Paris, 27 February 2006


EFITA newsletter / 248 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


Developing and implementing Water Information Systems
21 March 2006 – MEXICO
See: http://www.iowater.org – "México" section
See: http://www.worldwaterforum4.org.mx/home/home.asp
E-mail: dg-oieau(a)wanadoo.fr


TRACE 2nd Annual Meeting
24 - 26 April 2006 – PRAGUE - Czech Republic
TRACE (TRAcing Food Commodities in Europe) is 5 year project funded by European Commission, through the Sixth Framework Programme under the Food Quality and Safety Priority.
See: http://www.trace.eu.org/


Point of view (in Fr-English): Computerising to make farm management easier!
In the Netherlands, Germany and France, the governments are trying to drastically reduce administrative burdens for agricultural entrepreneurs . We believe that to reach this objective there is no better mean than to use information and communication technology (ICT)… To work at European level could be interesting!
See: http://www.wenigerbuerokratie.com (in Germany)
See: http://www.simplifions.agriculture.gouv.fr/ (in France)
See: http://www.efita.net?d=5795 (for the Netherlands)
The results of our works with groups of French farmers in this domain are presented on our web site:
See: http://www.acta-informatique.fr?d=6137 (in French)
Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
Email: waksman(a)acta-informatique.fr


Development of Long-term shared vision on AMI Technologies for a Networked Agri-food sector
The objective of AMI@Netfood project is to support the implementation of the IST Research Priority and Framework Programme, providing a long-term vision on future trends on Scientific and Technology Research oriented to the development and application of Ambient Intelligence technologies to the agri-food domain. The project will be carried out developing an ERA Pilot joint collaboration platform resulting from a roadmap the area of Applications and services for collaborative working.
As a result AMI@Netfood provides a path, in the form of a Strategic Research Agenda, common to a number of EU Member States and Regions, which will be designed to guide RTD in ICTs to provide an answer to identified needs of the sector. The project provides a framework to discuss about the increasingly demanding need of having collaborative and mobile applications and services and innovative ways to tackle social issues and to bring benefits to consumers, industry and the environment. AMI@Netfood results will specifically focus on the solutions adaptable to the needs of local/regional SMEs in the Agri-food sector in themes like innovative extended products and services, rural development, efficient knowledge creation; sharing and exploitation through collaborative activities involving the individual - the mobile user and worker.
AMI@Netfood analysis will be developed involving key regional and national policy makers with responsibility in the design of RTD policies and programmes in the area of ICTs and Rural development at regional and/or national scale. By this, the project will generate a basis to identify mechanisms to mobilize public-private partnerships and investment needed on Research. Project results will also be widely disseminated so that they can be used to help in preparations for future Community, National or Regional research and technological development policy activities. AMI@Netfood will help creating a sustainable network that will be used as the basis for the definition of a set of common objectives that would be applied to a potential Technology Platform for the EU research in the area of ICTs for agri-food and Rural Development.
See http://ami-netfood.com/index.html


Top French Scientific Publishers Join AGORA: Francophone Developing Countries, Countries in Transition, to Benefit
Francophone scientists in 69 of the poorest countries of the world will now be able to access scientific journals in their own language now that the first of France’s leading publishers has joined AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture). AGORA is the FAO-lead initiative to provide students, researchers and academics in some of the world's poorest countries with free or low-cost access to a wealth of scientific literature.
Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), John Libbey Eurotext (JLE) and their partners* are the newest publishers to join AGORA, providing French-language journal, CAHIERS Agriculture, to eligible countries.
CAHIERS Agriculture, a well known and popular journal, becomes the first francophone publication to appear close to the Anglophone journals involved in AGORA. Already present in developing countries and countries in transition, CAHIERS Agriculture publishes original articles and abstracts on scientific, technical, economic and social issues as well as on general agriculture activities at-large. The bimestrial journal, co-published by AUF and JLF was created in 1992.
The AGORA initiative was launched on October 14, 2003 and since has seen significant increase in both user participation and in publishers agreeing to provide online access to their scientific journals. Currently, AGORA provides access to more than 800 key journals in food, nutrition, agriculture and related biological, environmental and social sciences.
To date, 644 institutions are registered from 60 of the 69 eligible countries.
* Acronyms mentioned:
- CIDEFA : Conférence Internationale des Directeurs et Doyens des Etablissements Supérieurs d'Expression Française des Sciences de l'Agriculture et de l'Alimentation
- CIRAD : Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement,
- FAO: La Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación
- INRA : Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
- IRD : Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
See: http://www.aginternetwork.org
Contact: Charlotte MASIELLO
Email: charlotte.masiello(a)fao.org


New version of an old one
A guy walks into a coffee shop and sees President Bush and Colin Powell sitting together. He introduces himself and asks President Bush, "How goes the War effort, Sir?"
President Bush answers, "We're getting ready to kill 40 million Iraqi's and one blonde."
The guy asks in astonishment, "Why are you killing one blonde?"
President Bush turns to Colin Powell and says, "See, I told you people wouldn't care about the Iraqi's."
Contact: Andy OFFER
Email: andy.offer(a)adas.co.uk


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