ICARDA

The highlands of WANA have some of the most marginalized areas and poorest communities of the region. Crops are grown under harsh conditions, on shallow soils, with minimum inputs and often under severe biotic and abiotic stresses including cold and drought. The Highlands Network coordinates collaborative activities in the highland areas of West Asia (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey) and North Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia).

Major Activities and Key Achievements

•	In Turkey, collaborative projects include research on crop improvement, pathology, socioeconomics, rehabilitation and management of common village pastures, and farming systems in the Taurus Mountains. 22 Improved cultivars coming from Joint efforts Turkey-CIMMYT-ICARDA have been registered for farmer cultivation, with yield improvements of 10-30% or more.
•	The Taurus Mountains project diversified the options for small farmers to include new crops such as triticale and forage legumes, and new varieties of wheat, barley and chickpea, as well as honey production. Small farms increased their income by up to 25%.
•	Community-based rangeland rehabilitation in Central Anatolia was conducted with active farmer participation.
•	New varieties of barley (4), wheat (5), chickpea (2) and lentil (2) were released for the dryland areas of Iran; improved production technologies were identified for farmer adoption.
•	In Pakistan, the USAID-funded MART/AZR project, completed in 1994, strengthened research capabilities at the Arid Zone Research Institute (AZRI).
•	ICARDA supplied germplasm of its mandated crops to researchers in Afghanistan working with FAO, SIDA, and NGOs operating from Pakistan. Nine wheat cultivars (with yield advantages of 14-20% over the local variety in trials) were recently released and adopted by cooperating farmers. National production of wheat has increased from 1.7 million tons in 1993 to 2.8 million tons in 1998.

Current Emphasis
In Turkey, collaborative efforts continue within the Turkey-CIMMYT-ICARDA (TCI) partnership, to develop improved winter/facultative bread wheat. Joint work is also carried out in Turkey for the incorporation of cold tolerance and other desirable traits into ICARDA’s germplasm of barley, lentil, chickpea, and forage legumes. Impact Assessment study for wheat has been carried out in 5 selected provinces in Turkey; results will be presented to the stake holders by the end of 2008.

Highlands in WANA region are under the threat of Ug99, which was identified first in Uganda in 1999; the major work has been carried out under TCI to incorporate the Ug99 resistance to currently grown cultivars in the region and also new resistant germplasm development has been continued.

In order to diversify the income of the people in Turkey, food legume collaborative work has been carried between Turkey and ICARDA.; the outputs of this collaborative efforts will be disseminated to the region.

One of the important aspects of the planned agriculture is to define the region agroecologically to grow more profitable crops in that region. Turkey and ICARDA are conducting a study to do agroecological zoning of Turkey.

ICARDA is collaborating with the Southeastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration (GAP-RDA) of Turkey in research, technology transfer and strengthening human resources.

Regional Coordinator/Wheat Breeder
ICARDA Ankara office
Dr. Mesut KESER
PO Box 39 Emek
06511 Ankara, Turkey
Phone: (90-312) 344 87 77
Fax: (90-312) 327 07 98
E-mail: m.keser@cgiar.org or ICARDA-TURKEY@CGIAR.ORG