On the 24th of January, 2020 the 5th Permaculture, Agroforestry and Traditional Fruit Growing conference (V. MAPER-AFINET-KmGYH Conference and Forum) was held in Budapest at the Faculty of Horticultural Sciences, Szent Istvan University organised jointly by the Hungarian Permaculture Association, National Agroforestry Network, Carpathian Network of Traditional Fruit Growers and the Department of Ecological and Sustainable Production Systems, SzIU. There was a huge interest from people, more than 100 people signed up for participation.
The conference had a thematic scope- this time it was about the connection between research and practice and how it could be supported and enhanced. The morning presentations were about highlights from permaculture and agroforestry related studies and projects. A poster section followed during the lunchbreak, giving place for the exchange of ideas, plans etc. among participants. In the afternoon, there was an interactive forum with lively discussions involving different stakeholders and organizations with a focus on identifying the realistic next steps regarding the bridging of research and practice. There were 7 thematic workshops focusing on different specified topic, participants discussed the most urgent research needs and the feasibility and circumstances of carrying out those studies. After the brainstorming were summarized and discussed on a final plenary.
The UNISECO project was presented by Alfréd Szilágyi in the poster section. We plan to continue participating and disseminating our activities on this forum in the future as we can reach a high diversity of stakeholders in agroecology.
Photo and text: Geonardo