On Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023, at 09:00 AM, Mr. Arthit Sukhkasem, Deputy Director of the Land Development Department, Academic Division, presided over the opening ceremony of a practical training program on the course "Biological Soil Quality Assessment Techniques in Agricultural Areas." This program is a collaboration between CESRA (Center of Excellence on Soil and Water Conservation Research in the Asian Region), the Land Development Department, the IRD (French Research Institute for Development), and the INRA (National Institute of Agricultural Research) Institute for the fiscal year 2023.

The training took place from August 21st to 25th, 2023, at the Land Development Department in Bangkok and the Research Center for Soil and Water Conservation in Pak Chong District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Participants included officers from the Land Development Department, international researchers under the collaboration network between the Land Development Department and IRD, as well as the INRA Institute.

The objectives of the training were to provide participants with the opportunity to learn and develop skills in using the Biofunctool® toolkit for assessing biological soil quality. This included presenting the progress of the project and evaluating the collaboration between the Land Development Department, IRD, and INRA Institute for the year 2023. The aim was to gather information for managerial consideration in determining directions and developing work strategies for future collaboration projects with the IRD Institute.