or sometimes job position to examine whether they are enough to make decision for something to execute or apply. Also, definition of work scope and amount is another key factor to success. Therefore, we set up everything in detail in each country right before the project started by signing RoD(or Record of Discussion) with an influential person in each country. 6

7 Signing Record of Discussion with Indonesia (March, 2016) Signing Record of Discussion with Vietnam (March, 2016) 6. What challenges lie ahead for your institution to further improve your knowledge sharing capacity? Nowadays the time of technology goes fast. Sometimes, some technologies are disappeared before you even notice that there was, yet there are new technology coming up and taking a part exclusive in the ICT world. In this phenomenon, as a leading institution in the Korean agricultural ICT and its value extension, we should have a proactive attitude to grip the fast changing environment and further to lead and create the environment by ourselves. 7. What would you like to learn from other Knowledge Hubs members? In regards to our ODA project to establish NAIS, for the first phase ( 14~ 17), the system is mainly targeted to collect the production statistic data such as production, yield and cultivation areas. Now we are considering its second phase ( 18-20) to extend the function of the NAIS to collect distribution data such as price, stocks, 7

8 export and import data. Thus, we love to hear about any successful practices on distribution statistics and its adaption in developing countries from other Knowledge Hubs members. 8