Paris, 23 February 2009


EFITA newsletter / 400 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


400 issues of the efita newsletter
If you wish to get 400 other issues of this newsletter in the future, you will have to find someone to replace me! I am becoming too old to work.


Science Forum 2009
16 - 17 June 2009 - WAGENINGEN
The CGIAR Science Council is organising a science forum in partnership with The Alliance and GFAR, to be co-sponsored and hosted by Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) in the Netherlands, on 16-17 June 2009.

Science Forum 2009 will be the first in a series of biennial science fora to be organized as part of the Science Council’s drive to catalyze the mobilization of science towards CGIAR goals and objectives. The 2009 Forum will focus on innovative science and the arrangements that can help to mobilize it more effectively to address poverty alleviation and sustainable natural resource management.
 
Productive partnerships between the CGIAR and advanced research institutes (ARIs) and NARS are essential to harness science more effectively for development, and to focus collaborative efforts on development impacts. Partnerships are vital to capture advanced science and technologies that will enhance agricultural productivity while promoting natural resource conservation and fostering more effective policies and institutions. Moreover, partnerships that connect research in ARIs with the CGIAR and associated partners, can potentially amplify the impact of public investment in agricultural research and development. Science Forum 2009 will be forward-looking, and will seek to highlight a number of critical areas where innovative partnerships can be forged to capture new areas of science, particularly in disciplines beyond conventional agriculture, for the benefit of improving food security, enhancing nutrition, protecting natural resources and reducing poverty.
 
The Forum is expected to serve both the CGIAR and the ARIs, and their current and prospective partners and beneficiaries to explore new applications of advanced science to address development challenges, and to highlight the potential for new linkages within the global research community (CGIAR, ARIs, NARS and partners).

See: http://www.sciencecouncil.cgiar.org/fileadmin/user_upload/sciencecouncil/
EVENTS/Science_Forum/SF09_Flier.pdf
See: http://www.scienceforum2009.nl/


Potato Europe 2009: prospects for new Technologies in the Potato Industry
- Field demonstrations
9 & 10 September 2009 - Emmeloord - NL
- Congress
8 & 9 September 2009 - Emmeloord - NL
See: http://www.PotatoEurope2009.com
Contact: Paulien HOFTIJZER
E-mail: phoftijzer(a)agriprojects.nl


e-Agriculture.org (1): Videos
The overall aim of e-agriculture.org is to enable members to exchange opinions, experiences, good practices and resources related to e-agriculture, and to ensure that the knowledge created is effectively shared and used worldwide. To improve this task we have updated ourYouTube account and linked many new, interesting videos to our list of favorites. Everybody can sign up for a YouTube account. Just follow these steps:
1) go to www.youtube.com and register and log in.
2) go to the youtube.com/eagriculture site and subscribe to favorites, so you can share YouTube videos relating to agriculture and rural development, which demonstrate the use of information and communications technologies in facilitating agriculture and rural development.
It works in exactely the same way for the e-agriculture del.ic.ious, Flickr and Twitter accounts. Please also feel free to contribute to the Knowledge Base and the News and Events sections on the e-agriculture website. The more people participate, the richer and broader will be the exchange. You can also set the stage for further forum topics through our new survey about the most important topic to be discussed regarding the role of ICTs in agriculture.


e-Agriculture.org (2): Mobile Telephony
The forum on “Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas” from 17 to 28 November 2008 examined the challenges that rural communities face in enhancing the benefits of mobile telephony, and looked at some examples of interesting initiatives and good outcomes from around the globe. Thanks go to over 150 community members from over 50 countries who participated in this exciting forum. Due to demand, we will keep this topic up on the portal by introducing a new page on key topics starting with mobile telephony. A final policy brief will be posted soon.
As follow-up of the Virtual Forum, Ms. Anna-Maria Walter has had the opportunity to speak with Christian Kreutz, Subject Matter Expert from the recent forum, and Mr. Naimur Rahman, head of the OneWorld office in South Asia. Christian shared his vision for the future of mobile phones in rural development with Anna-Maria, and Naimur talked about his experiences from the LifeLines India project.


e-Agriculture.org (3): E-Learning
1 to 12 December 2008 a group of 53 e-agriculture members from Asia took part in the Online Short Course “Networking in Support of Development”, a follow-up of the Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK). The e-learning course described how information and communication technologies (ICT) are not only a technology but also a medium for communications and concentrated on how the different levels of ICT in a country fit together to provide a workable means of communication. Alexander Flor, Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies at the University of the Philippines Open University, facilitated the course and introduced the various topics through a series of interactive lessons which were followed by web-based group discussions. Participants were also assigned a series of exercises and case studies to work during the course. Congratulations to those participants who completed the training successfully.


e-Agriculture.org (4): Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural Development and Food Security
From 20 to 22 January 2009, Bioversity International, the CGIAR ICT-KM program, FAO, IFAD and WFP organized this innovative event. During the Share Fair over 700 participants had the opportunity to showcase, recreate and invent ways to share knowledge and improve access to it. The Share Fair covered various agricultural development and food security issues through several information sessions that focused on the knowledge sharing aspects of the initiatives. The outcomes are now available online through the event blog and many other forms of social media. Two sessions, the “Rural telephony session” and the session “Leveraging Connections Amongst Networks”, were relevant to the e-agriculture agenda.


Fardiy jkoe - raed on...!
Can yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 acn. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
Bceasue of the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod aer, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?
Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
Contact: Mcik HRAIKN
E-mail: harkin(a)iol.ie


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