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Purpose
28 April 2008

The Conference has been rescheduled to October 5-9th 2008 at the Leisure Lodge Resort in Mombasa, Kenya. Registration and full-board accommodation fees remain unchanged.

 

We are pleased to announce an Africa-based conference that will focus on banana and plantain research across Africa: lessons learnt and the way forward. Fostering international partnerships is a major objective of the conference, with particular emphasis to establish the role of research in promoting future commercial activities and trade in banana, plantain and ensete. There is an urgent need to target basic and applied research that connects to existing and emerging markets. This unique conference will be the first pan-African meeting to link research to markets in an African context. Key priorities:

 

§      Develop an African strategy for the next decade to exploit banana and plantain research

§      Strengthen research partnerships to overcome production bottlenecks

§      Harmonize research with production trends, emerging markets and trade networks

 

This conference is urgently needed as banana and plantain are key staple crops in rural households in Africa. They are also being increasingly targeted for income generation through improved linkages with the private sector. The conference also intends to foster research and trade experiences from other commodities. The result of this meeting will be to fully realize the potential of this crucial crop for poverty alleviation and wealth generation.

This conference is being organized by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in partnership with Bioversity International, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). We invite you to join us towards a successful and fruitful conference.

 

the conference will be opened by Anna Tibaijuka, Undersecretary-General of the United Nations and Director of UN-HABITAT, and Karl Falkenberg, Deputy Director General for Trade of the European Commission.

Click here to download our original call for abstracts (136 kB, Word format).

Click here to download our press release (47 kB, Word format).

Click here to download our flyer (475 kB, JPEG format).

Click here to download our corporate rates (162 kB, Word format).