About the Meeting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), within the context of the African Network on Fish Technology and Safety (ANFTS), is inviting experts and professionals to submit papers for publication on advances in technology, food safety and marketing in fisheries and aquaculture value chains. This call for papers builds on a series of meetings/consultations supported by FAO that took place in 1980 (Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania, 1982 (Casablanca, Morocco), 1985 (Lusaka, Zambia), 1988 (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire), 1991 (Accra, Ghana) 1996 (Kisumu, Kenya), 2001 (Saly-Mbour, Senegal), 2005 (Bagamoyo, Tanzania), 2008 (Agadir, Morocco), 2011 (Mahé, Seychelles) and in 2017 (Elmina, Ghana). Due to COVID-19 pandemic resulting to uncertainty in movements and travel restrictions, the ANFTS meeting for 2020 is rescheduled to potentially late 2021, and when conditions for a physical meeting and travel become feasible.

 ANFTS aims to provide updated information and technical knowledge, promote research and technical cooperation. It helps to develop national research capacity, facilitate the exchange and transfer of technology as well as information geared to support the sustainable development of post-harvest activities associated with small-scale fisheries and aquaculture value chains and publish a compilation of selected papers. This call for papers is a request to experts and professionals to contribute recent advances and knowledge to support the ANFTS mandate and present the selected papers at the above-mentioned physical meeting next year. The meeting will provide a forum for dissemination, discussion and showcasing of novel technologies and innovations among fisheries and aquaculture specialists in fish technology, fish safety, trade, socioeconomics as well as food and nutrition security.

Meeting Objectives

The meeting will provide a forum for stakeholders in the post-harvest fisheries sector to:

a)     Disseminate research outputs related to technologies, innovations, knowledge and information;

b)    Discuss current constraints to the effective contribution of post-harvest fisheries research to sustainable development;

c)     Develop successful synergies among actors within the post-harvest fisheries sector for fisheries development.

Subjects and deadlines

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations invites all stakeholders: government departments, non-governmental organizations and representatives of small-scale fisheries, academia and research institutions, the development community, civil society, private sector and individuals working in the fisheries and aquaculture sector and related fields to submit abstracts for this meeting. Abstracts should summarize achievements, successes/good practices and challenges related to the following, development and research themes in the context of post-harvest activities, including emerging issues such as the impacts of COVID-19:

a)     Reduction and prevention of post-harvest losses by (i) improving methods, means and the political and institutional environment conducive for good practices for handling, preservation, processing and packaging of fishery products; (ii) better utilizing low value fish, bycatch and discards (iii) developing by-products;

b)    Improving fishery products safety by strengthening inspection and quality control services and systems, certification, eco-labelling, etc;

c)     Improving national, sub-regional marketing channels and international trade of fish and fishery products;

d)    Socio-economics, gender and environmental issues related to post-harvest activities.

e)     Addressing the implications of COVID-19 on small-scale fishery value chains.

Kindly submit abstracts to the FAO Regional Office for Africa, attention [email protected]; not later than 30 November 2020. Abstracts must be written in English or French in Microsoft Word and no longer than 300 words, with a maximum of 4 to 6 keywords.

Following a screening process coordinated by FAO, 30 abstracts will be selected for development into full papers. Guidelines for the development of full papers are as follows:  

1. The full paper must be short and succinct and not exceed 5000 words with double-spacing (including reference and appendices), Times New Roman font size 12 and 1-inch margin;

1. Title, authors and affiliation should be clearly written, each contribution must be submitted with the following information in electronic format:

• TITLE;
• NAMES first author/co-author/Other co-authors;
• Title, Institution/affiliation, City, Country;
• Full contact for each author;
• Abstract;
• Body text;

1. The paper shall contain abstract, introduction, materials and methodology, results and discussion, conclusions, acknowledgement and references.
2. Citation and referencing style should be as follows:

Varlet, V, Sérot, T., Cardinal, M., Knockert, C. & Prost, 2007b. Olfactométriques determination des composés odorants-puissant actif dan le muscle de saumon (Salmo salar) en utilisant quatre techniques de generation de fumée, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 55, 4518-4525.

1. The paper must be written according to the FAO style (http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/faoterm/FAOSTYLE_English_2017.pdf)

NB:

• Original graphics/images should be submitted also as separate files with the following specifications: 300 dpi for standard size 10X6 cm in CMUK colour mode, stored as TIFF (uncompressed JPEG or GIF), and are to include caption information/credits.
• Charts/Figures are also to be submitted with the following specifications in separate files (as well as the original source (preferably Excel, Illustrator EPS/Al):
  • Graphics should be exported or saved as EPS files;
  • All fonts must be embedded in the file
  • Each file must be saved to 100 percent with the size of the correct layout;
  • Tabulations must not be used within the table frame

Conditions of Submission and License Agreement

By submitting a paper, authors confirm that readily reproducible materials described in the manuscript will be freely available to any expert/professional wishing to use them for non-commercial purpose, and that ethical approval has been obtained for any human or animal experimentation. Authors also confirm that the manuscript is original, has not already been published in a journal and is not currently under consideration by another journal.

Key meeting dates

For more Information, contact the meeting secretariat through

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
Regional Office for Africa (RAF),
P. O. Box GP 1628, Accra, Ghana.
+233 (0) 302 610930 Ext. 41643
Email. [email protected]