Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Understanding agricultural extension still important - the case of Iran


I have received word of the following conference.  Our work in this field has an Iranian connection. In 1989 we wrote: 

Russell, D.B., Ison, R.L., Gamble, D.R. & Williams, R.K. (1989) A Critical Review of Rural Extension Theory and Practice. Australian Wool Corporation/ University of Western Sydney (Hawkesbury).  67pp.

Soon after this publication was translated into French and then Farsi.
i)                    French Edition: (1991).  Analyse Critique de la Theorie et de la Pratique de Vulgarisation Rurale en Australie.  INRA, France.  79pp.
ii)                  Persian Edition: (1995).  The translation into Persian by Ahmad Khatoonabadi.
 

The organiser Esmail Karamidehkordi writes:

"It is a pleasure to inform you that the University of Zanjan and the Iranian Agricultural Extension and Education Association (IAEEA) are organizing The First International Conference of the APIRAS & the Fifth Congress of Extension and Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources Management: “Facilitating Information and Innovations for Empowering Family Farmers”in 2-4 September 2014, with the collaboration of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), the Asian and Pacific Islands Rural Advisory Services (APIRAS), World Rural Forum (WRF), the University of Tehran, Iranian Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture, Iranian Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, and other international and national institutions.

Because family farming is a very important farming system in the world, particularly in developing countries, we preferred to call the main theme of this conference as “Facilitating Information and Innovations for Empowering Family Farmers”. On behalf of the conference scientific committee, I would like to invite you to participate in this conference through your paper submission or supporting it as an institutional partner. The website is accessible through http://iaeea2014.znu.ac.ir and you can submit your abstract and paper online. I will appreciate your kind support if you add this link to your website and introduce it to your colleagues to participate in. We hope this international conference can provide an opportunity for the participants to share their knowledge and experiences regarding rural development and extension approaches to support family farming. Please let me know should you have any questions regarding the conference and your participation."