|
NEWSLETTER
#4 - July 2010
Registration
So
far, 530 participants are registered which is above our expectations.
With 52 countries represented, 80% coming from the Europe, this
XIth ESA Congress is the largest one, and we are confident that
this will be a great success.
Registrations
desk at Corum conference center will be open from Sunday August
29th from 14:00 until 19:00, along with the posters area and the
speakers preview room (Joffre 5) to download your presentation.
Key-note speakers for the Monday sessions are invited to send their
presentation in advance by email to
m.rissons@gmail.com.
I
invite you to come to register and install your poster download
your presentation on Sunday, to avoid rushing on Monday morning,
and to attend the welcome reception from 18:00 to 20:00 in the same
place.
You
are also invited to attend the Public
Conference « Mais que font les agronomes ? »
from 20:30 to 22:30 at the Rabelais auditorium which is next to
Corum. This
conference (in French) will mix debates, theater performance and
movies.
Programme
The
proceedings are under printing. They contain 470 papers out of the
510 submitted, after each one has gone through a reviewing process
to check the scientific basis and quality of the presentation. It
was a hard work to meet the deadline given by the printer. I wish
to thank very much the 20 chairpersons and 70 reviewers who helped
me in this reviewing process, and my staff here in Montpellier.
Please note that the proceedings are quite heavy (about 2kg)…
so keep enough room for them I your luggage!
The scientific material contained in the proceedings provides an
interesting overview of the current status of agronomic research
in Europe and all over the world. According to the number of papers
produced in each thematic session, we could identify three major
areas well covered by agronomic research:
- Analysis of crops and cropping systems performance in relationship
with management and natural resources conservation (session S3.2.2
).
- Plant and crop physiology in interaction with genetics (sessions
S2.1 and S3.1).
- Soil biology and biochemistry in relationships with crop management
(especially tillage and crop associations) (session S2.2.2).
Similarly,
the following emerging domains of research at the interface of agronomy
and other disciplines could be identified:
- Analysis and design of cropping systems at the landscape level
(sessions S2.2.1 and S3.3.2).
- Integration of pest and disease, and functional biodiversity in
the analysis and design of cropping systems (sessions S2.2.3, S3.1.2
and S3.2.1).
- Integration of the decision making process, at farm and at higher
levels, and integration of the policy options into the design process
of cropping systems (sessions S3.3.1, S2.3.2, S2.3.3, S3.2.3 and
S4).
We
could also point out the increasing involvement of agronomy in international
efforts towards two of the major challenges for agricultural research
in the forthcoming decades:
- Improving food production to meet the requirements of a growing
population in a sustainable manner (session S2.3.1).
- Adapting agriculture to climate change. This topic was not identified
as a specific session, but treated purposely in 14 sessions: 64
papers deal with the impact of climate change or with methodologies
to study the adaptation of agriculture to climate change on a multi-scale
basis (especially in sessions S231, S333 and S311).
Agronomy
in Montpellier and Avignon - "Les Dossiers d'Agropolis International"
In
your bag, you will find also the English version of the last Dossier
d'Agropolis International titled "Agronomy - Crops and Cropping
systems". It is the latest issue of these thematic directories
which provide a synthetic presentation of the research groups of
the Agropolis intitutes involved in agronomy. The French version
will also be available during the congress at the Agropolis booth.
These can be downloaded and browsed from the Agropolis website.
Take a chance to have a look before coming so that you can identify
groups to meet during the conference for future collaborations.
Download
English version >>
Download
French
version >>
International
courses
31
participants from 18 countries are registered for the course “Working
with dynamics models in agriculture”. 6 are in waiting list
until next week in case of cancellation for visa problems.
15 participants of 9 countries are registered for the course on
“Integrated Assessment of Agricultural Systems”.
French candidates will be offered to follow a new session of these
two courses in the coming year.
Grants
Thanks
to Agropolis
Fondation, 47 free registrations and 20 free accommodation in
the SupAgro students residence have been granted to young scientists
(mostly PhD) from 23 countries (mostly from Africa, Asia and Europe).
Field trips
We
have to cancel the "Olive and Pont du Gard" field trip
as we do not reach a sufficient number of participants to be able
to confirm the reservations made. If you registered for this field
trip, please contact Enjoy
registration services, to choose another trip, i.e.
the "Wine and St Guilhem" or the "Rice and Camargue
Regional Park"* or to participate in the Symposium which takes
place in Montpellier SupAgro (S4). If none of these proposals is
suitable, you will be reimbursed.
*
14 places for the "Wine and St Guilhem" and 26 for the
"Rice and Camargue Regional Park" field trips are still
available. Do not miss these opportunities of visiting amazing historical
places, sight-seeing typical landscapes of southern France, discovering
innovative cropping systems and tasting local gastronomy!
Accompanying
persons program
Enjoy
registration services cancelled the following tours:
*
"Nîmes and Uzes" scheduled on Tuesday August 31st
*
" Sète - The Languedocian Venice" scheduled on
Wednesday September 1st.
The
Montpellier guided tour on Monday August 30 (morning) will be organized.
You
can still register
for the accompanying person program including the welcome reception
and the gala dinner, and choose between the following options: Montpellier
guided tour and/or one of the field
trips proposed on Thursday September 2nd.
Post-tours
As
for the accompanying person program, our travel agency has not enough
participants to be able to maintain the bookings for the 2-days
post-tour in Carcassone.
Regarding
the "Midi canal and Valmagne Abbey" tour scheduled on
Friday September 3rd, this is still forecasted. For registration,
please contact Pascal
Evasions.
News
of interest
The
5th World Congress of Conservation Agriculture incorporating
the 3rd Farming Systems Design Conference is taking place between
the 26 and 29 of September 2011 in Brisbane, Australia. A Super
Early Bird registration fee (highly reduced) has been introduced
for those wishing to register before 31 December 2010.
Looking
forward to meeting you soon in Montpellier!
|
