IAAS World Newsletter Sep-Oct 2015

International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCI ATION OF STU DENTS IN A G R I C U LT U R A L A N D R E L AT E D S C I E N C E S

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015-2016

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International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

Contents Welcome to a new IAAS-year ....................................................................................................................... 3 Our Vision for 2015/2016 .........................................................................................................................................4 Executive Committee ...................................................................................................................................................4 Control Committee .......................................................................................................................................................7 The Network ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 IAAS Activities ................................................................................................................................................ 10 IAAS 58th World Congress 2015 How to Feed the Planet .......................................................................... 10 Exchange Week Croatia ''Green Mediterranean'' ......................................................................................... 15 Motivation Weekend IAAS Mexico ...................................................................................................................... 18 IAAS Germany Company visits ............................................................................................................................. 19 Partners events and more ......................................................................................................................... 20 Youth Ag-Summit in Australia .............................................................................................................................. 20 World Forestry Congress 2015 in South Africa ............................................................................................. 21 World Agronomists Association VI World Congress in Milan ................................................................. 22 ICA Rectors & Deans Forum 2015 in Milan ..................................................................................................... 22 Thought For Food: A Call to Action ..................................................................................................................... 23 Upcoming events ........................................................................................................................................... 26 AgroStudents for the Future (ASF) ..................................................................................................................... 26 Exchange week Spain ............................................................................................................................................... 26 Directors Meeting of the Americas ..................................................................................................................... 27 African Directors Meeting....................................................................................................................................... 27 Write Your Role - Understanding and Breaking Down Gender Roles .................................................. 28 EC Courier ........................................................................................................................................................ 29 Call for Articles............................................................................................................................................... 36

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International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

Welcome to a new IAAS-year Dear IAAS-ers and IAAS-enthusiasts, EC and CC welcome you to a new IAAS year, which was launched on September 1st. Although it’s been two months, we would like to introduce ourselves again. Feel free to contact us anytime, via any platform! We are here to answer your questions, help you overcome the challenges your committee faces, discuss about all IAAS topics imaginable, or just chat and get to know one another…! Let’s work together towards a more prosperous IAAS!

We hope to see as many of you during the year and look forward to getting in touch!

Cheers, Your EC & CC 2015/2016

Yahor, Belarus Sam, Belgium

Steven, Belgium Dicky, Indonesia

Annalise, USA Ohemaa, Ghana Josipa, Croatia

Genna, USA

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Our Vision for 2015/2016 “To use and promote the strongest asset of our organisation: the spirit of FamilIAAS, in order to increase our network’s quality and make our connections stronger” “A more connected IAAS leads to more efficient IAAS, which will benefit the organisation to great extent” -

Executive Committee Josipa Arapović – President Greetings, IAAS World!

Welcome to a new year in IAAS! Being a part of IAAS has changed my life completely! In the past years IAAS gave me so many unforgettable experiences, meeting so many interesting and motivating people, sharing experiences, stories and ideas. It is so great to see many amazing and different people around the world, interested in solving the issues that are affecting our agriculture, society and the world today and shaping it for a better tomorrow.

IAAS is not just an organisation, it is a Family which takes in its members and enables them to explore their own potential and helps them become who they want to be through the world of agriculture and related sciences. FamilIAAS lets you exchange experiences, knowledge and ideas, lets you grow together with students from all around the world.

I am happy and proud to have the opportunity to represent our FamilIAAS and to bring my whole heart, enthusiasm, motivation and expertise to the Executive Committee. Together with my team I want to set a clear plan that enables our FamilIAAS to grow, to improve its quality, to adjust to new times and to look ahead. Ultimately my vision is to bring students from different fields of agriculture together and unite us towards a common goal of changing the world for a better place.

I am positive that this is something that humanity will achieve someday and, as President of IAAS, my invitation for you is to challenge your comfort zone, to embrace the responsibility that is necessary to change the world, because the change comes from us!

Never doubt yourself and the impact you have on others! Together we can enjoy the outcome of the collective impact of our global network.

Lots of IAAS love, and hope to see you soon!

Josipa president@iaasworld.org

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Sam Raeymaekers – Vice President of Communication Hey guys!

I’m Sam from Belgium. Let me introduce myself as new VPC and share with you my goals for the next year. I’m a student at the KU Leuven, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering in Belgium and I’m currently enrolled in my second Master, which is in Agro- and Ecosystems Engineering. My focus is on Land Use and Geospatial Assessment. These are topics which I really believe to be crucial in food production and to have an incredible importance in solving the present and coming challenges to food security. I took only half of my normal amount of courses this year in order to have more time available to devote to my work and travels for IAAS. This year in IAAS I want to increase our visibility by using our communication channels more efficiently. Everyone knows how important social media has become, also for the professional world. Social media is the channel through which companies and organisations attract costumers/members and partners nowadays. IAAS is already present in this huge internet field, however a lot can be improved.

Also I will be relaunching the IAAS Magazine end of this year and in the second half of my term I will focus on developing a promotional video for IAAS too. Next to this I dedicate my energy with pleasure to my other duties as VPC and I wish to support your projects where I can!

Hope to see you guys in one of the coming events or to meet you via one of our many communication channels!

Cheers, Sam vpcommunication@iaasworld.org

Dicky Hasian Zulkarnain – Vice President of External Relations Hello, I am Dicky from Indonesia. I was a student of agronomy and horticulture at Bogor Agricultural University and my concern on the field of Biotechnology. I was very interested in IAAS because according to the background of my studies.

