Venue:
Ghent University
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Coupure Links 653, Ghent, Belgium
Conference time: 21-22 May 2025
The overarching theme of the conference is tailored towards the bioeconomy of tropical commodities. A bio-based economy relies on renewable biological resources, such as crops, forests, animals, and microorganisms, to produce food, feed, materials, and energy. Bio-based economy aims to reduce dependence on fossil resources, mitigate climate change, and foster sustainable development. As a result, it encompasses a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food, health, and biotechnology.
Tropical commodity value chains are crucial in a bio-based economy. However, the ever-increasing demand for tropical commodities like maize, cassava, rice, cocoa, coffee, rubber, soy, oil palm, and cattle impacts tropical landscapes and drives forest degradation. In this respect, the forthcoming yet evolving European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) aims to balance bio-based production and natural capital conservation. However, EUDR will only have an impact if also local and emerging markets are considered.
This conference serves as a multidisciplinary dialogue platform, drawing expertise from areas such as forest conservation and restoration, ecology, governance, entrepreneurship, policy, traceability, climate change, and sustainable agricultural intensification. It offers you a platform to showcase results and experience how science-policy interfaces should work.
Engage in cutting-edge discussions and collaborations aimed at creating deforestation-free and sustainable commodity value chains. Let’s shape a future where economic growth, social justice, and environmental stewardship go hand in hand. Be part of this pivotal dialogue at the Agrinatura General Assembly 2025 and contribute to the sustainable transformation of tropical agriculture, food systems, and trade.
Call for papers and important dates
Join us at the Agrinatura Conference, organized as part of the Agrinatura General Assembly 2025, where we welcome researchers, PhD students, development agencies, and policymakers from around the world.
Besides invited speakers and organized discussion sessions, the core of the conference will be the presentation of contributed papers that illustrate the contributions of member institutes, projects, and individual scientists to Sustainable development in the Global South. The conference aims to provide a forum for PhD students and post-doc researchers to present either orally or in poster sessions their work in the Global South targeting the sustainable value chains via collaborative solutions for responsible agri-food systems:
-Integrated soil, and water management; Nexus Water-Energy-Food
– Forestry and protected areas
– Nutrition, OneHealth
– Technological and institutional innovation
– Plant and animal production, including pests and diseases
– Agroecology, Agroforestry and Agrobiodiversity
– Food systems and sustainable transitions
– Development of sustainable value chains
– Policy and governance
To be eligible for an oral or poster presentation, please send an abstract (see template) of max. 1 page with the name of presenter and other authors, affiliations, introduction, problem statement, research plan and methodology, and (provisional) results to Secretary General Dr Mabel Hernandez at secretariat@agrinatura-eu.eu and Susanna Rokka (LUKE) (susanna.rokka@luke.fi) before March 15 th 2025. Abstracts will be evaluated by the Conference Scientific Committee based on contribution to the topic of the conference, thematic area, scientific interest, novelty, and quality. Selected papers will be grouped by topic in thematic sessions for oral or poster presentation. Authors will be adverted by April 15th. Selected abstracts will be published in the abstract booklet that will be available at the conference and on the Agrinatura website.
An Agrinatura Best Paper and Poster award will be given based on the quality of the abstracts and the quality of the oral or poster presentation during the conference and be announced at the end of the conference. In the case of numerous quality contributions, the organizing committee will investigate the possibility of publishing a special journal issue or a book inviting the best contributions to send in a full paper after the conference.
Agrinatura is the European Alliance for Agricultural Knowledge for Development (https://agrinatura-eu.eu/).
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