News
The 2006 Presidential Awards for Agricultural Excellence
2006-01-19
The Council of Agriculture on January 6 announced the winners of the 2006 Presidential Awards for Agricultural Excellence. The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center’s Mungbean Green Revolution in Asia Team, Taiwan Animal Cloning and Transgenic Research Team, and Dr. Hong-Zi Su have been selected as winners of this year’s National Food Security Award, Agricultural Innovation Award, and Agricultural Equilibrium Award respectively after three selection stages of careful deliberation and intensive discussion by the Selection Committee of The Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan. The 2006 Presidential Awards for Agricultural Excellence consists of five award categories - Food Security Award, Agricultural Innovation Award, Agricultural Equilibrium Award, Agricultural Service Award, and Sustainable Development Award, and attracted a total of 27 individual/team entries.
The Selection Committee announced results of initial screening and selection in November 2005 and concluded that this year’s Sustainable Development Award and Agricultural Service Award will not be awarded. During the final screening stage, the judge panel (composed of eleven representatives from academic community, industry and civil society) narrowed down to seven finalists for the three award categories. “The screening process involved numerous meetings with extensive discussions and heated debates. The finalists were outstanding individuals or research teams who succeeded under the close scrutiny of the Selection Committee,” said Council of Agriculture.
The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center’s Mungbean Green Revolution in Asia Team, winner of this year’s National Food Security Award, is an international vegetable research institute with its headquarters in Taiwan. Dr. Hyo-Guen Park, leader of the team, and his research colleagues have worked on mungbean breeding since 1974. The objective of their research is to breed mungbeans with shorter growth period, higher yields, low photo-sensitivity, higher pod number, larger seed size, brighter color, stable maturity, and are resistant to yellow mosaic virus, leaf spot, white mildew, and mungbean weevil. The center’s current international research team consists of 11 experts specializing in breeding, plant pathology, nutrition, and agricultural economics. They have succeeded in collecting 6,000 mungbeans breed lines worldwide, conducted over 3,000 breeding trials and generated 66 new varieties. The center’s research results have been widely applied in mass production in 22 countries or regions, over one million and two hundred thousand hectares of land. The countries include India, Pakistan, Thailand, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
Taiwan Animal Cloning and Transgenic Research Team, winner of this year’s Agricultural Innovation Award, consists of elite researchers from Taiwan National University, National Chung-Hsing University, Ping-Tung University of Science and Technology, and KaoHsung Ranch, Yi-Mei Co. The team’s two recent breakthroughs in cloning and transgenic research won them this year's Agricultural Innovation Award. First, the team’s clone sheep “Bao-Xiang” has demonstrated the ability to naturally reproduce offspring. Second, the team’s other creation “Bao-Yu,” a clone sheep carrying human’s coagulation factor VIII, has also demonstrated the ability to naturally reproduce offspring (named “Bao-Bay”) that also carries the same coagulation factor. The team’s proven success in cloning cows that yield milk with highest protein content and cell freeze technology used in preserving Taiwan’s native husbandry breeds exemplifies how academic research is used to generate high commercial profits. The research team’s future goals include establishing animal gene factory to generate high-value protein for human use and exploring gene-regulated embryo growth mechanism in animals.
Dr. Hong-Zi Su, winner of this year’s Agricultural Equilibrium Award, is widely recognized as a pioneer in researching citrus huanglongbing (citrus greening) and banana and citrus virus & diseases. Dr. Su continued his research after retirement from the National Taiwan University. A five-time winner of Ministry of Education (MOE) and National Science Council (NSC) awards, Dr. Su has contributed to developing biotechnological diagnosis, de-virulence and disease prevention techniques, all of which are widely adopted in Taiwan and overseas. In the past decade, Dr. Su’s research results played a pivotal role in several of Taiwan’s foreign aid and overseas agricultural projects coordinated by International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF) and Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) in South Asian countries, Okinawa, Saudi Arabia, and Mainland China. Dr. Su has also committed himself to increasing Taiwan’s international presence and exchange of agricultural technologies as he was often invited by International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain（INIBAP） and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit （GTZ）to direct agricultural programs and give lectures in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
This year, the Presidential Awards for Agricultural Excellence once again recognizes the achievements of the outstanding winners and highlights Taiwan’s contribution to world agriculture. The three winners will each receive a plaque, a certificate of excellence, and a one million New Taiwan Dollars at the awarding ceremony on February 7th, after the Chinese New Year. As the award underlines Taiwan’s agricultural competitiveness and the nation’s commitment to developing new agricultural technologies and varieties, it will continue to encourage researches and practices to ensure food security and safety, innovate agricultural value chain, optimize production and distribution mechanism, and facilitate global exchange in the interests of all man kind.