Now I am the Vice President of External Relations . I am very interested in this new task and I am very grateful for the great teamwork in IAAS this year. vppartnership@iaasworld.og

Steven Adams – Vice President of Exchange Hello Everyone, I don’t want to take a lot of your time by introducing myself, because there are so many interesting things to read in this newsletter and many of you will know me from last year. I’m a graduated

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MSc student in Aquaculture and Livestock Breeding at the KU Leuven, Belgium. This is the place where I had the chance to discover IAAS. I would like to take this opportunity to thank IAAS Leuven/Belgium for the chances they gave me and the support during my IAAS-career. If you want to know me better, don’t hesitate to contact me by Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, e-mail, etc.

As many of you know from WOCO15, the Exchange Program (ExPro) will change tremendously this year. We will try to swop from National Coordination to Regional ones and we will try to take the opportunity to connect with big companies, leading organizations and other institutes to increase the offered amount of ExPro places. This term, I can count on my new established Exchange Quality Board (EQB) and CC for help and feedback. I can guarantee everyone, EQB this year consists of very nice persons! I’m so thankful to them to join my team this year and for the spirit to improve our amazing Exchange Program!

I you have any questions about ExPro, myself or whatsoever, don’t hesitate to contact me!

Thanks for reading this and hope to meet you at an IAAS event!

Lots of IAAS love, Steven vpexchange@iaasworld.org

Annalise Miller – Vice President of Finance Hello everyone!

My name is Annalise Miller and I am very excited to serve as this year’s VP of Finance for IAAS World. I am from the United States (Washington State) and am currently studying applied mathematics and entrepreneurship with a focus on sustainable development. While that may not seem like an interesting area of study for someone in IAAS I am interested in utilizing my mathematics background in agriculture and rural development. I am excited to use my business and mathematics background to serve such an amazing organization.

This year in IAAS I hope to find ways to utilize the large grant IAAS was awarded by the European Union this past year in ways that will be beneficial for IAAS as a whole as well spend time searching for additional sources of funding whether through grants or company sponsors. While the finances and financial stability of IAAS World are my top priorities, I look forward to working with the rest of the Executive Committee to further develop and strengthen the network of IAAS World. vpfinance@iaasworld.org

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Control Committee The Control Committee (CC) exists of three members, as the tradition goes. This year we are very pleased to have a CC representing the great variety of our community: Genna from USA, Ohemaa from Ghana and Yahor from Belarus. Two of them are ex-EC members: Genna who was President in 2013-2014 and Yahor who has been VP of Finance for three year in a row! We are happy to have Ohemaa, on who we can depend for fresh energy and ideas!

Here they are to present themselves.

You can always contact CC at controlcommittee@iaasworld.org!

Genna Tesdall Hello, IAAS! My name is Genna Tesdall, and I'm pleased to continue serving IAAS as CC! I hail from the United States, where discovered IAAS at the local chapter at Iowa State University. In January 2016, I will begin to study for a masters of Plant Pathology and International Agricultural Development at Pennsylvania State University. Currently, I work at the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru.

For my year of service in the Control Committee, fostering continuity in IAAS is my priority; from my year as President, I understand that this is crucial to progress in organizations. I hope keep IAAS strong and progressive by linking the EC to IAAS history and sharing the family spirit of IAAS with our young agriculturalists around the world!

Ohemaa Agbolosoo-Mensah Hi, my name is Ohemaa Agbolosoo-Mensah and I from Ghana. Currently in my final year of University and studying BSc. Horticulture. I am also currently running trials in Ghana to solve a problem of False Codling Moth which is affecting the Ghana export industry specifically, chilli peppers.

This year I applied for CC because I wanted to give my quota to IAAS with reference to the International level. My main duties are to guide and assist EC in their work. But also, I wished to be a link between IAAS-World and Africa as well as putting Africa out there at the International level to show that IAAS is not just for some people or nationalities, but it welcomes each and everyone who wants to help in sustainable agriculture.

I am indeed very glad to be part of the IAAS family and I will certainly give my best in my term of office.

Greetings to you from Ghana, Ohemaa

Yahor Vetlou Hello IAAS’ers! My name is Yahor Vetlou and I’m from Belarus. I happy to be part of this year Control Committee! At this time I study for a Master of Rural Development and Agribusiness at Szent Istvan University (Hungary). My main goal for this year as CC it is to share experience between old EC and new EC and facilitate IAAS growth.

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The Network Every year the IAAS Network goes through some changes, declared by the General Assembly. In this section an overview of our committees is given. The detailed overview can be found on our website www.iaasworld.org.

Message to local and national committees If information on the website is missing/incorrect, if you changed local and national boards since last year, please inform me (Sam, vpcommunication@iaasworld.org).

The IAAS member countries Africa Benin Côte d’Ivoir Ghana Kenya Niger Nigeria Mali Rwanda Uganda Togo Zimbabwe

Americas

Europe

Canada Chile Ecuador Guatemala Mexico USA Venezuela

Belarus Belgium Croatia Czech Republic Finland France Germany Greece Italy Poland Portugal Russia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine 42 member countries: 33 full members, 9 candidate members

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Asia Pacific Indonesia Japan Nepal Sri Lanka Tajikistan Taiwan Thailand

International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

The IAAS World Map

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International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

IAAS Activities IAAS 58th World Congress 2015 How to Feed the Planet 6-27 July

From the North Sea over the Alps into Lombardy - The 58th world Congress of the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences (IAAS) took place this summer with over 80 students from 24 countries around the world. The annual IAAS World Congress (WoCo) held by IAAS International is our largest and most important event of the year.

This year’s event was organized by the IAAS committees of Belgium and Switzerland under the guise of the designated theme "How to feed the planet". From July 6th to 27th, the Congress visited the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy in a diverse and intense adventure looking for answers to the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 in a sustainable way. “Discovering new things is always exciting but we want to make sure that at the same time we develop a profound understanding for the topic. That is why we will need further discussions. [...] Practicing how to transform an idea through teamwork into a project and an action plan, that is what’ll bring the necessary changes to all the regions of active IAAS members” said Damien Tschopp, the International Coordinator of WoCo, outlining this year’s Congress objectives.

