Monday 22 June 2009

FARA presents 2 posters at the First CGIAR Science Forum

Gordon Conway, Chief Scientific Adviser of the Department for International Development, UK
gave his presentation at the Science Forum on June 16th

The 16th and 17th June 2009 saw the first CGIAR Science Forum which took place in Wageningen, the Netherlands. The conference was an opportunity to glimpse the kind of issues and debates that the various stakeholders and partners of the CGIAR are currently grappling with.

The event intended to be the first in an ongoing series of biennial science conferences, sponsored by the CGIAR’s Science Council. The inauguration of this new forum reflects the CGIAR’s ongoing efforts to reinvent itself for a new era in international agricultural research and development.
The theme for the 2009 Science Forum was about partnerships and ‘mobilising global linkages’. But the conference also shed light on current thinking on several key technical areas – parallel workshops addressed the contributions of information and communication technologies and biotechnologies, for instance, as well as new opportunities to exploit crops for feed, fibre and – especially – energy.
Dr Adewale Adekunle represented FARA at the Science Forum
The winner of the GFAR sponsorship for participation in the Science Forum 2009 is the team lead by K.A.S. Mani, P.S. Rao, and S.V. Govardhan Das for “Rural Information Kiosk: Taking IT to farmers for improving crop water efficiency in areas subjected to groundwater distress: an FAO-India initiative”.

The FARA posters accepted for presentation at the Science Forum 2009 were created by the following teams:

Adewale Aale Adekunle and Krishna Alluri for “ICT helping scientists engage Innovation citizens in southern Nigeria: A case of ICT reinforced Maize Innovation Cluster in Ago-Are, Oyo State of Nigeria”

Myra Wopereis-Pura, Dady Demby, Francois Stepman, Krishan Bheenick, Kone Anatole, and Jacky Nyagahima for “Connecting people to catalyze African agricultural innovation-Regional Agricultural Information and Learning Systems (RAILS) of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)”
RAILS poster: Connecting people to catalyze African agricultural innovation
-Regional Agricultural Information and Learning Systems

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