IAAS Newsletter Sep.-Oct. 2014 by VP Communication

INTER NATIONAL ASSOCI ATION OF STUDENTS IN A GR IC ULT UR A L A N D R EL AT ED S C IE N C ES

September – October 2014

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Contents

IAAS World New Headquarters ..................................................................................................................... 2 Welcome new Executive Committee! ......................................................................................... 3 Welcome new Control Committee ! ........................................................................................... 6

Activities World Congress 2014 in Iowa, USA ........................................................................................... 7 Exchange week in Sweden........................................................................................................ 10 Exchange week in Slovenia .......................................................................................................12 IAAS-Georgia ............................................................................................................................13 The 6th IAAS Olympic, Indonesia............................................................................................. 15

Partners A TRIP FROM ROME TO THE WORLD: FAO, 24th Session of COAG. .................................. 18 Attending the Annual Conference of Partner EGEA ................................................................ 20 Join the 2014 Thought For Food Challenge and Win a Trip to Lisbon, Portugal! ...................21

Other Opportunities for members...................................................................................................... 22 Announcements ....................................................................................................................... 23 Upcoming events ...................................................................................................................... 24 EC Courier ................................................................................................................................ 26

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New Headquarters IAAS World is really happy to announce that the KU Leuven Faculty of Bio-science Engineering has provided us a new and beautiful Headquarters. Situated in the park of Castle Arenberg and just across the street of the old HQ, the IAAS headquarter is now a cosy house called the “Boshut” (Forestshed). On the shore of the river “Dijle” surrounded by beautiful old trees and squirrels and as well as other animals for pets makes this idyllic. The inside of the “Boshut” is perfect for its new purpose. It’s light and spatious with a cosy fireplace. Facilities are there to have big meetings, and it’s a great place to invite our partners / sponsors. Additionally there are personal desks so that the board members can fulfil their daily duties working together in the same office. The new headquarters takes a great step toward the professional look IAAS World has been looking for. With that, we want to sincerely say another huge thank you to the KU Leuven Faculty of Bioscience Engineering for this enormous offer.

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Welcome new Executive Committee! President Samuel Navarrete Country: México e-mail: president@iaasworld.org Skype: sam.nvrrt IAAS World is more than just a student association, is the opportunity of changing your life and broaden your vision of the world and agriculture. Give yourself the opportunity to attend at one of the IAAS events that are held all over the world, I can assure that you will fall in love of this amazing experience! IAAS world has changed my life, join us! During the way you will find amazing people inspired each day by worldwide agriculture!

Vice – President of Communication Lisanne Meulendijks Country: The Netherlands E-mail: vpcommunication@iaasworld.org Skype: lisanne.meulendijks Hey and welcome to IAAS World. I’m happy to introduce myself as the Vice President of Communication2014-2015. IAAS creates incredible opportunities for all agriculture related students. IAAS provides opportunities that nowadays are so vital to have next to our studies. In this rapidly globalizing world IAAS let you learn about our sector all over the world and next to that let you meet students who study in the same field so on international level experiences and ideas can be exchanged. I’m really happy to be part of our association that makes this all possible! The past years I was able to attend many events and by this have had the opportunity to learn and experience a lot. Since IAAS gave me so much I’m really happy I can give something back to our association. I’ll always be happy to be helping out if you’ve any questions. Don’t hesitate to contact me in any way.

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Vice – President of External Relations Charlotte Soland Country: Switzerland e-mail: vppartnership@iaasworld.org Skype: charlotte_soland Welcome to IAAS World. We are a huge family of great students in agriculturale and related science. I’m happy to be part of this family and I feel proud to work for it. I want to involve our partners and sponsors more into all the different programs and events we organize. My vision is to bring students from different fields together and closer to international discussion about tomorrow’s food. I take the daily challenge to develop my personal skills and improve IAAS, it warms up my heart to see our network growing and all the smiling faces at the events. Join IAAS and be an enrichment of our family.

Vice – President of Exchange Steven Adams Country: Belgium e-mail: vpexchange@iaasworld.org Skype: adams.steven14 Hello everyone, welcome to the amazing world of IAAS. I got triggered about international relations and understandings between students, whether or not with the same interests, due to several international experiences. In an international society, as the world where we live in today, it is vital to build an international network and try to experience/feel/live/develop new cultures. I believe that the “Exchange Program” of IAAS is the practical realization of the mission statement of our organization: “To promote the Exchange of Experience, Knowledge and Ideas, to improve the mutual Understanding between Students in the field of Agricultural and Related Sciences all over the World” . There is no better way to feel and experience a culture by living and working in a foreign country. If you can combine this, with your study of interest, new ideas and experiences will be learned. Don’t be afraid to face a new challenge and get inspired by students all over the world.Get triggered by ExPro and live one of the biggest experiences in your live and discover the practical realization of your studies! Don’t hesitate to contact me for more information.Let’s do it, let’s do exchange, let’s do ExPro!