WoCo started in the Netherlands with a visit of the beautiful island Texel in the North Sea. Texel is famous for its farming systems in high-salinity soil as well as the Seaweed Centre of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). With limited arable lands for farming activity, soil degradation and rapid climate change, new solutions are needed to prevent a global food crisis;the research on Texel provides many new perspectives for agriculture on saline soils. At the research laboratory, the Congress learned about seaweed and its double quality

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as realistic potential future source of energy and nutritional proteins. Seeking more information on this topic, the Congress also visited the Wageningen University and Research Center with a focus on seaweed production and latest technologies in greenhouses.

On July 8th, the Congress travelled to Leuven in Belgium, where the headquarters of IAAS international are located. At the official opening ceremony, representatives of the Catholic University (KU) Leuven, of our partner organizations EGEA and ICA, of the Dutch Government, of our sponsor Barry Callebaut as well many IAAS Alumni gave us a warm welcome. In the first days of our General Assembly (GA) we discussed internal affairs and of IAAS World. The visit of the European Commission in Brussels gave the participants a good insight into the dynamics of the European agricultural policy. At a symposium about genetic modified organisms (GMO), the topic “What are GMOs exactly and how can we put it in today’s context?” was discussed by Dr. ir. Wim Gerundwald, an expert in agrobiotechnology, and Prof G. Gheysen from Ghent University.

Chocolate and beer lovers were then able to improve their knowledge of their favourite goods with a visit to Barry Callebaut and Haacht Brewery, while more technology-affine fans got to know Imec in Belgium: Imec is a world-leading research centre in nano- and microelectronics which delivers industry-relevant technology solutions, also for agriculture. The Haacht brewery is a family-run brewery which has been running for over 110 years, representing true Belgian craftsmanship. The Barry Callebaut factory in Weize is the largest chocolate factory in the world.

As a world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa, Barry Callebaut is a major player on the international cocoa market.

On Wednesday, July 15, the Congress arrived at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the home of the IAAS Switzerland Committee. We were welcomed by Dr. Nina Buchmann, the Deputy Head of the Department of Environmental Systems Science and Chair of the World Food System Center, and Dr. Alain Gaume, Head Seed Care Research Biology from Syngenta Crop Protection. We were introduced to the ETH’s agricultural study programs as well as to Syngenta’s contribution to the global agricultural system. During the subsequent Company Fair, we were able to personally meet our sponsors, partners and other new innovative start-ups from the region. In parallel, lectures from professors and PhD students were held in order give us an insight into current ETH research relevant to our theme “How to feed the planet”.

During the GA days in Zurich, the next Executive and Control Committee 2015-2016 was elected.

The president for the following year will be Josipa Arapovic from Croatia. Additionally, various

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new projects were kickstarted with the support of invited specialised trainers. These projects will serve as a base for IAAS to foster the promotion and practice of agriculture as students. Amongst others, those projects included are two new Village Concept Project (VCP) in Nepal and Africa respectively, organising a global Earth Day Celebration, the design and realisation of a new IAAS promotion video and the establishment of a “Youth Awareness in Agriculture”-campaign.

After moving from productive weeks in Zurich to the peaceful Campra in the Swiss Alps, when honed our soft skills in training workshops while working on the new projects. Campra proved to be a perfect place for inspiration, we hiked and explored nature. Some participants even touched snow for the first time. From there we headed to Malcantone, a region close to Lugano in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. Accompanied by the almost Mediterranean sun, we toured the small village and visited Villa Orizzonte in Castelrotto. We enjoyed the village’s landscape and learned about its history during a guided visit. Then, we visited a local vineyard and were invited to taste their outstanding locally produced wine, meat and cheese. The Ticinese agriculture has a long history and a distinct taste to their products.

For the last part of the Congress, we moved to Milan in Italy. On the first day, we visited the University of Milan. Various professors gave us lectures about automation and security in agriculture, environmental sustainability in agricultural practices and irrigation technologies.

Milan is currently hosting the World Exhibition with the topic “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. Therefore, visiting the Expo15 gave us an ideal opportunity to reflect upon all that we learned, discussed and experienced the past three weeks and compare it to the presented solutions aiming to reduce this grotesque absurdity of our world: that millions of people suffer from obesity, while simultaneously millions are dying from malnutrition a bit further away. One third of all foods produced is wasted every year. For these reasons, the world

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exhibition is a needed occasion to raise awareness and increase knowledge, to help making conscious political choices, to develop sustainable lifestyles, and optimize the technologies that handle availability and consumption of resources.

On July 26, after 21 days in 4 countries and a journey of over 1600km, we ended the congress in the pavilion of the World Association of Agronomists (WAA). We all headed home inspired by unforgettable moments, new friendships and reinvigorated purpose. The organisation’s committee is delighted about the success of this year’s IAAS World Congress. We believe that new friendships are the fundament needed for the worldwide exchange of knowledge and ideas within the agricultural sector. This unites and empowers us to find common solutions for the challenges of the future.

We would like to express our gratitude to all our sponsors. Such an event would never have been possible without their support.

Our thanks goes out to:

ETH Zürich for great financial, infrastructural and administrative support throughout the year.

Syngenta and Barry Callebaut for financial support and a great collaboration.

Kirchgemeinde Unterstrass for helping us out on very short notice in a moment of need.

KU Leuven for their their financial and infrastructural support beside hosting the IAAS headquarters.

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IAAS 58th World Congress 2015 How to Feed the Planet

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All of us students now will be professionals by 2050: We will be the ones facing world hunger and the consequences of the current environmental impacts of farming.

