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The Global Consortium on Higher Education and Research
for Agriculture (GCHERA), now 400 members strong, was organized
"To foster global cooperation for the improvement of higher
education and research for agriculture as a prerequisite to solving
the food security and environmental problems confronting our world."
Indeed the growing challenge of feeding the world's population while
simultaneously reducing environmental pollution suggests the need
to actively seek effective solutions on a worldwide scale. Two critical
contributions toward solving the aforementioned problem are training
of highly-qualified professionals and research to solve key problems.
The significance of food security and environmental preservation
is growing with each new achievement in biological, chemical, or
social science. Up-to-date technologies such as biotechnology, improved
storage, intercontinental shipping, precision agriculture, and agro-ecological
approaches to production lend themselves to further development
through global cooperation in education and research. Training our
future work force in these areas is a challenge for the 21st Century,
which can only be solved through global cooperation.
Accordingly, GCHERA offers an opportunity and platform of bringing
the world agricultural higher education and research community together
to meet global challenges. The 1st GCHERA conference was held in
1999 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The second conference of the
consortium took place July 12-14, 2001, in San Francisco around
the theme "Higher Education and Research for Agriculture and
Food Systems in the 21st Century." The 3rd and 4th conference
were held in Kiev Ukraine, and Hangzhou China respectively, while
the 5th GCHERA conference was held in San Jose, Costa Rica, with
theme of “Innovation and Leadership for Relevant Change in
Agriculture”.
The 6th Global Consortium of Higher Education and
Research for Agriculture (GCHERA) 2009 Conference will be held in
Nairobi, Kenya in the African continent. The theme will be "Food,
Health and Energy: Challenges for Sustainable Agriculture”
The International Conference in Kenya (6th GCHERA
Conference) will avail a forum for international exchange of modern
technologies, scientific views and cultural trends in the training
of undergraduate and post-graduate students, as well as part of
one global family.
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