17th ACA Cashew Conference & Expo: Call for submission of research studies on cashew and related issues
Background
At the ACA Annual Cashew Conference & Expo, which is held annually, the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) offers researchers on cashews and related topics an opportunity to share their research findings. This is due to ACA's recognition of the essential role that researchers play towards developing a sustainable African cashew industry, particularly in cashew production. Africa today produces about 60% of the world’s raw cashew nuts partly because of the good research findings on cashew production over the years.
The 17th edition of the ACA Cashew Conference will be held in Dakar, Senegal from the 18th to the 21st of September 2023 under the Sustaining the African Cashew Industry: Assessing the Journey so Far and Looking Forward.
As part of this year's conference, we are again calling on cashew researchers from both the public and private sectors to submit the abstracts of their most recent studies to be considered for presentation at the ACA Conference in Dakar and for inclusion in the second publication of the Innovations in Cashew Production as full papers: https://africancashewalliance.com/sites/default/files/documents/innovations_in_cashew_production_a4_2022-web.pdf.
Thematic areas
Studies should be on at least one of the following thematic areas:
Thematic area 01: Cashew cultivation: Technological practices and approaches for sustainable RCN production
• Cashew genomics, breeding, and plant function
• Integrated pest and disease management
• Soil fertility management and irrigation
• Farm rehabilitation techniques
• Farmers' techniques and know-how.
• Enhancing agricultural production techniques
Thematic area 02: Cashew and climate change: Resilience strategies for sustainable production and its socio-economic impact
• Cashew genetic resources and resilience to climate change
• Impact of climate change on cashew farming across different ecological systems
• Reforestation/ Afforestation programmes
• Capacity building on climate-smart agriculture techniques
• Climate information and surveillance systems
• Renewable energy and carbon sequestration in cashew farming
• Food security and nutritional values of cashew nuts
• Cashew nut production and improving the livelihood of cashew producers
Thematic area 03: Innovations to support cashew RCN and apple processing, Trading, and marketing.
• Innovative processing methods and transformation processes
• Traceability systems
• Food safety compliance systems (pesticides and other contaminants)
• Valorisation of nutritional attributes of cashew products
• Valorisation of cashew by-products for food and non-food products
• Digital applications in cashew nut production.
• Access to finance and micro-credit, cashew nut crop insurance.
Guidelines for the Submission of Abstracts
- Abstracts should be submitted in English or French via the email researchpapers@africancashewalliance.com. After submitting your abstract, you will receive a confirmation e-mail.
- Notification of acceptance of all selected abstracts will be sent to the researchers.
- Abstracts should address one of the thematic areas of the ACA Conference presented above. Abstracts that are most closely aligned with the main theme and topics of the conference will be selected.
- Abstracts should be limited to a maximum of 400 words.
- After reviewing your submitted abstract, the Scientific/Technical Committee will decide whether it is selected for an oral presentation or inclusion in the second publication of the Innovations in Cashew Production as full papers which will be made available at the Dakar Conference and published on ACA's website.
Deadlines
- The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 17th May 2023.
- Researchers whose abstracts are selected will have until 1st July 2023 to submit full papers.