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Vice â&#x20AC;&#x201C; President of Finance Yahor Vetlou Country: Belarus e-mail: vpfinance@iaasworld.org Skype: evazwan In last 3 years IAAS changed my life totally. IAAS for me is not only an organisation but also a way of life .It is a way for me to get to know more about agriculture and culture, experience and knowledge. IAAS has opened my eyes to diversity, change and new ideas.

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Welcome new Control Committee ! Contact us at controlcommittee@iaasworld.org or get in touch with us through skype! Ratih Nawangwulan Country: Indonesia Skype: ratih.nawangwulan Over the past four years being involved in IAAS, I have been provided with tons of fascinating opportunities, built life-long friendships, and a completely life-changing experience of getting engaged with international agriculture. I know that I will always look back at my IAAS experience as a turning point in my life. So please, take a look at our numerous thrilling opportunities and be a part of our worldwide agricultural youth movement! Vincent Verdugt Country: Belgium Skype: vinckepincke IAAS gives the opportunity to students all over the world to unite in both local and international events. It enables getting to know other students from their own university and from universities from all over the world who have the same interests. This connectivity is one of the aspects I like the best of IAAS. Meeting enthusiastic people who take initiative in our world of today is very motivating in our own lifes and drives us to act ourselves as well. The students from now are the future leaders of companies, innovators of technologies and policy makers of countries. Broadening our scientific, cultural and social experience will give us a better basis upon which we can rely to construct our future lifes and world. I am therefore happy I can help with the daily functioning of IAAS and try to keep our association growing. Alexandra Rieder Country: Switzerland Skype : alexandra7373737 The last years I was really lucky to be part of IAAS, which led me to travel to Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Poland and Sweden. I passed an amazing year as Vice President of Exchange 2012-2013 and want to contribute with my IAAS experience and hope to be a help for this year's Executive committee. I truly believe that IAAS is a place to grow personally as you meet people from all over the world, all with different backgrounds but still all somehow related to agriculture and biosciences.

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World Congress 2014 in Iowa, USA Written by: Lisanne Meulendijks (Belgium) In July 2014, IAAS-ISU (Iowa State University, USA) organised the international World Congress 2014. The theme of this congress was â&#x20AC;&#x153;Farming for the future!â&#x20AC;? Next to the official general assembly, a variety of farm and factory visits, cultural activities and trainings were offered. The congress started with an introduction to the ISU campus and to Iowa as a farming state. Over 90% covered with agricultural fields, mostly corn and soybean; the perfect place for an agricultural conference. After some fun games on the lawns of the ISU campus, it was time to move into the apartments. These were beautiful, spacious and very comfortable. The next day we visited some local farms, which organically grew food for those in the community who needed some extra support. In the afternoon we went to the ISU research facilities for biomass production. The state of the art research at this facility really made a strong impression on us.

After the introductory days, it was time for the official part of the congress: The General Assembly. During the five days of Assembly we voted on the proposed amendments for the constitution, the current EC / CC presented their final reports and the new EC / CC presented themselves and were elected. Next to this, all the countries that were present presented their activities of the past year. Thanks to the organizing committee and to ISU we had the opportunity to hold the Assembly in a beautiful conference room in the majestic main building on campus.

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After these intensive days of meeting some days with visits followed: we had the opportunity to shortly go to some local departments of Syngenta and Monsanto, visit the Des Moines Water Works, tour a supermarket distribution centre where (in some parts it was as cold as -30 °C), and go to a giant farm in Prairie City where we got some explanations about how to grow huge amounts of corn and soya. On another day we travelled down to Pella, the city where the Vermeer Company was headquartered. Vermeer is a giant producer of agricultural machinery. The whole group was warmly welcomed by this company. They guided us through their production line and museum and in the end had an “Ice Cream Social” where even the grandson of the founder and current president of part of the company were present. In the same city we also visited the Dutch company Lely who specialized in dairy robotics. After these intensive days the participants were happy to go on an outdoor recreation trip for the weekend. During the day activities like rock-climbing, canoeing, kayaking and hiking were on the schedule and at night campfires were build and typical American “s’mores” (marshmallow roasted over a fire put between 2 graham crackers with chocolate) were eaten. These were great days to really experience the American outdoor life. To end the conference, we all drove down to the state of Kansas. Here we also had some interesting visits to a wheat grass producer and other farms with a great night in a beautiful barn with typical acts from the people from Kansas and our own members. As you can see it has been a really interesting and unforgettable congress and we really would like to thank all of the OC members of IAAS-ISU for doing such a great job in organizing this. It was amazing!

