Second Announcement

Introduction
In December 26, 2004, the tsunami devastated the lives of people on Indian Ocean coastlines. The agricultural sector, the main income of the population in many regions, was extremely damaged. In the region of Aceh, the tsunami inundated more than 150.000 ha of arable land with seawater. Crops and trees were destroyed by the wave or because of salinity stress. The agricultural faculty of the Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh was severely damaged and lost approximately 80% of its research and teaching staff. A lot of effort has been put into the recovery of education, research and the development of sustainable land use systems.  

Objectives
The symposium aimed to share experiences in the development of human resources and research on tsunami affected areas particularly in Aceh. The outcome of two EU projects and of other research and rehabilitation programmes were presented. The topics of the two EU projects were “The Re-establishment of Human Resources, Curricula, Systems and Institutions at the Agricultural Faculty of the Syiah Kuala University in Aceh” (ACULTURE) and "Trees, Resilience and Livelihood Recovery in the Tsunami-affected Coastal Zone of Aceh and North Sumatra" (Aceh ReGrin). Additionally, a platform for national and international scientists, students, local farmers and NGOs was provided in order to establish or strengthen cooperation in different fields of research and education. The Symposium covered aspects such as rehabilitation in post-tsunami areas, farm-based research in the Aceh region, local research on agronomic principles, and women activities in agricultural rehabilitation post tsunami.  About 200 people participated in the symposium.

Oral and poster presentations were on the following topics:

Session 1: Rehabilitation in post-tsunami areas

Session 2: Education and extension and the role of universities and international research collaboration in the development process

Session 3: Farm-based research in the Aceh region: Annual crop systems and livestock

Session 4: Farm-based research in the Aceh region: Tree crops

Session 5: Research on agronomic principles: Soil, water, and crop plants

Session 6: Research on agronomic principles: Land use and spatial planning

Session 7: Project summaries and prospects for further cooperation

Session 8: Women activities in agricultural rehabilitation post tsunami

Field trip to model farms

Excursion to agricultural field stations and projects in the Aceh region were provided on the 7th -9th of November.

Co-organizers

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)

Keynote speakers

•  Agus Satorno, Head of Bureau of Planning and International Cooperation - Ministry of National Education, Indonesia
•  Dr. A. Anhar, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Aceh
•  Prof. H.M.H. Bintoro, Agriculture Faculty of IPB, Bogor
•  Prof. Dr. G. Cadisch, Hohenheim University
•  Prof. Dr. H. Chandrasekharan, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
•  Dr G. Keerthisinghe, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
•  Dr. M. van Noordwijk, ICRAF, Bogor 
•  Dr. A. Rachman, Director of ISRI; Indonesia
•  Prof. Dr. Yunita Triwardani Winarto, University of Indonesia, Jakarta
•  Dr. Yusya Abubakar, NAD-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, Aceh
  

Managing board of the symposium

• Prof. T. Fadrial Karmil (Syiah Kuala University)
• Prof. Arifudin Bidin (Tadulako University)
• Prof. Walter Wenzel (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Science)
• Prof. Torsten Müller (Hohenheim University)
• Prof. Eckhard George (Humboldt University Berlin)
• Dr. Laxman Joshi (ICRAF SEA)
  

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