On the 15 of July 2012 Stefan Schmitt , James Mumford and myself Ryan O'Flaherty attended the 55th international association of students of agricultural and related science more commonly known as E ASS or to us I ASSWorld Congress and AGM . IAAS was Founded in 1957 in Tunis by 8 countries, the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences is at the moment one of the world's biggest student organizations and one of the leading agricultural student associations. IAAS gathers students studying, majoring or researching in agriculture and related areas like environmental sciences, forestry, food sciences, landscape architecture etc.Its committees are now spread in universities in over 40 countries worldwide.

IAAS is a place where agricultural students from all over the world meet each other, experience new mentalities and cultures, travel and see new places and learn about all aspects of agriculture together with their future colleagues.

The aims of IAAS are to promote the exchange of knowledge, information and ideas among students, and to improve the mutual understanding between countries and cultures.

To do this, we organise activities like seminars, working camps, international meetings, exchange weeks, an international exchange program, small-scale development projects etc.

Led by a committee of students of the B.AgricSci program, AUASA aims to increase social interaction among the three year groups and facilitate the formation of networks of our members with industry contacts. In doing so, we hope to equip them with first-hand experience, knowledge of industry and potential career opportunities that cannot be provided from our education at university alone. The functioning of our Association is important to overcome this

The world congress was participated by students from every continent for the first time in the GROUPS history. Approximately 25 countries participated in event from Guatemala, Portugal, Ukraine, Russia Belgium Indonesia and United States.

And what better way to get to know all of these new people than catch up for a chin wag and to chew the fat at the local pub in De Pinte, Belgium. We soon figured out that people from other countries don't particularly like to chew fat and their chins do not literally wag , this needless to say was followed by an in-depth explanations of Australian slang.

We visited many research institutes, Universities, dairy farms, food processers , food packagers and co operatives markets.

The PRODUCTION OF TOMATOES is a very important crop for the agricultural sector in Belgium, but what was most interesting with this 9 ha setup was there use of onsite power plant, that not only powered and heated the greenhouse throughout the year but also allowed the company to input energy into the grid, this is particularly important for local residents who no longer need to rely on central supply of electricity

AT a German university research campus outside of Bonn we were introduced to many things that they were currently researching and in particularly there plant breeding programs were of particular interest. Breeding for biofuel crops and new varieties of barley and wheat were inspected by not only infrared sensing from tractors but were also inspected using a BLIMP and portable tower allowing the researcher to gather information from a height. Needless to say Tony has looked into buying himself a Blimp.

The picture on this slide is of a German researcher on your left talking to a Ukrainian and Beninian student about the new glass house recently built that will allow them to do climate simulations and modelling on Rice paddys.

Many of the problems experienced by German farmers are also experienced by Australian and this being seen increasingly with summer rain during harvest, summer cropping and heavy dews the need to dry grain upon harvesting it. The use of energy hungry grain dryers may not be applicable in the future as we reach peak fossil fuel.Therefore research into Solar grain drying silos is underway this is potential idea for wet areas at harvest or for areas in Australia however modification of the idea may be necessary as our volumes may be larger and rate of harvest.

Soil research on farm is a priority certainly since these highly intensive farming properties are located within catchment zones,A modified Gator can be seen in the picture above used to measure soil quality and leaching of nitrates from fertiliser applications

Agricultural Garden in the botanical gardens BONN

Organic Agriculture in Germany35% less efficient than conventional agAttempt to close the circle within the production system , hence the geese behind a water tank, However his holistic approach to agriculture stopped at OHS&W as he was walking around with sandals around a commercial farm.Interesting to hear about their methods of science and to view the crop resulting from the organic system, Level of weeds, rotting in the beans.

They heard about direct drilling and thought that this could be a good way to reduce the amount of tillage before sowing, it turns out to gain the same control of the weeds as what they achieved with tillage they must hand weed 6-9 times(exaggeration).

Make no mistake you would want a defibrillator close by if we were taking the crop science group there.

What we have learnt?

How can we promote activities like this in Australia?

Potential exchange weeks within Australia, highlighting the strengths of SA Ag and the Waite Research institute and in the future invite other global IAAS groups to attend our events showcasing the Australian Culture and Agriculture.

Further opportunities that have arisen

Mexico?IndonesiaChileSweden EDM

www.auasa.org.au