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Personal experiences WOCO 2014: Siti Nisrina Hasna (Ines) Padjadjaran University, Indonesia Everybody might have their most memorable moment of their life. It could be a first kiss, being married to someone, taking vacation to the beautiful places, or the other things that you can’t forget even for a second. For me, WoCo is one of the most memorable moments of my life. WoCo isn’t only about being involved in the most prestigious annual event of IAAS World. But it gives you so much on your social skills – the ability to interact with people from around the world and learning about other people culture at once. The best thing I had during the WoCo is when people celebrating me and Lucas’ birthday after the General Assembly on July 16. They sang happy birthday song and there were cakes! The fact that I was also chosen as one of the secretary on the General Assembly gives me a lot of experience. Even more, I had the chance to follow the GA in the most active way and give a great help for the development for our beloved organization. In the end, all I can say is that WoCo is the moment of your life that you can never forget. It does not only give you the chance to get new knowledge and experience, but also to find your new lovely family. Barbara Umek University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Attending 57th IAAS World Congress- farming for the Future was quite challenging for me on behalf of expensiveness of plane ticket from Slovenia, plus the 24hr travel with the time difference were not indulgent with me at all. The challenging trip rewarded me infinitely. Not only I learned the solutions of global issues on local area of Iowa and Kansas, I also gained writing and management skills, new international friendships (especially from Germany, Indonesia and USA), ideas that I can realize wherever I go and so much more that I just know that is now implemented in my soul and was not there when I got to the congress. Now, two weeks after the congress ended, I still use energy and cheerfulness from the supply that I like to call “the WoCo battery”. At the same time I was afraid the time when that Woco battery runs out and yet I have the solution: joining next IAAS event with my favorite, with my beloved, the IAAS family.

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Exchange week in Sweden Written by: Eric van der Tas The Exchange Week was organized by IAAS Sweden and three countries participated during this week: Switzerland, Mexico and Belgium. We had fika at the faculty of agriculture in Uppsala (SLU), which is basically a coffee break with pastries and tastes insanely good. Our compliments to the chefs. After that we played kubb and we got to know each other a little bit. During the evening there was dinner and later a night tour at the faculty with candles giving it illusion of a haunted place. The next day we visited Uppsala all together. We visited the botanical gardens, the church, the library, the unions (like the local student organization) and of course we had some fika. In the evening there was the tradefair, so party guaranteed. It was kind of late, but it was no excuse not to get up early next morning for a visit at the Holmen paper fabric. We had a lecture there, followed by a tour in and around the buildings. It was extremely impressive.

Afterwards, lunch was offered by the company before heading toward the sea. We had a stroll there along the rocky coast before heading back to the SLU where dinner awaited. During the evening there was a pub crawl, which basically meant that you drink a beer in each pub and complete the tasks that were given to you. It was really cool and we had a great time. We especially enjoyed the duo, Annelies and Andy, who gave it their best to perform even more tasks than were given to us.

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The next day we had lectures during the morning about agriculture during the ages in Sweden, about precision fertilisation and sewing, and about using new vehicles and drones on and above agricultural land. In the afternoon, we had some free time to explore the faculty, but most of us just laid in the sun. In the evening there was dinner and afterwards SAUNA a typical Swedish thing to do, and we can assure you itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really hot inside. Taking a cold shower every fifteen minutes is absolutely necessary. In the evening, we did some drinking games and there was karaoke as well.

On Friday (is it Friday already) we visited a pig farm, which was operated by the SLU. We saw the whole process from little pigs to the ones that went to the slaughterhouse. It was really impressive to see, especially for those who had never seen a pig farm. In the afternoon we went for a stroll along the river which was really beautiful, and in the evening we had dinner. After dinner, some people went to the sauna, other people went to Uppsala centre to do some partying in one of the clubs.

The last day of our stay in Sweden some people, who hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen Stockholm before, went there. They went walking in the old city centre and they experienced the taste of the famous princess cake. Others went to another town south of Uppsala called Sigtuna, where you could stroll along the edge of the lake and visit the old city centre with its many typical houses. In the evening there was a goodbye party and next day we all left tired but satisfied homewards after a whole week Uppsala.

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Exchange week in Slovenia Written by: Angelika Vizintin When native and traditional agriculture meet the future - searching inspiration for the future by looking in the past. The exchange took place in our small but beautiful sLOVEnia from the 28th of September to the 5th October. It included IAAS members from Russia, Czech Republic and Greece. On the 2nd day of the exchange week we went to the sea. We saw the Park of native species of plants and animals in Hrastovlje, then Piran and Koper, two coastal towns, the Marine biology station Piran and of course we went for a swim. The next day, on our way back to the capital Ljubljana, we stopped to visit Lipica Stud Farm, home of the horse Lipizzaner. We also visited the Park Ĺ kocjan Caves, which is on the UNESCO list and rode Lipizzaner horses at Krumperk. In the next days, we toured Ljubljana, visited The Union Brewery, had a presentation Biotechnical Faculty (where IAAS Slovenia members are attending studies) and attended various workshops and lectures. On Saturday, the 4th of October, we showed our guests the Botanical garden of the University of Ljubljana and Bled, one of the most known Slovenian tourist attractions. Time passed too quickly and it was already Sunday, time for our guests to leave and go back home after this wonderful week.

