ICARDA
News
INTERNATIONAL
CENTER FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DRY AREAS
P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105; E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
Website: http://www.icarda.cgiar.org
Strategies in a Changing World
The
2003 Annual General Meeting (AGM03) of the CGIAR was held in Nairobi,
Kenya, 29-30 October. H.E. Mr Moody Awori, Vice-President, Republic of
Kenya, inaugurated the meeting. In his address, H.E. Mr Awori said he
was pleased that the CGIAR—a global alliance of eminent organizations
and nations--had chosen to have its Annual General Meeting in Kenya, and
he extended a warm welcome to the AGM03 delegates. He praised the contributions
of the CGIAR centers to agricultural research and development in Kenya
and the entire African sub-continent. He reiterated Kenya’s support
to the CGIAR, and said the county was proud to be the host of two CGIAR
centers—ICRAF and ILRI—and regional offices of six other centers.
H.E. Mr Kipruto arap Kirwa, Minister of Agriculture,
Republic of Kenya, and Dr Romano Kiome, Director, Kenya Agricultural Research
Institute, were also present at the inaugural session.
In his statement, the CGIAR Chair, Mr Ian Johnson,
thanked H.E. Mr Awori and the Government of Kenya for hosting AGM03. The
Kenya-CGIAR partnership is a strong and enduring example of the benefits
of mobilizing science for achieving balanced development in Africa, he
said. CGIAR is committed to mobilizing the best of global knowledge for
generating local solutions that meet the agricultural development challenges
facing
H.E. Mr Moody Awori (fourth from left), Vice-President, Republic of Kenya,
inaugurated the AGM03. Among others present were H.E. Mr Kipruto arap
Kirwa (third from left), Minister of Agriculture, Republic of Kenya; Mr
Ian Johnson (fourth from right), CGIAR Chair; Mr Francisco Reifschneider
(third from right), CGIAR Director; and Dr Romano Kiome (second from left),
Director, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.
H.E. Mr Moody Awori, Vice-President, Republic of Kenya, delivering the inaugural address.
Mr Francisco Reifschneider, CGIAR Director, presented a briefing on the CGIAR Reform Program.
The Vice-President of the Republic of Kenya then presented CGIAR awards to the winners.
Dr Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair of ICARDA Board of Trustees and Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, Director General of ICARDA, led the ICARDA activities that took place before, during and after AGM03.
Following the inaugural session, Prof. El-Beltagy, in his capacity as Chair of the Center Directors Committee (CDC), made a comprehensive presentation on “CGIAR Contributions to Meeting the Millennium Development Goals.” The CG System’s focus fits with the millennium goals for sustainable development set by the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, he said. In fact, the goals are all linked, directly or indirectly, to the research agenda of the CGIAR centers. Prof. El-Beltagy summarized the contributions made by the CGIAR centers to meeting the millennium goals in (i) natural resource management, (ii) information technology, and (iii) rebuilding agriculture after conflicts/natural disasters.
The CGIAR centers have enormous accumulated experience in natural resource management, on which any future strategy should be built. Achievements in developing crop cultivars suited to different agroecologies, identification of representative environments, developing appropriate partnerships with national programs and donors, and improvements in farming systems are contributing to improving the livelihoods of farm families, Prof. El-Beltagy said.
ICARDA, for example, has developed several micro-catchment techniques to capture rainwater that would otherwise be lost to evaporation or runoff, and has developed GIS-based hydrologic modeling tools for participatory maintenance of degraded terraces in Yemen to improve agricultural productivity, create employment and generate income.
Other centers are improving the productivity of sloping lands using contour bunds in Ethiopia and zero tillage methods on the Indo-Gangetic Plain to establish wheat after rice; improving the integration of fishponds in small-scale farming systems for increased income in Ghana and Malawi; and conserving savanna through use of a management decision support tool, which helps in policy analysis.
Modern information and communication technologies (ICT), meanwhile, are playing a key role in research to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability. Examples are geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, databases, and the Internet. ICT also empowers farmers in making decisions related to farming and family welfare. Examples include expert systems, market trend databases, information about opportunities concerning health and education, and fast connectivity, now becoming available at the village level in many developing countries.
