The Conference was opened on the 10 Dec., 2012 by Prof. Dr. Bui Ba Bong, Deputy Minister of the Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, Mr. Etienne De Goneville, the Deputy Head of Mission, French Embassy to Vietnam, and Mr. Phillip Stonehouse, Deputy Head of Mission, Australian Embassy in Vietnam. The three expressed their interest and concern in CA R4D development in the Southest Asia.
The Conference created a great forum for 150 participants from 25 countries, 65 organisations to discussed and shared their points, views and experiences, as well as to expressed their wills to and interest in CA development in the region.
This was expressed in the openning remarks by Prof. Dr. Le QuocDoanh, the Director General of the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (MARD), Dr Jean-Charles Maillard, the Regional director of CIRAD for Southeast Asia, and Mr. Jean-Marc Gravellini, the AFD Hanoi representative.
Below is the full text of Clossing remark by Prof. Dr. Le Quoc Doanh:
“Ladies and gentlemen,
After 5 days of intensive and interesting discussions the 3rd International Conference on the Conservation Agriculture in Southeast Asia came to a successful and fruitful end.
The Conference, from very beginning of the campaign for its organization, already enjoyed great interest from a great number of actors worldwide. A total of more than 250 submissions came from all over the world, of which 75 were complied in the Conference’s proceedings (which you already have in your hands).
During the last 5 days we had chance to hear 48 presentations and many posters covering 7 important topics concerning increasing challenges facing agriculture in the Southeast Asian Uplands and possible options for their overcoming.
We also paid a visit to a beautiful village in the Northern Uplands of Vietnam where once more we are convinced that CA need to be promoted in the region, and urged by local people wills and needs to speed up further our work and to make urgent invents for CA to become reality in the region.
We heard voice of many donors expressing their strong interest and commitment to support CA research for development in the Southeast Asia uplands in particular and in the world as the whole.
Last, but not least, the outlook and prospects of the CA Network of Southeast Asia (CANSEA), show that although young, this network acts creatively and efficiently, and the Southeast Asian partners expressed strong will and interests in CA research and development.
In Vietnam also, VAAS and its member institutes, NOMAFSI in particular, are paying increasing attempts to promote the application of CA innovations in the country’s uplands. More importantly, MARD strongly commits to make CA a real effective options for sustainable, climate-resilient and environment-friendly agriculture.
We are therefore very happy to realize from the presentations and discussions:
that great and increasing attention has been paid to the research for development of CA in the Southeast Asian Uplands;
that although challenges remain, innovations and achievements obtained so far, and strong commitments by all of us here today promise a bright future of CA in the region;
that with continuous efforts, commitments and creativity of growing number of actors from all sectors, academic, industrial and policy, public and private, we will be able to save and to conserve agricultural lands for our children in the Southeast Asia in the interest of not only the region, but also world as the whole.
We would like to express our acknowledgements to the sponsors of the conference: the French Development Agency (AFD), the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs (MAEE), the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM), the French Center for International Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM), the World Association for Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC).
We also thank the Scientific Committee members who have carefully read and evaluated all the submissions, and thank all those who have expressed their interest in the conference and submitted their abstracts.
Our special thanks to the organization committee members from CIRAD, NOMAFSI, UQ and VAAS for their invaluable hard and devoted work.
Thanks you all for coming and contributing to the workshop.
To close, I wish you all good health, happiness and successes in our join efforts to make CA reality.
Thank you.”
Download the proceedings
