Events and conferences

Australian Soil Information Symposium

Past Events and Conferences

Sustainable Phosphorus Summit
5th World Congress of Conservation Agriculture
19th World Congress of Soil Science

Australian Soil Information Symposium

The Australian Soil Information Symposium will be held from 16-17 April 2012 at the Australian Technology Park, Sydney, New South Wales. The department is proud to be a primary sponsor of this event.

The symposium, organised by the National Committee on Soil and Terrain, CSIRO, and the Australian Society of Soil Science, will consider:

• The current and future needs for soil information including what the drivers will be form the user’s perspective
• How soil information has been used so far to address this need
• The gaps in our knowledge
• The opportunities provided by better soil information
• Directions for soil information for the future.

Users of soil information are invited to attend the symposium including farm managers, people working in catchment and regional resource management, and in the policies that support these uses. Invitations are also open to researchers, modellers, consultants and advisors - anyone working at farm, regional or national scales - that would like a better understanding of soil information and how it can be used.

For more information, including how to register to attend the symposium, visit the Australian Society of Soil Science website.

Past Events and Conferences

3rd Sustainable Phosphorus Summit

The third Sustainable Phosphorus Summit was held from 29 February to 2 March 2012. The department was pleased to be a silver sponsor of this event.

The summit was organized and hosted by the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology, Sydney, with support from other members of the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative. Over 100 delegates attended, including many international guests, from diverse fields and sectors, including farmers, policy makers, natural resource managers, scientists and researchers.

The summit addressed the issue of phosphorus scarcity, and sustainable strategies for ensuring resilient and healthy food systems. Issues that were covered at the summit included:

• sustainable food systems
• global phosphate rock production and reserves
• phosphorus use efficiency in mining, agriculture, food processing
• phosphorus recovery and reuse
• phosphorus pollution and waste
• general and integrated strategies for phosphorous.

For more information, see the summit website.

5th World Congress of Conservation Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, along with the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, was pleased to be a Premier Platinum sponsor of the 5th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, which was held from 26–29 September 2011 in Brisbane. DAFF, through their Caring for our Country program presented two seminars, one on Sustainable Farming Practices and another on Landcare and Community Engagement.

The Congress to attracted 500 scientists, students, farm managers, policy makers, conservationists and others interested in sustainability, conservation and farming systems.

Topics for discussion included global conservation agriculture principles on farms of all sizes and technology levels in the context of food security concerns, increasing food demand and climate change.

19th World Congress of Soil Science

The World Congress of Soil Science is the premier event for eminent soils scientists around the world to report on and discuss solutions for the sustainable management of soil. The 19th World Congress was held in August 2010 in Brisbane.

With the theme ‘Soil Solutions for a Changing World’, the Congress addressed the role of soil and its management in meeting the major challenges faced by developed and developing countries.

The Australian Government, represented by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, The Grains Research and Development Corporation, and The Sugar Research and Development Corporation, was a Patron sponsor for the 2010 Congress.

The Congress attracted over 1800 delegates including policy makers, scientists environmental managers and lawyers and representatives of the natural resource management and agribusiness communities and received widespread media coverage, with some 230 articles published locally, nationally and internationally.

The next World Congress of Soil Science will be held 8–13 June 2014 in Korea.

Papers and proceedings from the  2010 Congress can be found at the International Union of Soil Sciences website.