Francois Lategan
Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
Agri-technical knowledge, advisory competence and the future of sustainability in farming systems
Originating from South Africa, Dr Lategan has more than 35 years experience in the higher education and agricultural advisory environment and has advanced postgraduate study and evaluative experience of the critical role of agriculture and agribusiness in rural development internationally. He has longstanding experience of practical and scientific teaching and advisory services at higher education level and for agricultural commodity groups at local, regional, and national level.
Important skills he has mastered to complete his profile include: 1. Building and sustaining international relationships with International Universities while building projects and programmes of common interest – especially in the area of agricultural systems, advisory programmes and agribusiness. 2. Conceptualization, development and of agricultural advisory and communication and media strategies, projects and programmes. 3. Conceptualization, implementation and leading of theoretical and popular investigations into issues and concepts influencing the efficiency of agricultural development strategies, projects and programmes. 4. Extended managerial skills in the researching, planning, implementation, evaluation and management of agricultural advisory programmes and training and research initiatives in different agricultural higher educational programmes and projects.
Jiří Sedlák
Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology Holovousy, Czech Republic
Modern trends in pome and stone fruit growing
Jiří Sedlák, Ph.D. has been working as a leading scientific-research worker of the Gene Pool Department of RBIP Holovousy Ltd (the Czech Republic) since 1998. He is currently, the acting chairman of the Scientific Council of RBIP Holovousy Ltd.
He works in the field of biotechnological research in the areas of sanitation of fruit genotypes from virus and phytoplasma diseases by chemotherapy and cryotherapy. He is engaged in research field of phenotyping, pomology and fruit quality corresponding to molecular genetic analyses. He leads research projects aimed at discovering and symptomatology of new viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas in fruit crops by molecular diagnostics and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) in area of Central Europe. Between 2019-2023, He was the acting chairman of Fruit section of European Association for Research on Plant Breeding EUCARPIA.
Further he is an active member of research and university advisory bodies: Member of Special Plant Production Board at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague; Member of Scientific Council at the Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Horticulture. He serves on the editorial board of IF Journal “Horticultural Science” issued by the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Vladan Bogdanović
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture, Serbia
Extreme weather events and livestock production: case of heat stress in milk production – should we be concerned?
Prof. Vladan Bogdanović has an educational background in Agriculture with major in Animal Science. He graduated as agricultural engineer with major in Animal Science at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade. After that he earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree in Animal Science from the University of Belgrade. Prof. Bogdanović is holding position as a full professor of animal science at Faculty of Agriculture – University of Belgrade.
Prof. Bogdanović’s research interests cover: (1) Breeding strategy and optimisation programs for sustainable development of commercial livestock populations; Breeding strategy for small and closed population of autochthonous livestock breeds; Conservation and sustainable utilisation of farm animal genetic resources. Large and small ruminant breeding, selection and production; (2) Sustainable development and upgrading of agro/livestock production systems based on optimal utilization of locally available resources to contribute towards rural development and food safety; (3) Good agricultural practices and pre-harvest food safety scheme at farm level.
Prof. Bogdanovic is author of more than 250 publications in the field of agriculture and livestock production, rural development, animal breeding, livestock biodiversity, dairy / beef production, pre-harvest and farm food safety, including scientific and technical papers, project proposals, project reports, evaluation reports, books and booklets.
