CIRAD has just developed a tractor wheel system that can be used both in dry fields and in irrigated rice paddies. It also ensures significant fuel savings and preserves the environment.

As part of the QuaRES (Quality in Research and Higher Education) network, CIRAD and other public research organizations will be participating in the sixth Ecole qualité inter-organismes, from 15 to 17 September 2008, in La Grande-Motte (Hérault, France). The seminar is intended for anyone working in the research and higher education sectors who is interested in quality issues.

The University of Montpellier 2 (UM2) and Kasetsart University (KU) in Bangkok, in partnership with the Institut Pasteur and CIRAD, have launched a two-year binational Masters course in infectious, vector-borne and food-borne diseases: evolution, emergence, spread and control (called MIVA in France and "Bioveterinary Sciences" in Thailand). The course leads to a dual certificate: one French and one Thai. The last person to sign the relevant agreement was Gérard Matheron, CIRAD Director General, at a ceremony at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, on 26 May 2008.

Gérard Matheron, CIRAD Director General, Marion Guillou, INRA President and Director General, and Michel Laurent, IRD Director general, signed a new five-year general cooperation agreement in Paris on Monday 2 June, with Dr Papa Abdoulaye Seck, Director General of the Africa Rice Centre (WARDA).

The GEOSUD project (GEOInformation for SUstainable Development) is a skills centre in remote sensing and spatial information applied to sustainable development, open to the scientific community and management players.The project, which has links with several members of Agropolis International, aims to develop ways of using spatial information in fields such as agriculture, urban and rural territories, the environment, coastal zones, natural risks, and health.

A network meeting was organized by INRA and CIRAD on 3 June 2008, and was attended by partners from 50 countries. It set out to shed light on the issues and priorities for global agricultural research.

Following a call for projects launched by the ANR for the creation of a foresight workshop on "What plants will provide biomass in the future?", the project coordinated by INRA along with the IFP and CIRAD, "VégA: what plants and what sustainable production systems will provide biomass in the future?" was granted funding. The workshop, which is due to run for two years, within the framework of the ANR, will serve to establish a "state of the art" for direct use by public and private stakeholders, and will propose possible lines of research.

Following the 2002 and 2006 symposiums in Montreal, Canada, a third Fair Trade International Symposium (FTIS) will be held in Montpellier from May 14 to 16, 2008.  The theme for the symposium will be ?New Dimensions in Fair Trade: Implications and Challenges?.

Following the 2002 and 2006 symposiums in Montreal, Canada, a third Fair Trade International Symposium (FTIS) will be held in Montpellier from May 14 to 16, 2008.  The theme for the symposium will be ?New Dimensions in Fair Trade: Implications and Challenges?.

CIRAD will be hosting an international conference on cotton in Montpellier, from 13 to 17 May 2008. It is specifically devoted to an analysis of the rationales behind and changes in cotton policies in the main producing countries worldwide.