Programme
Programme | |
Download congress programme here.
2. Farm management
The structural development of Nordic farms and the environmental demands have led to increased focus on farm management. New tools must be implemented in order to cope with the new challenges. Many of the tools are adopted and adapted from other branches than agriculture.
3. Entrepreneurship and rural development
Agriculture is an important driving force in rural districts. The objective of agriculture is to maintain its position as the leading international food producer through a sustainable and competitive production. However, agriculture would like and is also able to contribute to the diversity and entrepreneurial spirit characterising an active and a viable local community. We face a number of interesting challenges and opportunities: the two most interesting being the development of local business and the use of resources in the open country. An important contribution is to illustrate the broad spectrum of possibilities and challenges, using among others the entrepreneurship competencies of agriculture and the entire framework of entrepreneurship in the future rural districts as starting points.
4. Robotics and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in plant production More details
The future crop production in the Nordic countries will increasingly be based on robotics and rational and efficient measurements of parameters of importance for efficient decision making. This poses new challenges to agronomy and engineering.
5. Precision livestock farming
New EU policies on traceability, food safety, agri-environmental and rural development have renewed the interest in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and robotics research as a solution to an efficient implementation of these policies. There will be focus on management systems, product quality sensing and documentation as well as perspectives regarding the reduction of environmental impact from animal husbandry. Furthermore, there will be focus on automated collection of information on health and production data in livestock production as a tool to develop management systems to ensure efficient production of safe foods from animals with good health and welfare.
6. Water resource management
Water Resources Management integrates a number of water sub-sectors such as water supply and sanitation, irrigation and drainage, and environment. An integrated water resources perspective ensures that social, economic, environmental and technical dimensions are taken into account in the management and development of water resources. Different production systems in agriculture, including the use of different crops and different irrigation systems, different management practices for soil tillage, fertilization or plant protection affect quantity and quality in surface, drainage and ground water and are therefore obvious topics to include in presentations. Studies from plot scale, over farming system scale to larger catchment scale can be discussed. The use of poor quality water sources such as "grey" and saline water can also be included.
7. Soil resource management
This topic emphasises on threats to North European soils and how to mitigate these threats. The sessions will be based on the EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection, in which the most important threats are addressed. Important challenges in the future will be to improve our understanding of the driving forces and to find ways to mitigate soil threats. In this respect, knowledge about the influence of soil management on soil quality is essential. Another future challenge will be to develop and refine tools to assess soil functions and to monitor changes over time. This will involve work on soil quality indicators and the development of new tools for sampling and mapping changes over time at different scales. In addition, soil science faces a major challenge in disseminating scientific achievements, and to interact with stakeholders in society. The sessions thus aim at encouraging interactions between research, technology development and policy-making.
8. Agriculture and the Kyoto targets
The topic on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture will have particular emphasis on ways of quantifying and reducing these emissions and thus contributing to fulfilling the commitments of the Kyoto Protocol. Greenhouse gases (methane, nitrous oxide and CO2) originate from many different sources in agriculture, and many methods for reducing emissions have been suggested. However, few mitigation options have yet been successfully implemented. The session aims at encouraging interactions between research, technology development and policy making.
9. Trends in horticulture
Horticulture is a market-driven business. Products travel all over Europe and even over the globe. The supply of products in the shops is abundant and quality is often high, but also often poor due to damage during transport to the consumer. The horticultural producers have to cope with a very competitive market. Thus research and development have to reflect the market demands if it is to enhance the possibilities for the producers and the consumers at the same time. Product quality is a leading market issue. Horticulture is production and handling of ornamental plants from greenhouses and outdoor production, it is production and handling of fresh products such as fruit, berries and vegetables. Horticulture is also human health as horticultural products are associated with the health effects of fruit and vegetables and even the mental dimensions expressed in the use of flowers and parks in the cities and as horticultural therapy are considered as horticulture.
The challenges of Horticulture are to meet the consumer expectations to the plants and products coming out of horticulture.
The challenges of horticultural research are to provide the producers with better technology and better tools to manage the quality of the products and at the same time give the consumers faith in the horticultural products. The faith in products can be the keeping quality of the flowers you buy or it can be the freshness, crispness, taste and environmental dimensions of the products. Safe to eat is a major concern.
Challenges are energy costs for greenhouse production, the health benefits of the products, organic production, less pesticide use, new and interesting products and managing the production to compete on the market. Tools are climate management in greenhouses, the physiological knowledge and understanding of the plats reactions on the factors played with, optimization of water and fertilizer use, the genetic variation and its possibilities, new ways to manage production, the plants' own resistance against pests and diseases.
10. Challenges and limitations in organic farming
This topic will deal with some of the fundamental challenges in organic farming. The organic farming practices are governed by regulations for the specific country and by the local soil and climate conditions. The main aim in organic farming research is to improve the sustainability with respect to production, environmental effects, economy, and human and animal welfare. However, these intentions may counteract each other and the regulations may in some cases impede improvements of the sustainability. Therefore, all improvements within single disciplines must be evaluated in a whole-system and long-term context, and the weak links must be identified to improve the sustainability of organic farming systems.
11. Forecasting and controlling crop pest and diseases
In the Nordic countries the extension services and the applied research institutions are well organised and integrated, and several internet-based information and decision support systems have been developed. The topic will include presentations on operational decision support systems and the use of specific pest and disease models in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Participants are invited to present work and results on specific models and DSS components.
Semi-field experiments, climate chamber and laboratory experiments in plant protection are often complicated, time-consuming and very expensive. Participants are encouraged to present results and experiences in this area to stimulate coordination and exchange of knowledge in our region.
New weeds, pest and disease problems arise in the Nordic region these years - some of them probably due to climate change. To tackle new problems - and to stimulate Nordic collaboration - a whole session is dedicated to this subject.
12. Quality and safety in the food chain
The topic will cover quality and safety related to plant products, aquaculture products, meat and milk.
The quality of plant products is determined by many factors, including growing conditions, crop varieties, crop management and input levels. These factors often interact and there is a large need for better determining these interactions and provide prognostic tools for improving and predicting effects growing conditions and management on crop yield and quality. Safety aspects are related mostly to occurrence of mycotoxins, heavy metals and other unwanted compounds in the final product, and there is a need to improve cultivation methods, forecasting tools and detection system to reduce these safety issues.
Aquaculture is a fast-growing food production worldwide. Consequently, research topics related to fish welfare, quality and safety of feed and products are becoming increasingly more focussed. Further, the rapidly increasing production leads to a request for new feed ingredients, such as krill meals and oils, proteins made from methane-consuming single cells, and protein and oils from a set of different vegetable sources. This makes a detailed understanding of possible impacts on product quality an even more central issue.
Meat quality is dependent on muscle development during foetal life (myogenesis, muscle fibre number) and postnatal muscle growth (protein turnover) and, furthermore, on muscle metabolism prior to slaughter. Many factors like feeding and strategy are known to affect muscle development, growth, and metabolism, and consequently meat quality. But also transportation, stunning procedure and post-mortem handling of carcases affect meat quality. Consequently, participants are encouraged to submit papers dealing with all aspects in the whole chain from conception to consumption.
During recent years the market for milk and dairy products has been divided into two directions; one based on private label discount products and another based on "better class shopping" where consumers are willing to pay an extra price for a high quality product with a special history or attributes like an improved flavour or a health beneficial product composition. Development of high quality products calls for an understanding on how factors in the primary production affect the quality of raw milk.
Keynote speakers:
Åshild Krogdahl, Veterinary College, Norway.
Margrethe Therkildsen, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Denmark