CIIFAD-SPONSORED EVENTS/OPPORTUNITIES:
Subscribe CIIFAD Events
CIIFAD's Agroecological Perspectives in Sustainable Development seminar series has concluded for the Spring '08 semester. PowerPoint presentations are available online for many of the seminars. The Fall '08 series will begin Wednesday, Sept. 3. at 12:20 PM in 135 Emerson Hall
OTHER BEST BETS
Mon., May 12, 2008
Christopher Barrett, Professor, Dept. of Applied Economics, Cornell University, will present "Poverty Traps and Social Protection" at 1:30-3:00 PM in 401 Warren Hall (sponsored by AEM)
Wed., May 14, 2008
Brent Gloy, Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Applied Economics, Cornell University, will present "Renewable Energy from Livestock Waste: The Economics of Anaerobic Digestion" at 3:00 PM in 401 Warren Hall (sponsored by AEM)
Check the Einuadi Center's recently updated list of external
funding opportunities
and Fulbright programs
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 formed CIIFAD-sponsored entity
that organizes occasional seminars; facilitates group discussions with
visiting scientists; provides guidance for students interested in conservation
agriculture in developing countries; and
participates in
global dialogue on CA through existing on-line communities. Recent activities
include Larry Harrington's
seminar on Innovation Systems for
Conservation Agriculture in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (view
streaming video) and Peter Shelton's (MPS grad student) CA
website. 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). Based on the previous Food Systems for Improved Health (FSIH) initiative, this newly-formed 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. A survey carried out by Andrew Jones in April 2007 lists the activities
of some of the group members. Faculty, staff and students who wish to join the group are welcome!
[more info...]
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. The ISHG
is also a sponsor of the Worldwide
Portal to Information on Soil Health.
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,
the Vice President's Office for Information Technologies, International Programs/Transnational
Learning and several other Cornell-based groups. This working group, which
will be formed in June 2006, will collaborate on applying new and
emerging strategies and technologies for knowledge management and sharing in
collaborative international programming.
Contact: Mary
Ochs
Head, Collection Development and Preservation
Mann Library
Management of Organic Inputs in Soils of the Tropics (MOIST) is an interdisciplinary
CIIFAD-sponsored working group at Cornell University set up in 1994 to investigate
and exchange information on cover crops, green manures, managed fallows and
mulches in tropical farming systems. At the center of a virtual global community
with participants in over 40 countries, MOIST staff jointly developed and
maintain the Worldwide
Portal to Information on Soil Health, several related websites (MOIST,
SRI, CIEPCA),
and thematic listservs covering on sustainable
rice systems and
green manure/cover
crops in English,
Spanish and French.
Contact: Lucy Fisher, 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. (Slide presentations from recent SRS group discussions
on SRI
in India and Cambodia are
now online). The primary topics of Sustainable Rice Systems at Cornell are:
1) System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
Contact: Norman
Uphoff
2) Rice
Wheat Project
Contact: John
Duxbury/Julie Lauren
Other rice research at Cornell includes rice breeding for stress tolerance
and related work on rice genomics contact: Susan
McCouch (plant breeding and genetics) and Ray
Wu (molecular biology).
