Paris, 8 February 2010


EFITA newsletter / 447 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


An African "Davos" in Bordeaux
2 - 3 June 2010 - BORDEAUX
Around a hundred African entrepreneurs will be meeting their opposite numbers from France in Bordeaux on 2 and 3 June 2010 at the 2nd Africa France Business Meetings, to discuss business and make new contacts. Programme: two plenary sessions, theme workshops, an exhibition area, and, above all, 3 half-days of business meetings.

"Doing business" is the ambition of the 2nd Africa France Business Meetings, featuring large-scale representation of African countries, especially English- and Portuguese-speaking nations in order to foster even more extensive business relationships.

The key objective of the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Industry and their partners* in organizing this meeting is to bring together French and African business leaders, representing a total of thirty countries, covering all types of industries, from a wide variety of geographical, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. This meeting offers an outstanding opportunity for firms to promote their know-how, find new sources of business, consolidate their professional networks, and explore the realities of African markets.

>>> Win-win partnerships

The key business sectors concerned include: green-business, agroprocessing, energy, ICT, transportation, banking and finance, construction and civil engineering, medical and pharmaceutical industries, corporate services, etc. In short, a range of high-added-value sectors with a promising future.

Among the participants, the Africa France Business Meetings will welcome Chief Executive Officers, Export Directors, Vice Presidents for Development, and other executives in key strategic positions in their respective firms.

>>> Average growth throughout Africa has exceeded 5%

Despite Africa's growth rate of over 5%, the continent represents barely 2% of world trade and has tended to remain on the sidelines of the global economy, although it offers considerable development potential and varied sources of business. The vast human resources and energy reserves of Africa are likely to make this continent one of the key economic factors in the 21st century.

>>> Africa: an emerging market!

Its young population includes undiscovered talents and ambitious entrepreneurs who have achieved success on all 5 continents. They will be present to report on their experiences and offer new business opportunities.

France, and Bordeaux in particular, truly believe in Africa. Numerous businesses have operated successfully in Africa for many years. They will also be present to give the benefit of their highly useful feedback.

Africa France business meetings: Club Entreprises Bordeaux Afrique, Bordeaux City Hall, Aquitaine Regional Council, DIRECCTE, Foreign Trade Counsellors for Aquitaine, Ubi France, Total, Fayat, Le Moci, Groupe Jeune Afrique.

>>> Key figures:

> 3 half-days of customised business "speed-meetings",

> Our objective: over 100 African and 100 French firms present

> Over 1,000 meetings scheduled over 3 half-days

See: http://www.africa-france-business.com
Contact: Philippe GARCIA
Mél : pgarcia(a)bordeaux.cci.fr


3rd International Congress on Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture, Food, Forestry & ENVIRONMENT (ITAFFE’10)
14 - 18 June 2010 - SAMSUN, Turkey

It is our great pleasure to invite you to participate in the 3rd International Congress on Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Environment (ITAFFE’10) to be held in June 14-18, 2010 in Samsun, Turkey. The event is organized by Agricultural Faculty of Ondokuz Mayis University, and hosted by Rectorate of Ondokuz Mayis University (OMU). ITAFFE’10 will be sponsored by TÜBÝTAK (The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey), EFITA (European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment), TAICTAFFE (Turkish Association on Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Environment), Governership of Samsun and Samsun Municipality.

ITAFFE’10 is the third in a series of bi-yearly events organized by the Turkish Agricultural Informatics Forum (TR-AGIF) which consists of the scientists and researchers from various institutions in Turkey. The event is organized to provide opportunity for academics and specialists from the international agriculture, food, forestry and environment community to meet and discuss the latest developments in emerging technologies, progress in standards, services, systems and their applications on information & communication technologies in agriculture, food, forestry and environment. The congress will include keynote speakers, contributed papers, panels, special sessions, tutorials and an exhibition. Also, the event will feature a banquet, local concerts, visits and excursion tours to historic and touristic sites in/surroundings of Samsun province which is located in northern part of Black Sea Region of Turkey. We hope that you will enjoy and have a memorable time in these excellent congress facilities and amazing post-congress tours in a warm and friendly Black Sea climate.