The Selection Committee announced results of initial screening and selection in November 2005 and concluded that this year’s Sustainable Development Award and Agricultural Service Award will not be awarded. During the final screening stage, the judge panel (composed of eleven representatives from academic community, industry and civil society) narrowed down to seven finalists for the three award categories. “The screening process involved numerous meetings with extensive discussions and heated debates. The finalists were outstanding individuals or research teams who succeeded under the close scrutiny of the Selection Committee,” said Council of Agriculture.
The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center’s Mungbean Green Revolution in Asia Team, winner of this year’s National Food Security Award, is an international vegetable research institute with its headquarters in Taiwan. Dr. Hyo-Guen Park, leader of the team, and his research colleagues have worked on mungbean breeding since 1974. The objective of their research is to breed mungbeans with shorter growth period, higher yields, low photo-sensitivity, higher pod number, larger seed size, brighter color, stable maturity, and are resistant to yellow mosaic virus, leaf spot, white mildew, and mungbean weevil. The center’s current international research team consists of 11 experts specializing in breeding, plant pathology, nutrition, and agricultural economics. They have succeeded in collecting 6,000 mungbeans breed lines worldwide, conducted over 3,000 breeding trials and generated 66 new varieties. The center’s research results have been widely applied in mass production in 22 countries or regions, over one million and two hundred thousand hectares of land. The countries include India, Pakistan, Thailand, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
Taiwan Animal Cloning and Transgenic Research Team, winner of this year’s Agricultural Innovation Award, consists of elite researchers from Taiwan National University, National Chung-Hsing University, Ping-Tung University of Science and Technology, and KaoHsung Ranch, Yi-Mei Co. The team’s two recent breakthroughs in cloning and transgenic research won them this year's Agricultural Innovation Award. First, the team’s clone sheep “Bao-Xiang” has demonstrated the ability to naturally reproduce offspring. Second, the team’s other creation “Bao-Yu,” a clone sheep carrying human’s coagulation factor VIII, has also demonstrated the ability to naturally reproduce offspring (named “Bao-Bay”) that also carries the same coagulation factor. The team’s proven success in cloning cows that yield milk with highest protein content and cell freeze technology used in preserving Taiwan’s native husbandry breeds exemplifies how academic research is used to generate high commercial profits. The research team’s future goals include establishing animal gene factory to generate high-value protein for human use and exploring gene-regulated embryo growth mechanism in animals.
Dr. Hong-Zi Su, winner of this year’s Agricultural Equilibrium Award, is widely recognized as a pioneer in researching citrus huanglongbing (citrus greening) and banana and citrus virus & diseases. Dr. Su continued his research after retirement from the National Taiwan University. A five-time winner of Ministry of Education (MOE) and National Science Council (NSC) awards, Dr. Su has contributed to developing biotechnological diagnosis, de-virulence and disease prevention techniques, all of which are widely adopted in Taiwan and overseas. In the past decade, Dr. Su’s research results played a pivotal role in several of Taiwan’s foreign aid and overseas agricultural projects coordinated by International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF) and Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) in South Asian countries, Okinawa, Saudi Arabia, and Mainland China. Dr. Su has also committed himself to increasing Taiwan’s international presence and exchange of agricultural technologies as he was often invited by International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain（INIBAP） and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit （GTZ）to direct agricultural programs and give lectures in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
This year, the Presidential Awards for Agricultural Excellence once again recognizes the achievements of the outstanding winners and highlights Taiwan’s contribution to world agriculture. The three winners will each receive a plaque, a certificate of excellence, and a one million New Taiwan Dollars at the awarding ceremony on February 7th, after the Chinese New Year. As the award underlines Taiwan’s agricultural competitiveness and the nation’s commitment to developing new agricultural technologies and varieties, it will continue to encourage researches and practices to ensure food security and safety, innovate agricultural value chain, optimize production and distribution mechanism, and facilitate global exchange in the interests of all man kind.
