Visit of the Presidency of Kasetsart University (Bangkok, Thailand) to Montpellier (France), November 2022

Thailand, an emerging country with upper middle-income status, has ambitions to join the developed economies. Its investment in research and education and the presence in Bangkok of regional offices of international agencies - FAO, WHO, ESCAP and ASEAN with a new centre on emerging diseases.

The development of agriculture has been accompanied by the establishment of a range of agri-businesses, which are now a powerful driver for Thai agriculture. This development requires an understanding of the relationships between agriculture and the environment and between human societies and nature in order to manage rural areas sustainably. Thailand is also an important driver in the region for the development of integrated approaches to health (One Health) with several universities showing a strong interest in the PREZODE initiative. Moreover, the PREZODE letter of intent was signed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health and was officially handed over by the Thai Prime Minister to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Bangkok on 17 November 2022 on the occasion of the APEC summit.

For CIRAD in this country - and mainly in connection with Kasetsart University - the main areas of intervention are rubber cultivation (improving productivity, optimising agricultural practices, environmental impacts), sustainable management of ecosystems and soil biology, concerted management of agro-ecosystems (development of tools for representing the interface between ecological and social dynamics), and integrated approaches in the field of health, not just in terms of zoonotic diseases but also taking into account the environment and agricultural practices.  In this field, it should be emphasised that Kasetsart University wishes in the short term to set up a faculty of medicine and public health, which will contribute to strengthening integrated approaches to health (One Health) on the same site: animal health with two veterinary faculties, plant health and ecosystem health with the faculty of agriculture, human and social sciences, specialised institutes - and therefore soon a faculty of medicine.

The delegation consisted of Dr. Chongrak Wachrinrat, the President and deans of several faculties and directors of institutes, Associate Professors and Ph: Anuvat Jangchud, Dean of the Faculty of Agribusiness; Apisit Songsasen, Dean of the Faculty of Science; Chumpol Piamsomboon, Chairman of the Medical School Establishment Project; Kanapol Jutamanee, Director of Kasetsart University Institute for Advanced Studies ; Poonpipope Kasemsap, Director of the Center of Thai-French Cooperation on Higher Education and Research (DORAS); Srijidtra Charoenlarpnopparut, Dean of the Graduate School; Suriyan Tunkijjanukij, Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries; Thongrob Ruenbanthoeng, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.

The delegation visited the ARCAD (Agropolis Resource Centre for Crop Conservation, Adaptation and Diversity) site and the Abiophen experimental greenhouses on the CIRAD Lavalette site. There is a desire to build a similar facility to Abiophen at KU Bangkok to study climate change on crop production. 

The delegation met with the Director General and several members of the Agro Institute at the Gaillarde campus in Montpellier: https://en.institut-agro-montpellier.fr/

The morning of 17/11/22 was organized in the historical buildings of the Faculty of Medicine by the University of Montpellier/ISITE Excellence Programme, with discussions and presentations by the Directorates General of CIRAD and IRD - members of the ISITE strategic agreement, presentations on the collaborations between UM and KU, and on the One Health approaches at UM (ExposUM project). CIRAD presented the research and training partnerships (dP), in particular the three that involve KU: ASEA, HRPP and GREASE. In addition, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities of KU was also able to exchange with the Dean of the Faculty of Education of UM.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between UM/ISITE and KU, which thus becomes the first Asian university to join ISITE's international partnership.

The research and education topics addressed during the visits and discussions at CIRAD in Lavalette and Baillarguet campus were rubber cultivation, agroecology and One Health, as well as aquaculture and the coffee sector, with KU's desire to develop these two aspects in cooperation with CIRAD. An international master's degree had been set up between 2016 and 2021 at KU, as part of the One Health approach, by CIRAD and in conjunction with the University of Toulouse. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 crisis has led to a halt in the courses, but there is now a desire to resume and develop this Master's programme, which could potentially be done with the support of UM/ISITE and involve other partners. For this, and for other training courses, the mutualised system between CIRAD and the Institut Agro on training engineering in the South, called POLLENIS (PÔLE pour L'ENseignement et l'Ingénierie de la formation au Sud), could be mobilised.

Kasetsart University (KU) is a public research university located in Bangkok, Thailand. It is the first agricultural university in Thailand and the third oldest university in Thailand. It was established on February 1943 to promote subjects related to agricultural sciences. Since then, Kasetsart University has expanded its fields of study to cover life sciences, engineering sciences, social sciences and humanities. Kasetsart University's main campus is in Bangkhen, north of Bangkok, with several other campuses throughout Thailand. It is one of the largest universities in Thailand. The cooperation agreement between CIRAD and KU was signed in 2009 and has since been tacitly extended.