1st Announcement

Congress theme

“Linking production, livelihoods and conservation”

Introduction

The global call for improved and environmentally sound practices is becoming an important factor in national and global development agenda. There are numerous efforts to develop, promote and up-scale adoption of practices and systems that would ensure high and sustainable productive capacity of natural resources. This is probably more critical to agriculture than any other industry.

Therefore, in the quest for locally viable options for sustainable agriculture, it has become crucial to share information and experiences on conservation agriculture (CA) across disciplines, economic sectors and geographical locations. This will identify emerging information and facilitate its dissemination, hence contribute to enhanced CA development and adoption. The sharing facilitates integrated and holistic approach, underscoring the fact that CA is not tillage, agronomy, marketing, chemical input, or any other aspect considered in isolation. CA weaves all these aspects together in a form and character dictated by the local circumstances.

Worldwide, partners and stakeholders value the sharing of information and experiences on CA. This has been demonstrated and achieved in the First and Second World Congresses on Conservation Agriculture (Spain, 2001 and Brazil, 2003).

The World Congress on Conservation Agriculture is acknowledged as an effective forum. Hence, the second World Congress gave the mandate to Africa to organize and host the Third World Congress on Conservation Agriculture (III WCCA).
The Organising Committee, hence, wish to announce the 3rd World Congress on Conservation Agriculture to be held in Nairobi, Kenya from the 3rd to the 7th October 2005.

Congress objectives

To build and strengthen increased role of CA in the attainment of socio-economic development and sustainable natural resource management (millennium goals), the Congress aims to:

• Facilitate exchange of information and experiences
• Facilitate strategic, multi-disciplinary and cross-sectorial collaboration and partnership in the development and promotion of sustainable farming practices.
• Identify and spotlight the key issues, concerns and trends in the development and implementation of CA support efforts on one end and adoption on the other.
• Show case the impact of CA at farm/community level and also link CA to sustainable development (including food security and the fight against poverty, on one hand, and natural resource resilience, a cleaner environment and healthy food, on the other).

Congress thematic areas

• Empowering farmer participation in the development and adoption of CA.
• Show evidence of CA contribution to development: poverty alleviation, food security, mitigating impacts of HIV-AIDS, natural resource management, and farmers’ prosperity; environmentally friendly farming.
• CA in the application of relief interventions for development.
• Multi-discipline/multi-stakeholder approaches, networking and collaboration (e.g. policies to interest/ facilitate private sector involvement).
• Showcase CA in water management, labour saving/reducing intervention, means for carbon sequestration, and means to reducing overall external inputs into agriculture.
• Highlight Africa’s state of affairs with regard to issues and concerns—including farmers’ priorities—for enhanced adoption of CA practices.
• Link CA with other global initiatives on sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Congress structure

The congress aims to provide a highly interactive process for information exchange. This will be achieved through small thematic group presentations, discussions and reports. An information market will provide a forum for farmer organizations, NGOs, private sector companies, etc. to present their work. The overall Congress synthesis shall highlight a collective Congress thrust highlighting among others the key action areas.

There will be events for accompanying persons, special evening functions or interest group discussions, and post-congress tourist visits to game parks and other natural resource destinations that Africa and Kenya are famous for.

Congress dates and venue

The Congress is scheduled for the 3rd to the 7th October 2005 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Further information

1. Further information please contact:

Martin Bwalya
Congress Secretariat
P.O. Box MP 167, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax: +263 4 334395; Mobile: +263 91 292111; Fax: +263 4 332853
Email : [email protected]
Website: http://www.fao.org/act-network

2. You may also access further information on the Congress web page within the ACT website (www.fao.org/act-network).

3. Pre-registration information shall be available soon.

Your input to the Congress preparations (IMPORTANT)

The Congress Organizers would like to hear from those that may have ideas/suggestions on (i) the content of the Congress and (ii) how best to realize it, i.e. Congress process.

Please complete the attached form and return to the Congress Secretariat with your input.