International scientific date palm meetings, 1931 – 2011: A bibliographic study

Periodic international meetings of date palm scientists to present the results of new research and technologies have advanced the development of modern date palm propagation, farming practices, fruit production and processing, as well as biotechnology and molecular marker technology. From the first such event in Algeria in 1931, to the recent one in Saudi Arabia in 2011, a total of 35 international meetings have been held in 14 countries during the eight decades. Most commonly referred to as a conference or a symposium, these meetings have been organized around specific date palm themes, and in most cases a proceedings has been published. As an aid to date palm researchers, this bibliographic study attempts to summarize information about the time, place, general subject matters and publications generated by these meetings.