Paris, 12 January 2004


EFITA newsletter / 142 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


Swiss precision!
In Switzerland there were in 2001, 68784 farmers, whose 48148 were fulltime farmers.
In 2003, on the basis of 300 interviews, we observed that 63% had a PC and 47% were connected to the Internet.
Contact: Jakob BRÄNDLI
mailto:jakob.braendli@meteoschweiz.ch


10 December 2003, Rome/Geneva -- The information revolution has completely bypassed nearly one billion people, creating a digital divide that hinders development, FAO warned
On the opening day of the first ever Global Summit on the Information Society, in Geneva, the Organization said that most of the estimated one billion people who have not benefited from the transformation of global information systems were the rural poor, many of whom survive on less than a dollar a day.
"There is a rural digital divide that needs to be addressed. It is imperative that the World Summit on the Information Society focuses on the needs of the world's poor living in rural areas," said Anton Mangstl, Director of FAO's Library and Documentation Systems Division.
"More than three quarters of the poorest people on the planet, those who have been left behind by the information transformation, are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture," he added.
Bridging the rural digital divide has become a priority for FAO, and will be the main message the Organization will be taking to this year's Summit to be held in Geneva 10-12 December 2003.
The World Summit on the Information Society will bring together Heads of State, UN agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and civil society, the private sector and the media.
The Summit aims to foster a clear statement of political will and a concrete plan of action to shape the future of the global information society and to promote urgently needed access for all countries to the information, knowledge and communication technologies needed for development.
According to FAO experts, the digital divide excludes countries and specific populations, above all rural people, from vital knowledge and information on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, nutrition and other aspects of rural development.
Such exclusion is a major constraint to the achievement of the goal of halving the number of the undernourished in the world by the year 2015.
FAO and its partners are working to bridge the rural digital divide by strengthening human and institutional capacities to harness information and knowledge more effectively.
FAO recognises that knowledge and access to information are essential for combating hunger and poverty effectively.
For these activities to be realized, the poor must play an active role in the process.
The World Summit on the Information Society was held in two phases: Geneva (10-12 December 2003) and Tunisia (16-18 November 2005).
See: http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/26167-en.html
Contacts: Stephanie HOLMES, Charlotte MASIELLO
mailto:stephanie.holmes@fao.org, mailto:charlotte.masiello@fao.org


CIGR 2004 Conference
11-14 October, 2004 - Beijing
Call for paper: The deadlines for paper submission are:
- April 1, 2004: Submission of abstracts
- April 15, 2004: Notification of acceptance, instructions for authors.
- June 15, 2004: Full manuscript due.
- Aug. 15, 2004: Detailed Programmer available on the Internet.

> Session I: Land and Water Management: Decision Tools and Practice
Chairman: Prof. Luis Santos Pereira, President elected of CIGR, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Topics:
1. Water Saving and Water Productivity Models, data, and model validation and calibration
- Modelling irrigation systems
-Information tools for irrigation scheduling and delivery scheduling
2. Land Use Planning and Management
-RS, GPS, and monitoring
-Information systems and GIS tools
-DSS for land use planning
3. Soil Erosion and Conservation
-Models and data gathering
-Planning for extreme events
-Maintenance and modernization of soil conservation structures
4. Water Conservation and Soil Management
-Soil physical properties and data bases
-Soil tillage and land forming
-Water harvesting
5. Salinity, Water Treatment and Reuse, and Contamination Control
-Monitoring to avoid land degradation and water contamination
-Modeling salinity and contamination dynamics
-Tools and practices for reuse of drainage and waste water

> Session II: Bioproducts Processing and Food Safety
Chairman: Prof. Da-Wen Sun Chair of CIGR Section VI, National University of Ireland, Dublin
Topics:
1. Physical Properties
2. Sensors and Sensing Technology
3. Process Modelling, Simulation and Control
4. Thermal Processing, Chilling and Freezing
5. Dehydration Processes
6. Separation Processes
7. Preservation and Storage
8. Packaging
9. Emerging Processing Technologies
10. Product Quality and Safety
11. Biotechnology
12. Waste Treatment and Management
13. Processing Equipment

> Session III: Information Technology for Agriculture
Co-Chairmen:
Prof. Maohua Wang, Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering; Honorary President of CSAE and CSAM
Prof. Nick Sigrimis, Chairman, CIGR section VII, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
Prof. Hashimoto, Honorary Chairs & Founding members of CIGR Section VII, President of the Japanese Society for Agricultural Informatics
Topics:
1. Strategic issues related to the research, use, deployment, and adoption of IT in agriculture.
2. Information technology in agriculture, food production, resource and environmental management.
3. Spatial information technology (GPS, GIS, RS) for agriculture; precision agriculture and precision livestock farming.
4. Advanced sensing technology, instrumentation, robotics and automation systems for agriculture.
5. Biosensors & bioinformatics.
6. Information technology for food quality, safety, and traceability.
7. Machine vision and spectroscopy.
8. Modelling and simulation of agricultural & biosysytems
9. Expert systems, decision-support systems, and applied software development for agriculture.
10. Communications, networking, and wireless technologies.
11. Web-based technology and information services for agriculture.

> Session IV: Conservation tillage and Sustainable Small Farming
Chairman: Prof. Gao Huanwen, Head of Center For Conservation Tillage Research - CAU
Topics:
1. Conservation Tillage of Past, Present and Future
2. Conservation Tillage Technologies for Small Scale Farming in Developing Countries
3. The Impacts of Conservation Tillage on Soil Properties
4. The Changes and Control Strategies of Weeds, Insects, Diseases under Conservation Tillage
5. Small and Middle Size Conservation Tillage Implement
6. The Effects of Conservation Tillage To Reduce Dust Storm and Crop Field Desertification
7. The Economic, Biologic and Social Benefits of Conservation Tillage
8. Conservation Tillage Experiment, Demonstration and Extension
9. The Development Strategies of Small Scale Farming in Developing Countries
10. The Engineering Technologies for Small Scale Farming
11. The Sustainability of Small Scale Farming in Economy, Ecology and Society

> Session V: Modern Agricultural Equipment and Facilities
Chairman: Prof. Zhihuai Mao, China Agricultural University, China
Topics:
1. Innovative farm machinery and equipment
2. Automation and autonomous technology for field machinery
3. Harvesting technology and harvest equipment
4. Greenhouse equipment and automation
5. Advances in tractive and transportation
6. Agricultural dynamic systems
7. Education in modern agricultural equipment and facilities

> Forum: ABE Discipline and Education Development Strategy

See: http://www.2004cigr.org

Contact: Maohua WANG
mailto:wangmh@cae.cn


Classical swine fever: New test approved
See: http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/1665|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display=


10 million euro for a new EU Programme to promote biological and genetic diversity
See: http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/1807|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display=


Internationale Grüne Woche
16.-25 January 2004, Berlin
See: http://www.gruenewoche.de


The three little pigs - revisited
This is a true story, indicating how fascinating the mind of a six year old is. They think so logically... Read on!
A teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to her class.
She came to the part of the story where the first pig was trying to gather the building materials for his home.
She read:
...and so the pig went up to the man with the wheelbarrow full of straw and said:
- Pardon me sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?"
The teacher paused... then asked the class:
- And what do you think the man said?"
One little boy raised his hand and said very matter-of-factly:
- I think the man would have said: Well, f*** me! A talking pig! The teacher was unable to teach for the next 10 minutes.
Contact: Mick HARKIN
mailto:harkin@iol.ie


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