The International Symposium “PROSPECTS FOR THE 3rd MILLENNIUM AGRICULTURE”
Organized by:
- University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca
In collaboration with:
- University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, BOKU (Austria)
- College of Agriculture , Biotechnology, and Natural Resources, University of Nevada , Reno (USA)
- University of Zagreb (Croatia)
- University of Cordoba (Spain)
Under the patronage of:
- Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation (Romania)
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Romania)
- Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (Romania)
- National University Research Council (Romania)
Scientific Journeys of the BIOVEG network
The involvement of "Plant biodiversity” and “Food diversification” in one symposium is not a common process. However, the FAO data (2008) relevant to the state of the food worldwide are clear on at least two main points: i) there is a well defined relationship between quality of diet and dietary diversification; ii) the most affected countries are India, countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific area of Asia and China as they have a high potential of biodiversity.
If food is a vital necessity, the overall diet is different between rich and poor countries. In poor countries, cereals, roots and tubers cover 66% of eaten plants. In rich countries, fruits and vegetables play a much larger role (19% vs. 11%). In rich countries, attention is increasingly payed to the nutritional quality and food intakes for a better life. In poor countries, it is foremost “eat to survive”.
Nearly 900 million peoples suffering from hunger in the world but 90% of them lives in developing countries. India (231 MH) is at the head, followed by sub-Saharan Africa (212 MH), Asia - Pacific (189 MH) and China (123 MH). The rest of the world has barely 100 MH malnourished peoples. However, the Pacific area of Asia provided the world in many domesticated plant species (Citrus, numerous fruits and vegetables).
Tools to describe biodiversity of plant species for food diversification have made many advances in recent years New technologies allow deep and detailed analysis of the biodiversity and quality of the food supply. Several different and complementary disciplines such as genetics, microbiology, biochemistry and physiology are involved. Beyond the simple description step, it is to improve products or value-added varieties and also to maintain traditional pools of genetic diversity for tomorrow. We must also appeal to disciplines such as plant breeding or the wide range of plant biotechnologies to generate new diversity aspects and to preserve existing genetic resources. This requires of course a broad collaboration of local people, the best able to defend their specificities.
In this context, we chose to organize this current conference around 5 main sessions:
i)genetic diversity: availability and possibilities of domestication, plant breeding, cytogenetics- ii) Plant-microorganisms interaction: impact on pathogenic development, symbiosis, influences of released toxins iii) quality of final products: biochemical composition, detailed analysis of antioxidants and fatty acids, etc., studies of metabolic pathways .... iv) methods for creating unconventional plant diversity v) in situ and ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources.
SPONSORS currently identified
AUF (Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Paris, France, and Bucharest, Romania)
USAMV (University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
IRD (Research Institute for Development, Marseille, France)
WBI (Wallonia Brussels International Brussels, Belgium)
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria)
Bioversity International (Rome, Italy)
Cluj CCF (French Cultural Center in Cluj-Napoca, Romania)