Postgraduate Program Promotes Smart food through Public Lectures

Udayana University held a public lecture with the theme "The Potential of Future Smart Food Crops for Diversified and Sustainable Food Systems", Tuesday (10/08/2019) in Room 3.10 Lt. III Ged. Sudirman Denpasar Postgraduate Campus and was attended by 40 students from various faculties.

This public lecture is a form of collaboration between Udayana University and the University of Wastern Australia. Currently both parties are conducting research into international cooperation on the potential of smart food in the future.

The speaker this time was Prof. Kadambot Siddique, lecturer and researcher from the University of Wastern Australia. In the public lecture, he explained about smart food which are neglected plants and strategies to develop it so that it can be consumed by the community, "Many future smart foods come from plants that are currently neglected and underutilized even though they have many benefits and advantages that are resistant to climate, dense with nutrients, and able to adapt to local conditions. For example in Indonesia there are sweet potatoes, taro and unique vegetables that are more nutritious and can be a substitute for rice, "he said.

Deputy Director for Academic and Student Affairs, Ir. Ida Ayu Astarini, M.Sc., Ph.D added that the purpose of this public lecture was to socialize and increase awareness of the importance of neglected and endangered plants. Moreover, with the conversion of plant-weed land will become increasingly scarce, so from now we have to explorer dam carefully where plants that have important benefits so that later can be developed as the main crop.

It is hoped that this activity can provide better output related to research, namely books, publications, and journals in the following year. In addition, through these outputs can be used as thesis topics, theses and of course for lecture material. (vrd, yun)