The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska has published the proceedings from its 2016 Water for Food Global Conference, held in association with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on April 24-26 at Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The report summarizes three days of presentations and discussions surrounding the major aspects of the conference theme, "Catalytic Collaborations: Building Public-Private Partnerships for Water and Food Security."
More than 360 individuals from throughout the U.S. and 15 countries attended the institute’ s seventh signature event, including practitioners, scholars, farmers and thought leaders in the water and food sectors.
The 2016 Water for Food Global Conference sessions focused on leveraging public-private partnerships to address our world’s pressing water and food security challenges, highlighting successful models of PPPs around the world, as well as possible challenges and pitfalls.
Additionally, this year’s conference featured the premiere of the documentary film “Thirsty Land” and a workshop on the “Opportunities and Challenges of Expanding Smallholder Irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa,” co-convened by the Gates Foundation, KickStart International and WFI; in partnership with CGIAR Research Program in Water, Land and Ecosystems.
Conference topics covered in the report include, among others:
- Irrigation research and technology for smallholder farmers, including remote sensing and apps that help farmers target water usage to maximize yields
- Agricultural solutions in both crop development and management; and livestock
- Information technology to improve water and agricultural productivity
- Food processing advancements to reduce water use in the food and beverage sector
- Public health and its important role in water and food security
- The role of social entrepreneurship projects as PPPs
The report is available online.
Videos of all the conference sessions are archived on WFI’s YouTube channel.
To request a hard copy of the report, contact Dana Ludvik at dludvik@nebraska.edu or 402.472.9510.
For more information on the conference, visit http://waterforfood.nebraska.edu/wff2016.
More details at: http://waterforfood.nebraska.edu/blog/2016/11/18/water-for-food-global-institute-releases-2016-conference-proceedings/