>>> Topics to be addressed include, but not limited to the following:
- Information networks and information management systems
- Farm management and planning applications
- CAD-CAM applications, Process automation
- Mobile/Wireless applications
- Ubique/pervasive computing
- E-learning systems, open systems, learning technologies and standards
- RFID, an enabling technology for agriculture
- Novel RFID applications for the environment and Food technology
- Precision farming systems, VRT technologies
- Statistical methods, modelling and data mining
- Ontology and semantic web
- GPS, GIS applications
- Field controlling and monitoring systems
- Environmental controlling and monitoring systems
- Biosensors, sensor networks and early warning systems
- Web based applications
- E-services and applications (e-commerce, e-business, e-shopping)
- Systems modelling
- Strategy and decision support systems
- Quality control systems and applications
- Data Acquisition and Signal Processing
- Intelligent systems, machine vision and robotics
- ICT in Rural Development
- Social networks, Web2 applications and society
- ICT in Climate Change and Global Warming
- ICT in Forests, Cultivation and Pastoral Areas
- Organizing Forest Development
- Water management systems
- Green ICT technologies for agriculture
- Cloud computing supporting agricultural applications and services
- Usability, personalisation and farmer centric application design

>>> The contributions will follow the procedure below:

> Papers

Authors are requested to submit abstracts [A maximum of 2000 characters (keystrokes – including spaces)] of their original works by February 20, 2010. All papers should be written in English and prepared compatible to the editorial guidelines given at the Web site of ITAFFE’10. Papers must be submitted electronically in MS Word format.

Arrival of the proposals will be acknowledged by e-mail. Each submission shall be refereed by a panel of international experts and subjected to review by the technical program committee. The result will be announced by the assigned deadline. An accepted paper must be presented by one of the authors who must register in the Congress.

> Tutorials

Tutorial proposals on subjects describing recent advances in systems, technologies or applications are welcomed. Length should be tailored for half-day or full-day presentations. Supplementary handouts or brochures are encouraged.

> Exhibition Proposals

There will be an exhibition space for exhibitors of latest products, solutions and services on ICT in agriculture, food, forestry and environment. Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of their practicality, relevance and priority.
See: http://www.itaffe10.org
Contact: Prof. Dr. Hulya ATIL
E-mail: hulya.atil(a)ege.edu.tr


International conference “Discovering, Mining and Managing Complex agricultural Data”
1 – 3 July - Crete, GREECE
See: http://www.ise.ufl.edu/cao/CAODM2010/index.htm
Contact : Petraq PAPAJORGJI
E-mail: petraq(a)ufl.edu