“We are witnessing a period when the basic code of ethics for humanity and the respect for human diversity are under serious threat,” Prof. El-Beltagy said. Increasing socio-political upheavals are taking the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, and destroying the natural wealth of our planet. We must not allow this to continue. The CGIAR Centers are committed to producing international public goods in agriculture, and thus contributing to food security, protection of the environment and poverty alleviation; however, ongoing destructive events demand a global alliance to improve the lives of people by bringing them food security and long-term peace. Only friendship, not guns, can hold the world together,” stated Prof. El-Beltagy.
Dr Kanayo Nawanze, DG of WARDA, who will succeed Prof. El-Beltagy as CDC Chair in January 2004, made a presentation on the impact of the CGIAR research in Sub-Saharan Africa and future CGIAR research strategy.
Other staff members from ICARDA who participated in AGM03 were: Drs Mohan C. Saxena, ADG (At-Large); Willie Erskine, ADG (Research), Surendra Varma, Head of CODIS; and Habib Halila, Regional Coordinator, NVRSP. Dr Raj
Prof. El-Beltagy made a presentation on "Contributions of the CGIAR to Meeting Millennium Development Goals," in which he summarized the successes achived by all CGIAR centers and called for a global alliance to reduce poverty and protect human diversity and natural resources from the threats of conflict and destruction.
Centers' Forum co-chaired by Dr J. de Hass (second from right), from Germany, and Dr F. Moore (third from right) from USA. Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy (second from left), ICARDA DG and current CDC Chair, and Dr Kanayo Nawanze (left) WARDA DG and in-coming CDC Chair (from January 2004), made presentations. Dr Vickie Wilde (right) acted as recording secretary.
Paroda, Regional Coordinator, CAC, was also present in his capacity as ex-Chair of GFAR. The AGM03 meetings took place in United Nations buildings in Nairobi. Dr Richard Thomas, Director of NRMP, who had gone to Nairobi to attend a meeting organized by the Integrated Natural Resource Management Taskforce of the CDC, also participated in some of the pre-AGM03 meetings.
Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture
In the evening of 29 October,
Hon. Susan Whelan, Minister for International Cooperation, Canada, delivered
the Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture. The Lecture has been sponsored
by the Australian Government since 1985 in honor of Sir John Crawford
(1910-1984), a distinguished Australian civil servant, educator and agriculturist,
who was one of the founders of the CGIAR.
Paying tribute to the dedicated services of Sir
John Crawford to improve human welfare, Minister Whelan spoke eloquently
about the contributions of the CGIAR to international agirucltural research
and development, and called for increased support to carry forward its
noble mission. She pledged Canada's increased support to the CGIAR. She
said that "investing in research is an act of faith." Faith,
she said, is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen." The full text of her lecture is available from
CODIS.
Pre-AGM03 Meetings
Before the start of AGM03 meetings, the Center Board Chairs Committee (CBC), the Center Directors Committee (CDC) and the Center Deputy Directors Committee (CDDC) held their respective meetings. The CDC was chaired by Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, and CDDC by Dr Mohan C. Saxena. The CDC also had a luncheon meeting with Drs Jeff Sachs and Pedro Sanchez to discuss the implementation of Millennium Development Goals. Prof. El-Beltagy and Dr Thomas attended the INRM Taskforce meeting. Drs Thomas and Habib Halila attended the ASARECA meeting, and Dr Paroda attended the GFAR meetings.
October 27 was designated as
CGIAR Members’ Day, and devoted to bilateral and multi-center meetings
and discussions among CGIAR members and centers in the lead up to the
opening of the AGM03. In the evening on that day, the Kenyan Minister
of Agriculture, on behalf of the Government of Kenya, hosted a reception
to welcome AGM participants.
At the opening session of Members’ Day,
CGIAR Chair, Mr Ian Johnson, and CDC Chair, Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy,
welcomed the members. In his statement, Prof. El-Beltagy said, “This
meeting is an excellent opportunity for us to review together the progress
that the CGIAR is making and to prepare for the challenges ahead.”