Through this World Congress, we were explored agriculture from different perspectives, in line with the objectives of the congress: to provide us with knowledge about the development of agriculture in Europe, to gain more skills and experiences, and to open our eyes by traveling from country to country.

We would like to thank all the participants for their great enthusiasm, all of our sponsors and partners and the organizing committee from IAAS Switzerland and Belgium who have made this event possible.

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Exchange Week Croatia ''Green Mediterranean'' 27 September – 4 October Participants form: Croatia - Belgium - Czech Republic - Greece - Italy - Switzerland

Sunday (27.9.) was the first day of the Exchange Week, and it was the day the students got to know each other while visiting the ''Don Kihot'' association. This association is doing therapeutic horseback riding, Equine-assisted therapies (treatment that includes equine activities and environment to promote physical, occupational, and emotional growth in persons with different kinds of disorders, such as children with developmental disabilities, people with disabilities...).

There, our students had a chance to learn a lot about taking care of horses, for example- how to properly groom or feed a horse. Also, we learnt how to clean hoofs, and we attended a lecture about horses in general, and how they are used in therapeutic horseback riding.

Lastly, our students gathered into groups and picked up apples from the floor for the horses, cleaned the horse boxes, and made themselves delicious barbecue.

Monday was a long day, the day in which we arrived to our final destination- Mljet! Before we reached the island of Mljet, we stopped in Ston- a small picturesque city, where our students have seen the famous Walls of Ston, known as the ''European wall of China'',since the walls are the second longest in the world, right after the Walls of China. These walls are a series of defensive stone walls, originally more than 7 kilometers long, they surrounded and protected the city of Ston. After we arrived to the island of Mljet, Pomena, our students had dinner and got to know each other a little better.

On Tuesday, right after eating breakfast, we visited The Mljet National Park. There, with the professional guide, we were taught about the national park (it was founded on 11th November, 1960., it covers 5400ha - 1/3 of the island). Also, we learned a lot about the phenomenon of the lakes in the national park, and of course about the ecosystem and aquaculture in the national park.

Besides that, we had free time, which we used for swimming and exploring the NP. The evening was reserved for Trade Fair, an event in which every country presents their traditional meals and

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beverages. Since we had more than a few countries on the Exchange Week, our students had a chance to enjoy, for example Belgian waffles, Czech beer, Swiss chocolate, Italian cheese, Greek feta cheese, and a lot, lot more! We, as hosts, offered a wide range of products, such as sarma, pršut, kulen, panceta, pumpkin oil, different sweets, and lot of wines and beers from our sponsors.

On the third day, we visited Babino polje, oil refinery Bizin. This oil refinery is one of the few on the island, used by several families. Family Market, that owns the refinery, told us about their machines and the principles of making extra virgin olive oil. This family makes only extra virgin olive oil, and won a lot of prizes with their olive oil. After that, we took a swim at the Odysseyus' Cave, very famous because of the legend that goes behind it. Lastly, one local family of the island took us to the Etno House, that took place in the old Rector's palace, built by The Republic of Dubrovnik in 1554. Etno collection consists of different objects used in homes, clothes, and similar. In advance, we had a chance to try typical rakija and products made by the family Biskup, who owns the house itself.

On Thursday, our fourth day, we visited Dubrovnik, the hometown of our president! We took a boat from the island of Mljet and arrived in Dubrovnik just in time of the sunrise. After a beautiful walk from the port to the famous Dubrovnik Old Town, we were welcomed by the association of Dubrovnik students called “Libertas”. Together, we had a private tour with licensed local guide walking us through the Old Town and providing interesting information about the long history, traditions and culture of Dubrovnik. A walking tour of the Old City started from Pile Gate, took us to its elegant main street and its most important sights: Franciscan Monastery, Onofrio`s Fountains, Sponza Palace, Orlando`s Column, City Bell Tower, Church of St Blaise, the city’s patron saint and Rector’s Palacethe seat of the Republic. We enjoyed the view over the Old city harbour, picturesque narrow streets and squares, Cathedral and the Cathedral. The tour guide introduced us to the 1400 years of Dubrovnik's history and explained how did the small merchant Dubrovnik Republic that could not afford to have a large standing army, managed to acquire the status of the third naval force in the Mediterranean during in its heyday. We heard interesting anecdotes and intriguing legends and we all got the sense of Dubrovnik way of life which made us feel as one of the locals.

After the private tour we visited the ancient city walls, built from the 13th until the 17th century.

We walked all 1940 meters of the Walls and admired the beautiful panoramas. We also had the time to experience the city life, eating an ice cream at the main street- Stradun, having a drink inside the small squares and sharing stories with local students. After lunch, we came back on the island of Mljet where we had a dinner with a show! Jakob from IAAS Switzerland had a breathtaking fire juggling with torches!

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Friday was the last day spent on the island, and right after breakfast that day, we went to a fish farm ''Riba Mljet d.o.o.''. They grow Dicentrarchus labrax, Sparus aurata, Argyrosomus regius and Mytilus galloprovincialis. Fish is there grown and fed manually. After the fish farm, we went to Saplunara sand beach, a beach interesting because of some endemic species and micro localities.

There, we explored the beach, and played American football. Evening was very interesting, since we had a fun workshop ''Thinking of New Ideas'', in which our member Vedran set us into groups, and we had to think of a business idea, project or a workshop connected to agriculture. Every group had to do a ''stat-up'', and after very groups presentation, we discussed about our projects.

Finally, the best idea won!

