Join Study in Japan with Nepalese researchers on ICT in Agriculture for APT-CI

JTEC’s proposal of which the title is "Collaborative research for designing agricultural digital ecosystem for smart villages at highlands near the Himalayas in Nepal" was selected as International Collaborative Research (Category I) run by the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT), which promotes the development of telecommunications services and information infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region.

This research is carried out by MAXTECH Study and Services (Pvt.) Ltd. (ICT consulting firm) and Bhanu Municipality (survey site) on the Nepal side, and JTEC, Daiwa Computer Co., Ltd. (ICT system vender including for agriculture), and agricultural expert Mr. Tatsufumi Yoshioka on the Japan side. The objectives of the research are 1) To investigate issues in the agriculture, education, and healthcare fields of Bhanu Municipality at highlands near the Himalayas in Nepal, and 2) To design a pilot project plan for an Agriculture Digital Ecosystem for smart village of Bhanu Municipality at highlands near the Himalayas in Nepal. The research period is from February to December 2024.

First, Japanese researchers visited Nepal in May to conduct the joint study, and confirmed that: 1) the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology announced the " DIGITAL NEPAL FRAMEWORK " in 2019 and is promoting digitalization in eight fields, including agriculture; 2) the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development encourages urban-rural linkage through composting using urban food waste and organic crops; 3) Bhanu Municipality aims to increase farmers’ profits by increasing organic crop production and selling to consumers who understand the value of organic crops.; 4) urban consumers including Japanese residents want to buy organic crops, but are having trouble confirming whether the products on store shelves are truly organic because there is no organic certification system in Nepal.

In September, three researchers from Nepal (Mr. Lekhnath TIMALSENA of MAXTECH, Mr. Ananda Raj Tripathi, Mayor of Bhanu Municipality, and Mr. Dinesh Khanal of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) visited the relevant locations in Saitama, Nagano, Shizuoka, Gifu, and Aichi Prefectures, where they learned about 1) examples of organic certification used in Japan and 2) agricultural ICT initiatives. It was the first time for some researchers to see the ocean.
 

From now, Japanese researchers will visit Nepal in December to hold workshops in Bhanu Municipality and Kathmandu to present and exchange ideas on the results of our collaborative research and studies on designing the agriculture digital ecosystem, as well as to support capacity building of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for policy formulation.