CIGR Newsletter No 64
CIGR NEWS
Presidium News
News from Regional and National Societies
PRESIDIUM NEWS
News from the President
The ASAE Annual International Meeting 2003 in Las Vegas was a good opportunity to hold our CIGR Presidium meeting as well as a joint meeting of the Executive Board and the Technical Board. Also, CIGR Technical Section VII took the opportunity to organize a Section Board meeting, and the Editorial Board for the CIGR Handbook of Agricultural Engineering arranged a meeting, too.
At the Presidium meeting quite a number of different topics were discussed, the most relevant of which are reported on briefly in the following.
· As President, I gave a report on my recent activities, including my participation in the EurAgEng Executive meeting (see newsletter no. 63) and a meeting with Prof. Wayne Coates in Tucson, Arizona. Wayne is the new representative of ASAE in the CIGR Executive Board.
· Secretary General Prof. Peter Schulze Lammers reported on the financial situation of CIGR and the budget for 2004. Unfortunately, there exists a big gap between the amount of levies that CIGR was expecting from ASAE for the joint Congress 2002 in Chicago and the amount that ASAE has paid by now. CIGR is still waiting for explanations by ASAE concerning the reasons for this arbitrary reduction. The 2004 budget was approved as proposed by the SG.
· The awarding opportunities at the 2004 CIGR International Conference in Beijing were discussed. Armand Blanc prizes and the E-journal prize will be granted. Furthermore, Industry prizes should also be available. Possible sponsors will be contacted.
· The CIGR Handbook of Agricultural Engineering is going to be translated into Chinese language. A corresponding agreement was signed by Prof. Li Shujun, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences, and me (in my function as Editor-in-Chief of the Handbook).
· The E-journal has become increasingly attractive, supported by its ISSN and the indexing of the published articles. The Presidium thanked Prof. Bill Stout for his continuous work.
· As for CIGR developments within member societies as well as new membership, the Israeli Society of Agricultural Engineers could be won as new member. Algeria's National Institute of Soils and Drainage had also expressed its intention to become a member. (Remark: In the meantime this has successfully been accomplished.)
The presidium also discussed the movement inside ASAE to change the name of the society to "The Society for Biological and Agricultural Engineering" (SBAE). Whereas the inclusion of more biology may be advantageous but not strictly necessary (cf. the CIGR definition of Agricultural Engineering, to be found in the CIGR leaflet: "Agricultural Engineering is the application of science and technology in agriculture, food and biological systems, for the benefit of humans"), the omission of the word "American" from the name gives rise to objections from our side.
· The 2004 CIGR International Conference in Beijing is coming closer. Note that abstracts become due on April 1, 2004. For more information, please read the announcements in this newsletter or visit www.2004cigr.org.
· The 2006 CIGR World Congress in Bonn is also under preparation. The provisional scientific committee will meet in spring 2004.
During the Executive and Technical Boards' meeting, similar topics were addressed; however, the discussions were more related to the viewpoints of the member societies and the CIGR Technical Sections. Although most of the sections were not represented personally, the boards could discuss by means of Section Board meeting minutes and updated mission statements.
The CIGR Technical Section VII Board meeting attendants took most of their time to discuss CIGR's position with respect to a new cooperation of EFITA, AFITA, and PANAFITA. The three organizations will jointly organize a world conference on IT in agriculture that shall be held every three years. The final decision and recommendation to the CIGR Presidium was to support this international activity and collaborate with these societies but protect, at the same time, every society’s own interest. Section VII will coordinate the activities within CIGR and will be our focal point for the cooperation. At the end of the meeting, a change of vice-chairs for the section occurred. Richard Hegg wanted to leave this position; he was replaced by Fedro Zazueta. We thank Richard for all his efforts in the (long!) definition and starting phases of CIGR Technical Section VII.
Axel Munack
CIGR President 2003-04
Remarks of the Secretary-General on his second term in office
In the past six years, CIGR has developed successfully in the following major fields:
· Membership: CIGR was joined by 13 national and regional associations which are seriously committed to becoming part of the world community of agricultural and biological engineering. Thus, CIGR now has 18 national and 9 regional member associations, together representing more than 90 countries.
