Harlan II: An International Symposium - Biodiversity in Agriculture: Domestication, Evolution, & Sustainability, 14–18 September 2008 — UC Davis.  "Agricultural biodiversity is now at the crux of several societal trends and concerns that have gradually surfaced over the last decades. These include an increasing interest in the origin of agriculture as a major milestone in the evolution of humans; concerns about the loss of biodiversity not only of crops and farm animals and their wild relatives, but also natural ecosystems in general; an awareness of the role of agricultural biodiversity in ecosystem function and agricultural sustainability; and the public’s interest in learning more about food, fiber, and feed production, as it relates to the quality and health of agricultural products and the environmental impact of agricultural production". The Harlan II International Symposium, dedicated to Jack R. Harlan, evolutionary biologist and plant explorer, will assess the current status of agricultural biodiversity, and chart directions for its future.  Click here to learn more.

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) just announced a public-private partnership to develop drought-tolerant maize varieties for Africa. The partnership, known as Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), was formed in response to a growing call by African farmers, leaders, and scientists to address the devastating effects of drought on small-scale farmers and their families. AATF is an African-led charity designed to facilitate and promote public/private partnerships for the access and delivery of appropriate proprietary technologies with potential to increase the productivity of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Click here to learn more.

The iPlant Collaborative (iPC) is a distributed, cyberinfrastructure-centered, international community of plant and computing researchers enabling new conceptual advances through computational thinking, and addressing an evolving array of the most compelling grand challenges in the plant sciences and associated, cutting-edge research challenges in the computing sciences.  The five-year project is renewable for a second five years for a total of $100 million. The iPlant Collaborative will create both a physical center and a virtual computing space where researchers can communicate and work together to share and analyze data. The community will put forth ideas of challenges to be addressed by the collaborative, and teams of experts from around the world will be assembled.  An iPlant Collaborative's kickoff conference will be held on April 7-9, 2008 at Cold Spring Harbor Lab, accessible via free, live webcast which will allow for direct participation.  Click here to learn more.

2nd National Plant Breeding Workshop, June 16-18, 2008, Des Moines, Iowa, sponsored by SCC-080, the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee. The PBCC serves as a forum regarding issues and opportunities of national and global importance to the public and private sectors of the U.S. national plant breeding effort. The 2008 workshop will focus on building partnerships between society and the global community of plant breeders. The workshop will include a visit to Monsanto’s facilities at Huxley, Iowa, as well as invited speakers and discussion sessions (Registration: $200 professionals; $100 graduate students).  Click here to learn more.

The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) welcome the inaugural class of agricultural PhD students at University of Ghana, Legon.  The first eight doctoral candidates sponsored by AGRA will be entering their advanced studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, hoping to discover new ways to improve crops across West Africa, officials announced at a ceremony inaugurating the program. Click here to learn more.

Wheat killer detected in Iran - Dangerous fungus on the move from East Africa to the Middle East.  A new and virulent wheat fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has moved to major wheat growing areas in Iran, FAO reported today. The fungus is capable of wreaking havoc to wheat production by destroying entire fields.  Countries east of Iran, like Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, all major wheat producers, are most threatened by the fungus and should be on high alert, FAO said. It is estimated that as much as 80 percent of all wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to the wheat stem rust (Puccinia graminis). The spores of wheat rust are mostly carried by wind over long distances and across continents. Click here to learn more.

Scientists meet to launch a multi-million dollar project to step up rice production in Africa and Asia.  National and international rice specialists are taking part in a meeting to launch a multi-million dollar project on “Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia” at the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), Cotonou, Benin, 5–7 March 2008.  The project, which will be carried out by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and its partners, has been approved for funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a grant to IRRI for US$19.9 million over three years.  Click here to learn more.

2008 is the International Year of the Potato (IYP).  The celebration will raise awareness of the importance of the potato - and of agriculture in general - in addressing issues of global concern, including hunger, poverty and threats to the environment. Over the next two decades, the world's population is expected to grow on average by more than 100 million people a year. More than 95 percent of that increase will occur in the developing countries, where pressure on land and water is already intense. A key challenge facing the international community is, therefore, to ensure food security for present and future generations, while protecting the natural resource base on which we all depend. The potato will be an important part of efforts to meet those challenges. Click here to learn more about the International Year of the Potato (IYP).