The "2021 International Conference on Smart Agriculture" held on Oct. 26th and 27th by the Council of Agriculture (COA) is in both the online and the in-person modes. Experts from the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), Japan, and ROC (Taiwan) are invited to share their experience on the technologies of smart agriculture and their insights on the related future development. There is also the online exhibition area of COA smart agriculture projects since 2017. This is a major event to integrate the strengths of the industries, the government, and the academia to further explore the strategies to improve production efficiency and quality through the use of smart technologies. Innovative agricultural models are developed for the post-epidemic era so as to revitalize the development of the smart agricultural industry.

COA points out that, in the face of issues of climate change, demographic changes, food security and food safety, and the changes in consumption patterns brought about by the continued spread of the Covid-19, COA has continued to promote digital innovation and transformation of agriculture. Through innovative operation methods, cross-domain integration of technologies such as ICT, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data, etc., has developed innovative thinking modes in all the stages from production, processing to marketing. Technologies are introduced to digitize information and accurately analyze the needs of the industries and the consumer. Intelligent management is adopted to solve agricultural problems and establish a new supply and demand model of future agricultural market in Taiwan, in order to achieve sustainable operation.

COA also states that this online international conference is focused on the four themes of "Great Leap Forward in Smart Technologies to Bring About a New Spring for Agriculture", "Post-pandemic Competition for Industries Ushering in a New Generation of Smart Agriculture", "Incorporating Smart Technologies for Steadfast Development of Industries", and "New Technological Applications for Re-evolution of Agricultural Services“. The agenda include the latest smart agricultural technology applications in the farming, fishery, and livestock industries and the development trend of smart agriculture in the post-pandemic era. The new perspectives of domestic and foreign industries, governments, and academia are integrated in the discussion the strategies of global intelligence transformation and the development of the new values of agriculture.

According to the COA, the two-day Conference has attracted nearly 400 participants from industries, governments, and academia. The "2021 International Conference on Smart Agriculture" is arranged in conjunction with the online exhibition of diverse R&D results of pioneering industries (https://bit. ly/smartagri2021). Through the implementation of cross-domain pioneering technologies and the integration of the expertise from various domains, it is hoped that the enhanced values of the industries and the remodeled ways of industrial operation will solve the difficulties and break through the bottlenecks faced by agriculture now and further drive agricultural transformation and upgrading in the post-pandemic era, to achieve agricultural sustainability in Taiwan.