· Publications: CIGR has extended its services by editing and publishing the Handbook of Agricultural Engineering. This is the first comprehensive publication with authors from around the world dealing with the subject of AgEng for teaching and professional engineering purposes. In addition, CIGR has established the first E-Journal in our profession, thereby meeting the need for a publication medium for R&D papers. An increasing number of national associations are unable to maintain internationally recognized AgEng journals, but it is the publication of scientific articles which, apart from World Congresses, constitutes a professional world community.
· Communication: Due to our excellent relations with FAO, it was possible to set up the CIGR Global Network. As a contemporary medium of communication, internet discussion lists provide an opportunity for correspondence around the world without time lags and with a high degree of availability and reliability.
Thus, it has been a great pleasure to serve CIGR in the office of General Secretary and to be supported in my work by the extraordinary staff in the headquarters, by the German government through continuous financial funding and, last but not least, by powerful and diligent CIGR presidents.
However, listing these success stories and emphasizing our achievements and the successful teamwork of the Presidium and the General Secretariat does not give a complete picture of the scope of activities and issues which the General Secretariat has been dealing with. With the same stress I put on CIGR’s satisfactory recent development, I would now like to draw your attention to a number of problematic developments.
Even though CIGR has extended its services, the General Secretariat is frequently confronted with requests to provide new and additional services. Such services should be, but often are not, provided by CIGR’s member organisations. The more powerful the member associations are, the less acceptable are such requests because the national associations are equipped with budgets and incomes exceeding those of CIGR by many times. Services which are not exclusively of national and regional interest are a domain of CIGR as a world organization, but such services must be organized by the member societies themselves, whereas CIGR’s task is that of networking. These services are only possible if they have the full and voluntary support of member societies. The same is true about the frequently asked question about the benefit of being a member of CIGR. The mere fact that our membership has risen so remarkably over the last years illustrates that national and regional societies turn to CIGR for reasons that lie beyond a certain set of services. But there is a difference between member organizations from rich and poor countries: never has CIGR been asked about the benefits of being a member by a poor country’s Ag Eng society; benefiting from the worldwide respect that results from their being part of a world organization, they do not demand any additional services.
One major responsibility of CIGR authorities laid down in the CIGR statutes but not easily noticed by individual members is that of balancing the interests of national and regional societies. If an organization that is powerful in terms of members and financial resources and equipped with a worldwide membership basis of numerous graduates from highly respected universities offers a discount membership fee along with full services to poor countries, the consequence will be that national organizations are weakened. Confronted with such developments, it is CIGR’s natural duty to raise its voice and to emphasize its commitment to protecting the interests of its member associations, particularly those from developing countries. Similar conflicts have arisen in several regions of the world for various reasons.
Balancing is something frequently demanded in connection with yet another issue. The Newsletter contains a calendar of worldwide AgEng events. As the attentive reader can see in the great number of congresses, conferences and workshops, there are many overlaps not only in the subjects dealt with but also in the dates and even places of the events. CIGR is the only organization able to reduce the increasing number of such overlaps, but the approach in this case must be similar to what I outlined above concerning the services of CIGR. CIGR can only act through its member organizations and, appealing to their discipline, urge them to harmonise the organization of their conferences with those of other organisations. By giving an overview of events, CIGR already provides the information required for a planning that avoids interferences and overlaps among different conferences. CIGR cannot do much more than admonish, however, because to do more would require a mandate which has never been discussed and which, I guess, would never be accepted by a majority of CIGR’s member societies.
Another problem for CIGR as world organization is that the General Secretariat is confronted with a large number of bids for CIGR World Congresses and conferences sponsored by CIGR as the world society. The World Congresses and the conferences organized by the CIGR sections are crucial CIGR activities; if World Congresses were held at shorter intervals of, e.g. two years, this would on the one hand satisfy the desire of many countries to organize a World Congress, but on the other hand it would raise the number of conferences. This, in turn, would result in interferences with conferences organized by our own member associations such as AAAE and EurAgEng. Moreover, it would tend to water down the importance which World Congresses have as the one activity which directs the greatest amount of public attention to CIGR. Of the World Congresses I took part in and supported as General Secretary, those in 1998 in Rabat, Morocco, and in 2000 in Tsukuba, Japan, fulfilled this function in exemplary ways. There was an undivided focus on CIGR as sponsor, and CIGR benefited from the successful congresses both financially and in terms of worldwide recognition.