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IAAS-Georgia Members of IAAS-Georgia participated in RTVELI (wine harvesting). Written by: Mariam Devadze Rtveli (vintage) is the traditional process of picking grapes and making wine, which is accompanied by celebrations that mark the end of the agricultural cycle for the year. We generally harvest in September and October. Rtveli involves almost everyone in Georgia. Most wine is produced using ancient, natural technologies. Grapes are pressed by foot and the juice is poured into massive clay vessels, called Kvevri. The vessels are placed in a special room called a marani (wine cellar.) The neck of the Kvevri is surrounded by a recessed basin. In Georgia, where wine has an iconic significance, the tradition of Rtveli dates back to ancient times, having its roots in the festivity of mid-Autumn abundance and variety. Rtveli usually lasts for several days, with people starting work in early morning hours and ending the day with a feast in the accompaniment of vintage-themed folk songs. Volunteers are always welcome. You have to get up early and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hot work, but you get to collect grapes, get your feet wet pressing the wine, and see a marani. Then, at the end of the day, you will be part of the famed Georgian feast, the supra, led by a Tamada (toast master). There will be singing, dancing, mountains of delicious food and wine! Currently Georgia is probably the oldest wine region in the world. The fertile valleys of the South Caucasus, which Georgia straddles, are believed by many archaeologists to be the source of the world's first cultivated grapevines and neolithic wine production over 8,000 years ago. Due to the many millennia of wine in Georgian history, its key economical role and the traditions of its viticulture are entwined and inseparable with the country's national identity. UNESCO added the ancient traditional Georgian winemaking method using the Kvevri clay jars to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

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During Soviet times wines produced in Georgia were very popular. In comparison with other wines from Moldavia and Crimea that were available on the Soviet market, Georgian wines had been more preferable for Soviets. In 1950, vineyards in Georgia occupied 143,000 acres, but in 1985 they increased to 316,000 acres due to increasing demand. In 1985, wine production was 881,000 tons.

According to Minister of Agriculture of Georgia, grape harvest in 2009 was 130,000 tons and wine production increased from 13.8 million wine bottles in 2009 to 15.8 million wine bottles in 2010 with bottle size 0.75 L (11.85 thousand tons in 2010). In 2009, Georgia exported 10,968 million bottles of wine to 45 countries. In 2010, Georgia exported wines to: Ukraine - about 7.5 million bottles, Kazakhstan - about 2.0 million bottles, Belarus - about 1.2 million bottles, Poland - about 870 thousand bottles and Latvia - 590 thousand bottles. IAAS Georgia also took part in organizing the Georgian Wine Day holiday. Their main goal was to explain the structure of Georgian wine and the wine-making tradition to native and foreign guests . Afterwards, they visited winemaking companies Tbilvino, Teliani Valley and KTW where they had a seminar on the topic of the winemaking tradition and modern technology. IAAS-Georgia would like to thank the National Agency of Wine and Tbilisi State University for their support for student activities.

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The 6th IAAS Olympic Written by: IAAS Indonesia IAAS LC IPB has presented the biggest event and competition of the year, The 6th IAAS Olympic 2014. The 6th IAAS Olympic is IAAS Local Committee IPB’s way of showing its concern through the spirit of competition also. It has been the sixth time this event has been held since 2008, with the theme “Achieving Millennium Development Goals by Sustainable Green Energy and Food Sovereignty”. The goal of this event is to be a way to introduce and socialize insights about social, agricultural and environmental problems or issues to students and the public. This year we presented the event with:

International Seminar International Seminar is one of the biggest events in IAAS Olympic and was held on September 21, 2014 at Andi Hakim Nasution Auditorium, IPB, Bogor. International Seminar invited many speakers this year and presented in full english. The 6th Olympic theme was “Achieving Millenium Development Goals by Sustainablity Green Energy and Food Sovereignty”. The International Seminar itself divided into two sections. The first section is about “The Use of Green Energy to Achieve Environmental Stability” that was presented by Mr. Chandra Satria Muda from General Electric company. After the first section ended, there were the final round of IDEA and Agroquiz first. The second section of the International Seminar explained about “Preventing Hunger in A Country to Achieve Food Security” that was presented by Mrs. Sinta Kaniawati as General Manager Unilever Indonesia Foundation. But, before we entered that International Seminar section, there was The Keynote Speech about Millennium Development Goals by Mr. Shahbaz Khan from UNESCO. The International Seminar was lead by our amazing Master of Ceremony (MC), Mrs. Ririn Prameswari, a finalist of Miss Earth 2014. We also showed the audience the beauty of Tari Kecak from Bali that delivered OMDA BALI and the amazing light stick performances from Teenagers Wotagei.

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IDEA IDEA (IAAS Debating competition on Environmental and Agricultural) is a debate competition as part of IAAS 6th Olympic held September 20th– 21st at Bogor Agricultural University. This was our second year holding varsity. This year IDEA was open to all universities around ASEAN. This ASEAN scale debating competition also has Fauzan Reza Maulana (Champion Of WUDC 2014 and Dennys Victor Kapa (1st Breaking Adjudicator at IVED 2014)) as the professional adjudication cores of the competition. The champion came from IPB, 1st Runner-Up was UGM B, 2nd Runner-up was UGM A and UI A.

