Registration is open for the 2017 Water for Food Global Conference organized by the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska. The April 10-12 conference at Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln will examine the work being done to ensure water for food security from local to global scales.

A discount of $100 is available to those who register on or before March 10. Conference details, including how to register, are available at Water for Food at waterforfood.nebraska.edu/2017wfc.

The three-day event will bring together experts from around the world to explore "Water for Food Security: From Local Lessons to Global Impacts," a theme inspired by the notion that global breakthroughs come from local action.

Speakers from academia, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and private industry will share best practices and advances in science, technology and policy that are helping to achieve greater food security with less pressure on scarce water resources. The conference includes collaborative sessions developed with key partners of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, including the International Water Management Institute, USDA, International Food Policy Institute and The World Bank, among others.

In addition to the plenary sessions, concurrent sessions and technical seminars and workshops, special events will facilitate networking among participants, including two receptions featuring international fare and live entertainment, a student poster competition, photography competition and exhibit, and a Nebraska barbeque banquet in the 100-year-old Creekside Barn at Roca Berry Farm.

Topics will include:
• expanding access to irrigation for small-holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa
• developing market-based approaches to drought management
• enhancing high-productivity irrigated agriculture, highlighting challenges and opportunities from the Great Plains to sub-Saharan Africa
• improving water management and governance for food security in great river basins of the world
• transforming water policy to develop sustainable and equitable water management practices in local regions around the world
• offering a View from the Field — how farmers from different parts of the world are using technology and best practices to increase yields
• engaging students, stakeholders and future leaders through science literacy and citizen science to examine the relationships between water, food and energy, as well as agriculture and public health

Roster of speakers
Featured speakers will include:
• A.G. Kawamura, former California secretary of agriculture, a third-generation fruit and vegetable grower from Orange County, and co-chairman of Solutions from the Land, an organization developing a roadmap for 21^st-century agricultural systems
• Ann Bartuska, deputy undersecretary for USDA's Research, Education and Economics
• Marlos De Souza, secretary at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Water Platform Land and Water Division
• Chandra Madramootoo, a James McGill professor at the Bioresource Engineering Department at McGill University and past president of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage
• Sithembile Ndema Mwamakamba, climate-smart agriculture program manager at the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network
• Steven Schonberger, practice manager for the Middle East and North Africa region, and global lead for water in agriculture, water global practice at the World Bank

Registration
Early registration runs through March 10 and costs $450. Regular registration from March 11 to April 1 will cost $550. Special registration discounts are available to academic faculty, staff and students.

The 2017 Water for Food Global Conference is a North American Regional Event for the Eighth World Water Forum, the world's largest water-related forum organized by the World Water Council.

Stay up to date with the latest information on the conference by visiting http://waterforfood.nebraska.edu/2017wfc.

Source: Daugherty Water for Food Institute