The coming World Congresses must follow this tradition, and I ask you to support the World Congress in Bonn in 2006 in this spirit. Peter Schulze Lammers
CIGR Secretary-General
CIGR Honorary President Bill A. Stout
Winner of McCormick-Case Gold Medal
ASAE has named Prof. Bill A. Stout the winner of one of its most prestigious awards, the Cyrus Hall McCormick – Jerome Increase Case Gold Medal Award. At a recognition luncheon at the Las Vegas Riviera Hotel on 30 July 2003, CIGR Honorary President Stout, professor emeritus at the Texas A&M University, was recognized for his distinguished career as an educator, researcher and consultant as well as for his intense devotion to the development of agricultural engineering throughout the world. His engineering contributions include advances in fruit and vegetable harvest and handling mechanization and improved understanding of the physical properties of agricultural materials.
In Memoriam Fiepko Coolman
With CIGR Honorary President Fiepko Coolman, one of CIGR’s most respected personages passed away last month. On top of his parallel work as a crop farmer between 1925 and 1991 and at the the Dutch Institute of Agricultural Engineering at Wageningen between 1954 and 1983, he also made outstanding contributions to the international work of CIGR. During his period as the Director at Wageningen from 1964 to 1983, he served as CIGR President (1974-1979) and organised the VIIIth CIGR World Congress in Flevohof (NL) in 1974. At the XVth CIGR World Congress in Chicago in 2002, CIGR was honored to present its Honorary President with the title „CIGR Fellow“ for this lifetime achievements and for his active commitment to agricultural engineering even many years after his retirement.
70th Anniversary of Shin-Norinsha Co., Ltd.
On behalf of CIGR we congratulate Mr Kishida on the 70th anniversary of his and his late father’s company. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank him for his commitment to the cause of agricultural mechanisation worldwide which he has for many years shown not only as the head of Shin-Norinsha Co., Ltd. and Chief Editor of AMA, but also as a major contributor to the work of CIGR.
The quarterly journal AMA, which was created by Mr Kishida’s company more than thirty years ago to deal with agricultural mechanization in developing countries, has been an outstanding contribution to the development of agricultural engineering where it is most needed. CIGR takes special pride in the fact that during the 2000 CIGR Memorial Congress (held in Tsukuba, Japan, to celebrate CIGR’s own 70th anniversary) and during the 2002 CIGR World Congress (held in Chicago, USA), it was able to present two of its members with the “AMA-Kishida Award” sponsored by Shin-Norisha Co., Ltd. Expressing CIGR’s recognition of the awardees’ great sustained past and future contributions to the world-wide activity of CIGR, the “AMA-Kishida Award” is given special value by its sponsor’s own international renown: with his expertise, his personal dedication, and his international ties of friendship, Mr Kishida can be regarded as the personification of the international agricultural engineering community.
For many years now Mr Kishida has also been playing an important role in CIGR both as a prominent supporter of its work in general and as ASAE’s representative in the CIGR Executive Board. In 2002, CIGR was honoured when Mr Kishida accepted the title of CIGR Fellow as a token of appreciation of his sustained personal commitment to the work of CIGR.
On reaching this important milestone, CIGR joins others of Mr Kishida’s friends and colleagues in sending him our very best wishes for the future of Shin-Norinsha Co., Ltd.
Axel Munack, CIGR President 2003-2004
Peter Schulze Lammers, CIGR Secretary-General
NEWS FROM Regional and National Societies
Between 15 and 19 June 2003, 500 participants from 40 countries met in Berlin to present and discuss the latest research in precision farming.
The twin conferences were opened in a common plenary session by the chairman of this year’s Programme Committee, Professor Jürgen Zaske. From the point of view of EU agricultural policy, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries Franz Fischler’s opening remarks (presented by video playback) stressed the importance of innovative production technologies. Additional opening remarks came from the German Federal Ministries of Education and Research and of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture. Mr van Hoven (NL, Koninklijke Maatschap de Wilhelminapolder) described the view of European farmers on precision farming.
The scientific opening speeches were held by Dr. Armin Werner (ZALF, Centre for Agricultural Landscape and Land Use Research), who pointed out how the new technologies function as pacemakers in sustainable land use, and by Marc Vanacht, president of the “AG Business Consultants”, who presented his vision of the food market and the agriculture of the future.
