Paris, 12 July 2010


EFITA newsletter / 469 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


FAO: A special online forum in English that will explore some of the challenges that people and projects face when implementing projects aimed at empowering women and ICTs in rural livelihoods
5 - 16 July
The forum "Gender, ICTs and Rural Livelihoods" will look at what has worked, what has not worked, and good practices, as well as the critical area of capacity building and what can be done to empower women and men in playing a more vital role in ICTs for agriculture and rural development.

Furthermore, the Forum aims to explore evaluation and will facilitate discussion on how we produce evidence that donors need to take the importance of women in rural ICTs seriously.
The forum will be hosted entirely online through the e-Agriculture Community
platform at http://www.e-agriculture.org

Simply go to the platform, log in and join the discussions!

Follow e-Agriculture on...
Twitter: http://twitter.com/e_agriculture and
Facebook: http://bit.ly/9YREFQ


Agricultural Informatics 2010, Summer University and Conference on Information Technology in Agriculture and Rural Development
8 - 9 September 2010, Debrecen, Hungary
The conference is organized by the:
- Hungarian Association of Agricultural Informatics,
- University of Debrecen, Faculty of Applied Economics and Rural Development and the
- EFITA.

The fundamental aim of the conference is to promote the domestic non-profit, research and business professionals in the sphere of exchange of experience and hence the development of international relations.
This "Summer University" provides a forum for agriculture related professionals, professors, lecturers and PhD students to exchange information.

Topics (Education - Research - Applications):
• Education/Training programs and development
• Information systems
• Mobile technology applications
• Information and communication technologies for rural areas
• E-learning
• Food safety and traceability
• Web services, portals and Internet applications
• Wireless and sensor networks
• Distributed computing, grid technology
• Decision Support Systems, Modelling and simulation
• GIS/RS
• Precision Agriculture
• Collaborative working environment
• IT and innovation in agri-food sector
• Bioinformatics

Conference language:
Official conference language is English / Hungarian
Registration fee: 20 € (or 6.000 HUF), university students, full time PhD students free.
See: http://odin.agr.unideb.hu/su2010/index.php

The best lectures on the conference can be published in the ”Agrárinformatika / Agricultural Informatics ” journal from the Hungarian Association of Agricultural Informatics.
See: http://journal.magisz.org/index.php/jai

>>> The HAAI organized a Student Thesis Competition in the field of agricultural informatics
This competition has been organized since 5 years. This year we received 22 applicants.
The thesis were very good professional works. Finally the HAAI's board gave 9 prizes.

>>> Agrárinformatika / Journal of Agricultural Informatics journal first issue has been published (No 1 issue, 2010.)
The journal can be found in the following link: http://journal.magisz.org/
You can send your manuscripts for the Journal's next issue at the 30 September.

HAAI-EFITA Workshop on Advanced Information Technologies in Agriculture and Related Sciences In the Organic.Edunet European project final conference will be organized an HAAI-EFITA workshop.
See: http://tamop.magisz.org/aitars.php

The International Conference on “IT-Enhanced Organic, Agro-Ecological & Environmental Education” will be held 16-17 September 2010, Budapest, Hungary
See: http://conference.organic-edunet.eu/

Contact: Miklós HERDON
e-mail: herdon(a)agr.unideb.hu


3rd Conference on Precision Crop Protection
19 - 21 September, 2010 - BONN, Germany
Topics: the conference will cover all aspects of the site-specific and early detection and control of pests using modern and innovative technologies:
* Sensing and Control of Weeds
* Sensing and Control of Pathogens and Arthropod Pests
* Image Processing
* Decision Support Systems
* Mapping of Soil and Pests
* Geostatistics
* Geo-Information Systems in Agriculture
* Formulation of Pesticides
* Application Technologies
* Pesticide Reduction and the Environment
See: http://www.precision-crop-protection.uni-bonn.de/gk_conference/conference3.php


Seminar “What’s new, what’s next in dynamic system modeling in agronomy”
7 September 2010 - PARIS
Seminar in English organized by the French Network on Modeling Agricultural System
See: http://www.modelia.org

Preliminary program:
* James W. Jones. Challenges of Modeling Cropping Systems Responses and Adaptation to a Variable and Changing Climate.
* Debate topic: tradeoffs between complexity and functionality
* Lajpat Ahuja. Enhancing and Extending Field Research with Modeling of Agricultural Systems, and International Collaboration for this Goal
* Nicholas John Hutchings. Modeling nitrogen flow in livestock systems.
* David Makowski (INRA, Grignon). How to synthesize different types of knowledge using models?
* Debate topic: Is it possible to falsify complex models?
* François Brun (ACTA). Modeling for decision support and modeling for impact assessment. How do the modeling projects differ?
* Daniel Wallach (INRA, Toulouse). How to evaluate uncertainty in model predictions, with examples?

Preliminary program and inscription: http://www.modelia.org/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=53
Contact: François BRUN
E-mail: francois.brun(a)acta.asso.fr


EFITA 2011
11-14 July 2011 - PRAGUE
This is the first call for the 8th EFITA conference that will be held from 11th to 14th July 2011 at the campus site of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, in a beautiful landlocked country in the heart of Europe, in the Czech Republic. This letter is to brief you on the most important organizational aspects of the forthcoming conference.
This conference is co-organized with the 8th ECPA, the 5th ECPLF conferences as there is an established tradition of bringing EFITA, ECPA and ECPLF together.
>>> The main topics are as follows:
- Food quality
- SDI for Agriculture and Food industry
- Sensor technologies
- Future trends
- ICT Adoption
- Knowledge Management
- e-business
- Standardisation and Interoperability
- Rural development
- Nature protection

>>> Important dates
Paper submission: 1st September - 31st October 2010
Registrations: From 1st September 2010
Please check our official website www.efita2011.cz for further information and full contact details. The website of the conference will be updated on a regular basis.
See: http://www.efita2011.cz/
Contact: Eva CERVENKOVA
E-mail: conference2011(a)czu.cz


CRA website: Tools for Agrometeorology and Agricultural Modeling
Updated Website of the Research Center on Industrial Crops (Bologna, Italy) presenting a set of tools and models are available to the community. It is worthwhile to go check it out!
See: http://agsys.cra-cin.it/tools


Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
The IOC celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2010. Beginning with the International Indian Ocean Expedition in 1960 the IOC has worked to promote international cooperation in researching and protecting the ocean.
See: http://ioc-unesco.org/


Web of Science®...
...provides researchers, administrators, faculty, and students with quick, powerful access to the world's leading citation databases.  Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 10,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 110,000 conference proceedings.  You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage available to 1900.
See: http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science


'Are you a real pilot?'
An old gentleman wearing a beat-up old leather flying jacket sat down at the Starbucks and ordered a cup of coffee.

As he sat sipping his coffee, a young woman sat down next to him...

She turned to the man and asked, 'Are you a real pilot?'

He replied, 'Well, I've spent my whole life flying; biplanes, Cubs, Aeronca's,T-6s, flew in WWII in a B-25, and later Sabre jets in the Korean conflict. I taught 50 people to fly and gave rides to hundreds, so yes, I guess I am a pilot.'

She said, 'I'm a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about naked women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about naked women. When I shower, I think about naked women. When I watch TV, I think about naked women. It seems everything makes me think of naked women.'

The two sat sipping in silence.

A little while later, a young man sat down on the other side of the old pilot and asked, 'Are you a real pilot?'

He replied, 'I always thought I was, but I just found out that I'm a lesbian.'

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


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