Re-Inventing Japan Project (Turkey)

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President, Niigata University Sugata TAKAHASHI

Niigata University is located on the Sea of Japan and is an important stronghold in East Asia. Our purpose is to contribute to the peace and progress of the mankind by research, education, and social contribution. In order to achieve this goal, we continuously strive to foster individuals who can actively contribute themselves to the global and local societies with high language and communication skills and ability to understand other cultures for the rapid globalization seen in the 21st century.

From that perspective, we are very delighted that Japan Society for the Promotion of Science selected our Global Framework of Student Capacity Development for Resilient Agriculture and Food Production Project, jointly applied by the Faculty of Agriculture, the Graduate School of Science and Technology, and the Research Institute for Natural Hazards & Disaster Recovery, as the Japan Re-Inventing Project (Turkey).

Niigata University, together with Fukushima University, has been collaborating with Ankara University, Ege University, and Middle East Technical University in the fields of Agriculture, Disaster Recovery, and others through education and research. Based on the collaboration history among five universities, we believe that the outcomes of the exchanges through this project will strongly contribute university-wide or even world-wide to the development of both countries.

Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Niigata University
Director, GLocal Age 2020 Control Center
Kuni SUEYOSHI

The Faculty of Agriculture, the Graduate School of Science and Technology, and the Research Institute for Natural Hazards and Disaster Recovery, Niigata University, and Fukushima University jointly applied their collaborative project, Global Framework of Student Capacity Development for Resilient Agriculture and Food Production, to the FY 2015 MEXT Re-Inventing Japan Project (Turkey) and was successfully selected.

The three collaborative universities in Turkey in this project are Ankara University, Ege University, and Middle East Technical University. Niigata University has concrete and active student exchange programs with Ankara University, based on 16 years of research collaboration, leading to the conclusion of the university-level cooperation agreement. Niigata University also has had research collaboration with Ege University in the field of organic agriculture since 2010 and with Middle East Technical University in the field of disaster mitigation since 2007. In 2015, Niigata University concluded the university-level cooperation agreements with both universities. Fukushima University has also been collaborating with Ankara University and Ege University in agriculture as well as disaster mitigation areas.

Niigata and Fukushima are considered leading agricultural prefectures in Japan. Various agricultures such as rice crops, vegetables, horticulture, orchard, and zootechnics are being conducted in both prefectures, covering plains, coastal regions, basins, mountain areas, and small islands from the Pacific Ocean to Sea of Japan sides. Furthermore, with the background of agricultural production, both prefectures are areas where various food industries are located. However, they are also areas where natural disasters, such as earthquakes, landslides due to heavy rainfalls, floods, and snow damages, are observed. Turkey is also one of the major agricultural countries in the world, where 8% of the GDP is from the agriculture. Recently in Turkey, intensive use of agricultural fields and soil deterioration due to desertification have become problems, and natural disasters has also been occurring frequently, just like our country.

As mentioned above, the agriculture and food production in Japan and Turkey are exposed to common risks. This project, therefore, focuses on combining strengths of five collaborating universities and integrating experience and wisdom of both countries into advanced technology to nurture individuals with ability to respond flexibly to these risks, so-called RESILIENCE, and contribute to economic development in both countries. In order to achieve this goal, we have developed the appropriate educational framework.

Through this project, we strongly hope to further develop collaboration between Japan and Turkey, inspire other faculties or universities in terms of internationalization, and to become a stronghold on global educational exchanges, where students can develop ability to understand other cultures and expand perspectives. We greatly appreciate your continuous support and cooperation.

Ankara Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi Dekanı Prof. Dr. Gökhan Söylemezoğlu

Dear Students,

With the responsibility of being the first faculty of agriculture of the Turkish Republic, Agriculture Faculty of Ankara University has always been the leading agricultural educational institution of Turkey. Thanks to his highly qualified education system, sound academic staff and research infrastructure, our faculty has managed to bring outstanding features of today’s agricultural sciences together and become a reliable educational research institute in the nation.

From very beginning of his establisment, our faculty has achieved to gain students both theoretical and practical knowledge and experiences in our research laboratories and research farms located in the region of Ankara.

In the international arena, our faculty always aims to focus on the global development of our students through international summer internship and student exchange programs, i.e. opportunities of Erasmus Student Mobility and additionally plays an important role in global research-innovation projects on international agricultural issues.

In this regard, I am delighted to express that our faculty has increasingly developing international relationships with deep-rooted and elite universities in Japan. Among these dialogues, our growing collaboration with Niigata University is the most proud one, dating back to the year of 2010. During last five years, our students and academic staff members realized joint research activities, meetings and workshops in this fruitful collaboration. In the year of 2015, these progresses pointed us new approaches to develop Turkey-Japan Scientific cooperation better.

Dear Students, as you may know, sustainable management of natural and agricultural resources and global food security issues are the priority interests of the whole world in the face of concerns such as growing world population and climate change. In this sense, we wish you agriculture and food scientists of the future to be able to adapt to different professional conditions; be equipped with both local and global visions to produce concrete proposals in the face of world problems.

Therefore, in the year of 2015, the distinguished faculties of the universities from Turkey (Ankara, Ege and Middle East Technical Universities) and Japan (Niigata and Fukushima Universities) came together in a great student exchange project supported by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. Our aim is to educate the professionals of the future in a local/global (GLOCAL) scale in agriculture and disaster management.

In the frame of this big project “The project for Global Framework of student capacity development for resilient agriculture and food production” we would expect you students to absorb traditional and modern cultural, environmental, agricultural aspects of both countries and to lead innovative models in future’s agriculture and food production.

I wish you all to take advantages of this wonderful opportunity.