Prof Dewi Sukma give the presentation at The World Orchid Conference (WOC) 2024

The World Orchid Conference (WOC) is a biggest and famous event for orchid stake holders in the world. The very first WOC was held in 1954 in Missouri, USA and it has continued for nearly 70 years. It is a triennial event in different cities across the continents and hemispheres that hosted by international, regional, or local orchid organizations. The WOC presents the longest-running and most internationally attended exhibition with a huge number of visitors (exceeding 200,00) over the years.

The 23^rd WOC was previously scheduled to be held in Taichung in 2020, however it was postponed doe to the pandemic of COVID-19 worldwide. It was rescheduled to April 2021 with the assumption of the COVID-19 pandemic would soon subside. At 2021, the pandemic persisted longer so that the host decided to present the WOC by digital Orchid Conference (2021 Virtual WOC). Taiwan efforts to bring WOC to Taiwan has taken 12 years since 2014, finally the WOC 2023 was held in Tainan City on February 2023.

As an orchid researcher and enthusiast, Prof Dewi Sukma, the lecturer at Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture IPB University, always try to follow many international orchid seminar or events and share the information of her orchid research in the seminar. In WOC 2023, Prof. Dewi Sukma also participated actively as a presenter. She presented about her team research on Dendrobium stratiotes related to establishment of seed germination. Dendrobium stratiotes Rchb.f (Kew) is a member of the Spatulata section that is found as a native species in Maluku and the Cycloop Mountain Nature Papua, Indonesia. There are limited reports about the in vitro germination and growth of D. stratiotes. The research results give the new inputs for establishing in vitro propagation of D. stratiotes.

Along with the WOC activity, Prof. Dewi Sukma also accompanied the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture of IPB Prof. Suryo Wiyono, for the signing of a collaboration between the Faculty of Agriculture of IPB, Institute of Tropical Plant Sciences and Microbiology, National Cheng Kung University (ITPSM, NCKU), and Academia Sinica, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center (AS ABRC) Taiwan. Prof. Dewi Sukma has been working on the collaboration since 2019. The scope of the signed cooperation agreement emphasizes several points of activity including: Double Degree Initiation and Establishment, Biodiversity Conservation and Development, Natural Farming for Sustainable Agriculture, and Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Development. Activities to be carried out include: Exchange of students, lecturers, researchers, research collaboration, joint seminars, joint publications, exchange of academic materials, publications and other information, academic-industry partnerships across signatory areas, other academic activities and collaboration in Collaboration in university social responsibility (USR).

Translated with DeepL.com