Minutes of the Business Meeting
6th Asian Crop Science Conference
Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand
16.00-17.30 hrs., 7 November 2007
Attendants
CountryAustralia
Cambodia

Name
Dr. Andrew K.
BorrellMr. Hun Yadana

India

Dr. Dinesh C. Joshi

Indonesia

Prof. Antonius
SuwantoMs. Grace Yasmein
WijayaMs. Masdiar
BustamamJapan

Prof. Makie
KokubunDr. Satoshi Tobita

Dr. Yutaka Hirata

Korea

LaosAssist. Prof. Dosoon Kim
Prof. Suk-ha Lee
Prof. Sun Hee Woo
Mrs. Kongpanh
Kanyavong
Mr. SouvanhThadavong

Affiliation
Department of Primary
Industries and Fisheries
Cambodia Agricultural
Research and Development
Institute (CARDI)
Barwale Foundation
Bogor Agricultural University
Faculty of Biotechnology,
Atma Jaya Catholic University
Indonesian Center for
Agricultural Biotechnology andGenetic Resources Researchand Development(ICABIOGRAD)
President, Crop Science
Society of Japan
Japan International ResearchCenter for Agricultural
Sciences (JIRCAS)
Tokyo University ofAgriculture and Technology /Crop Science Society of Japan
Seoul National University
Seoul National University
Chungbuk National University
Agricultural Research Center(ARC)
National Agriculture andForestry Research Institute(NAFRI)
Department of Agricultural
Research
BIOTEC

MyanmarDr. Khin Than Nwe

ThailandDr. Theerayut
Toojinda
Ms. Siriporn
BIOTECWattanasrirungkul
Ms. Duangkaew
BIOTEC
Chongkachornphong

email
Andrew.Borrell@dpi.qld.gov.au
hunyadana@cardi.org.kh

dineshjoshi@barwalefoundation.org;
dineshjoshi2000@yahoo.com
asuwanto@indo.net.id
grace.wijaya@atmajaya.ac.id
masdiarb@indo.net.id;
maedy46@yahoo.com

kokubun@bios.tohoku.ac.jp
Bita1mon@jircas.affrc.go.jp

yhirata@cc.tuat.jp

dosoonkim@snu.ac.kr
sukhalee@snu.ac.kr
shwoo@chungbuk.ac.kr
kk_kongpanh@yahoo.com
souvanhthadavong@yahoo.com

kt-nwe@mail4u.com.mm; directordar@myanmar.com.mm
theerayut@dna.kps.ku.ac.thsiriporn@biotec.or.th
gal@biotec.or.th

Absence
Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

1Agenda 1. Welcome by Chairman
Dr. Theerayut Toojinda informed the meeting that Prof. Morakot Tantichaoren is unable toattend this meeting due to her engagement to give presentation in a different conference
session. Dr. Toojinda would chair this meeting on her behalf.
Dr. Toojinda welcomed attendants, consisting of old and new members, to the meeting andthanked them for their participation.
Agenda 2. Self introduction of attendants
Participants introduced themselves and their affiliation to the Meeting. The Meeting took
note of Myanmar as a new member and represented by Dr. Khin Than Nwe from theDepartment of Agricultural Research. Mr. Dinesh Joshi from Barwale Foundation in India
informed the meeting that he could only represent the interest of Barwale Foundation, which
is a non-profit organization, not the country of India.
To clarify membership inquiry raised by Dr. Joshi, the ACSA Charter was distributed, which
stipulates that membership is by the crop science society of the nation or can be by institute orindividual.
Prof. Kokubun informed the meeting that the Chinese Society of Agronomy had alreadyrenamed its society to Agronomy Society of Taiwan, to make way for the Crop Science
Society of China (CSSC) to join the ACSA membership. Ms. Duangkaew updated themeeting that Thailand had sent invitation to Dr. Lu Ming, Chairman of the Crop Science
Society of China to join the ACSA membership in October 2007. The reply is awaited. Prof.
Suk-ha Lee, the organizer of the 5th International Crop Science Congress, April 13-18, 2008
in Jeju, suggested that since the upcoming Congress expected over 100 Chinese scientists, wecould take the opportunity to open a dialogue and discussion with the CSSC on the subject ofACSA membership. The Meeting welcomed the idea of holding ACSA business meeting atICSC 2008.
Action:Korea to organize ACSA business meeting to ICSC 2008, inviting prospective Chineseattendants.
Agenda 3. Report of the 6th Asian Crop Science Conference
The organizer of the 6th Asian Crop Science Conference gave a report as following:
Sessions and Attendants
The 6th Asian Crop Science Conference was held in conjunction with the 2nd International
Conference on Rice for the Future, under the framework of BioAsia 2007 Thailand, aninternational scientific symposium and trade show, during 5-9 November 2005.
Four international organizations have organized events within our conference namely:• Generation Challenge Programme organized Workshop on products management anddelivery in GCP rice research in Asia
• HarvestPlus Program co-organized the Conference on 6 November 2007 with thetheme biofortification• Crop Science Society of Japan and the Japanese Society of Breeding organized a halfday session on “Improving Rice Yield Potentials Using Genome Information” onFriday, Nov 9th.
These events have brought in more experts, speakers and participants to the 6ACSAconference.
The 5-day conferences have a total of 49 invited lectures (including keynote and plenary) 8
oral presentations and 253 posters.

