AARINENA’s Fifteenth General Conference – Jordan, 08 November 2022

The Fifteenth General Conference of the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East & North Africa (AARINENA), Amman Movenpick Hotel, 08 November 2022 Under the patronage of Prof. Dr. Sari Hamdan, President of Al-Ahliyya Amman University, the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA), represented by Prof. Dr. Adil Abdel Rahim, President of the AARINENA, and Prof. Dr. Rida Shibli, Executive Secretary of the AARINENA, inaugurated the Fifteenth General Conference of the AARINENA , in the Movenpick Hotel Amman, on November 08, 2022, entitled ““A paradigm Shift in agricultural Research and Innovation for Development Fostering Collective Actions on Forgotten Foods and Innovation Platforms”” and in the presence of many agricultural research directors from different countries in the Near East and North Africa and many experts at Arab region. Where Dr. Atef Swailem from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) gave a lecture entitled “Strengthening National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems”. After that, the scientific session entitled Forgotten foods and the neglected and untapped species began, which was chaired by Dr. Adel Abdel Rahim. The first symposium was presented by Dr. Hildegard Lingnau of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) entitled “Developing a Joint Design Process for Implementation of the Global Manifesto for Forgotten Foods to Keep Farmers at the Centre”. Then the second symposium, which was presented by Dr. Khaled Abu Laila, a researcher at the National Center for Agricultural Research, a lecture entitled “The situation and future contribution of the National University in achieving food security for the region.” Then the second session, entitled “Smart Agriculture and Climate Change”, began. Which was chaired by Dr. Mahmoud Dwyri The first symposium, presented by Dr. Theib Oweis, former advisor at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), included a lecture entitled “Towards Climate-Smart Agriculture in the Water Scarcity Region in the Near East and North Africa”. The second symposium was presented by Dr. Fonda on behalf of Dr. Bulent Sonmez from Turkey, with a lecture entitled “Digital Technologies in Agriculture and Agriculture 4.0 in the Agri-Food Chain”. Finally, the third session was entitled “Date Palms in the Near East and North Africa” It was chaired by Dr. Reda Shibli The first symposium, which was presented by Eng. Nabil Arar on behalf of Eng. Anwar Haddad, President of the Jordanian Dates Association, included a lecture entitled “The Most Important Features of the Jordanian Experience in the Production and Marketing of Jordanian Dates”. The second symposium, which was presented by Dr. Muhammad Malkawi from the University of Science and Technology and a specialist in computer information, was a lecture entitled “The Date Palm Innovation Platform”. There were many valuable scientific discussions for each session.