Feedback from conference participants -Part 3

Wed, 3 Oct 2007
Dear all
It was indeed a pleasant experience I had with you all in Bern. I hope the ideas we shared did not remain in the Physics hall but will be carried on to farmers on the ground. I particularly liked one comment that "People do not eat publications" and i hope our ideas will transend political statements and become reality. Scientists are well known for sincerity (real scientists) unlike politicians who mostly survive on empty promises and a lot of verbal romance. I realised that our European and American counterparts have the cutting edge technology but Africa and other continents have an abundance of resources. I believe if we share the technologies and the natural resources, this will work for a win win situation for all of us especially when it comes to food security. Hope to meet you in other conferences. For those who will be traveling to Zimbabwe now or for the 2010 world cup you can just email me and
you will get the hospitality you have never met anywhere. Regards.
Zikhali Meluleki, National University of Science, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Wed, 3 Oct 2007
Dear Colleagues,
Good day. It was a remarkable time in Bern, knowing all of you and the significant work that you are doing back home. Let us be in contact for more collaborations. I would like to inform you about the workshop to be held in Sudan in December. For those interested to participate, please, respond to the email mentioned in the flier. molecularcourse@gmail.com. It will be nice to meet you in Khartoum. Thanks to all of you, Regards,
Nada Babiker Hamza, Commission for Biotechnology Research, Khartoum, Sudan.

Wed, 3 Oct 2007
Dear All,
It was my pleasure to attend the highly successful conference on orphan crops in Bern. It was quite apparent that a lot of progress is being made in trying to overcome some of the constraints to increased production and utilization of orphaned crops. The conference was very informative. I wish you well in all your work, and hope that we can continue discussing on different issues as suggested by Dr Kiambi. Topics could be suggested and participants could discuss each in turn. However, the discussions would need to be moderated by someone, to keep them focused, and to facilitate switch-over to new issues, etc. Friendly Regards,
Charles Mutengwa, University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Wed, 3 Oct 2007
Dear participants,
Some of you probably remember that during my talk on role of the media in research, I pointed out that one of the problems with scientists/researchers is that they do not interact easily with the media, thus keeping important research findings unknown. And when contacted for info, some scientists point to their busy schedule and do not keep appointments. Well, hardly had a week elapsed after the Bern conference when a senior scientist with our country’s national research institute told me he could not give me some info at that particular moment as he was dashing to a trade fair and could we please meet there (at the fair) in a couple of minutes? So I abandoned whatever I was doing and drove 15 km to the trade fair but my friend neither showed up nor called to offer apologies. I consoled myself that at least he had not attended the orphan crops conference, so he was just doing what many scientists do – avoid the media. Best regards.
Francis Makari, Agricultural Review magazine, Nairobi, Kenya.

Wed, 3 Oct 2007
Good Francis from you keeping us informed about this very interesting news. We really are creating a network on orphan crops, by chance I am following your principles many many years ago. in my electronic journal www.geneconserve.pro.br there is a link entitled ‘Reportagens em Português’, it links reports in Brazilian press on my program, see and tell me how you find it, note there is a video of our famous TV globo (45 millions audience) on the rich in protein hybrid, and high carotenoid indigenous cultivars, best,
Nagib Nassar, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil.

Wed, 3 Oct 2007
Dear Zerihun,
By reading the e-mails, I seemed to understand that many wish to continue the discussions in some kind of e-conference. Do you know internet forums, like the ones on fan sites where people can debate? It is a very nice concept, for the discussions can be organized and basically everyone who wishes to post comments, questions, answers etc. This could be very useful for the "orphan crop community", for this way, there is no chaotic e-mail correspondence, and only the interested people need to read/answer/participate in the discussion. Also, this way, there is usually no or only little need for moderation of the discussion (I think you may appreciate that, since everybody now looks to you:-) ) Maybe it would be possible to start such a forum on your website...
Bernadette Guenot, Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland.

Wed, 3 Oct 2007
Dear all
Please accept my greetings and best wishes. I wish to share my great satisfaction and pleasure to have met you all during the Bern conference, I wish to give special thanks and appreciation to Zerihun and Cris and members of the team for organising excellent conference and giving this area a direction which is urgently needed. Thanks to you all for enriching the conference deliberations and discussions as for me it was a memorable experience and will like this area to move forward with speed. Looking forward to interacting and contributing in the next steps and future work on these important plants and crops. We have little time and big challenge and need positive steps like keeping this network alive and sharing our views on priority steps for each identified area of work on underexploited-under researched crops and plant species.
With kind regards.
Promila P.Kapoor-Vijay, Zurich University, Switzerland.

Dear all.

I believe there is a gulf between scientits
and journalists which needs to be bridged
for the good of all parties.

I remember i once had an experience with
my sorghum field at one institution where
i worked.

Someone responsible for PR saw my crops
and decided to put the institution "on the
map" He phoned a local paper and gave
a report which was far removed from
what was happening on the ground.

I just saw a screeming headline which
said ".... succeeds in drip irrigation" The
next moment my phone was cloged with
calls from farmers who wanted to know
more about drip irrigation when my work
had nothing to do with drip irrigation. I
could not give the farmers a good answer a
as it was going to embarass my
institution

My boss tried to give the correct version
of the story. Again a screeming headline
was in the local paper but this time it
was saying "... makes breakthroughs in
sorghum" The quotations were not bad
but the picture was that of pear millet and
below that picture it was written
".... (name of institution) sorghum field."

Once again i had to convince my
colegues in other institutions who were
asking me if our institution knew what
sorghum was!

I suggest that journalists do short courses
so that they understand what they report
on because thay can make enabling noise
if its properly done otherwise they make
disabling noise.

Good day to all

Zikhali M.