Following this introduction, more than 250 contributions were presented in six parallel rows of sessions. In addition, there were more than 200 contributions in the form of posters. The subjects dealt with ranged from an analysis of the spatial variability in soil, location, and plants through sensors and their various applications and questions of data documentation to the social aspects and economic effects of precision farming. For the first time, a complete row of sessions was dedicated to precision livestock farming.
The programme was completed by Specialist Courses on the latest GIS applications and on modelling, Farmer Workshops and extensive presentations of the latest technology. More than 160 participants took the opportunity of an introduction to the latest practical applications of sensor-based processes by joining one of four trips to farms where such technology is used and to a research institution (ATB, Institute of Agricultural Engineering Bornim).
The research results presented during the conferences were handed out to the participants at the beginning in the form of Proceedings. The scientific contributions had been subjected to a strict review and editing process in order to guarantee a high standard of quality equivalent to that of peer-reviewed journals.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Zaske
Institute of Agricultural Engineering Bornim
Cooperation between CIOSTA and EurAgEng
La Commission International pour l’Organisation Scientifique du Travail en Agriculture (CIOSTA) and the European Society of Agricultural Engineers (EurAgEng) are both international associations with the common aims of:
· setting up and improving networking systems to promote the roles of the sciences of Conservation Agriculture and Forestry and Rural Environment for Sustainable Food and Fibre Production in Europe;
· seeking cooperation from other regional and world-wide organisations whose interests impinge on similar issues.
In this endeavour, CIOSTA and EurAgEng have reached an agreement on close cooperation and mutual assistance for the transfer of knowledge in Europe as well as elsewhere. The two Presidents, Prof. Pietro Piccarolo of CIOSTA and Prof. Daniele De Wrachien of EurAgEng, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which provides for the following:
· cooperation between the CIOSTA and EurAgEng networking systems;
· nomination of representatives and deputy representatives to each other's relevant working bodies as observers;
· publication of each other's announcements in their own media on a reciprocal basis, free of charge;
· cooperation in the planning and implementation of enterprises of common interest such as research projects, guidelines, workshops, conferences, training courses, etc.
Prof. Daniele De Wrachien
EurAgEng President
Report on the 5th Inter-Regional Conference on Environment and Water Envirowater 2002, Ouagadougou 5-7 November 2002
The 2002 edition of the annual Inter-Regional Conference Envirowater was held in the Caisse Générale de Péréquation (CGP) in Ouagadougou from 5 to 6 November 2002. Sponsored by CIGR and conducted by EIER/ESTHER with CIGR-Section I, WHO/AFRO and the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique et Technologique of Burkina Faso (CNRST), it was dedicated to the general theme “Sustainable Water Resources Management: Health and Productivity in hot climates”. It was intended to contribute to solving the environmental and development problems faced by West and Central African countries in the fields of water and health in the following areas:
- Climatic variability and water resources management
- Preservation and restoration of reservoirs and soils
- Vulnerability of water systems and environment in a context of limited control of pollution sources
- Water, environment and public health
- Irrigated farming in water shortage situation.
For a long time, African States’ development programmes had shortcomings because of inadequate methodological approaches, inappropriate technologies and bad management, especially in the fields of water and environment. Water professionals and managers did not benefit much from the scientific researches carried out in Africa and in similar climatic conditions because of poor exchanges between researchers and professionals and among researchers themselves.
The main objectives of Envirowater 2002 were to:
· Take stock of existing knowledge and share research results and scientific approaches and methods between researchers and with professionals in the fields of water, environment and health in Africa and under similar climates.
· Foster North-South and South-South scientific collaboration between institutions and contribute to a greater opening of the scientific world for researchers from the South, especially from Africa.
· Evaluate with field professionals the impact of research results on development activities and identify topics for new research programmes to be conducted in partnership between research institutions from the South and the North and with professionals.
From about 150 abstracts of scientific papers, 80 contributions were selected for oral (60) presentation during twelve technical sessions or on posters (20) exhibited in the hall of the conference room. The selected contributions were published in a 635-page booklet and on a CD-ROM which was distributed to the participants. Of the 80 papers presented, 54 were by African authors. The 155 participants came from 20 countries from North, West and Central Africa, Latin America and Europe, with about two thirds coming from African countries. The languages were English and French; simultaneous interpretation was provided. The social events included a welcome cocktail, a farewell dinner, a field visit to the Ziga dam and a visit to the Nazenga wildlife park.