Excerpts from his statement:
“We live in a changing world. The changes
in the external environment influence the agricultural research priorities
and directions of the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS). To
ensure that NARS’ changing priorities are efficiently addressed,
the CGIAR centers have been actively participating in the “change
process,” launched by the System. The process seeks to harness synergy
and reduce costs for increased efficiency through better integration and
task-oriented projects that
Dr Margaret Catley-Carlson (right), Chair, ICARDA Board of Trustees, chaired the ICARDA presentation session on Members' Day.
On Members' Day, Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, ICARDA DG, made a presentation on "Combating Water Poverty."
“The CDC has been striving to achieve the overall objective of effective and efficient operations, reduce overhead costs, and avoid duplication of efforts. In this context it has decided that the Centers pursue an active policy of decentralization with a view to sharing facilities among themselves and with national programs, as well as locate project offices close to the field.
“The commitment of the Centers to collectively address the challenge of improving the welfare of the poor is at the ‘heart’ of the CGIAR System. These collective efforts, in collaboration with the CGIAR partners, investors and key stakeholders are designed to complement the efforts of both developing and industrialized countries and international agencies in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, the commitment of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and new regional commitments, such as NEPAD.
“The CGIAR Centers collectively provide a platform to NARS, built on their scientific excellence, long experience of working in partnership under different agroecologies, strong linkages with advanced research institutes, and with investors. The Centers work with NARS in over 100 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and West Asia and North Africa, South and East Asia and Latin America. But, even more importantly, the System serves as a catalyst in promoting crossborder cooperation, friendship and goodwill. It helps making bridges between NARS and advanced research institutes in cutting-edge science. Human resource capacity building is an integral part of the agenda of all centers; to date over 2000 NARS researchers have obtained their graduate/postgraduate degrees working with the centers. Indeed, the CGIAR research centers are ‘the centers without walls.’ Their products are international public goods, designed to alleviate poverty through increased agricultural productivity and protection of the environment. National programs both in the South and the North benefit from the work of the CGIAR Centers.
“The CGIAR System is, thus, unique. There is no alternative to it.
“The support you provide as investors to the CGIAR System is vital. We hope that, working together, we will continue to deal with the new challenges effectively.
“This Annual General Meeting of the CGIAR, being held in Africa, is an opportunity for us to increase the focus of our work on Africa, both Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, covered by the NEPAD initiative. The events today and during other meetings, scheduled for this week, will feature agriculture, fishery, forestry, water and policy research, conducted in close collaboration with NARS and other partners. The CGIAR already has five of its centers—ILRI, CIFOR, ICRAF, IITA and WARDA--located in Africa. These centers work closely with Kenya. In addition, IFPRI, CIAT, ICRISAT, IPGRI, IWMI, ICARDA and Worldfish Center have collaborative programs with Kenya. This is a reflection of the CGIAR’s strong commitment to Africa, a continent of great challenges and opportunities for agricultural development as a key to poverty reduction and enhancement of human welfare.
“The Future Harvest Alliance of the CGIAR centers has been successful in obtaining a grant of 25 million US dollars from the Gates Foundation for the Harvest Plus Challenge Program, which aims to improve the micronutrient quality of the world’s largest staple food crops to address the huge hidden hunger problem caused by micronutrient deficiency.
“Let us all continue to work together with renewed commitment to strengthen the CGIAR, so it can continue to move forward in fulfilling its noble mission to safeguard the welfare of the people and the health of this planet.”
“Water is the key resource for agriculture, on which human development and prosperity depend. But the world is facing increasing scarcity of water. The world population is projected to reach eight billion by 2020. In Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) alone, population is projected to double to 1.1 billion people, with attendant increase in water demand. Water shortages are already severe, particularly in West Asia and North Africa (WANA), where average annual per capita renewable supply of water is less than 1500 cubic meters, well below the world average of about 7000 cubic meters. Agriculture’s share of water resources—80% in the Southern Mediterranean region—is decreasing due to diversion for domestic and industrial use. The challenge is to strike a balance between rising demand and limited supply, while coping with global warming, which is making countries hotter and drier. The crop varieties and agricultural technologies of today might become irrelevant in the changed climate of tomorrow.
“Water scarcity and mismanagement also have implications for land degradation through desertification, erosion, salinization, and waterlogging. Of the 1.7 billion hectares of land in CWANA, 45% is degraded in one form or another. All of this drives migration from rural to urban areas, and from developing to industrialized countries, which, in turn, has economic and social implications often leading to upheavals.