On Saturday, it was time to go back to Zagreb. On our way, we visited the company ''Agrofructus'', that produces, storages and purchases fresh and processed fruits and vegetables. There, the production manager of the company gave us a tour, and we learned how for example the tangerines (which are in season now) are washed, dried, and finally- packed. With the end of this tour, we continued to Zagreb. There, IAAS Croatia members took the participants to see the old city centre and famous sights.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors and contributors on their help in organizing our event "Green Mediterranean". Through your support and through your work, you made this event happen and you showed us support in our efforts to connect international and local students, future experts in agricultural and the related sciences. Thank you for being so generous and for helping us making this event such a success.

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International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

Motivation Weekend IAAS Mexico 15-18 October

IAAS Mexico organized their Motivation Weekend: a weekend where they invited their old and new members. The weekend was devoted to IAAS and had activities such as citrus company visit, ranch visit and several recreation activities.

A weekend full of emotions and knowledge!

Do you want to organise your own Motivation Weekend?

The goal of a Motivation Weekend is to motivate the members of the group to perform an even better task of organizing events during the year by providing them with relevant trainings. At the same time, the members are provided the opportunity of getting to know each other even better, thus laying the foundations for even more friendships between members, new and old alike. You can also invite interested members and tell them all about IAAS!

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IAAS Germany Company visits 20 October In their second week of the academic year, IAAS Germany organised an excursion: a company visit to BASF in Limburgerhof followed by a visit to Schönbuch Bräu, an beer brewery with a long tradition from 1823.

Having good connections with companies can be a mayor support for our committees! Happy to see IAAS Germany connecting.

Reports of the following activities will follow in the next Newsletter East Africa Conference Exchange Week Belgium Exchange Week Kenya – Finland

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Partners events and more Youth Ag-Summit in Australia 23-28 August https://www.youthagsummit.com/home/

Writing this, I would like to take the chance to inform you about an event that took part in August 2015.

The Youth-Ag Summit, was an event held in Canberra, Australia, from 23rd to 28th of august. With the Future Farmers Network to organize and Bayer Crop Science as main sponsor it was a huge conference with the topic , “How to feed a hungry planet�. A 100 Delegates aged 18-25 from 33 countries all over the world were invited to spend 4 Days to learn from professionals and discuss the future of agriculture and every related theme with each other.

The Application included to write an essay about food security, with reference to the home country and own experiences. Those essays were included in the program and an important part of the discussions. All the ideas presented in the applications were brought together to form 15 Topics (eg.

R&D and Innovation to reduce impact and adapt to resource loss, Communication about the value of agriculture careers and farming ). In small groups the participants talked about the importance of each of them and how youth can have an impact or what aspects youth thinks should be improved. The outcome was the YAS Declaration, a sample of the 5 most important themes and ideas of how to improve them. On the UN Conference on World Food Security in October in Rome it will be presented by two of the delegates.

What made up the main occupation, where interesting speeches of speakers like Julie Borlaugh (Associate Director for External Relations, Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture), or Todd Sampson (co-Inventor of the Earth Hour),to name two among many others. Further the program contained a field trip and short presentations of organizations and enterprises, for example WWF, CSIRO or Legendairy. Of

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course there was also lots of time to meet other delegates, mentors and other professionals, make friends and learn about other cultures.

Although there is no cooperation with IAAS yet, there might be opportunities to promote our organization on the next summit. Since the content was very interesting for IAASers and the purpose is similar an application can be a good idea to communicate what we do in IAAS. Marion Pitz – IAAS Germany

World Forestry Congress 2015 in South Africa 7-11 September

Trees. it is one of the first things you learn to draw as a kid, one of the first things you see if you look out of the window and one of the many things you once tried to climb in your life. We can all agree that trees are very present in our daily lives. But is it even possible to fill a whole week of talking about forestry? And isn’t it odd for an IAAS member to participate in this Forestry Congress we’re after all more focused on agriculture, aren’t we?

Therefore we, Branwen Peddi and Nastya Bondarenko, proud IAASmembers, were ready to go and explore the great world of forests on an event of one of our partners, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). Walking as a student between all those skilled people, it was quite intimidating at first.

However, we quickly found our way through the crowd and were ready to represent IAAS. First, we had to find the most important place: the Youth Booth.

There all the students could present their organisation. After some searching we found it, and well… it wasn’t really what we had in mind: fully empty and completely white. We had some work to do, that was clear!

The next days, we decorated the booth and met the other youth organisations: IFSA and YPARD. It was really interesting to learn what they were doing and that there are a lot of similarities between our associations. We had great chats and were thinking about collaborations. Every day you could find us at the booth talking to people and explaining what IAAS actually was.

Contacts were exchanged and business cards (or something resembling to that) were handed out. It was a great opportunity

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to find people for new internship places (a project for smoking fishes in Senegal, a banana plantation in South Africa,…), new members or to just let people now that we exist.

Besides that, we joined the social network group and tried to follow some interesting discussions and presentations. Topics like wildlife, food security, wood energy, climate change, a photography workshop by Stuart Franklin and youth talks were all on the program. And how interesting it all was, also for IAAS-members! One of the things that we’ve learned is that forestry is more than only about trees, it’s about making links with other sectors and using expertise from other fields. So yes, forestry is important to every single one of us. Or could you imagine a world without trees?

Nastya Bondarenko & Branwen Peddi – IAAS Belgium

World Agronomists Association VI World Congress in Milan 14 – 18 September My first appearance as VPC towards the external field was immediately a good one! I had the chance to present IAAS to 500 agronomists from all over the world during the World Congress of the WAA, held in Milan at the Expo 2015 in the week of September 14th. During the 4 day event we had the chance to talk about IAAS and get new connections.

The weeks before I had been working at the WAA Pavilion at the Expo together with Lisanne and Tomacho (from IAAS Chile) who were just like me volunteering here. Many thanks to them for making those weeks as awesome as they were. We had such good experiences!

