for excellence in crop nutrition knowlegde transfer

To apply to the 2012 Award, please use:

Nomination form (Word format)

Nomination form (PDF format)

Award leaflet (PDF format)

Research becomes meaningful when it is effectively conveyed to gain adoption at farm level. Extension workers play a crucial role in transferring knowledge from researchers to the farmers. In this context, IFA decided to recognize individuals whose contribution to effective last-mile delivery has been outstanding. IFA is inviting individuals involved in crop nutrition knowledge transfer whose work resulted in long-term impacts on the adoption of nutrient management practices by farmers to apply for the award. His/her work must show significant improvements in productivity, profita- bility, fertilizer use efficiency, environmental sustainability, food quality and human health, and rural life in general. The recipient of the IFA Norman Borlaug Award will receive € 10,000 (ten thousand Euros) and will be invited as a guest to the IFA Annual Conference to be held from 21 to 23 May 2012 at Doha, Qatar. The recipient will also be sponsored to participate in an international conference during the same year. L.M. Maene Director General, IFA		Dr Roland Buresh received the 2011 Award during the 79th IFA Annual Conference in Montreal, Canada, in May 2011.

Eligibility

The award is offered to individuals (not to organizations or companies) for their agricultural extension work with farmers in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Research work that has no obvious impact on knowledge transfer is not taken into account in the evaluation of the candidates.

Qualifying work should reflect the level of senior extensionist from public, private or civil society organizations involved in agricultural knowledge transfer.

Individuals with international organizations or institutions are not eligible.

REGIONS ELIGIBLE FOR THE 2012 IFA AWARD

• Africa;
• Asia (except Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Taiwan Province of China);
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia;
• Latin America and the Caribbean;
• Oceania (except Australia and New Zealand).

> More details on IFA’s classification of countries

Nomination Procedure

Applications must be submitted in English and in electronic format (by e-mail or cd-rom).

Qualified individuals must be nominated by an IFA member. Applications must be submitted to an IFA member on or before 15 January 2012, and nominations by members must be forwarded to the IFA Secretariat on or before 31 January 2012.

Entries that are incomplete, exceed the maximum number of words, and are not accompanied by a nomination letter from an IFA member in good standing will be automatically disqualified.

Only applications following the required format will be considered by the IFA Secretariat. The duly completed application form should not exceed a total number of 2,500 words for the qualification statements. Applicants must provide examples of relevant documents (brochures, leaflets, papers, etc.) and photos of tools quoted in their application form. Supporting documents attached to the application form shall not exceed the total number of ten. Additional documents and nomination letters from other organizations, lists of publications and any other material will not be considered by the selection panel.

Judging

An independent panel will select the laureate on the basis of the long-term impact and quality of his/her work, and wide adoption by farmers.

Preference is given to extension work leading to widespread adoption of nutrient management practices resulting in significant improvements in productivity, profitability, fertilizer use efficiency, environmental sustaina- bility, food quality and human health, and rural life in general. Concrete evidence should demonstrate the impact of the candidate’s extension work.

The award recipient will be known during the second half of March 2012.