On Saturday November 22nd 2014, PPI-Wageningen held the third annual Indonesian Student Scientific Conference (ISSC) 2014. This year the topic was about “Strengthening a Nation through Food Self-Sufficiency”. The event started at 11:00 CET at Forum Building, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Before the conference, the comitte reviewed papers that submitted in the conference’s call for paper within the subthemes. There were 51 papers selected from students in Indonesia and some countries in Europe. From those, the comittee had chosen 7 best papers which also presented as posters during the conference. The topic was divided into 4 sub-themes. Sub theme A : Food and Agricultural Science, Sub Theme B : Technological Aplication for Food and Agriculture. Sub Theme C : Sustainable land Use and Infrastructure, Sub Theme D : Agricultural Policy and Socio-Economics. That day, there were 14 papers presented orally. Among those, there were 3 presenter who did the presentation via Skype. This teleconference was also the very first time in ISSC history, and succesfully done.
Legong Dance, a traditional dance from Bali, Indonesia, was performed as the welcoming ceremony for each participant. Then the chairperson, Fisqa Tasyara, opened the conference. Followed by the speech reppresentative from the Indonesian Embassy, Den Haag; Witjaksono Adji, Charge d’affaires ad Interim of the Indonesian Embassy, Den Haag. Last speech was given by the Rector Magnificat of Wageningen University, Martin Kropff. In his speech, Kropff reminded the audience about the importance of the issue that were discussing in the conference. He showed his appreciation for the initiative of Indonesian students in Wageningen to hold such scientific conference. He supported the issue discussed in the conference, which is also one of the main focus of Wageningen University and Research Centre.
The Conference was started with panel presentation from the keynote speakers. The first keynote speakers was Huib Hegsdijk from Applied Plant Research Division of Wageningen UR. Hesgsdijk is also a coordinator of Veg Impact Project, which project took place in Indonesia. The second keynote speaker was Arif Satria, Dean for the Faculty of Human Ecology, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Indonesia. He also a member of The Presidential Working Group on Food Soverignty.