The presented papers were of good quality and relevant to the conference topic, particularly those that tackled the problems of water, soils, health and environment as they occur in West, Central and North Africa. Local and regional technological and relevant strategic approaches were proposed.
During this Conference, key issues were highlighted:
· Climatic variability and changes are persisting phenomena in Africa that have severe and lasting impacts due to reduced rainfall and water run-off.
· The growing pressure on water resources and soils in Africa led to strong lowering of water tables, significant soil erosion, increased environmental and water pollution, and a serious degradation of the ecosystems. There is evidence of an impoverishment of soils, of strong landscape degradation and of a significant decline of biodiversity particularly in the Sahel region.
· Problems of rapid silting of dams due to high erosion in the Sahel and high eutrophication in forest areas with intensive agricultural activities stand as a major constraint to the mobilisation and management of water resources. The reduced accumulation capacity of dams in West Africa has significantly reduced the availability of water for agriculture, fish production and the production of drinking water.
· A better management of hydraulic facilities, irrigation systems and rainfed agriculture is needed for an adaptation to modern developments, while traditional methods and approaches in Africa must be respected and people’s participation must be ensured to be effective and efficient.
· Health risks arising from inadequate farming in urban and peri-urban areas and from often untreated waste water as well as the socio-economic difficulties in providing African cities with sanitation facilities and in providing an efficient treatment of waste water must be analysed and organised in better ways.
· Increased efforts are needed in education, sensitisation and participation at the local, national and regional levels for the use and management of water in rural and in urban areas.
· Multidisciplinary approaches must be adopted in research programmes, social dimensions must be considered, and the involvement of the populations and human science specialists and professionals in those programmes must be secured.
The contributions presented at the Conference revealed that:
· African scientific research generates relevant technological and organisational solutions capable of addressing water, soil and environment management problems efficiently.
· In African countries there is an important scientific and engineering capacity to analyse local and regional problems and to seek suitable solutions.
However, the isolation of most researchers in African countries impedes their fulfilment and their ability to conduct their research with scientific rigour and to valorise their work. They need bilateral and international partners in the international scientific community, support and scientific exchange frameworks such as the Envirowater Conference.
Outputs, impacts and perspectives:
· The Proceedings represent significant working tools for scientists, engineers, managers and students in the fields of water, health and environment. They will be distributed in Engineering schools and universities in West and Central Africa.
· Several discussions between participants resulted in the beginning and strengthening of scientific collaborations and scientific networks:
- The Regional Association for Irrigation and Drainage in Africa
- Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data (FRIEND-AOC)
- Networks of Professionals and Scientists on waste water treatment by ponds and re-use (established by the EIER-ETSHER Group and CEREVE from ENPC and ENGREF, Paris).
The EIER-ETSHER group reinforced or initiated cooperation programmes with the Ecole Polytechnique Supérieure de Yaoundé, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques/ University of Cotonou, Institut National de Recherche Scientifique et Technique of Tunis, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II of Rabat, Centre d’Enseignement et de Recherche Eau-Ville-Environnement de l’ENPC-ENGREF, Paris.
· With the support of the President of CIGR, EIER-ETSHER will support the establishment both of an African continental association of CIGR, which will focus on African countries’ priority fields, and of national agricultural engineering societies.
Recommendations of the Scientific Committee:
Fifteen members of the International Scientific Committee met in November 2002 to assess the Conference :
· Envirowater 2002 was looked upon as a great success regarding the quality, number and origin of scientific papers and participants as well as the organisation of the Conference.
· Suggestions were made in order to improve the quality of research in Africa:
- To invest more scientific rigor in methodological approaches and data treatment (mainly applying to young researchers)
- To open research works to all aspects by adopting a multidisciplinary approach involving especially human sciences specialists
- To orient research in Africa towards the search for practicable solutions to the problems raised. To this end, it is necessary to involve professionals using the research results in all the research process.
Conclusion:
The Conference enabled the scientific community from Africa and other regions of the world to take stock of scientific research and knowledge on water, health, soils and environment in Africa and in similar or close climatic regions. Networks of researchers and professionals were strengthened or established. Moreover, the conference was an opportunity to reinforce the existing technical and scientific cooperation between EIER-ETSHER group and the National Scientific and Technological Research Center of Burkina Faso, the WHO and CIGR.
Dr. Amadou Hama Maiga
Director of Research Department EIER-ETSHER
President Local Organising Committee Envirowater 2002
