2018 GEAR-UP

Overview

In September of 2014, the United Nations held a Climate Summit in New York City. It resulted in the formation of the “Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture” and ensuing action plans to address issues related to climate change. As a result, new paradigms on agriculture, food security, nutrition and environment are being developed. One such emerging paradigm is called “Resilient Agriculture.”

Fortuitously, and with foresight, the National Chung-Hsing University (NCHU) and Texas A&M AgriLife Research of the Texas A&M University System jointly organized an inaugural forum on Global Ecology, Agriculture and Rural Uplift-Programs or GEAR-UP in Taichung, Taiwan in November of 2014. One major resolution coming out of the conference is the formation of a Joint Hub by NCHU and the Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M University. The other initiative is to further the pursuit on Resilient Agriculture with follow-up actions with the planning of the 5th GEAR-UP Forum.

The theme of the Forum for this year (2018) is “The GEAR UP Initiative for Regional Agricultural Collaborations in Southeast Asia and Beyond”. In this framework, there will be three sub-themes. They are: “Smart agriculture”, “Smart rural development and environmental management”,  “Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science” and “Biosensor”.

The 5th GEAR-UP Forum will again be held on the NCHU campus for four days on November 11 and 14. The first day (November 11) will be a comprehensive field trip to World Flora Exposition in Taichung. Forum participants shall gain insights into Taiwan’s progress on Resilient Agriculture from this visit.

Welcome to join us for this exciting experience!

Dr. Fu-Sheng Shieu, President of NCHU
Dr. Craig Nessler, Director, Texas A&M AgriLife Research
The 5th GEAR-UP Forum Organizing Committee

Sept., 2018