IOA (IAAS On Action) IAAS on Action is one of programs in The 6th IAAS Olympic event that showed our concern to environment. This year, IOA has some activities like school gardening, House Farming, and renovating a library. The purpose of IOA is to give a real effort to society. These activities were held in Cikarawang Village by IAAS members and volunteers. We gave volunteers a chance to take part and help society with real actions. The benefit of being a volunteer in this program is to get experiences in society along with a certificate. The first activity was held on June 18, 2014, when all the participants renovated the village’s library. They started by cleaning and repainting the building together. After that, the activity continued on August 28, 2014, when we tidied up and redesigned the library’s interior. After that first mission was completed, we planted seeds in that village on September 1, 2014. Planting seeds gave in 4 RW in Cikarawang Village was to make their yard greener and more beautiful. The mission didn’t stop there. We also gave some talked to elementary school students about farming, saving the environment, and the importance of reading. Last but not least, the IOA closing was on September 7, 2014, with some activities like inauguration of the library and Mini School Garden Competition.

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Agroquiz Competition Agroquiz is a competition designed for first term students of Bogor Agricultural University batch 51 (TPB). The competition consisted of testing their knowledge about basic agriculture. Three people from each class represent their class to compete and strive for a triumph on agriculture issues based on Andi Hakim Nasoetionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Book, which is Introductory of Agriculture (Pengantar Ilmu Pertanian). Agroquiz itself is divided into 3 sections. The first and second rounds of the competition were held in CCR (Common Class Room) auditorium on September 20, 2014. On that day, we had the 3 best teams that continued to the Final round in Andi Hakim Nasution Auditorium on September 21, 2014. The first round was a written test about agricultural knowledge from Introductory of Agriculture (Pengantar Ilmu Pertanian) book and common agricultural and environmental issues world-wide. Based on the result of this section, we got 15 top teams to continue to the second round. Of those 15, the 9 best teams competed in a problem solving section. There were interviews and direct. That section filtered 9 teams to 3 best teams to continue their endevors in final round in Andi Hakim Nasution Auditorium on September 21, 2014. The result of the second round was the 3 best teams: Q01, R03, Q08 A. The final round we designed with a BOB quiz and an additional challenging round to get the winner. And Q08A was the winner of 2014 Agroquiz. Q01 came in the second and R03 as the third winner of the competition. Here is a snapshot of The 6th IAAS Olympic:

IAAS LC Bogor Agricultural University , Indonesia, 2014

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A TRIP FROM ROME TO THE WORLD: FAO, 24th Session of COAG. Written by: Marta Gómez San Juan (IAAS Spain) First impression of Rome: Majestic, with its old heritage, base of new generations and future. It was a good emplacement for what was going to come, such as the parliamentary sessions like those that happened in Ancient Rome... and some good pasta to set the stage!

Second impression: There we were at the white palace (as Italians refer to this building) with the United Nations flag flying. We waited near the red carpet, expecting people and waiting when a black car arrived. Danilo Medina, president of Dominican Republic, got out of the car and walked beside José Graziano Da Silva, Director General of FAO. Suddenly, the president turned and waved to the three IAAS students, starring at the whole picture. Good starting.

Third impression: Red Room of FAO Headquarters where the 24th Committee on Agriculture (COAG) seminar was going to take place. The tables with the names of different member countries announced an interesting debate with confronting points of view. Developed and developing countries would fight for their interests in a framework of making of this a better world. Both, expectations and doubts boiled in our brains, while avid eyes looked at everything around us.

During the following days we lived varied experiences: from understanding the whole governance and working systems of COAG, FAO and even UN as a whole, to finding out which hot topics in agriculture were to come. It was a really fulfilling experience for all the knowledge we acquired in all senses. An extra effort was required to read between the lines in the speeches of the delegates of different countries, in order to fully understand what was beyond the beautiful words as “sustainability”, “security”, “biodiversity”... Do they include opening the markets under any mean to develop? Do those intentions include measurements to mitigate climate change? Do they include genetically modified practices? Will there be a mutual cooperation between countries globally or in some cases will it be regionally? Certainly, this whole week of learning and thinking was very good for us, both personally and for our future careers.

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We also had the opportunity to speak with personalities, Ministers of Agriculture, Delegates and Permanent Representatives of countries as diverse as Argentina, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, Switzerland, China, Chile, European Union, and Vietnam, among others. Also, in the side events organised between sessions we could listen to professionals explaining what is ClimateSmart Agriculture, Agroecology, the plan for Post-2015 Agenda, the UN participation in Expo Milano 2015, and different case studies developed by the work of FAO and other partner organisations and NGOs. Moreover, we had the opportunity to hear the ambassadors of Liberia and Guinea speaking about the Ebola situation and the necessity of urgent help in those countries. To sum up, we would like to thank IAAS for the opportunity. By being motivated members, it was a great week full of experiences, learning and discovering worth living.

