Paris, 27 October 2008


EFITA newsletter / 383 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


An excellent joke in English in our newsletter in French (> 24500 subscribers)
See the second part of the following issue: http://www.acta-informatique.fr?d=7455


JIAC2009 Announcement: ‘Notification of abstract acceptance‘ set to November 15th
6 - 8 July 2009 - WAGENINGEN
JIAC2009 = ECPA - European Conference on Precision Agriculture
+ ECPLF - European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming
+ EFITA conference - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the

We have received more than 570 abstracts from 49 countries. This is a very good score and we are very pleased with it. The amount of abstracts imply that we have to select thoroughly and we need some extra time for that.

The abstracts can be classified in the following categories:
- 67% in methodology
- 17% in proof of principles and demonstrations
- 4% in network discussions
- 11% in cross themes

The abstracts are distributed to the reviewers. Based on their scores and the available number of oral and poster presentations we will make a balanced programme with dedicated sessions. Each session will take 1,5 hour time in which 4 oral presentations can be presented. We expect to have 7 parallel meetings in the programme. Posters will be available during the whole conference, and also a specific time slot will be dedicated to the posters.

We expect to have done our homework before November 15th. All contact persons of the abstracts will be informed at that time.   

In the following table the new planning of the abstract and paper handling is shown:

- Deadline submission abstracts: closed
- Notification of abstract acceptance: November 15, 2008
- Deadline paper submission: February 1, 2009
- Feedback review scientific committee: March 15, 2009
- Deadline final paper submission: April 15, 2009.
Contact: Ramon DE LOUW
E-mail: r.p.m.de.louw(a)minlnv.nl


Wanted: Partners for a project "Impact of climate change on the choice of crops and on irrigation techniques?"
INEA - Italian Institute for Agricultural Economics is preparing a project to be presented under the next Interreg call. The proposal is called CCNET and is aimed at the creation of a set of tools for agriculture in order to determine the impact of climate change on the choice of crops and on irrigation techniques.
At present we have identified the following modules:
- forecast of IPCC scenarios at regional level;
- definition of water requirements at local level, in combination of IPPC scenarios;
- drought forecast;
- evaluation of economic impact of climate change at regional and local level.
However CCNET is flexible and modular: therefore other modules can be identified and implemented.
We are seeking partners.
Contact: Guido BONATI
E-mail: bonati(a)inea.it


Call for proposals: chapters of a book entitled “Decision Support Systems in Agriculture, Food and the Environment: Trends, Applications and Advances” from IGI publishing
See: http://algor.uom.gr/DSS_book/
Contact Basil MANOS, Jason PAPATHANASIOU
E-mail: manosb(a)agro.auth.gr, jasonp(at)uom.gr


Looking for statistics about biofuel crops (1)
You can find some useful information on FAO website
See: http://faostat.fao.org/
See: http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx#ancor and select criteria.

For instance you can select:
Country --> European Union
Item --> Oil crops Primary > (note: if you select 'Oil crops Primary +' you'll receive only aggregated data)
Element --> Yield
Year --> select form 2007 to 2000

Then click on 'show data'! You will find an interesting table that you can download or export!
See: http://www.agricolturaonweb.info
Contact: Cristiano SPADONI
E-mail: info(a)agricolturaonweb.info


Looking for statistics about biofuel crops (2)
- agriconta 2008 Italian version only, at the moment. pp.68 and 69
- agriconta 2007 in English, French and Spanish too
See: http://www.inea.it/
Best regards to all the EFITA's Girls and Boys from Giorgio AMANTE
E-mail: giorgio.amante(a)tin.it


EuroTier innovations award winners
11 - 14 November 2008 – HANNOVER
About 243 company innovations were submitted for the EuroTier 2006 innovation awards. From the wide variety of innovations the independent expert commission awarded 4 products with a gold award and 13 products with a silver award.
See: http://www.eurotier.de/innovations0.0.html


AgroLT 2008 Workshop held on 19/09/2008, in Athens, Greece
The 1st Workshop on Learning Technology Standards for Agriculture and Rural Development (AgroLT 2008, http://infolab-dev.aua.gr/agrolt/2008/) was held with success on the 19th of September 2008, in the context of the 4th International Conference on ICT in Bio and Earth Sciences (HAICTA 2008). It took place in the facilities of the Agricultural University of Athens, and was supported by the Organic.Edunet eContentPlus project (http://www.organic-edunet.eu) and the Agricultural Learning Repositories Task Force (AgLR-TF, http://aglr.aua.gr/).

The AgroLT 2008 Workshop brought together researchers and implementers that are working on the design and development of technology-enhanced learning systems and services to support the needs of the agricultural and rural communities. It served as a discussion forum where interested experts presented the results of their work, exchanged experiences, and established liaisons with other groups that are working on related subjects. Overall, it succeeded in outlining the rich potential of the agricultural domain as an application field for learning technologies.

Topics included, but were not limited to:
- Describing and categorising agricultural learning resources using standards such as IEEE LOM and DC
- Designing and building learning repositories for agriculture and rural development
- Federating and querying agricultural repositories
- Describing learning opportunities for agricultural stakeholders
- Interoperable curricula definitions for agricultural and rural education
- Creating and representing learning activities for agricultural stakeholders
- Representing agricultural competencies in a reusable manner
- Agricultural skills and competencies using transparency and mobility frameworks such as Europass
- Learning technologies standards & specifications for mobile learning applications

About 20 people attended the Workshop. Interesting presentations were made and future actions were discussed on various issues, especially focusing on the AgLR-TF and its future actions.

You can find and download all the papers that have been presented in the Workshop here: http://infolab-dev.aua.gr/agrolt/2008/papers.htm
You can also access and view all the presentations here: http://infolab-dev.aua.gr/agrolt/2008/papers.htm

Contact: Nikos MANOUSELIS
E-mail: nikosm(at)ieee(dot)org


Those Pearly Gates

Forty itinerants arrive up to St Peter at the Pearly Gates in their Transit vans, Hiaces and caravans.

Alarmed, St. Peter goes into the gatehouse and phones up God, saying: I've got 40 travellers here. Can I let them in?'

God says: 'We are over quota on Knackers. Go out and tell them to choose which are the 12 most worthy, and I will let in just the dozen worthiest.'

Less than a minute later St. Peter is on the phone to God again. 'They've gone', he tells God.

'What?' says God, 'All 40 of them?'

'No... the fu*king gates.'

Contact: Mick HARKIN
E-mail: harkin(a)iol.ie


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