Paris, 6 September 2010


EFITA newsletter / 477 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


A thought for today
In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong - John Kenneth GALBRAITH, economist (1908-2006)
See: http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives.html


PotatoEurope 2010 with 186 exhibitors from 16 countries
8 - 9 September 2010 - HANOVER
Open air exhibition "all about the potato” with trial plots, machinery demonstrations and discussion forums on. More.


Third European Workshop "Innovations for Water Management: Competence Models, e-Learning and Social Communities"
22 September 2010 - BUCAREST
The third European Workshop will take place on the 22nd of September, 2010 in Bucarest. The organiser, the EU research project WACOM, invites all experts from the water sector as well as human resources development, e-Learning and online education to Romania.
See: http://www.wacom-project.eu
Contacts: Maria CHEVERESAN, Christian M. STRACKE
Emails: maria.alexandrescu(a)utcb.ro, Christian.Stracke(a)icb.uni-due.de


Reshaping Europe: Addressing Societal Challenges trough Entrepreneurship and Innovation
27 – 29 October 2010 – LIEGE (BE)
See: http://www.europe-innova.eu/liege2010


Common conference on "ICT- technologies, equipment and know-how for integrated and sustainable land- and farm-management"
16 - 18 November 2010 - Entebbe / Uganda
To realize a green revolution for Africa, experts mentioned the importance of TECHNOLOGY; further the must of more INTEGRATION and COOPERATION and better PLANNING together with increased ADVISORY SERVICES for a successful uptake. A group of European companies, highly dedicated to boost agricultural development, brought all these elements together and will introduce an integrated model for land-, farm- and forest management mid of November in Entebbe/Uganda. Integrated stands for technology cooperation, for farmers integration into cooperative tasks, for horizontal and vertical
sector integration, the integration of advisory support and for the integration of financing institutes and insurance companies, which became possible with the help of sophisticated technology.

If you are farmer, belonging to a farm advisory group, or buyer of farm products, seller of machines, crops or chemicals to farmers, or if you are consultant, or forester, or working in the agro-finance sector (e.g. Micro-financing) or in the agro-insurance business, if you are working locally or if you are interested in business throughout regions or whole Africa, if you are researcher, NGO´s, expert, project developer, IT- or communication expert who wants to raise new business or if you are a governmental expert, or working with a chamber, for all of you it is a must to take part at this event - you will benefit, personally and for the farm, company or group you’re representing.

At this conference, you will hear practical examples how advisors can support farmers (small holder farmers likewise large enterprises) in optimizing their farm-management by better planning and control, by exact calculation of their business, optimization of fertilizer, pesticide and water use, by cooperative use of machines and by increasing sales due to traceability and quality certification.

The organizing companies are representing the following technologies:

> MICROSOFT: New images with 50cm resolution for agricultural- and with1m resolution for forest areas as basic planning element, provided for single countries or even for whole Africa!

> PROGIS: ICT technologies for farm- and forest management, advisory services, cooperative management, logistics, precision farming, forest inventory and land consolidation, provided for single farms, advisors handling several hundred farms, or cooperative groups of farms.

> ADCON: Weather stations and soil moisture sensors with expert models for reducing water or pesticide use provided as single stations or country-wide networks integrated into ICT Technology!

> WABAG: Experts in water management also for rural areas

> forCERT: Consulting experts with a special focus in forestry, resource management and fighting against desertification

See: http://www.progis.com/events/uganda2010/index.html
Contact : Walter MAYER
E-mail: strobl(a)progis.com


A good way to spend nice holydays in France
See: http://www.belambra.co.uk/belambra/Default.aspx?tabid=55


Epsilon: Search full text documents published at SLU. (Sweden)
See: http://epsilon.slu.se/eindex.html


Organic.Edunet Web portal available in more languages
The new version of the Organic.Edunet Web Portal (http://www.organic-edunet.eu) is released.

This new version features new exciting search mechanisms and new languages, rising the total number of portal languages to thirteen (13)!

