Big grasslands congress

Press, 2 June 1989, Page 16

Big grasslands congress

The prestigious International Grasslands Congress will be held in New Zealand in 1993.

The congress, held every four years, was awarded to New Zealand ahead of competing bids from Canada, Australia, and Hungary. It was last held in New Zealand in 1956.

It is expected to be the biggest international inference held in New Zealand with delegations from up to 100 countries attending.

The decision to award the conference to New Zealand was announced by the chairman of the Continuing Committee of the International Grasslands Congress, Professor Yoshisuka Maki, of Japan.

The congress will open at Massey University on February 8 and after five days will break into regional meetings at Hamilton, Lincoln, and Palmerston North. It will end with a regional meeting at Rockhampton, Queensland, so that tropical grasslands could be included in the programme.

The main conference will include keynote addresses, a series of discussion sessions and visits to teaching and research centres. The regional programmes will consist of technical discussion sessions appropriate to the

centres involved, supported by visits to relevant field research and farming operations, and farmers’ forums.

In welcoming the decision to hold the conference in New Zealand, the Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Tizard, and the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Moyle, said it was a well-deserved tribute to grasslands workers in New Zealand.

"They said it acknowledged the standing of grassland research in New Zealand and the contribution it had made to the development of agriculture.