VIII International Congress on Cactus Pear and Cochineal

The Symposium, held from 28 to 31 October 2013 in Palermo, Italy, is organized by the International Society of Horticultural Science (ISHS) in conjunction with The FAO-ICARDA Cactusnet, the Italian Society for Horticultural Science (SOI) and the Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences of the University of Palermo. It will attract international experts on cactus pear and cochineal, as well as researchers and producers from many countries.
Previous ISHS International Congresses on Cactus Pear and Cochineal were held in Chile (1992), Republic of South Africa (1996), Tunisia (2000), Mexico (2004), Brazil (2007), and Morocco (2010).
The objectives of the VIII International Cactus Pear and Cochineal Congress meet those of the FAO-ICARDA Cactusnet bringing together scientists, producers, operators, users to share new research findings and know-how and to promote enterprises for the benefit of the rural poor.
The VIIth International Congress includes (this is just an example):

• Scientific sessions introduced by key note speakers,
• One day field visit to show the cactus pear industry in Sicily,
• VII^th General Meeting of the FAO-ICARDA International Technical Cooperation Network on Cactus Pear
• An optional 2-day Post-Congress tour give the opportunity to discover culture and traditions of Sicily.

Symposium topics
Italy is among the world’s foremost producers of cactus pears, and the Symposium is an outstanding occasion for all those involved in research, production and marketing of this fruit. The main topics under discussion will concern:

• Genetic Resources and Breeding
• Fruit Production: Ecophysiology, Orchard and post harvest management
• Forage production and utilization
• Cochineal breeding and utilization
• Agroindustrial and Pharmaceutical uses
• Economy & Marketing
• General Meeting of FAO-ICARDA International Cooperation Network on Cactus Pear and cochineal (CACTUSNET)

The list may not be exhaustive, and both organising and scientific committees reserve the right to amend the list as necessary

Oral/poster presentations
Abstracts should be submitted for oral or poster presentation. The final decision on type of presentation will be decided by the scientific committee.

Instruction to Authors
Delegates presenting posters/oral papers are reminded that a full paper must be submitted to the symposium conveners no later than the last day of the Symposium. Instructions to authors can be found on the ISHS website, click here to go directly to the web page (http://www.ishs.org/wri/pap1.htm).

Instructions to authors - abstracts
Abstracts should not exceed 300 words, and should be submitted in 12pt Times New Roman to the symposium secretariat (cactus2013@unipa.it) as an email attachment in a MSWord format (.doc)  by the end of May 2013. Papers accepted  must have at least one author registered at the Symposium to guarantee publication in the Acta Horticulturae volume. The title of the abstract (bold) should be followed by the author/s' name, surname and institution or affiliation. Please download the abstract form and use it to submit your abstract.
Abstract form

The abstract text should not include subheadings, tables, figures or references. The abstract should give a broad overview of the aims of the work, methodology, a short review of results and conclusions. At the end of the abstract, the name and email address of the corresponding author should be given, along with an indication of preferred method of presentation, i.e. oral or poster.

Instructions to Authors - proceedings
Guidelines for preparation of papers for Acta Horticulturae may be found on the ISHS website
(http://www.ishs.org/wri/pap1.htm)

Poster Dimensions: Poster size - A0 size (ISO 216 Paper Size system). Equivalent to 841 x 1189 mm or 33 x 46.75 inches. Poster orientation -portrait only, there are no facilities for displaying as landscape.

Language: The official language of the symposium is English