3^rd Workshop 2009

The Workshop meeting will take place on the Campus of ETSEA (Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Agrària; http://www.etsea.udl.es) of the Universitat de Lleida, located approximately 4 km from the city centre. Lleida is located on the shores of the Segre river in the North-east of Spain between Zaragoza and Barcelona. The area is part of the extensive Ebro valley, an important agricultural region, with dryland cereals, olives and almonds and irrigated maize, alfalfa, fruit orchards and vineyards. The area is also important as part of the Mediterranean centre of origin of crop plants and of the Mediterranean basin biodiversity hotspot. The current challenge is to conciliate agricultural production with biodiversity preservation.

Lleida is one of the major cities in Catalonia with 125 000 inhabitants. It is bilingual (Castilian and Catalan) and has a long and rich history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lleida). Lleida can be reached by fast and frequent trains from Madrid, via Zaragoza, and from Barcelona. From Lleida it is easy to go sightseeing in Barcelona or hiking in the nearby Pyrenees (http://www.lleidatur.com/ ing/index.html).

The ETSEA Campus is home to nine Departments, including Horticulture, Botany and Gardening, Plant Production and Forestry, Agricultural Engineering, Environmental Sciences and Soil sciences, Animal Production, and Food Science. ETSEA campus also harbours the Institute of Agro-food Research and Technology (IRTA), and the Plant Protection Service of the Catalan Department of Agriculture.