AGRICOM Conference on Challenges in Hydroponic and Irrigational Training Successfully Concluded

ESSEN, Germany - Sept. 26, 2013 - PRLog -- Viterbo, September 2013 – The AGRICOM Final Conference came to a successful conclusion on the premises of the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, Italy on September 20th. Highlights of the conference include keynotes by Cecilia Stanghellini from the innovative Wageningen University Research Centre, Dimitrios Savvas of the Agricultural University of Athens, and Dietmar Schwarz and Henrike Perner from the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops. Their contributions concerning water management and quality controls in the agricultural and horticultural sector were complemented by a variety of ground-breaking papers on recent advances in irrigation and hydroponics techniques, all of which will be available online through downloadable proceedings and a recorded video stream (subject to permission of the author and organisation).

The afternoon session of the conference was dedicated to presentations regarding the AGRICOM Project’s main results in competence modelling in the agricultural sector. Most importantly, the Agricultural Competence Model (ACM) was presented. Representatives of AGRICOM Project member organisations also demonstrated their quality management system in a practical sense, as well as explained the theoretical background of its transfer from the water sector.

The conference was complemented by a technical tour to the nearby Albani & Ruggieri Company in Civitavecchia (www.albani.it) on September 20th, where participants were able to see some of the most recent irrigation and hydroponics techniques in their actual implementation. The greenhouses there provided an example of horticultural techniques, irrigation demands and working skills, supporting its theoretical explanation during the conference on the previous day.

To learn more about the AGRICOM Project or the ACM, please visit the project website at www.agriculture-competence.eu. Recordings of the conference, as well as downloadable proceedings, will be also made available there. Direct enquiries regarding the conference can be sent to the AGRICOM Conference Team at the University of Duisburg‐Essen (UDE), Germany, via email to: agricom.conference (at) icb.uni-due.de (mailto:Cornelia.Helmstedt@icb.uni-due.de). The AGRICOM Conference was sponsored by Italian Horticultural Society (SOI) (www.soihs.it) and the University of Tuscia (UNITUS).

Acknowledgements:

In particular the organisers would like to thank our project partners from the DAFNE Department, namely Dr. Eva Švecová and Dr. Guiseppe Colla, and the AGRICOM Consortium for their support.