News

INWEPF-PAWEES joint symposium and the 7th steering meeting were successfully held in Jeju , Republic Korea from the 27th to the 29th October 2010 by INWEPF Korean Committee. Eleven persons made presentation and more than 60 persons attended at INWEPF-PAWEES joint symposium under the themes "Climate change and Food security with sustainable agriculture" and "Sustainable irrigation techniques".

The 6th steering meeting of INWEPF and symposium were held at JICA Research Institute in Tokyo from November 16th to 18th, 2009 by INWEPF Japanese committee. The meetings with participants from 17 member countries and the concerned persons were successfully ended.
Over 130 people participated in the symposium held on 16th, and had a time for discussion and exchanged opinions with presenters.
The representatives from INWEPF member countries had a steering meeting and working group (WG) meetings on 17th. The target of this phase as 'Promotion of sustainable paddy farming' and concrete roadmap (ex. implementation of case studies, collection cases) toward World Water Forum 6 (WWF6) held in 2012 were decided.
The participants from INWEPF member countries visited to Ryoso Land Improvement District in Togane City, Chiba Prefecture and Oyama Senmaida Rice Terraces in Kamogawa City, Chiba Prefecture on 18th.They discussed and exchanged opinions with the concerned persons.

The 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul was held in Istanbul, Turkey from March 16th to 22nd in 2009. About 30,000 people from about 192 countries participated in it under the theme of
gBridging Divides for Water
h.

The INWEPF 5th Steering Meeting and Workshop was successfully held in Bali, Indonesia from the 13th to the 15th November 2008. INWEPF Indonesian committee hosted these events. The theme for this meeting and workshop is " Efficient and sustainable Water Use to Address Poverty and Food Security ". A total of about 70 participants from member countries attended.

The first Asia - Pacific Water Summit (APWS1) was held in Oita Prefecture, Japan, on December 3 and 4, 2007. Under the overall theme "Water Security: Leadership and Commitment", almost 300 people participated in the summit; representatives of 36 countries including heads of government of 10 countries, international organizations and representatives of stakeholders such as parliaments, local governments, private sectors, academics, civil societies and media in Asia-Pacific region.

Date :December 1-4, 2007
Venue :Beppu (Japan)

The INWEPF 4th Steering Meeting and Symposium was held at July 5-7 in Bangkok, Thailand. At the meeting, delegates of member countries and related international organizations assembled, discussed and exchanged information on paddy fields. The overview of the meeting is shown as below.

Date :July 5-7, 2007
Venue :Bangkok (Thailand)
Schedule :Keynote speach, Symposium, Workshop, field visit, Steering Meeting, etc.

The INWEPF 3rd Steering Meeting and Workshop was successfully held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from the 17th to the 19th September 2006. INWEPF Malaysia hosted these events. The theme for this meeting and workshop is "Rice Paddy: Now, Tomorrow and the Future". A total of 42 participants from member countries attended. In the workshop, action plans for INWEPF was discussed and output was made up as "Kuala Lumpur Workshop Statement". In Steering Meeting, Report on INWEPF activities 2005-2006 as well as contribution to the 4th World Water Forum was presented. One of the remarkable output of the Steering Meeting is proposal of three working groups on "Multiple Roles of Paddy Fields","Vision, Policy and Information Dissemination on INWERPF activities and programs" and "Monetary Assessment and Value Adding in the Multifunctional Roles of Paddy Fields". For the 4th steering meeting, the delegate of Thailand expressed their willingness to host the meeting in 2007 and that was approved by all participating members.

