Session: Special Session Symposium--Global Challenges in Food, Soil and Environmental Quality

Division: Special Sessions

Title: Special Session Symposium--Global Challenges in Food, Soil and Environmental Quality

Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor: ASA Section: Global Agronomy, C03 Crop Ecology, Management and Quality, ASA Section: Environmental Quality, ASA Section: Agronomic Production Systems, C01 Crop Breeding and Genetics, SSSA Division: Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Community Cosponsor:
Format: Oral Symposium
Keywords:

Session Description: Humans and especially those engaged in agriculture and the environment are facing grand challenges in growing sufficient, healthy and nutritious food to feed the Earth's population which may reach 9.7 billion people by 2050 against alarming trends of soil and environmental degradation across the globe. Overcoming obstacles such as soil and environmental pollution, land degradation, water scarcity and changing climate requires fundamental scientific advances and technological innovations. These challenges also present great opportunities for scientists in soil, agronomy, geo-, crop and environmental sciences to collaborate. This symposium aims to review the state-of-the-art in this problem field, facilitate scientific exchange and build collaborations among scientists from different countries in a stimulating and interdisciplinary intellectual environment. We will discuss recent progress made and lessons learned in our collective understanding of the food, soil and environment nexus, and in developing smart digital agriculture, development of new crops, sustainable and resilient agronomic systems, as well as novel soil and environmental remediation technologies. This symposium will enhance understanding and collaboration across diverse scientific disciplines and geographical regions in food, soil and environmental quality for our societal benefit. It will include a keynote symposium (200 minutes), an oral session, and a poster session (depending on the number of submissions), including student competitions. The symposium will feature 6 invited speakers who are the leading scientists in the nexus of food, soil and environmental quality and who will share their perspectives from the situation in different continents. It will will include a 5-min introduction, then 3 presentations (30 mins each), a break (15 minutes), followed by 3 more presentations (30 mins each). The invited speakers in the symposium will receive travel compensation, and a waiver for registration fees if they are non-members. This format is justified so as to cover the geographical and disciplinary diversity.