Sam Raeymaekers – Vice President of Communication

ICA Rectors & Deans Forum 2015 in Milan 20-23 October I was present at the ICA Rectors & Deans Forum 2015, organized in Milan, from 20 to 23 October. ICA is the Association for European Life Science Universities which has as main goal to provide a network and thus connect these universities. They have biannual board meetings, a GA and the Rectors

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& Deans meeting where IAAS is always invited. The ICA-IAAS agreement is going for 30 years already! I was honored to be invited and represent our association.

Here too I had the chance to present IAAS to all rectors and deans present. Many of them are very positive towards IAAS and towards student input. The support local IAAS committees get from their universities is often very important for their survival. All I can say is: invest in the connection with your local university and think not only about what they can offer to you, more important is ‘what can we as IAAS offer to the universities?’ ! Something to discuss further!

Sam Raeymaekers – Vice President of Communication

Thought For Food: A Call to Action At Thought For Food (TFF), a non-profit, global innovation platform focused on mobilizing the next generation to develop breakthrough solutions for food security, we couldn’t be more thrilled by the rising tide of interest in food and agriculture innovation. According to recent data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) there will be almost 60,000 annual job openings in this field between 2015 and 2020 – and this increase is a global phenomenon. Moreover, a report from AgFunder shows that agtech funding had a record breaking year in 2014, with $2.36 billion raised across 264 financing deals. From precision agriculture to biotech to drones, investment is pouring into companies set on revolutionizing how we grow, produce, and distribute food around the world.

These trends should come as no surprise. The serious challenges the world faces to feed and nourish itself, such as limits in infrastructure and declining availability of natural resources, present massive opportunities for the entrepreneurially-minded. Which is why at Thought For Food, we focus on helping more ideas - your ideas - make it out into the world.

Our aim is to empower next generation leaders to launch entrepreneurial careers, build networks and maximize impact. With that creed, we created a Global Challenge for university students to turn brazen ideas into impactful initiatives and real-world ventures that provide solutions to food and nutrition security. The TFF Challenge is part business competition, part start-up boot camp and part epic Global Summit – powered by our amazing community of innovators from around the world. TFF’s young leaders embrace an anything-is-possible mind-set and are utilizing new innovation practices and techniques that leverage accelerating technologies and crowd-powered tools in order to shape a better future.

Comprised of more than 3000 university students in 70+ countries on all 6 continents – and growing every day - TFF believes the power to make the world a better place is in the hands of the next generation. Young people have the capability to take on grand, complex problems with enthusiasm, curiosity, agility and a healthy disregard for the impossible. This mind-set and spirit grants incredible leverage uncommon to large organizations and governments. While collaborations with these entities remain crucial, the next generation’s ability to see a world of unrealized potential is critical to driving progress in the policies, technologies and social innovations required to feed 9+ billion people by 2050.

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Global food and nutrition security is a complex issue, presenting many opportunities for a wide variety of solutions – from simple to intricate; from low to high-tech. Addressing it will undoubtedly take collaboration across disciplines, national boundaries, sectors and cultures. But this doesn’t happen on its own, and TFF provides space and tools for these exchanges to happen, where collaboration and the sharing of inspiration are everyday occurrences.

University students, here is YOUR invitation to join our powerful moment. This is your chance to form teams, design approaches, and submit bold solutions to the Thought For Food Challenge by December 1, 2015.

Ten finalist teams will win an all-expenses-paid trip to the TFF Global Summit for a chance to present their idea and earn up to $15,000. Along the way students are supported through:   

Mentorship from world-class leaders in food and agriculture The TFF Design Lab for the development of design thinking skills; and Practical experience in business plan, presentations, and strategy development.

Past participants have brought forth novel innovations including nutritious food powder that reduces food waste; a mobile, solar-powered dehydrator to preserve yields in developing countries; vertical farming, solar powered egg production, accessible post-harvest technologies, living and hydroponic furniture, radically-engaging food & nutrition education programs and so much more. Many of these projects and innovations were conceived as a result of taking the first step of signing up for the TFF Challenge, and are now successfully incorporated, student led companies.

The Thought For Food tribe is not one to turn down an idea, and welcomes innovation, creativity, and inspiration from any and all approaches looking to sustainably feed this hungry planet. The world is waiting.

To make an impact now, join in at tffchallenge.com With dedication to food security and the next generation, The Though For Food team

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International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

Upcoming events AgroStudents for the Future (ASF) 19-22 November IAAS Montpellier The international meeting of students who want to act: “Acting for sustainable food systems in developing countries�

An international meeting BY and FOR students, ASF is a place where you can exchange between agribusiness and agronomy students to give a meaning to your studies and your future job. The event will be composed of conferences and workshops BY and FOR you !

Specialist will also come to give interesting speeches.

Because we are the stakeholders of change!

Students in agronomy and agribusiness may face significant issues.

We will have to feed 9 billion people and also build sustainable food systems. We became aware of the limits of the actual situation, with many consequences on the environment, the climate and the resulting inequalities. We are at a key stage in our life when we build up our mind and perspectives. We already know that solutions exist. Sharing experiences we will find inspiration to know how we will act.

Find more information on the Website and on our Facebook Page.

Exchange week Spain 6-13 December

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International Association of students in Agricultural and related Sciences

Directors Meeting of the Americas 13-21 December IAAS Chile

African Directors Meeting 15-21 December IAAS Togo Sustainable land management for sustainable agriculture in Africa The African Director’s Meeting (ADM) will be held this year from 15 to 21 December 2015 in Togo. This prestigious event will know the participation of several delegations coming from different countries of Africa and other continents. The topic of this year is: «Sustainable land management for sustainable agriculture in Africa»

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Write Your Role - Understanding and Breaking Down Gender Roles 3-8 March IAASers worldwide are invited by our partner association EGEA to participate in their seminar about gender equality from 3rd until 8th of March in Sevilla, Spain. Applications until 14th of November, 23.59 CET. This event will bring together 32 young students of geography and other subjects interested in feminist theories in order to discuss, understand and work on feminist geography theory. At the end of the 6 daylong event, they will be able to utilise their academic knowledge and in their everyday lives practice the main principles of feminist geography, a research branch studying the spatial effects of human processes based on gender.

