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The academic level of Southeast Asian countries has been upgraded year-by-year, obtaining high recognition for their research achievements. Many academic societies or other collective bodies of scientists from the various fields of agricultural sciences have been established although many fields remain unorganized. Since their activities are generally limited to domestic interactions with their native language as the presentation tool, they are disadvantaged by under exposure to international evaluation and accreditation.

We realize the necessity to establish a permanent international organization in order to promote science and technology in Southeast Asia. Therefore, we hereby establish an integrated organization called the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences (ISSAAS) with a view to guaranteeing the evaluation and accreditation of the scientific work and research, and to upgrading the quality of the scientists, other researchers and technical experts of the region.

This is important because agricultural sciences create the academic basis for agriculture and its related industries, having natural sciences as its vertical axis and humanities as its horizontal axis, upon which agricultural sciences stand as the applied science. In as much as the mission of agricultural sciences is to develop agriculture and related industries and to present solutions on individual subjects of interest, a balance must be sought between taking the course of minimum risk to nature and human beings and trying to maximize the benefits. Modern agricultural sciences are obliged to regulate and control biological phenomena as well as to prepare, regulate, and control the environment, which interacts with living organisms, whereby the productivity of agriculture has been remarkably improved.

Modernization of agriculture in Southeast Asia, however, has presented many pitfalls. Among these are vulnerability of large-scale farming to natural environmental fluctuations; environmental problems such as soil erosion, wind erosion, increasing desertification, decreasing soil fertility, pollution by agricultural chemicals, and accumulation of agricultural wastes, which can be attributed to monoculture farming and large-scale irrigation; water shortages, soil subsidence due to excessive mining of ground water, and submergence due to flooding; and social and political problems such as the breakdown of social harmony between industry and agriculture, imbalance between surplus and shortage in food production as well as disputes regarding agriculture among nations. Other problems include over cropping, excessive deforestation, slash and burn cultivation, destruction of tropical forests like mangrove, and overuse of land and natural resources.

Confronted with population increases while also being concerned with food production and environmental conservation, governments and agricultural scientists must grapple with most serious Issues. Furthermore, global problems such as the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, desertification, acidic deposition, and salinization of soil need to be addressed and effectively remedied. Many suggestions for solutions have been offered. However, these vary exceedingly in nature and method, and some are in conflict with others. One of the major reasons is the extreme specialization of the sciences. Keeping up with today's remarkable scientific and technological progress, agricultural sciences also have taken the course of branching off into specialities and widening out each field of expertise. While the understanding of each specialized field deepens, the agricultural sciences will not accomplish their mission without greater comprehension linked to pooling data by holistic and integrated evaluation.

In order to cope with many issues that generate confusion in global agriculture, a first step is to recognize the natural attributes of Southeast Asia, which have been developed as farm areas and kept the tradition of farmers through their history. There is a great and present need to protect and improve the agricultural ecosystem in the region. Therefore, we desire to contribute to global agriculture by promoting Southeast Asian agricultural development.

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