For those of you working in agrometeorology, you might be interested in the
following announcement.

GH

>X-Incognito-SN: 668
>Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 05:57:35 +0100
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: TTMIAN-APMPLO/02/42: INSAM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Cc: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
>X-Incognito-Version: 5.0.1.93
>
>January 2002
>
>Dear colleagues,
>
>         whether we are working in operational Agrometeorology, in data
> collection, management and application in Agrometeorology, in
> Agrometeorological sciences or education/training and extension, or
> whether we are in charge of policies and decision making in any of these
> fields of Agrometeorology, our professional skills owe a lot to contacts
> with colleagues and with the results of their work.
>
>         Modern means of communication make it possible to link up easily
> but we have to know to whom to go for certain results, expertise,
> information. Recently, there has been an increase in local activities in
> Agrometeorology by National Societies or Committees, in part due to long
> standing efforts by the Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM) of
> the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and numerous local efforts by
> individuals.
>
>         New needs for Agrometeorology have surfaced in the wake of
> impacts of increasing climate variability, climate change and related
> natural disasters, due to more severe weather extremes. However,
> discussions and oral contacts between some agrometeorologists involved in
> the above mentioned ongoing and more recent activities have brought up a
> list of other urgent needs of which many items will be shared by many of
> you. We have observed that:
>
>- Agricultural Meteorology should regain lost ground with respect to other
>environmental sciences and other subjects in Meteorology/ Climatology and
>in agricultural sciences;
>
>- Agricultural Meteorology should again be increasingly taught in higher
>education in the developed as well as the developing world;
>
>- Agricultural Meteorology should be strengthened in National
>Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) during the coming decades;
>
>- most agrometeorologists outside NMHSs have little or no place of their
>own to go to, some National Agrometeorological Committees apart, when they
>want to promote the field and the application of Agrometeorology or when
>they need professionals for consultation, because WMO/CAgM covers perhaps
>only 10% of agrometeorologists through its members and their immediate
>contacts;
>
>- for the above reason more of the many agricultural meteorologists that
>work outside the NMHSs, at Universities, in Research Institutes, in
>Extension and Advisory Services and as consultants, should get the
>opportunity to reach each other internationally;
>
>- the necessary developments can only be sufficiently supported from
>within the field of Agrometeorology if we do organize ourselves on a
>larger scale than is possible through CAgM, without losing close contacts
>with CAgM/WMO.
>
>
>         Based on the above we have now established the INternational
> Society for Agricultural Meteorology, INSAM, as a meeting point for all
> agrometeorologists and to promote strongly the field of Agrometeorology.
> Perhaps that INSAM could also play a role in supporting attempts to
> establish Agrometeorological Societies/ Committees in the poorest
> countries, where this is most difficult. We propose with this letter to
> take the following steps to get INSAM on its feet:
>
>(i)     To start any initiative of a global nature such as INSAM and to
>ensure that it stays viable, it is necessary to mobilize some modest
>financial resources. To start with, we are in the process of finding at
>least 100 founding members, which could be individuals or for the poorer
>countries National Societies/Committees or even Unions of Agrometeorology
>students who would be willing to donate at least 70 Euro so that we can
>raise a corpus of at least Euro 6,000,= (about 10% goes to bank fees) to
>take all the initial steps to start the Society (this is a bit more than
>$5.000,=).
>
>(ii)    I would be most grateful if Presidents/Secretaries of
>Agrometeorological Societies or Committees could please explore in their
>region how many agrometeorologists would like to become founding members
>of INSAM. We can also approach private companies to become Corporate
>Founding Members by donating at least 500 Euro. If you could contact
>private companies in your respective regions who may be willing to support
>this initiative or when you have suggestions whom to approach, please let
>us know.
>
>(iii)   For the above purposes we are asking to forward this letter to as
>many colleagues in agrometeorology that you think may be interested to
>become a "founding member" by sending 70 Euro (or 500 Euro for corporate
>founding members) to the following account:
>
>Acc. Nr. 62.16.77.582
>with ABN AMRO Bank Wageningen, Netherlands
>in the name of Prof. C.J. Stigter, President of INSAM
>Department of Environmental Sciences
>Duivendaal 2
>6701 AP Wageningen, Netherlands
>
>(iv) After this founding phase we would like to invite any
>agrometeorologist around the world to become a member of INSAM by
>just downloading a registration form from the INSAM Web site and such
>enrollment will initially be free. Prof. Maracchi and Dr. Federica Rossi,
>Director of the Institute of Biometeorlogy in Bologne, Italy, have agreed
>to help launch such a Web site. We already have obtained a registration of
>the domain http://www.agrometeorology.org. Our plans are to get the Web
>page started soon. We welcome you to get involved in the discussions on
>designing the Web page.
>
>
>         Once established we would very much like to identify soonest in
> what ways we could serve agrometeorologists and agricultural producers
> best. A Web site that may function as a "contact and exchange" place, a
> bit in the way the still limited standing e-mail "conference" established
> by FAO with support from WMO works, would be one possibility.
>
>         Exchange of "pre-publication information" on new results and
> insights in the many fields of Agrometeorology, discussions on how to get
> the enormous amount of existing Agrometeorological knowledge and research
> results more operational in Agrometeorological Services to agricultural
> production, news on existing or planned data support systems,
> education/training/extension initiatives and existing policy support for
> funding of any Agrometeorological activities, it could all be brought up
> and made instrumental in the context of INSAM.
>
>         One of our first jobs after firm establishment is to find out
> more precisely where agrometeorologists feel that the priorities are. Of
> course CAgM/WMO has done a lot of work in these directions and INSAM can
> be used to jointly expand this. The President of CAgM has encouraged the
> initiative and is fully behind this complementary organizing of
> agrometeorologists.
>
>         Once we get about 1,000 members (which is our second target after
> the founding phase) enrolled in INSAM through the Web page, we can for
> example also discuss the sense of launching an electronic Journal of
> Applied Agrometeorology on the Web.
>
>         Above are just a few ideas. We welcome you and other interested
> agrometeorlogists to get involved in this dialogue and help us fully
> launch INSAM and take it forward. The initial years for any new
> initiative are always difficult and we hope that with the help and
> guidance of friends and colleagues like yourself, we can get INSAM started.
>
>The science of Agrometeorology has much to contribute to sustainable
>agriculture and conservation of the environment. Let us all unite to make
>our tasks easier by sharing our knowledge, our operational information,
>our successes and failures in Agrometeorology.
>
>
>With best wishes for the New Year and with kindest regards,
>
>Prof. Kees Stigter, Founding President of INSAM and Prof. Giampiero
>Maracchi, Founding Vice-President of INSAM
>
>
>We can be reached at <[log in to unmask]> or
><[log in to unmask]>  and
>
><[log in to unmask]>

=====================================================================
Gerrit Hoogenboom
Professor
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
The University of Georgia
165 Gordon Futral Court
Griffin, Georgia 30223-1797, USA

Phone: 770-229-3438
Fax:     770-228-7218
mailto:[log in to unmask]
www.georgiaweather.net
www.gerrithoogenboom.com
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