Highlights E-Newsletter
In this May issue
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"Doing Well by Doing Good" with your help
Taking pride of place in this month's e-Highlights we are launching our new website! We hope you like our new look but more importantly, we hope the site’s new elements allow us to more effectively raise awareness of the benefits of our work, as well as other Australian and global efforts to improve food and nutrition security, and, importantly, we hope it illustrates how easily you can be involved.
Being involved doesn't need to mean you are 'out in the field'. Some readers may not realise that we are a registered charity, with tax deductibility status, so that you too can be 'doing well by doing good' (the Crawford Fund's original catchcry!) by supporting our work. So, our new fresh website has not only provided us with an opportunity to better communicate our work, but to better highlight how you can support us, in particular by supporting our training, mentoring and nextgen projects. Have a look and hopefully you'll be moved to help our endeavours!
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“For the People of the World”
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Our new website will soon carry a detailed report on a recent visit we organised to the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Morocco for Gregor Heard, national grains industry reporter for Australian Community Media Agricultural Publishing. Joining Gregor and Cathy Reade, the Crawford Fund’s Director of Outreach, was Clarisa Collis, the Fund’s 2018 Food Security Journalism award winner, in a visit supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Council on Australia Arab Relations.
“The program was developed to provide the journalists with an opportunity to meet researchers, breeders and farmers to explain a diverse set of projects having real impact and of interest to Australia,” said Cathy. “Gregor has filed seven national stories from the visit in the first week home, an indication of the interesting work underway!”
A highlight was a visit to ICARDA’s genebank and the opportunity to spend time with genebank manager Dr Ahmed Amri, who has overseen the move of their Aleppo genebank material to the Svalbard seed vault and then back out, in the first ever withdrawal from Svalbard.
“We maintain this for the people of the world,” explained Dr Amri in his interview with Gregor and Clarisa, a sentiment that rang true not just for global genetic resource work but for agriculture for development more generally.
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Annual Conference
Early bird registration opens soon
'Weathering the Perfect Storm: Addressing the Agriculture, Energy, Water, Climate Change Nexus’
Last month, we announced our 2019 annual conference, titled “Weathering the ‘Perfect Storm’: Addressing the Agriculture, Energy, Water, Climate Change Nexus,” on 12 and 13 August 2019 in Canberra, with the popular and specially styled networking dinner and Sir John Crawford Memorial Address in the Hotel Realm Ballroom and the one day event in the Great Hall, Parliament House. While we are not yet able to announce the presenter of our 2019 Sir John Crawford Address, we feel confident that this year’s speaker will bring not only tremendous eminence but also a new way of looking at food, nutrition and health.
This year’s Parliamentary conference will bring national attention to the grand challenge presented by nexus issues around agriculture, food, water and energy, within a climate change context.
You will receive notice of registration opening in mid-May and we are again offering an early bird registration. Stay tuned!
Photo: Prashanth Vishwanathan (IWMI)
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Digital mapping of peatlands in Papua
At the end of 2018, Dr Wirastuti Widyatmanti from Gadjah Mada University spent two months at the Soil Security Centre at the University of Sydney learning new digital mapping techniques used to map peatlands in remote areas such as Papua.
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Applications now open for Leadership Master Class
The fourth Master Class in Agricultural Research Leadership and Management, delivered by The Crawford Fund, in conjunction with ACIAR will be held in Penang, Malaysia from 3-8 November 2019. Please register your interest by 30 June 2019.
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Scholarship opportunity – Apply Now!
Are you interested in three weeks’ intensive training on all things ‘rice’? Are you enrolled in a PhD degree or employed in a position related to agriculture in the ACT or NSW? If so, you'll have to get in quick for one of two scholarships worth approx. $6000 – the closing date is 17 May!
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One Health Approach to Sustainable Biosecurity
With funding provided by the Crawford Fund, a four-day training workshop “One Health Approach to Sustainable Biosecurity in Large Ruminant Systems in Myanmar” took place recently.
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Upcoming Training
- Tropical oyster aquaculture training with Malaysian scientists, oyster growers and hatchery producers – through the NT Committee
- Scoping visit for the development of a Crawford Fund mentoring interaction with West-Timor, Indonesia – through the SA Committee
- Management of banana blood disease in Indonesia – through the QLD Committee
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Food Security Journalism Award
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As mentioned, our 2018 Food Security Journalism Award winner, Clarisa Collis, is just back from her award visit to ICARDA in Morocco and we are looking forward to her feature stories. That makes a good segue to mention that nominations are open for our 2019 Food Security Journalism Award. If you’ve read a good article or heard or seen an interesting broadcast on a food security related issue, then let us know so we can alert the journalist to this award.
The winning journalist will be provided with a Crawford Fund ‘seeing is believing’ visit to a developing country to view and report on current Australian and international research and training that has a focus on food security.
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 There’s good news with some places still available for the next Crawford Fund/RAID Network Workshop on Agricultural Research Leadership and Management, being held in Wagga on 14-16 May.
This is not just a great learning opportunity but also a chance to broaden your network of people, like you, interested in a career in agriculture for development. More details and registration here.
Follow @RAIDNetwork on Twitter and FB to learn of their upcoming get-togethers. There’ll be one during our conference in Canberra in August and if you are in Darwin for the Asia Pacific Extension Network conference, get along to the RAID Network event on 11 September at Hotel Darwin. More details to come.
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- From the Roots: Connecting Culture, Food, and Purpose, Chicago, USA, 7 May
- Aligning the Food System for Improved Nutrition in Animal-Source Food, UC Davis, California, 14-15 May
- Innovation Forum: the Future of Food, Chicago, USA, 22-23 May
- Global Launch of the UN Decade of Family Farming, 2019-2028, Rome, Italy, 27-29 May
- EAT Stockholm Food Forum 2019, Stockholm, Sweden, 12-13 June
- 1st International Conference on Agroecology Transforming Agriculture & Food Systems in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 18-21 June
- Translational Photosynthesis Conference: Innovations in Agriculture for Food security, Brisbane, Australia, 30 June - 3 July
- 3rd World Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation, Akure, Nigeria, 11-13 September
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