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There are 390 registrants to scientific conferences (as of 29 October 2007), categorized bycountries as following:
Australia
Bangladesh
Belgium
Cambodia
China
Colombia (all from CIAT)
Germany
FranceIndonesia
IsraelIndia
IranJapan

10123124381
91570

Korea
Laos
Sri Lanka
Myanmar
Mexico (all from CIMMYT)Malaysia
PhilippinesSingapore
ThailandUKUSA
Vietnam

2931432102188
2143

Production of Abstract and Proceedings
An abstract book contains 244 abstracts, whereas Proceedings for rice biotechnology contains
135 full papers. Both documents were produced and distributed at the Conference.
Action:• The financial statements for the 6ACSC to be completed within 3 months andreported to the business meeting to be held in ICSC 2008.
• The organisers of the 6ACSC will contact the new (7ACSC) organising committee on
the transfer of the surplus (seed money) for the 7ACSC.
Agenda 4. Discussion on host for the 7th Asian Crop Science Congress, 2010
A proposal was presented by Prof. Antonuis Suwanto of Bogor Agricultural University,
Indonesia proposing to host the 7th Asian Crop Science Conference in 2010. Bogor
Agricultural University, the proposed core organizer of 7ACSA, is the oldest and the leader ofagricultural-based university in Indonesia with many of the staffs involved in crop breedingand biotech; such as research and evaluation on Monsanto transgenic cotton in Indonesia. Its
network includes government research agencies related in agriculture (Balitbiogen;Indonesian Institute of Science - Biotechnology; Indo plant germplasm center; Balitvet),making the University one of top Government reference centers in term of agriculture.
Prof. Suwanto proposed locations to convene 7ACSA:• Bogor: Home of the oldest and most preserved botanical garden in Indonesia; Has
new convention center; approx 1.5 hr drive from Jakarta• Bali: World famous tourist destination; approx 1.5 hr by flight from Jakarta• Combination of Bogor and Bali
Prof. Suwanto inquired the Meeting about the role and responsibility of the organizer as wellas the financial aspect of organizing the event. Dr. Borrell explained that the host country had
full rights and responsibility to formulate the scientific program, the organization of themeeting and fund raising from public, private and international organizations. Integrating
ACSA conference to the national, regional, or international event could also help financing
the project. Ms. Duangkaew informed that it has been a tradition of former host passing on
seed money to the next host and after the financial statement of 6ACSA is completed,
Thailand would be able to inform the amount of seed money and to process the transfer offund to Indonesia.

3Prof. Kokubun suggested that the host of 7ACSA should consider incorporating field visit
into the program.
Action:Members accepted the proposal by Indonesia.
Agenda 5. Amendment of ACSA Charter
As the 5th ICSC will be held in 2008 and the 7ACSA will be in 2010, it was suggested thatchanging the schedule of ACSA meeting to every 4 years, off-set with the ICSC which is held
every 4 years, would be more appropriate. Therefore an amendment to ACSA Charter on thismatter was proposed and this 4-yr schedule would start after the 7ACSA.
Action:Meeting approved the amendment. Amended Charter is attached and will come into effectafter 2010.

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