Treatment of the products such as cereal grains, oilseeds, legumes, root crops, dried fruits, nuts and vegetables, and other agricultural products including bulbs and flowers are covered by these conferences. However, the CAF conferences do not cover controlled atmosphere treatments for the quality preservation of fresh agricultural products.

The professional background for the CAF conference are:

1. the need to ensure the continued use of phosphine against the pressures of increasing resistance to this valuable fumigant;
2. the sustainable availability of novel MA technologies; and
3. reports on new fumigants and among them are ethyl formate, ethane dinitrile and ozone.

The establishment of the International Steering Committee followed the first Symposium held in Rome in May 1980 organized by Assoreni and the first Coo operative Bulk Handling Limited and the Australian Grain Institute Incorporated. The second one, which included fumigation, was held in Perth, Western Australia in 1983. This second symposium was given the title “International Symposium on Controlled Atmospheres and Fumigation” (CAF). Then the CAF International Permanent Committee emerged from the International Steering Committee in 1983 in Perth, West Australia. Only in CAF 1996 in Cyprus the title of “International Conference on Controlled Atmospheres and Fumigation in Stored Products” was adopted. The Conferences after CAF Perth, Australia (1983) were in Singapore (1989); Winnipeg, Canada (1992); Nicosia, Cyprus (1996); Fresno, USA (2000); Gold Coast, Australia (2004); Chengdu, China (2008); Antalya, Turkey (2012); and New Delhi, India (2016).

This Conference is 11^th in the series of the International Conferences on Controlled Atmosphere and Fumigation in Stored Products (CAF2020), and originally planned to be held in Winnipeg, Canada, from August 23 to 28, 2020. But due to Covid-19 global pandemic, the CAF2020 was postponed to 2021; however, the name “CAF2020” was kept. Local Organizing Committee has hoped that the CAF2020 will be held in person but global pandemic prevented this. CAF2020 is being held virtually on August 23 to 27, 2021 organized by the Local Organizing Committee including members from the CAF International Permanent Committee under the leadership of Dr. Digvir S. Jayas. The Local Organizing Committee members are from the University of Manitoba, Agriculture of Agri-Food Canada, and Canadian Grain Commission, Canada. Since CAF2020 is being held virtually, a request was raised by the members of the Local CAF Conference Organizing Committee in Canada to hold in person meeting in Winnipeg in 2024. That means that the Local CAF Conference Organizing Committee in Canada will be responsible for the virtual conference in 2021 and in person conference in 2024. The CAF Conference Local Organizing Committee has done a great job in organizing the virtual conference and producing high quality refereed proceedings.

The presentations of CAF2020 conference are organized in the following sessions:

1. Biological Response to Fumigants,
2. Engineering and Modeling of Fumigants,
3. Insect Resistance to Fumigants,
4. Hermetic Storage,
5. Controlled Atmospheres,
6. Quarantine and Alternatives to Methyl Bromide,
7. Alternate Fumigants,
8. Bio-fumigants,
9. Alternative Approaches,
10. Alternative Fumigants,
11. Fumigation Overview.

The proceedings include 4 full papers and 4 abstracts. The technical support provided by Ms. Judith Mate in preparation of the book of proceedings is greatly appreciated.

Prof. Dr. Shlomo Navarro Chair, CAF International Conferences Permanent Committee
Prof. Dr. Digvir S. Jayas Secretary, CAF International Conferences Permanent Committee and Chair, CAF2020 Local Organizing Committee
Prof. Dr. Fuji Jian Secretary, CAF2020 Local Organizing Committee