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IFSA Symposium, Florida, USA, 17-20 November
2002
The 17th Symposium of the
International Farming Systems Association (IFSA) will be held on 17-20
November 2002 in Orlando, Florida, USA. The IFSA is a global organization
made up of regional farming systems associations and loosely affiliated
individuals. IFSA symposium participants include farming systems practitioners
associated with universities, government agencies and non-governmental
organizations interested in agricultural development around the world.
The 17th Symposium's overarching theme is: Small farms in an ever-changing
world: Meeting the challenges of sustainable livelihoods and food security
in diverse rural communities. Symposium topics will focus on small
farm diversification and competitiveness; engaging diverse stakeholders
in support of small farms; farming systems knowledge and information; farming
systems education and training; food security and safety. A Call
for Papers has recently been circulated and manuscripts are due on 12 April
2002.
For further information: Secretariat of the IFSA European Symposium
2002, Luigi Omodei Zorini and Caterina Contini. Website: http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/ifsa
Download: IFSA Call for Papers.pdf
IFSA Fifth European Farming System Symposium, Florence, 8-11 April, 2002
The conflicts and opportunities between local identities and globalisation were
a major item of debate at the Fifth European Farming System Symposium in Florence during 8-11 April, 2002. The
Symposium attracted approximately 150 participants from all EU countries, many CEE countries, as well as Africa, Asia and the
Americas. Five themes ran through the debate: effective concepts and methodologies for analysing and supporting rural
development; the resilience and continuity of small scale farming within sustainable rural livelihood systems; rural-urban relations;
the quality of life, food, landscape, environment: from rural resources to better livelihood systems for people; and learning processes
in research and extension. The FAO Farming Systems Website generated
considerable interest from a cross-section of participants, including researchers, University teachers and NGO staff.
Participants noted that organic agricultural production is growing rapidly,
but the structure of production units is being transformed. Nowadays, there are many large-scale specialised organic producers
(in contrast to the earlier dominance of small producers). Some participants from farmers organisations had visions of entire
countries converting to organic agriculture, e.g., Sweden, Bosnia (in some southern areas of Sweden one-third of land is under
organic agriculture; and half of consumers now regularly purchase organic produce). The investigation of coping strategies and
resilience needs greater attention to tradeoffs, between short/long-term, local/regional; and agro-ecological/socio-economic).
The FAO/World Bank farming systems framework should be used as a platform, supplemented by modelling to predict future
trends and outcomes. Farmer co-operation and producer groups have a major role to play in services access and provision in
Eastern Europe. Competitive grants schemes are enjoying considerable success in Eastern Europe.
The next European Symposium will be held in the University of Alto Douro, Villareal, Portugal, in Spring 2004.
International Training Course on Conservation Agriculture for North African and Near East Countries, Vasto, Italy, 26 May - 1 June 2002
As part of the FAO-Conservation Agriculture Working group, AGSP delivered modules on the socio-economic aspects of Conservation Agriculture.
For further information: Walter
de Oliveira
Workshop on Farm Household Information
Systems, Rome, Italy, 4-7 December 2001
AGSP carried out a workshop
in which international experts presented and discussed traditional and
innovative methods of household data acquisition, analysis and dissemination.
The scope embraced both informal and formal methods applicable to households
involved in primary production. It included examples applied at different
levels and in a range of geographic conditions. The themes considered farmers,
fisherfolk and small-scale forestry managers, small-scale entrepreneurs
engaged in agricultural input supply, product processing and other service
provision.
The workshop proceedings will be made available as an internet publication
on this site, approximately in February 2002.
Download workshop programme: Farm
Household Information System Workshop.pdf
For further information: John Dixon or Horst Wattenbach
Study Tour on No-Till Agriculture for
Sustainable Rural Development
AGSP participated in the
4th World Bank No-Tillage Agriculture Study Tour in Brazil. The tour focused
on cereal-legume cropping systems and small farmers in three southern states
of Brazil (Goiana, Santa Catarina and Paraná). A range of crop rotations,
cover crops and hand and animal drawn implements was demonstrated. The
objectives of the tour was to demonstrate the role and impacts of no tillage
system approach, the process of adoption by Brazilian farmers and farmers'
organisations, different strategies of technology generation and its dissemination,
including the social, environmental, organisational, institutional and
policy aspects, with emphasis on small-farmers. The specific objectives
were to show and convince the participants that the goals of sustainable
rural development can be met through the adoption of No Tillage Systems.
It highlighted that significant financial returns can be combined with
environmental improvements and better way of life. The tour also tried
to verify why, how and when these systems could be adopted and to discuss
the potential of application of the Brazilian experience to other countries.
(Dec. 2001)
For further information: Walter
de Oliveira
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