The Organic.Edunet Web portal may be used to find:
- Academic articles on organic agriculture & agroecology
- School resources that can be used for teaching environmental topics
- Educational scenarios to deploy within the classroom
- Multimedia content (e.g. photos & videos) on the aforementioned topics

We cordially invite you to visit the Organic.Edunet Web Portal and find resources of interest/relevance to your work at: http://www.organic-edunet.eu

We also kindly ask you to take 5 minutes of your time to let us know how it looked to you by completing this short online questionnaire: http://www.ieru.org/organicsurvey/

The Portal has been developed in the context of the Organic.Edunet project (http://project.organic-edunet.eu) that is funded by the European Commission's eContentPlus programme.

Contact: Nikos MANOUSELIS, Nikos PALAVITSINIS
Mail: info-organic(a)grnet.gr


ICT Update issue 56, August 2010: Irrigation
Figures from the FAO show that irrigation can increase crop yields by up to 400%. Developing a reliable system to water the land all year round gives farmers the chance to plant crops in the dry season, and grow high-value crops to increase profits and recoup investment costs. But with only a small percentage of available farmland being irrigated in ACP countries, ICTs are now becoming crucial to the promotion, development and maintenance of new irrigation systems.

>>> In this issue…
> ‘The most important thing is to design systems – both irrigation and information systems – that are best suited to the environment and the people who will use them.’ Maimbo Mabanga Malesu, programme coordinator at the World Agroforestry Centre.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/regulars/perspectives/(issue)/56

> ‘Irrigation can greatly improve yields and guarantee crops. Farmers don’t need to worry if there will be enough rainfall; they know their crops will get enough water. It provides a kind of reassurance.’ Stanley Rampair, chief executive officer of Jamaica’s National Irrigation Commission Limited.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/regulars/Q-A/(issue)/56

>>> Articles
Managers of the Office du Niger irrigation scheme in Mali are using remote sensing data to analyse the efficiency of the system without having to physically check the infrastructure. The information will help them prepare for future expansion.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/Remote-control

> Irrisat-SMS combines satellite data, information from local weather stations and feedback from farmers to deliver daily, detailed irrigation scheduling advice via SMS.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/A-balanced-delivery

> Tanzania’s Ministry of Water and Irrigation has developed an ICT strategy, which includes using GIS, radio and cell phones, to deliver irrigation and water services.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/A-plan-for-the-future

> A project in Swaziland uses remote sensing and GIS to identify irrigable farmland. The data are analysed to improve the efficiency of project management processes.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/Water-soil-and-data

> There are a wide range of resources available on the web to help agricultural extension services, NGOs and cooperatives develop and maintain irrigation schemes for small-scale farmers.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/regulars/techtip/(issue)/56

ICT Update (http://ictupdate.cta.int) is a bimonthly printed bulletin, web magazine, and accompanying email newsletter focusing on the use of information and communication technologies in agriculture in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. It is published in English and French, by CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation) in Wageningen in the Netherlands.


Jewish proverb
"In God we trust
the others pay cash!"


The Drunk and the "Ballerina"
A fat woman, wearing a sleeveless sun dress, walked into a bar in Dublin.

She raised her right arm, revealing a hairy armpit, and pointing to all the people sitting at the bar, asked, 'What man here will buy a lady a drink?'

The bar went silent as the patrons tried to ignore her.

But down at the end of the bar, a bleary-eyed drunk slammed his hand down on the counter and bellowed 'Give the ballerina a drink!'

The bartender poured the drink and the woman chugged it down.

She turned to the patrons and again revealing the same hairy armpit, asked, 'What man here will buy a lady a drink?'

Once again, the same drunk slapped his money down on the bar and said, 'Give the ballerina another drink!'

The bartender approached the drunk and said 'Tell me, Paddy, it's your business if you want to buy the lady a drink, but why do you keep calling her a ballerina?'

The drunk replied, 'Any woman who can lift her leg that high has got to be a ballerina!'
Contact: Mick HARKIN
E-mail: harkin(a)iol.ie


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