Andrea Wehrli (Switzerland), Steven Adams (Belgium), Marta G贸mez San Juan (Spain) and Konrad Egenolf (not on the picture, Germany) were present at the latest FAO - COAG Meeting in Rome, Italy

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Attending the Annual Conference of Partner EGEA Written by: Lisanne Meulendijks (VPC – Belgium) One of the partners of IAAS is the European Geography Association for Students and young Geographers. Last year the first partnership agreement between the two of us was signed and this year I can happily announce to you that this agreement was extended by two years! Charlotte, our VP of External Relations and I myself (VP of Communication) were invited to join the Annual Conference of EGEA, their “WOCO” you could say. The both of us travelled all the way to Predeal. A beautiful mountain village north of Bucharest, Romania. An entire hotel was rented for the 215 participants that came from all over Europe. During their AC, as Egeans call it, the members got the opportunity to participate in many different activities. There were soft skill trainings covering different subjects, sessions to start up or join existing teams for specific EGEAprojects like “EGEA-Green”: “How to make EGEA more environmental friendly?” Also there was a whole day of Recreation Trips where we had the opportunity to check out the beautiful culture of Romania. Last but not least there was an intensive but really well organized General Assembly. But Charlotte and I were not there for only the fun! Some business needed to be done as well. During their opening ceremony we had the opportunity to introduce IAAS and afterwards have our own stand (with flyers, business cards and the flag) where we gave many interested egeans info about IAAS. We also had a meeting with the past and new EGEA presidents, Colette Caruna and Norga Varga. During this meeting we learned a lot. We found out we have many similarities in our associations in which we can support each other. On the other hand we can learn from the things that are done differently. At the end of our meeting both parties felt the same way in maintaining support of each other’s association and making this formal by signing the contract that extends the partnership for 2 more years. The partnership consists roughly of this: From both sides we will open and promote our events to the members of the other association and also we try to get both our associations more widely known by mentioning each other on our website and in our Annual Review. I really hope that it will be at least two more years of great cooperation!

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Join the 2014 Thought For Food Challenge and Win a Trip to Lisbon, Portugal! Written by: Ratih Nawangwulan (Indonesia) Thought For Food (TFF) is building a powerful community of optimistic, tech-savvy students from top universities around the world to tackle the “food” part of the abundance equation through bold solutions. In the three years since TFF launched, our movement has tripled in size, and now comprises more than 1500 student innovators, ambassadors and mentors from 24 countries on 6 continents. Through the annual TFF Global Challenge, we’re uncovering the next generation of superstars who are uprooting the status quo and feeding the world. What if we turned deserts into farms? What if we rolled out e-credits for food waste? What if we all owned vertical farming systems in our homes, powered by open-source platforms? What if we could improve nutrition and increase productivity of smallholder poultry farmers in developing countries using solar-powered lamps? These are just some of the projects “TFFers” are answering and prototyping. We believe that students and young entrepreneurs around the world hold the key to a better future. Throughout history, the world’s most important game-changers have been exceptionally young and inexperienced:     

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak invented the personal computer at ages 21 and 26. Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity at age 26. Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google, both at age 25. Marie Curie discovered radioactivity at age 31. Wilber and Orville Wright invented powered flight at age 31 and 36.

These icons didn’t set out to be revolutionaries in their respective fields. They simply answered the door when opportunity knocked and took on the important challenges that came their way with the enthusiasm, curiosity and fearlessness of their youth. That’s why Thought For Food is focused on tapping into the minds of the world’s most potent generation and providing a stage for them to shine and pitch their ideas to other influencers and change makers at the Annual TFF Global Summit (taking place in Lisbon, Portugal on Feb. 13-15, 2015). We are empowering them with mentors, tools and educational resources, as well as the experiences and connections they need to make a difference. Right now. You can find out more about the incredible and inspiring projects being developed by “TFFers” in our 20-minute documentary (www.tffchallenge.com/documentary) or by visiting www.tffchallenge.com. University students can sign up for this year’s TFF Challenge until October 31, 2014 on www.tffchallenge.com.

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Opportunities for members New ExPro possibility: Jathropa plantation Mozambique The company Niqel Lda, in cooperation with IAAS, is happy to offer one of our students the ability to do a unique internship on a Jatropha Curcas plantation in Mozambique. Jatropha Curcas is an upcoming bioenergy crop that can grow in semi-arid conditions. The internship location is at a plantation that currently has about 3,000 hectares of developed crop as well as a 40 hectares of nursery, infrastructure, mechanical workshops and a farm compound. In the next 5 years, the company has the ambition to develop the plantation to 10,000 hectares and potentially scale up with another 50,000 hectares in the years after. Are you student looking to take on this great opportunity and spent (at least) one year on the plantation as the assistant of the plantation manager and help him with the following things: Soil testing, Soil preparation, Nutrient Management, Pest Management, Disease Management, Weed Management, Irrigation Management, Environmental Compliance Management, Planting and harvest management, Food crop development (maize), Cost of Production, weekly reports and field notebooks Requirements:       

You have an educational background in agronomy/agriculture or equivalent Practical experience in agriculture, international is a plus Independent, driven, focused, realistic and pro-active Positive attitude and excellent communication skills Prepared for a minimum of one year to stay in Mozambique “The Understanding of the African Way of Life" Command of English language in written and spoken, Portuguese is pre

If you’re interested, please send a mail to: vpexchange@iaasworld.org

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Announcements European Directors Meeting (EDM) 2014-2015 Unfortunately we also have to announce that the committee in Portugal is not able to organize the upcoming European Directors Meeting. The EC team is at the moment trying their best to find a good solution for this. You’ll be informed as soon as there is any more information. If your Committee is interested in organizing our next EDM, please contact our President.

