BEST BETS
CIIFAD's Recommended Events
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Thurs., November 5, 2009
2:30pm - 4:00pm, G-08 Uris Hall
Aid Paradox: Why Turning off the Aid Tap Won't Do the Trick
Speaker: Thomas Kwasi Tieku, African Studies Program, University of Toronto
Institute for African Development Seminar Series
Tues., November 10, 2009
5:00pm - 6:00pm, G-85 Myron Taylor Hall
"An International Challenge: Protecting Victims' Rights in Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Cases"
Speaker: Hon. Virgina M. Kendall, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Woman and Global Justice Speaker Series
Wed., November 11, 2009
12:20pm - 1:10pm, 135 Emerson Hall
RojiRoti, Building a Path Out of Poverty: Experiences from Northeast India
Speaker: John Gaunt, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
Perspectives in International Development Seminar Series
CIIFAD sponsors and participates in thematic working groups at Cornell as
well as transnational communities of practices and numerous virtual discussion
groups. Students, faculty and staff interested finding out more about the Cornell-based
CIIFAD-supported interest groups can contact the group coordinators listed
below.
Conservation Agriculture Working Group
The Conservation Agriculture Group is a newly forming CIIFAD-sponsored entity
that organizes occasional seminars; facilitates group discussions with
visiting scientists; provides guidance for students interested in conservation
agriculture (CA) in developing countries; and
participates in
global dialogue on CA through existing on-line communities. Examples of the CA Group's activities include the recent International Conservation Agriculture blog, Larry Harrington's
seminar on Innovation Systems for
Conservation Agriculture in Africa, Asia, and the Americas and the student built CA
website. (currently being revised). Interested
faculty, staff and students are welcome to join the CA Group.
Contact: Peter
Hobbs,
Coordinator
“Ecoagriculture” is a term coined in 2000
to convey a vision of rural communities managing their resources to jointly
achieve three broad goals at a landscape scale:
1) Enhance rural livelihoods, 2) Conserve biodiversity and other ecosystem
services, 3) Develop more sustainable and productive agricultural systems
(crops, livestock, forests, fish).
Comprised of Cornell faculty and students, the Ecoagriculture
Working Group collaborates closely with Ecoagriculture
Partners, a Washington D.C. based NGO.
Contact: Louise Buck,
Coordinator
Farmer-Centered
Research and Extension (FCR&E)
CIIFAD's FCR&E Group hosts occasional speakers, sponsors a graduate course
(IARD 783/EDU 783) and provides guidance for students
who are working with farmer-centered research and/or extension in developing
countries. The
FCR&E Group also participates in the design and implementation of collaborative,
interdisciplinary research and development projects with other CIIFAD groups
and international partners.
Contact: Terry
Tucker, CIIFAD
Associate Director
The Food, Agriculture and Nutrition Group (FANG) promotes interdisciplinary research, teaching and outreach focused on the development of food systems that support human health and well-being sustainably (see new FANG website). The group is a collaboration between CIIFAD and the Program in International Nutrition. FANG's approach is to consider food systems holistically with human nutrition and environmental and human health as explicit outcomes. Faculty, staff and students who wish to join the group are welcome!
[more info...]. (For information on the related FANG-Grads Group, contact Isabelle Michaud-Letourneau
).
Contacts: Alice
Pell, Rebecca Stoltzfus,
and Rebecca
Nelson
International Soil Health Working Group
CIIFAD's International
Soil Health Group (ISHG) brings faculty, staff and students from various
departments together with resource people from Cornell-based departments, programs,
libraries and international centers to develop, support and follow up on global
soil health initiatives.
“Soil health” emphasizes the integration of biological with chemical
and physical measures of soil quality that affect farmers’ profits and
the environment.
Contact: Dr.
Janice Thies, Professor of Soil Ecology and Biology
Knowledge-Sharing Strategies
The Knowledge-Sharing Strategies Group consists of faculty, staff and students
working in CIIFAD thematic groups, Mann Library, and several other Cornell-based groups. This working group collaborates on applying new and
emerging strategies and technologies for knowledge management and sharing in
collaborative international programming.
Contact: Jaron Porciello, Special Projects Librarian (Mann Library) or Lucy Fisher, CIIFAD Outreach Coordinator
Sustainable Rice Systems
Faculty, staff and students meet occasionally through the Sustainable Rice
System Group's forum to exchange information and develop collaborative initiatives
at Cornell. (Several slide presentations from past SRS group discussions
on SRI
in India and Cambodia are
available online). The primary topics of Sustainable Rice Systems at Cornell are:
1) System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
Contact: Norman
Uphoff
2) Rice
Wheat Project (completed Sept.30, 2008)
Contact: John
Duxbury/Julie Lauren
For research at Cornell on rice breeding for stress tolerance
and related work on rice genomics contact: Susan
McCouch (plant breeding and genetics).