New Technologies will Feed the Billionth African
I am pleased that the African Union Summit theme, “Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development” gives us the opportunity to agree on what we can do to position our continent competitively on the world stage.
This also offers new opportunities for sharing information and technology developed in Africa by Africans, to attain the objectives of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
Africa is facing enormous challenges; including endemic poverty, food shortages and famine, wars and conflicts, disease, climate change, gender imbalance and capacity constraints.
These challenges slow down our efforts to improve the quality of life of our people through rapid transformation of our economies. They also impede our efforts to attain greater participation of Africa in global affairs.
But Africa cannot and must not live in the past. Africa must look to the future. The way forward is for the AU Assembly to recognize that: “Africa is not a poor continent; but the people of Africa are poor.” This is a very important paradigm in determining the future of Africa.
Let us remind ourselves that Africa has huge mineral and natural resources, fisheries and forest that are now exploited by the North.
However, in Africa we have many scientists, technocrats, doctors, engineers, artists and sports champions who are now in Europe and other G8 countries and are contributing to the success and prosperity of those nations. Let us reflect that Europe and much of the western world developed using minerals, timber, wood, meat and fish from Africa. But Europe and the Western world did not develop through resolutions and declarations; they took action, concrete action.
Although Africa faces enormous challenges, I believe that if we tackle them collectively, rather than individually, we can overcome them. We need to go beyond decisions, resolutions and declarations. We must begin to act and implement our decisions. I believe time has come for Africans to develop Africa. I believe 2010 is the year for Africa. I believe there is no other time in Africa’s history when there was better recognition that Africa should be the growth point for global development. Let us seize this moment to rise and take our rightful place. Let us act now.
One challenge we all face is poverty, hunger and malnutrition of large populations. Therefore achieving food security at the African level should be able to address these problems. I would therefore request the AU Assembly to share the dream that five years from now no child in Africa should die of hunger and malnutrition. No child should go to bed hungry.
I realize that this is an ambitious dream but one that can be realized. We all know that Africa is endowed with vast fertile soils, favourable climates, vast water basins and perennial rivers that could be utilized for irrigation farming and lead to the Green Revolution, and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. We can therefore grow enough food to feed everyone in Africa.
I am, therefore, proposing that our agenda for Africa should focus on Agriculture and food security. I propose that our slogan should be “FEEDING AFRICA THROUGH NEW TECHNOLOGIES: LET US ACT NOW.”
If we share this dream, then I propose that we embark on extensive regional food security programmes. This should include extensive irrigation that would ensure that each of our eight regional economic communities produce enough food for all at affordable prices especially for the rural poor. It would be useful if our agriculture and food production could be transformed by injecting adequate amounts of financial resources in science and technology, human capacity and on essential inputs such as fertilizers, improved seeds, herbicides and pesticides. We have done it in Malawi.
However, we have a situation where we produce and export food to the rest of the world while Africa is starving. We need to encourage Africans to invest in food production in other African countries as a way of ensuring food security at the regional and continental levels. Africa must feed Africa.
I firmly believe that if we could agree that food security at the Africa level is a priority, then other priorities such as climate change, ICT, transport and infrastructure development would also become a necessity to enhance flow of information, movement of people, goods and services including the production and supply of agricultural inputs within and among nations, regions and the continent at large.
I therefore propose that we consider investing in the construction of infrastructure to support food security. We need to build food storage facilities, new roads, railways, airlines, shipping industries as well as develop inter-state networks to ensure that we can move food surplus to deficit areas more efficiently and more cheaply.
I believe we could create a comprehensive data base on what the major staple foods of the African people are such as teff, maize, rice, millet, wheat, cassava and yams; and which countries grow such food crops. We could encourage countries that do not eat these staple food crops to export to those countries that consume them. This information will enable us to move food to deficit areas from surplus areas.
I am convinced that information and communication technology can play a major role in the development of agriculture and food security on our continent. This would enable our farmers to access important information on agricultural products, advanced technologies, research findings, as well as markets.
By HE Dr. Bingu Wa MUTHARIKA, President of the Republic of Malawi and Current Chair of the AU.
See: http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=4993&magazine=267


Snow in Dublin (?!?)
On a bitterly cold winters morning a husband and wife in Dublin were listening to the radio during breakfast.

They heard the announcer say, "We are going to have 8 to 10 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the even-numbered side of the street, so the snowploughs can get through."

So the good wife went out and moved her car.

A week later while they are eating breakfast again, the radio announcer said, "We are expecting 10 to 12 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the odd-numbered side of the street, so the snowploughs can get through."

The good wife went out and moved her car again.

The next week they are again having breakfast, when the radio announcer says, "We are expecting 12 to 14 inches of snow today. You must park...." Then the electric power went out.

The good wife was very upset, and with a worried look on her face she said, "I don't know what to do. Which side of the street do I need to park on so the snowploughs can get through?"

Then with the love and understanding in his voice that all men who are married exhibit, the husband replied:
"Why don't you just ... leave the car in the garage this time?"

Contact: Alecos TRINGIDES
E-mail: tringos(a)logos.cy.net


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