Smart AgriMatics event will take place on the 13th-14th June 2012 at the Forest Hill Hotel in Paris La Villette, France.

In recent years the economic value of pollination-dependent crops has substantially increased around the world. As a team of researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Freiburg headed by the UFZ wrote in an article entitled "Spatial and temporal trends of global pollination benefit" in the open-access journal PLoS ONE the value of ecological pollination services was around 200 billion US dollars in 1993 and rose to around 350 billion US dollars in 2009.

For years experts have discussed the ecological impact of the extended cultivation of energy crops. Scientists have now developed a computer model that allows assessing the impacts and comparing the effectiveness of strategies for the reduction of risks for biological diversity. Conclusion: The extension of bioenergy leads to problems to biological diversity in agrarian regions.

The Ecotech & Tools Conference, jointly organised by PEER, the Consortium of the European IRSES project “ECOTOOL" and the Consortium of the Interreg IV project “Ecotech-Sudoe”, will take place from the 30th of November to the 2nd of December 2011 at SupAgro Campus in Montpellier, France.