An international conference on banana and plantain in Africa is scheduled to take place at the Leisure Lodge Resort in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya from October 5th to the 9th, 2008

This Africa-based conference tagged Banana Conference 2008, will focus on banana and plantain across Africa: lessons learnt and the way forward. Because there is an urgent need to target basic and applied research that connects to existing and emerging markets, this unique conference will be the first pan-African meeting to link research to markets in an African context. Results from this conference will change the way in which bananas are currently produced and marketed by providing a strategy to link state of the art research to new markets to stimulate trade.

According to a statement posted on www.iita.org, the conference actively solicited and obtained input from all stakeholders - scientists, farmers, trade specialists, policy makers and the private sector - and serves as a unique forum to bring these together. Key priorities are:

To develop a strategy for the next decade to exploit banana research for African economic growth, strengthen research partnerships to overcome production bottlenecks, focus research on meeting the challenges of evolving production trends, emerging markets and trade networks.

This conference is urgently needed as banana and plantain are key staple crops in rural households in Africa, which are being increasingly targeted for income generation through improved linkages with the private sector. The conference is particularly opportune in the face of rising global food prices, and therefore intends to foster research and trade experiences from other commodities. The result of this meeting will be to fully realize the potential of this crucial crop for poverty alleviation and wealth generation.

The key product of the conference will be a 10-year, knowledge-based research-for-development strategy for banana in Africa, that will mobilize the banana sector and lift people out of poverty, by better linking researchers with farmers and other stakeholders, farmers with markets, and researchers and farmers with private and public sector actors, towards a change in banana production from donor aid-supported to a system sustained by an invigorated private sector that actively seeks technological interventions. We hope that millions of African farmers will benefit from the results generated due to this conference.

This conference is being organized by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in primary partnership with Bioversity International, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI, Kenya).

Additional partners and sponsors continue to approach the conference, but currently include the Belgium Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGDC, Belgium), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Brussels Airlines, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), DuRoi (South Africa), Goingtomeet, the International Livestock Research Organization (ILRI), the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), Kenya Airways, the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO, Uganda), the Presidential Initiative for Banana Industrial Development (PIBID, Uganda), the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and Wrenmedia.

The conference's format was carefully drafted to maximize impact and will focus on three major themes: markets and trade, production, and innovation systems, each represented on a specific day, consisting of: a plenary session that will feature keynote and invited speakers, providing strategic, stimulating and visionary overarching talks. The plenary session will feature the highest quality of speakers that will capture future trends and how to bridge the gap between researchers and the commercial sector; concurrent breakout sessions that will focus on discussions of more scientific and specific issues and will feature high-quality presentations, papers, posters and governmental / commercial / organization / farmer group booths; special discussion forums during evening sessions that will promote dialogue in an interactive environment for specific topics.

The summation of the conference will be to develop a strategy. Invited speakers will provide an overview supported by Moderators and Conveners from each of the themes. Facilitators will be employed to help the organizing committee to compile the wealth of information generated into a succinct strategy document. This strategy document will be crucial to guide future research efforts towards supporting markets and trade for banana in Africa for the next 10 years.

Expected attendance is likely to be in the area of 450 persons but may be higher, based on registrations, submitted abstracts, enquiries and indications of interests, and after inclusion of government representatives, keynote and invited speakers.

To date, registered participants range from nearly 60 countries comprising scientists, commercial multinationals, entrepreneurs, policy makers, donors, input suppliers, journalists and journalist organizations, farmers, governmental organizations, international and regional bodies, farmer associations, export market representatives, small enterprises and non-governmental organizations. A substantial media contingent will attend, with one organization using the event as a training platform for African journalists. It has been encouraging that representatives from several African national programs act as organisers and recognise the crucial importance of their participation. Also, based on support from CRS, CTA, DGDC, FARA, the Gates Foundation and PIBID, more than 100 scientists, farmer groups and entrepreneurs from developing countries are being sponsored to attend this event.

Attendance will comprise delegates from across the spectrum of agricultural stakeholders in both Africa and outside, mainly from banana-based stakeholders, but also representing other commodities from which lessons can be learnt for the banana industry. A number of high-profile speakers have been identified, all attending of their own volition.

Interest has been such that immediately prior, during and after the conference, other symposia will be held at the same venue - for added value.

This conference is organized by a consortium: led by IITA, in collaboration with Bioversity International, ISHS, FARA and KARI.

An Organizing Committee is composed of members of IITA, Bioversity and KARI, in addition to ISAAA and NARO. Activities of the Organizing Committee include logistical, financial and strategic management of the conference. Overall management is directed and administered by the conference Chair and vice-Chair, supported by a professional event managing company.

The three daily themes will each be organized by a separate Scientific Committee comprised of international leaders in their respective fields.

Logistical management in the host country (Kenya) is effected by the Local Organizing Committee, chaired by KARI and comprised of members from KARI, IITA and ISAAA.

Information generated by the conference will be disseminated to participants and to a wider audience beyond using three publications:

a book of abstracts will feature all scientific contributions during the conference including summaries from posters; a special issue of Acta Horticulturae will contain all peer-reviewed contributed papers (from keynote and invited speakers and from speakers during the breakout sessions); a Scripta Horticul-turae 10-year strategy document, harnessing outputs from plenary and specific sessions, to provide a foundation for directing African banana research for the next decade.