“Cutting-edge science can, however, provide solutions to mitigate drought, optimize water-use efficiency, and increase productivity, to bring about a ‘blue revolution’ and improve the quality of life of the poor.
“For example, billions of cubic meters of rainwater in dry areas is lost every year to evaporation. Research has shown that about half of this could be captured in macro- or micro-catchment systems. Research has also shown that water can be used much more efficiently, through techniques such as supplemental and deficit irrigation. The objective is increased production per unit of water, not per unit of land.
“Diversification and intensification of production systems can also help in soil and water conservation. For example, protected agriculture, particularly under low-cost plastic structures, makes efficient use of limited land and water. ICARDA is also investigating conservation tillage (minimum and no tillage systems) to improve soil quality, conserve moisture, reduce erosion, and improve water-use and energy-use efficiency.
“In a project in Central Asia, marginal-quality water is being used to grow forages. Work on optimizing its use and overcoming health and environmental hazards and social issues needs to be speeded up. ICARDA is addressing these issues in collaboration with IWMI.
“Indigenous knowledge and technologies are given their due consideration. The Center has worked on renovation of Byzantine-era qanats (water tunnels) and cisterns. In the Center’s Matrouh project in Egypt, communities are renovating and constructing cisterns, reservoirs, and stone dykes to collect water to grow fruits and vegetables.
“Research on policy and property rights, in collaboration with IFPRI, is an integral component of ICARDA’s work. ICARDA also participates in global conventions, such as the Convention to Combat Desertification, Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework on Climate Change, and is a member of the Facilitation Committee, an advisory body to the UNCCD’s Global Mechanism. ICARDA represents the CGIAR in this role. Sub-regional action plans are being implemented in various countries and pilot sites have been identified. In collaboration with ICRISAT, the Center is developing the Desertification, Drought, Poverty and Agriculture consortium; and in collaboration with FAO and CIHEAM, the Center has established a Network on Drought Management for the Near East, Mediterranean and Central Asia.
“Of the 128,000 accessions in ICARDA’s genebank, the landraces and wild relatives of today’s important crop species are particularly important to breeders. In partnership with Syria, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, and in cooperation with the Arab Center for Studies of the Arid Zones and Dry Lands and IPGRI, ICARDA is implementing a project aimed at conserving agrobiodiversity
The second part of the presentation on "Combating Water Poverty" was made by Dr William Erskine, ADG (Research), ICARDA, on Members' Day.
Delegation from Uzbekistan and ICARDA staff members.
Smiles and handshake: hope for stronger linkages between ICARDA (Prof. El-Beltagy, left) and Germany (Dr J. de Hass, right).
Prof. El-Beltagy, CDC Chair, exchanges notes with CGIAR Chair, Mr Ian Johnson (left) and other colleagues.
Prof. El-Beltagy (center) and Dr M.C. Saxena (left) discuss the role of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with its representative (right). GCC recently became a member of the CGIAR.
“Other examples of ICARDA’s germplasm improvement efforts to combat water scarcity include: development of low-neurotoxin, drought-resistant lines of grasspea, use of landraces in breeding barley for drought resistance, winter sowing of improved chickpea cultivars (yields have doubled), and autumn sowing of improved lentil to make better use of seasonal rainfall.
“In collaboration with advanced research institutes, ICARDA is characterizing pathways to stress tolerance to shed light on their interdependent genetic control. Based on this information, several unique mechanisms of drought tolerance might be bred into facultative winter wheat and barley.
“ICARDA is also exploring genetic transformation for improved tolerance to stress. The Australian Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture has licensed a lentil transformation system to ICARDA and a stress resistance gene transact has been supplied by JIRCAS, Japan.
“Global initiatives have drawn attention to the problem of water scarcity, but there is an urgent need for regulatory and legislative reforms and investment at the country and local level. Local policies are responsible for lack of adoption of much of the improved technologies developed by research institutions.”
The presentation generated much interest in the donor community and figured in the discussions that followed with various donor representatives.