What will happen?

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Lectures, debates and excursions where you will learn more about feminist geography Cultural city tour to get to know Sevilla You’ll be part of a documentary project as well make a “participatory video of 5 minutes” in groups of 6 Reflection groups Social program: Film party, Andalusian Evening, Cultural Fair, Gala Dinner…

The Numbers -

32 participants 7 international team members, 1 professional trainer and EGEA Sevilla members 50 euros fee for 5 nights, 6 days (food, excursions, accommodation… included) 50 euros travel refund

How to apply for it?

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Register via the google form (note: only members of EGEA has to register also via the website) Read one of the 3 papers (each has 10 pages) and submit your review of 500 words about this in the google form together with your motivation You can find these papers here

Learn more about it: Website, facebook event, youtube play list, mail: diversity-inclusion@egea.eu We are looking forward to read your applications!

The WYR- team Alina, Andrea, Henning, Jaime, Matt, Selu & Wendy

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EC Courier Josipa Arapović – President Dear IAASers, Hello and welcome to the first EC Courier!

I am very happy to introduce myself to you as the president of IAAS for this term- My name is Josipa Arapović, and I am a student of Agroecology at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. This is also where I joined our Family and fell in love with IAAS! This year I will be working together with an amazing team you elected for this term. We are really in love with IAAS, motivated and working really hard every day in order to improve our organization.

So, what have we been up to these past months?

During past months, I took my time to learn more and get into all the details of IAAS and the way IAAS was run in the last couple of years.

Now I want to briefly present you what in what was involved previous month as well as the plans for the upcoming weeks:

Goals for the upcoming year     

Improving the quality, relationship and connection with our committees, since we are all part of one big international family. Increasing the visibility and professionalism Get IAAS more known Attend more internal and external events and stronger relationship with our partners, sponsors for events IAAS Committee Tool kit Apply for visa usual procedure

Strategy meeting (2-4.10. 2015)    

Had an amazing online Strategy meeting with my new team Meeting was productive with a lot of new ideas and motivation We followed up on 1 and 3 years strategy Setting clear group projects and goals for the upcoming year

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ADM in Togo & DMA in Chile  

I have been contacting both OC's of DMA and ADM Constant communication with both OC’s, following the progress of the organization and offering support

EDM  

Task to find new committee who will be able to host European director meeting this winter If it is organised before the end of 2015, EC found special support for the OC: A grant from the EU of €3700!

Got in touch with the main responsible of the WOCO team for IAAS World Day  



Continuing the projects that were started at WOCO 2015 The aim of this project is to coordinate our National Committees to celebrate and spread the importance of some topics of high relevance for the future of the agriculture and food security through local activities and promotion within and outside universities It is important to relate IAAS activities with highly recognized organizations as FAO, UNEP, CGIAR

Contact with the committees regarding their access to new email addresses  

Working together with Jo Stulens, IAAS Alumni, who created the new and professional IAAS email addresses Working to solve any problems that may have occurred with the email transition

Candidate members    

Corresponded with our current candidate members Sending official letters of being a Candidate Member to IAAS Sri Lanka Working in a strategy to ensure a successful long term development of new National Committees Contact with students interested to join IAAS and open a committee in their home countries

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Administrative work     

Researching the old files to get a better view of how IAAS was run by previous presidents Intensively studying the Standard Operating Procedures Getting to know how IAAS World works and keeping contact and track of what is happening all over the world!

Intensive weekly EC & CC meetings Corresponding with our members and partners

Straighten relationship with KU Leuven   

By the end of this month I travelled to Leuven, Belgium in order to have a meeting with the administrative directors of KU Leuven Setting up a meeting with Dean of the Faculty of Bio- engineering Nadine Buys, KU Leuven and Mr Matt Tips, Director of External Relations for Bio-engineering and IROICA president We discussed methods of increased partnership between KU Leuven and IAAS and the ways to strengthen our connection with our main partners

Court and Bank registration 

While in Belgium we did the official Court and Bank registration with my fellow team members, Steven and Sam

If you have any questions regarding IAAS of myself, feel free to contact me at president@iaasworld.org and I will be happy to answer!

Thanks for reading this and I hope to meet you at an IAAS event!

Lots of love, Josipa IAAS World President 2015/2016

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Sam Raeymaekers – Vice President of Communication Hi all!

First two months of our EC term are already over. Unbelievable how fast it goes! August and September were interesting, though hectic months since at that time I was getting myself acquainted with the VPC routine and tasks.

Many thanks to Lisanne for the wonderful hand-over and to the team for the great start. It took some time before we could really take off at 100% energy, but I can assure you we are running at 150% now!

The most prominent activities I’ve been doing the past two months are listed below:

Strategy meeting and EC meetings As a good board should, we have weekly EC meetings. These are moderated by our fantastic Control Committee! During our first meeting, the Strategy Meeting which took 3 half days, we discussed our vision, strategy and objectives for the year, set our deadlines and aligned our agendas for the year. We will have another Strategy Meeting after ½ year.

World Congress of the World Agronomist Association (WAA) My first appearance as VPC towards the external field was immediately a good one! I had the chance to present IAAS to 500 agronomists from all over the world during the World Congress of the WAA, held in Milan at the Expo 2015 in the week of September 14th. During the 4 day event we had the chance to talk about IAAS and get new connections.