Directors Meeting of the Americas (DMA) 2015 We’re happy to announce that our committee in Chile confirmed it: The next Directors Meeting of the Americas will be organized by the local committee in Santiago!

Make the difference: Join the External Relations – board ! Take responsibility and learn how to manage your own project, what effect your body language has to others. Improve your skills of public speaking, negotiation, persuasion and challenge yourself to work in an international team. Test your skills in a safe environment and gain more knowledge for you future work. There is nothing to lose, you can only win, unleash your passion‼ You will be surrounded by a team and supported by online communication and guidelines. People matter! You matter! Don’t miss the chance and join the External Relations Board and support your association with your work. You can make the difference - let's improve IAAS! Don't hesitate, hit reply to vppartnership@iaasworld.org!

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Upcoming events East African Conference: Get to know IAAS !

Train-New-Trainers (TNT) event Where? In Belgium When? 7-14th of December 2014 What is it about? Join this event if you want to become one of the next IAAS trainers!

African Directors Meeting (ADM) 2014 Where? In Niger at the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey When? 14â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 20th of December 2014 Theme? Food Security and Sustainable Agricultural Development in Africa: Current Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects More information: Follow their page on Facebook: IAAS-Niger

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ICN2 - Conference Are you interested in attending a meeting at the FAO? The next meeting will be the International Conference On Nutrition. See the flier below for application details! For questions, contact workshops@iaasworld.org. Application deadline: October 31st, 2014 (Note: the earlier you submit your application, the earlier we will consider your request and notify you of your status).

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EC Courier Every two months your Executive Committee (EC) will update you on the different tasks they have been working on. Stay in touch with their work and read the EC Courier!

Charlotte Soland – VP External Relations Strategy meeting (8.-12.9.14) Goals for this year:      

Fundraising for the WoCo 15, on international level o by company research, phone call, meeting, booklet provide the possibility to our members to attend FAO and UN bodies event, with workshops strengthen our partnership more on local level with EGEA and IFSA o by sending contact information to the local committees create an adaptable booklet for events guide for fundraising apply for grants (Ministry of Italy, EYF, Erasmus)

EGEA Annual Congress (12.-18.9.14)    

signed the contract for 2 years with EGEA attend a Fundraising Training, leaded by a professional Fundraiser got a lot of inputs how to improve our events got to know our partner better

WoCo15 meeting (19.-21.9.14)    

WoCo program, with new ideas for the EGEA AC discussed the fundraising strategy (national and international level) application for 2 grants (Ministry of Italy and EYF) working in very close contact with the OC of WoCo, specially about fundraising but also support them with ideas

FRES Barcelona (27.9.-5.10.14)   

Fundraising training how to tailor an offer how to give feedback

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Lisanne Meulendijks – VP Communication Hi IAAS World, Because I’ve been busy with many different things I’ve decided to, instead of write about what I’ve been doing past weeks, make a mind map of it.

https://coggle.it/diagram/543316b4171ea61b480196a8/6de4dcf16aa9cf79b8cdca83ad61c21a2154c75bbfe083c9e b4ebbed3b990cf2

I hope you’re able to read it and understand my work. If you’ve any questions about my work or me please always feel free to contact me any time at: vpcommunication@iaasworld.org.

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Steven Adams – VP Exchange Hello everyone, let me introduce myself as the new Vice-president of Exchange 2014 – 2015. Steven Adams is my name and I’m a master student in agriculture at the KU.Leuven, Belgium. This is also the place where I had the chance to discover IAAS. I would like to take this opportunity to thank IAAS Leuven for the chances they gave me and the support during my IAAS-career. I don’t want to take a lot of your time by introducing myself a bit more, because there are so many interesting things to read in this newsletter, but I’m always available for a good chat. So, if you want to know me better, contact me by facebook, linkedIn, whatsapp, email (see at the bottom of this article), etc. What have I done in the first weeks? During August, I took my time to learn more and get into all the details of IAAS of the last couple of years. Thanks to the previous VP of Exchange, Ara Asusti, and a very good handover, I was ready to start my term in the beginning of September. A very exhausting but very nice Strategy meeting was the beginning of the IAAS-year! Furthermore, I made the new Exproguide and other useful documents for all exco’s around the world. They will be divided to you very soon! Off course, thanks to my new established Exchange Quality Board and CC to 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! Last but not least, it’s not possible to blab already too much about this, but in the (near) future, some very nice Expro opportunities will occur! Be aware and watch the website. In the first halve of September, quite a lot of time was spend by creating the new layout for the Expro part at the new website! Believe me or not, but it will be completely different! Last but not least, I attended the “Committee on Agriculture” meeting of the FAO at the beginning of October. It was very interesting and I can recommend everyone to apply for this as well in the future. It is probably a once in a life time opportunity and you should take this. It’s a huge chance to learn more about the organisation and to get triggered by their projects. For more information about this event, please read the article in this newsletter! I you have any questions about expro, myself or whatever. Don’t hesitate to contact me! Thanks for reading this and hope to meet you at an IAAS event!

