8th STEP held along the 2021 Mustafa(pubh) Prize in S&T
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The 8th STEP (Science and Technology Exchange Program) was organized in Iran by the Mustafa (PBUH) Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) from 19-22 October 2021 on the occasion of the 2021 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize ceremony held in Tehran Iran during the birth week of Prophet Muhammad Mustafa(pubh).
STEP is a platform, organized by Mustafa Science and Technology Foundation, to expand the scientific network amongst the STI actors of the Islamic world in form of holding international events and laying the groundwork for enhancing scientific synergy and cooperation.
ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) has been partner in the STEP right from the beginning and also participated in the STEP-8, held at various universities, research institutions in Iran. President ECOSF Manzoor Hussain Soomro joined the STEP-8 activity in the Isfahan University of Technology (IUT), Isfahan on 19 October. Prof. Soomro made a presentation entitled; “Farmer Field School Approach- A Better Tool to prepare farmers for the future challenges and smart agriculture” at the College of Agriculture Engineering of IUT.
In his presentation Dr. Soomro introduced the farmers’ capacity building approach called “Farmer Field School” (FFS); which is a non-formal and inquiry based learning approach to educate farmers about the scientific processes taking place in their crops and livestock in a place without walls, in the field or under a tree. In FFS, the experts and 25-30 farmers come together to observe their growing crops or livestock, collect data, do the agro-eco analysis, present the data and decide subsequent action to be taken by them. He shared his experiences of working with farming communities using FFS and also highlighted the importance of futuristic smart agriculture involving new and emerging technologies based on crops data and using Artificial Intelligence. After the one hour talk, Q&A session was held and the speaker answered questions on the talk and functioning of ECOSF for promotion of S&T in ECO member countries.