The 4th World Water Forum convened in Mexico City, Mexico from Thursday, 16 March to Wednesday, 22 March 2006. The 4th Forum's main theme, "Local actions for a global challenge," was addressed through five framework themes: water for growth and development; implementing integrated water resources management (IWRM); water supply and sanitation for all; water management for food and the environment; and risk management. Over 150 thematic sessions were held, and almost 19,000 participants attended, representing governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, and so on.
INWEPF and the Asia regional working group of ICID held the joint session entitled, "Sustainable paddy water use and its multifunctionality with better governance". This session is located in "Water Management for Food and the Environment" of the five themes of WWF4 and cross cutting issue" Application of Science, Technology and Knowledge".
In addition to the session, exhibition booth of INWEPF was placed in the World Water Expo, one of side event of WWF4.
-At the INWEPF booth, multi-functionality of paddy agriculture in the Asia monsoon region was introduced with displaying panels, showing slides and distributing brochures to show INWEPF and its activity to the visitors from all over the world.

INWEPF Second Steering Meeting and Symposium on the Water and Environment in Paddy Fields were held on 2-4 November in the Lotte Hotel World (Jamsil),Seoul, Korea.
Myung-Soo, Lee, Vice minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Korea gave a welcome message. Then, Keizrul bin Abdullah, Honorary President of ICID from Malaysia and Va-son Boonkid, Chief Engineer of Royal Irrigation Department from Thailand made keynote Speeches.
The delegates from 14 countries and 6 international organizations participated in the following symposium. It was opened to the public, so it had many participants. In the symposium, delegates from each country besides Japan made presentations related 2 themes, "Participatory Water Management and Multi-functionality in Paddy Fields", "Water Quality and Environmental Conservation in Paddy Fields" and participants had a lively discussion about multi-functionality in paddy fields and environmental conservation.
The next day, 3 November, as country reports, delegates of 14 countries reported on paddy farming and policies on agriculture of their own countries. Japan introduced Japan's policy on agriculture, titled "The revised basic plan for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas and Rural resource conservation".
In the afternoon, the special session, titled "Contribution to the WWF4" was held. The session has 2 parts. In former part, International organizations which join INWEPF as members reported their activities.
In latter part, they discussed "Message from the INWEPF" to the WWF4.
14 countries and 6 organizations participated in the steering meeting held following the special session. After election of chairperson and adoption of agenda, Yasuro Nakajo, deputy director general, Rural Development Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan reported the INWEPF activity of the first year as Japan INWEPF secretariat which had hosted the 1st steering meeting. Then, revisions of terms of reference and strategic action plan were adopted after active discussion. In addition, it was decided that Malaysia will host the 3rd steering meeting.
The last day, 4 November, it was made an on-the-spot inspection of Mihocheon Project and Daecheong Dam, etc.

International Society of Paddy and Water Environment Engineering (PAWEES) is going to hold International Conference on Management of Paddy and Water Environment for Sustainable Rice Production on 7 to 8 September 2005 in Kyoto, Japan.
INWEPF will co-sponsor the conference. On the behalf of INWEPF, Dr. Ryota Nakamura, the governor of WWC, who served as the chairperson at the preparatory meeting of INWEPF, will chair the report of session conclusion from all session chairs on the second day.

You can obtain the schedule for the conference from here（PDF：50KB）

FAO and Netherlands organize an international conference, "Water for Food and Ecosystems", from February 1 to 5, 2005 in Hague. The INWEPF will have a special session on February 1 at the conference to disseminate its message to the world.

Please refer to a leaflet of this session, "Water Governance for Holistic Values of Multi-functional Paddy Agriculture".

The leaflet in PDF format is also available.（PDF：21KB）
The presentation in PDF format is available.（PDF：2,000KB）

You can obtain more information from the website of "Water for Food and Ecosystems"

On November 2, 2004, the INWEPF was formally established, being approved at the First Steering Meeting. At the meeting, the Terms of Reference and Strategic Action Plan 2004-2005 were agreed by the INWEPF members.

Please refer to the relevant documents.

The INWEPF Inaugural Symposium was held in Tokyo on November 1 and 2, 2004. The symposium focused on importance of multifunctionality of paddy fields and participatory irrigation management. Delegations from 18 countries and 10 international organizations and more than 200 people participated in the symposium.

Please refer to the relevant document.