Lots of IAAS love, Steven, VP of Exchange e-mail: vpexchange@iaasworld.org

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Yahor Vetlou â&#x20AC;&#x201C; VP Finance Hello my dear IAASers all over the world, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Yahor Vetlou from Belarus, who takes care of financial stability of our association. At the beginning of the term we had beautiful Strategy meeting in our new office in Leuven. Meeting was productive with a lot of new ideas and motivations. We met few alumni and shared with them our ideas. If we will accomplish everything that we set at the Strategy meeting it will be really perfect term. Now I want to briefly present you in what was involved previous month: 1. EYF International Activity Grant Together with 58th World Congress team, was prepared all information that needed to apply for the grant, and two weeks ago we applied for 20 000 EUR for World Congress 2015. 2. Membership fee ABCD project. I have several ideas how to change our system this year, because now we use system that is quite old, I hope that I will present results at EDM to all of you. 3. Development Fund Active working with Niger organizing committee to help them host successful and great event from financial point of view. At this moment we have some difficults in communication, guys mostly use French, I hope in future we will cooperate with Charlotte to solve it. Current status: waiting from OC budget, and confirmation letters. 4. EDM As you already know that EDM will be not in Porto(Portugal), now our urgent task to find new committee who will be able to host European director meeting this winter. 5. Italian Ministry Grant Together with Organizing Committee and Teresa from Italy we applied for Italian Ministry Grant for this year 58 th World Congress. Cross fingers for positive reply. 6. ABCD Categories. At the beginning of the term I updated ABCD country categories. This year just Tajikistan change to category from A to B. 7. Financial support of the committees. During previous month I worked with few European committees and few African committees to help them find a funding for the administrative costs and event expenses. For some of them it already work and hope that it will help them in future as well.

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Samuel Navarette – President Dear IAASers, I’m very happy to say hello to you and introduce myself wherever you are in the world! I’m Samuel Navarrete president during this term and happy of being part of this our amazing association. I’m 21 years old and agronomy student in University Tecnológico de Monterrey, campus Querétaro in México, where I was born. For the begging I will start giving you an overview of the goals and objectives IAAS World has for you in this year. We had a great Strategy meeting in September and main points of discussions, meetings (externals, partners, alumni) and brainstorms were around this question: What can IAAS World offer to members? We found out great ideas and some of those are already happening, make sure of being part of this great opportunities. I will mention some of them in the following paragraph and I’m sure you will figure out of more reading EC Courier, Newsletter, Facebook, etc. Strategy meeting I followed strategy meeting from the distance and it was really nice to meet the team even this way! Having long meetings, waking up at 4 or 3am and planning the next year from the distance definitely worth it when such a great team and association is there. It have been long and satisfactory weeks, most of the time getting to know how IAAS World works and keeping contact and track of what is happening all over the world! You can read more in detail about what does Executive Committee team is working on so I will just mention main points that are in my plans for the upcoming weeks: Committee Certifications Past term a big step was done in this area and I will continue improving administrative control of country members. In my past experience as National Director, it was really necessary and helpful to have contact information of country members, this will be easier with new website and I will be happy to keep improving this process CIMMYT As you may know the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center is located in México and is one of the most important research centers in the world. CIMMYT organizes conferences during the year and has been growing a lot starting with new projects in an international level. I will be working to stablish cooperation with CIMMYT to offer IAAS members the possibility to attend conferences and include CIMMYT in Exchange Program. www.cimmyt.org/en Headquarters I’m planning to move to IAAS Headquarters in Leuven for next semester, working from the distance will never be the same than working in headquarter specially if two of EC members are studying there. Right now I’m in the process and excited of this possibility, it will be a big step for the work I can do inside IAAS and a life experience for sure.

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Great team Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy of being part of such a great team and you can be sure you elected for this term amazing people that are really in love with IAAS. All of us are full of motivation and each day we make a great effort to improve and strength IAAS World. Please feel free to contact me at president@iaasworld.org

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Call for Articles Did you organize an event in your Committee and you want to share it with IAAS World? Please send your article with pictures to vpcommunication@iaasworld.org before the 10th of December, 2014.

This IAAS Newsletter was brought to you by Lisanne Meulendijks, Rylee Mc Dermott & Vincent Verdugt. Leuven, 15th of October 2014