The Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS), funded and organized the Local Training on Establishing Real-Time AFSIS and Development of Human Resources 3rd Phase Project during 23-25 November 2022, in Vientiane, Lao PDR. Additionally, the training was provided by the EGIS consortium as the instructors.
There was a total of 50 candidates from Lao PDR as governance officers in charge of food security and agricultural food data. The representatives of the AFSIS Secretariat were Dr. Waraporn Saelee, AFSIS Manager, and Dr. Sumanya Ngandee, Deputy AFSIS Manager participated in this training.
During the opening session of the training program, Dr. Boundeth SOUTHAVILAY, Deputy Director General of Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was honored with opening remarks. In addition, Dr. Waraporn Saelee, AFSIS Manager, Mr. Kham NILAVONG, Deputy Director General of Champasak Provincial of Agriculture and Forestry Office, as well as Mr. KWANG SE (Bruce), Lee, Global Chief Marketing Officer, EGIS company delivered welcoming remarks to all the participants.
The main goal of this training program was to strengthen ICT human capabilities and data preparation on food security information under the Establishing Real-Time ASEAN Food Security Information System and Development Human Resources (Real-Time AFSIS Project) 3rd Phase. Furthermore, another goal aimed to report the performance of the implementation of the Real-Time AFSIS Project 3rd Phase in Lao PDR.
The training provided lessons on spatial information and also related technologies with Forecasting Model in the agriculture sector. Furthermore, the attendees gained not only knowledge on the utilization of related technologies but also did practical training with drone surveys, analyzing the drone images, and utilization of analyzed data.
The training was successfully completed with great collaboration from all participants. In this regard, AFSIS will keep supporting and collaborating with key organizations to enhance both the ASEAN Food Security Information System and the region's human resource development.
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On 5–6 March 2026, the AFSIS Secretariat participated in the 14th Meeting of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) Council via video conference, hosted by the Kingdom of Cambodia. The meeting brought together representatives from ASEAN Plus Three countries, the ASEAN Secretariat, the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board (AFSRB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the APTERR Secretariat, and the AFSIS Secretariat to discuss key issues related to regional food security and emergency rice reserves.
On 18 February 2026, the AFSIS Secretariat participated in the international event Google’s “Impact of AI on Global Agriculture,” organized by Google.org at Roseate House, Aerocity, New Delhi, India.
On 12-13 February 2026, the AFSIS Secretariat, in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Japan and the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE), Ministry of Agriculture Cooperatives (MOAC), conducted a workshop conducted a workshop The Promoting Rice Planted Area and Production Estimation Using INAHOR and Space-based Technologies in Thailand at the Meeting Room 2, Innovation Building, 3rd FL, Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE)
The In-Country Workshop on Promoting Rice Planted Area and Production Estimation Using Space-based Technologies in Lao PDR was jointly organized by AFSIS Secretariat, JAXA, MAFF Japan, and MAE Lao PDR under the AFSIS-GIS and SAFE projects. The event was held in Vientiane with hands-on training on 9 February 2026 and a workshop on 10 February 2026.
