Recognised by the science and technology world, the 57-year-old NSTDA director was selected to be one of 36 fellows of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFost) to encourage international activities related to food science and technology.

IAFost is an international non-profit organisation that promotes food science and technology development.

The academy, every two years, identifies and recognises individuals from around the world who are distinguished by scientific and professional contributions to food science and technology for nomination as a fellow.

Sakarindr is the only person from Thailand and Asean to join IAFost's fellow group, whose members come from 21 countries from all parts of the world. The fellows play a key part in fostering international cooperation amongst different countries on food science and technology development.

"Being a part of IAFost's fellows will offer us more opportunities to create international collaboration and exchange information with other countries around the world in food science and technology development, and this will benefit the country, especially when we improve our food production and consumption," Sakarindr said.

In Thailand, he is recognised as an expert in biotechnology and food science.

Prior to taking up the post of director of NSTDA, he was the president of the Food Science and Technology Association of Thailand.

Sakarindr obtained his highest degree, a doctorate in chemical engineering, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. After a post-doctoral position at the university, he came back to take up a teaching and research career in Thailand and also worked to apply technology to improve the local food processing industry.

For a decade he has directed the rural development project, which is involved in the agro-processing industry as a core to rural development activities in Thailand.

He said that for Thailand, food played an important role in both domestic consumption and export, so he hoped to use the development of food science and technology to improve the quality of life of the people as well as increase food productivity and quality.

There are two major problems with food consumption in the country. The first is malnutrition among children in remote areas, while the second involves obesity in children in the city.

To tackle these problems, Sakarindr said food science and technology would help experts analyse the food consumption habits of the people so that they could offer food supplements with proper nutrition.

Meanwhile, genetic technology, for example, could be used in cases of obesity to allow experts to study and examine in-depth each individual for genes that may make them overweight, and this would help them find a better and more appropriate means of treatment.

In addition, Sakarindr also looks at the use of science and technology to improve food quality and production and this, he said, would eventually help support the country's exports.

"It's necessary to adopt new technology to help farmers increase their agricultural productivity and quality while reducing investment costs," he said.

He hopes that local technology, research and development would change the way people currently cultivate crops to what he calls "smart agriculture".

Smart agriculture means adopting information technology and automation systems to make the farm more intelligent. Farmers can have an automated system to help manage their farm more efficiently. Not only can they monitor the farm's overall status, but they could also have automatic watering arrangements and keep records of planting information through various stages, to assist with further planning.

He said using new technology would help farmers improve the quality of their agricultural products while increasing productivity.

However, he added that to initiate the use of food science and technology in the country, local development in government sector alone was not enough, and cooperation from the private sector in R&D was also essential.

"We need collaboration from the private sector so that we can push new technology development and apply it in industries," he said.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation