From 14 November to 9 December 2011, the FAO Biotechnology Forum is hosting an e-mail conference entitled "Strengthening partnerships in agricultural biotechnologies for the benefit of smallholders in developing countries: Discussing North-South, South-South, Public-Private cooperation and more". Its goal is to enable a fruitful discussion and exchange of experiences about partnerships in agricultural biotechnologies to benefit smallholders in developing countries, covering issues such as the potential pitfalls and benefits of different kinds of partnerships; lessons learned and best practices from past experiences; and relevant advice that can be provided to developing countries or their national research organizations on the subject. The conference covers the crop, forestry, livestock, fisheries/aquaculture and agro-industry sectors, and encompasses the broad range of biotechnologies that are used in these sectors. The conference is open to everyone, is free and will be moderated. To join the Forum (and also register for the conference), send an e-mail to [email protected] leaving the subject blank and entering the following text on two lines:
subscribe BIOTECH-L
subscribe biotech-room1

People who are already Forum members should leave out the first of these two lines to register for the conference. A background document is being finalized and will be sent to Forum members before the conference begins and placed on the Forum website, at http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/en/. For more information, contact [email protected].