The consortium for Desertification, Drought, Poverty and Agriculture (DDPA), co-convened by ICARDA and ICRISAT, organized a luncheon with 40 donors and institutional representatives on Members' Day. The consortium's plans, details of donor support and a proposal for a major workshop on "Why Invest in Drylands" were jointly presented by Dr Richard Thomas (ICARDA) and Dr Barry Shapiro (ICRISAT) under the co-chairmanship of Dr Roozitalab from Iran and Dr Peter Cooper from IDRC, Canada. Presentations were followed by a lively discussion with Dr Franklin Moore from USAID pointing out how the consortium can complement activities under the United Nations Convention for Combating Desertification (UNCCD). The representative from the Netherlands wished to see the consortium become a Challenge Program and in so doing be eligible for available support from the Netherlands. Both ICRISAT and ICARDA committed themselves to pursue the donor funding support for the DDPA.
Representatives from the European Union
Dr Margaret Catley-Carlson and Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, along with other members of the ICARDA team, opportunistically held meetings with representatives from several donor organizations and countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, European Union, Germany, IFAD, India, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Syngenta Foundation, United Kingdom and USAID,and presented ICARDA’s achievements and future research plans. The meetings were very rewarding in strengthening ICARDA’s relationship with donors.
Representatives from the Netherlands.
Representatives from the Italy
A meeting of the Public Awareness
and Resource Mobilization Committee (PARC), chaired by Dr William Dar,
DG of ICRISAT, took place on 26 October. Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, CDC
Chair, accompanied by Dr S. Varma, participated in the meeting. Dr Helen
Leitch, Chair of the Marketing Group, reviewed the progress made with
the various media and resource mobilization campaigns undertaken during
2002/03. One of the campaigns, “Rebuilding Agriculture After Conflicts/Natural
Disasters” is being implemented by Dr Varma. A poster developed by
him, reflecting the contributions of the various CGIAR centers was highlighted
by Helen in her presentation. This was followed by a brief discussion
of the CGIAR Stakeholders’ audit, a report developed by a private
consultant.
Mr Jason Wettstein of Future Harvest then made
a presentation of the accomplishments and future strategy of Future Harvest.
He was followed by Mr Salah Brahimi from the CGIAR Secretariat, who presented
a brief on investor trends and the future course of action.
Strategic issues concerning the modus operandi
of Future Harvest in the future were discussed.
Marketing Group Meeting
A meeting of communication and resource mobilization professionals from all 16 centers was held at ILRI, 23-25 October. Dr Helen Leitch chaired the meeting. Dr S. Varma participated in the meeting on behalf of ICARDA and discussed the post-disaster theme campaign with colleagues from other centers. The meeting reviewed the progress made during 2002/03, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of its programs, and developed a work plan for 2003/04.
Display Booths
The CGIAR centers and partners
put up their publications, posters and other information material in specially
erected display booths in the lawns of the United Nations buildings. The
ICARDA booth had several posters specially prepared to project the Center’s
work in Africa, and key publications. A large number of visitors came
to the booth where they were welcomed by Dr S. Varma, who answered their
questions and helped them select the publications of their interest. The
booth helped in making new contacts with researchers, research managers,
donor representatives, and media professionals.
Marketing Group Campaigns Display
Posters on four key Marketing Group campaigns were on display in a specially assigned area outside the main meeting room. One of the posters was on “Rebuilding Agriculture After Conflicts/Natural Disasters,” developed by campaign coordinator, Dr S. Varma. The theme of the campaign was appreciated and the visitors said they looked forward to reading the full report on this theme, expected to be published next year.
Kenya Day
Dr Catley-Carlson plantd a tree at the KARI research station. This was the second tree planted by a senior representative from ICARDA. The first was planted by Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy.
The visit to the KARI research farm was followed by visits to farmers' fields that included water harvesting system experiments and other dryland reasearch activities.
Dr Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair, ICARDA Board of Trustees, assisted by Dr Mohan C. Saxena, planted a tree at the farm of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, during their field trip on 28 October.
ICARDA's (www.icarda.org) mission is to improve the welfare of people and alleviate poverty through research and training in dry areas of the developing world by increasing production, productivity, and nutritional quality of food, while preserving and enhancing the natural resource base. ICARDA is a Future Harvest Center.