The 4th WASWAC World Conference was successfully held at New Delhi, India, during the period of November 5-9, 2019 with 263 participants from 13 countries. The theme of the conference is “Soil and Water Resources Management for Climate Smart Agriculture and Global Food and Livelihood Security”. This conference was jointly organized by WASWAC, ISCO AND SCSI, hosted by the Soil Conservation Society of India, New Delhi and co-sponsored by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), DST-SERB, NABARD, ISSSR, NBA, NRAA, CSIR and ISRO and supported by IUSS and ESSC.
This conference received a lot of greeting messages from both host country government and many international organizations, including the Hon’ble Vice-President of India, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Minister for Jal Shakti, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, India Department of Agricultural Research & Education and Indian Council of Agricultural Research, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics, International Rice Research Institute, International Water Management Institute, International Union of Soil Sciences, Soil and Water Conservation Society, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Watershed Management Society of Iran.
At the opening ceremony, President of Soil Conservation Society of India, Dr. Suraj Bhan as the host of the conference and President of WASWAC, Prof. Li Rui, gave the welcome speech. Then Chief Guest Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra introduced conferenced related publications.
Opening ceremony of the WASWAC World Conference IV
Welcome speech of President Li Rui in the opening ceremony
Introduction of related publications for this conference
The panel discussion topic is “Soil and Water Conservation under changing climate scenario: Issues and Challenges”. Prof. Li Rui from Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Prof. Miodrag D. Zlatic, from Belgrade University, Dr. Samir A El-Swaify from ISCO, Sh. V.W. Ambekar, ex-director of Agriculture, Dr. Jose L. Rubio from Universitat de Valencia, Dr. C.P. Reddy from MoRD, GoI, Dr. Suraj Bhan from SCSI, Prof. Mohammad H. Golabi from University of Guam, representatives from NABARD and NBA attended the panel discussion.
The panel discussion
The five days conference provided a fruitful discussion concerning the following topics: soil degradation assessment and remediation, water resource conservation and management, climate smart techniques for sustainable agriculture, land use planning and management for food and livelihood security, biodiversity conservation and strategic soil and water management, future strategies for resource conservation to mitigate climate change, next generation nutrient and water management in agriculture, socio economics issues in resources management for livelihood security, policy interventions in soil and water management for global food security, bio-industrial approaches to watershed for food and livelihood security, geospatial techniques and simulation modeling for soil and water management, and new paradigms in soil health and nutrient management.
a glance for the conference
Poster presentations
The conference itself also set up some awards for the presentations, such as best oral presentation, best poster and so on.
The awards issuing for the best presentation and poster participants
WASWAC set up an exhibition booth for introduction of the association and its official journal International Soil and Water Conservation Research. Many attendees at this conference showed great interests in joining the association and read about the journal.
Introduction for WASWAC and its Journal
Application for becoming members of WASWAC
Beside the five day academic communication, attendees also enjoyed an Indian cultural performance at the welcome ceremony. The traditional dancing performance added a lot of fun to the conference.
Indian cultural performance at the welcome ceremony
(Source: WASWAC)