The weeks before I had been working at the WAA Pavilion at the Expo together with Lisanne and Tomacho (from IAAS Chile) who were just like me volunteering here. Many thanks to them for making those weeks as awesome as they were. We had such good experiences!

GORTA – Self Help Africa connection (SHA) During WoCo 2015 and before the idea to establish a collaboration with Gorta – Self Help Africa (SHA) and IAAS Africa was born. During the WAA World Congress we had a meeting with SHA in order to get feedback on the proposals. The countries where overlap between our organizations is present qualify for a possible agreement. These countries are Benin, Togo, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Discussions are ongoing as a 3 year collaboration is being developed.

Regional Directors matters and call for Asia-Pacific Regional Director A new RD had to be chosen since the former one, Dicky from Indonesia, is now VPP! We had 4 motivated applicants. After thorough consideration (with special thanks to Marie Legein) the new APRD was elected. The announcement will be done soon and you can read all about the new APRD in the next Newsletter!

Next to this EC discussed how we want to work together with the RD’s this year.

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ICA Board meeting, GA and Rectors & Deans Forum I was present at the ICA Rectors & Deans Forum 2015, organized in Milan, from 20 to 23 October.

ICA is the Association for European Life Science Universities which has as main goal to provide a network and thus connect these universities. They have biannual board meetings, a GA and the Rectors & Deans meeting where IAAS is always invited. The ICA-IAAS agreement is going for 30 years already! I was honored to be invited and represent our association.

Here too I had the chance to present IAAS to all rectors and deans present. Many of them are very positive towards IAAS and towards student input. The support local IAAS committees get from their universities is often very important for their survival. All I can say is: invest in the connection with your local university and think not only about what they can offer to you, more important is ‘what can we as IAAS offer to the universities?’ !

Several meetings in Leuven With Josipa present in Leuven for a while this month, we had the chance to catch up with some meetings: together with Steven we met Nadine Buys (dean of Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven, where our headquarters are located), Matt Tips (President of IROICA), Daan Smekens (President of EGEA) and the Belgian alumni and friends.

Newsletter and other duties As VPC I’m responsible of communication towards you: the members and alumni and to some extent also the partners and sponsors. This includes publishing the Newsletter. Thanks for all the great reports you sent so far!

I hope the newsletters this year will give you a good insight in the activities of IAAS. If you have any suggestions please let me know. Don’t forget to submit your reports and share the activity of your local/national committee with the IAAS World!

Next to the newsletter I have my other duties: 

 

Represent IAAS in any occasion (during the meetings and also, what actually takes more time, the follow-up of those meetings as well as daily contacts with members, partners, interested parties, etc. via mail.

Updating the website, Facebook-page, Facebook-group and Twitter. Don’t forget to follow us on all social media! Via more activity online we reach more people!

Follow-up of new member countries (e.g. Australia, who is very interested in joining the IAAS Network)

That’s it for now. If you have any question/input about the above, let me know!

All the best!

Sam

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Dicky Hasian Zulkarnain – Vice President of External Relations IAAS is my organization in the last three years. I had been a member of the local committee in the external division of IPB, Regional Director for Asia Pacific and now I served as Vice President of External Relations.

As long as I served as regional director of IAAS Asia Pacific, I coordinated IAAS in Asia Pacific to remain active in making activities and report to the IAAS World. When I became Regional Director there were 3 IAAS national committees active in Asia Pacific (Indonesia, Tajikistan, and Thailand), there were three candidate members (Japan, Nepal and Pakistan), and I helped Sri Lanka registration as a candidate member of IAAS. Our results are: Japan as a permanent member and IAAS Sri Lanka as candidate member .

This upcoming year as Vice President of External Relations I hope to maintain and develop the relation between IAAS and companies and NGOs worldwide. Therefore I am very interested in working with all elements/members of IAAS around the world to establish a good cooperation to make IAAS more known.

Steven Adams – Vice President of Exchange During August, I took time to recover from WOCO15, recall the output from the intensive ExPro sessions during this event and to finish the latest reports and other official documents of previous IAAS year. Since the beginning of September, my focus is completely on Expro. I’m busy with the preparations for the new structure and I was adapting official documents related to Expro.

Furthermore, I created a new Exchange Quality Board, which will be introduced in the near future and I was in contact with the webmaster to run and solve issues according to our database.

Latest, I attended several meetings with the new team and my personal CC member as well as working on the official registration on the Belgian court and the follow up of several projects, started at WOCO15.

Annalise Miller – Vice President of Finance So far during my term I have prepared the new financial categories for 2015-2016 year. According to the amendments made during World Congress 2015 there are now 5 financial categories A-E based on member countries GDP. These categories will determine member dues according to the new formulas also adopted during World Congress. Additionally I prepared for and attended the Strategy Meeting and am currently working to get all bank information changed over and search for additional funding.

Genna, Ohemaa, Yahor – Conrol Committee Hello IAAS! Since our start in the new year, the CC has been pleased to support the EC in meeting moderation, EC meeting minutes, and generally advising the EC. Our largest task in the last month was to moderate and participate as appropriate at the 2015 EC Strategy Meeting, which occurred electronically on October 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Internally, we have also made a CC schedule and divided up meeting moderation duties among CC. According to CC tradition, the CC divided which EC members each will follow most closely.

President Josipa and VP of Communication Sam are followed by Genna. VP of Finance Annalise

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and VP of External Relations Dicky are followed by Yahor. VP of Exchange Steven is followed by Ohemaa.

We are pleased with the progress of the EC thus far, and look forward to a strong year in IAAS!

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Call for Articles

Did you organize an event?

Do you want to share anything with IAAS World and its partners

Send your article with pictures to vpcommunication@iaasworld.org before the 20th of December, 2015

This IAAS Newsletter was brought to you by Sam Raeymaekers Leuven, 31th of October 2015

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