Efita Newsletter 951, dated September 21, 2020

The RationalistiZer

13th ECPA conference

19 - 22 July 2021 - BUDAPEST

On behalf of the Organizing committee of the 13th ECPA conference organized in 2021 in Budapest, Hungary I hope this letter finds you in health and busy working on your abstracts!

Please be gently reminded that the deadline for abstracts submission is only 10 days away. This only requires a brief outline of your proposed paper (and presentation) but is important for the Organising Committee to plan for the full paper submissions.

The present COVID-19 pandemic situation is a challenging time for everyone, however we hope all of you are still safe and healthy. We - the organizers - are still optimistic that 13th ECPA in 2021 will provide us the possibility to meet in person and have a fruitful conference concerning Precision Agriculture. Whatever the situation will be without submitting your abstracts the Organizing Committee cannot make decision about inviting it for the full paper submission!

Please keep in mind that the book of abstracts with the invited full papers is referenced in Scopus, and regardless of the conference being on- or off-line the organizers are planning to publish the valuable works, so your efforts of submitting an abstract and – after acceptance – submitting a full paper article are not meanless!

>>> Abstracts

About the submission of abstracts: submission is open please submit your abstracts through the conference website. The timetable remains as follows; submit by 30th of September, assessed and decision communicated to submitting author by 26th October. Full papers (8 pages) are then required by 30th November and Poster summaries by 3rd May 2021.

In order to guarantee the academic quality of the proceedings, a scientific committee is being formed for the peer reviewing of oral communications. This committee is chaired by Dr. John V. Stafford (co-editor of the scientific journal Precision Agriculture) as the Editor of the 13th ECPA proceedings.

>>> Abstract submission guidelines
- The Abstract has to briefly describe the work to be discussed in the paper and also give a concise summary of the findings. Please note that abstracts should have between 2 000 and 2 500 characters (including spaces) and include relevant scientific information (materials and methods, results and discussion, and conclusions).
- Abstracts must be submitted using the online submission link.
- All abstracts must be submitted in English (authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their abstracts checked by a native speaker).
- The names and affiliations of ALL authors should be included in the abstract, i.e. department, institution, city, country
Please visit the following webpage for guidelines and abstract submission: https://ecpa2021.agroinform.hu/abstract-submission/

Please note the conference would encourage papers or abstracts on all aspects of precision agriculture related to any cropping system, from soil and crop sensing, to data management, information systems and spatial decision support systems. Abstracts related to educational activities and outcomes in precision agriculture are also strongly encouraged.

The organizing committee strongly believe that we can meet personally in Budapest, Hungary in July 2021!

Contact: Gabor MILICS, PhD
E-mail: milics.gabor(a)sze.hu

Good old days (?????): Zomers Landschap met Maaiende Boeren, 1906, by Jo Koster van Hattem

Farmer Business Network

Farmers Business Network ® is a global Agtech company focused on helping family farmers maximize their farm’s profit potential. Our game-changing platform leverages technology to help you reduce your cost of production, maximize the value of your crops and make confident decisions to improve your bottom line - all in one place.
See fbn.com

AeroFarms: Our Indoor Vertical Farming Technology

AeroFarms is the commercial leader in fully controlled indoor vertical farming with 390 times greater productivity per square foot annually vs. traditional field farming while using 95% less water and zero pesticides. We use the latest sensing technologies & data science, as well as tools such as machine vision and AI to fulfill our mission: to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity.
See aerofarms.com

Agrosmart / Brazil

Besides the top technology, we work focusing on guaranteeing each client uses our solutions in the best possible way, fulfilling their goals. For that, we are present in every step, following close from the system implementation until the final results of every harvest.
See agrosmart.com.br

Good old days (?????): L'étoile du berger, par Jules Breton

China’s consumer digital revolution now reaches ‘back into the supply chain and the farm’: Local VC, AFN, by Jack Ellis

The US continues to dominate investment in agritech innovation. According to AgFunder research, US startups netted $8.7 billion in funding across 683 deals last year.

That’s just over a third of all 1,858 agrifoodtech venture deals worldwide – and closer to half of of total global funding in dollar terms, at $19.8 billion.

But China isn’t far behind – and, as the consumer digital revolution that has gripped the country in the past decade moves up the supply chain to the farm gate, it’s only going to close the gap with the US farther. That’s the view of Matilda Ho, founder and managing director of Shanghai-based VC firm Bits x Bites.

The next largest market after the US in 2019 was indeed China, with $3.2 billion going to 181 discrete transactions.
…/…
See agfundernews.com

Drip irrigation definitely viable for large farms

Drip irrigation efficiency, for example, is well known for its use on small plots where it requires an investment in infrastructure, but is it also profitable for large areas?
Brazil is a good place to check this out
See futurefarming.com

The Pandemic Was Supposed to Be Great for Strongmen. What Happened? By Ivan Krastev

From Trump to Lukashenko, authoritarians are discovering that this isn’t their kind of crisis.
…/…
At the same time, the pandemic has eroded the power of authoritarians and the authoritarian-inclined. The instinctive reaction of leaders like Mr. Lukashenko in Belarus, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States was not to take advantage of the state of emergency to expand their authority — it was to play down the seriousness of the pandemic.

Why are authoritarian leaders who thrive on crises and who are fluent in the politics of fear reluctant to embrace the opportunity? Why do they seem to hate a crisis that they should love? The answer is straightforward: Authoritarians only enjoy those crises they have manufactured themselves. They need enemies to defeat, not problems to solve. The freedom authoritarian leaders cherish most is the freedom to choose which crises merit a response. It is this capacity that allows them to project an image of Godlike power.
.../...
The ubiquity of the disease also poses challenges for authoritarians. Because the pandemic affects every country in the world, citizens can compare the actions of their governments with those of others. Success or failure at flattening the curve provides a common metric, making cross-national comparisons possible and putting pressure on governments that had previously succeeded in insulating themselves from public criticism.

In this context, Covid-19 has become deadly dangerous for ossifying authoritarian regimes like Mr. Lukashenko’s in Belarus. It is still possible that the patient will survive if it is put in an artificial coma in Mr. Putin’s emergency room. But it is now clear that the virus is a curse rather than a blessing for authoritarians like him.

See NYT