Centre for Plant & Water Science - Central Queensland University

Centre for Plant & Water Science 2008 Annual Report
INTEGRATING VEGETABLE PRODUCTION INTO AGROFORESTRY
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
SUMMARY
Acting as a resource person for research activities on simple drip irrigation and
agroforestry with vegetables in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, the PI attended a
global SANREM review meeting in Los Baños, the Philippines and assisted with editing of
publications
In its penultimate year, the SE Asian Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource
Management Collaborative Support Research Program (SANREM CRSP) hosted the 2008
Global Annual Meeting May 26-29. A gender workshop followed. The theme of the annual
meeting focused on the program’s five Long-term Research Award projects. As defined by
the World Food Program, sustainable agriculture reminds us “to allow for future generations,
requires that we preserve our remaining resources, and … heal or rehabilitate resources that
have been treated carelessly in the past. To do these things systematically is to follow a path
of environmentally sustainable development.” The long–term research activities within
SANREM direct their efforts toward livelihood and food security issues in developing
countries. Of the long term research projects, four are addressing sustainable productions
systems. In the SE Asia project, a vegetable-agroforestry approach has underpinned the
search for sustainability, with all activities revolving around this theme. In essence,
potentially innovative technology are researched and considered from environmental and
socioeconomic perspectives. Together with marketing, gender, and policy studies and
underpinning institutional innovations, the successful technologies are then scaled up to
other stakeholders. All of the technologies are designed to reduce risks associated with
production systems involving cash crops and staples. These activities were discussed in the
light of food security, climate change, soil and land degradation and remediation, water use
efficiency, and gender equity. The 2009 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, Dr
Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University was present and entered wholeheartedly into the
discussions.
PROJECT STAFF Principal Investigators: Prof David Midmore
Co-supervisors:
FUNDING SANREM
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
INCOME $0
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