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: www.icarda.org
15 December 2008
Media contact: icarda-media@cgiar.org
 
New Initiatives for the Arabian Peninsula
ICARDA's Arabian Peninsula team is moving forward quickly with a new research program, launched earlier this year. The new project aims to accelerate the dissemination of technologies developed through previous ICARDA-led research. It is being implemented jointly with UAE's Ministry of Environment and Water (MEW). Objectives, expected outputs and workplans for the 2008-09 season were discussed at a two-day workshop in Dubai, UAE, 15-16 October.
Introducing the new project. Right to left: H.E. Abdullah Alwan from MEW; Ahmed Moustafa, Siham Asaad and Ahmed Mazid from ICARDA; and Aisha Ahmed Abushlaid from UAE University.

The workshop attracted 30 participants from MEW, the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, UAE University, the Ministry of Agriculture and Water, Saudi Arabia, and the Ministries of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture of Bahrain and Qatar. The proceedings began with a seminar introducing the new project. The seminar was inaugurated by H.E. Sultan Abdullah Alwan, Assistant Under-Secretary for Agricultural Affairs, MEW. He commended ICARDA for its work in the Arabian Peninsula and especially in the UAE; and stressed the importance of the new project.
Farmers are already using MEW-ICARDA technologies for forage production. The new project aims to scale out these technologies across the Arabian Peninsula.

This was followed by presentations by three ICARDA scientists. Ahmed Moustafa, Coordinator of the Arabian Peninsula Regional Program, summarized the project objectives and workplan, and the available technology packages that will be the focus of activities. Presentations by Siham Asaad, Head of the Seed Health Laboratory, and Ahmed Mazid, Agricultural Economist, focused on the project's two main components: establishment of national seed health units, and a socio-economic baseline study of pilot growers. In subsequent sessions, the proposed plans were discussed in detail, including selection of pilot growers, logistics, and the draft questionnaire to be used for the baseline study.
Siham Asaad (ICARDA) and Khader Abu Foul (MEW) discuss project plans at the Dubai Flower Center.
Day Two was a field visit to MEW offices, and to three sites where pilot growers are already growing Buffel grass (an indigenous forage species), using the technology package introduced by ICARDA and MEW. Participants also visited several new growers. The field visits served two other purposes as well: field testing of the questionnaire to be used for the baseline study, and providing practical training on data collection to participants from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Separate meetings with senior MEW officials focused on specific project components. Dr Asaad met with Saeed Al Bagham, Director of Research; Mohamed Moussa Abdullah, Director of Agricultural Quarantine; and Ismail Hussain, Head of Agricultural Affairs, Dhaid, to discuss equipment needs and other issues related to the proposed new seed health laboratory in UAE. She also visited the Dubai Flower Center on 22 October for similar discussions.

Dr Moustafa met with MEW's Director of Research, National Coordinator, Technical Coordinator, other MEW scientists, and project implementation teams (both research and extension) to discuss another project component, Protected Agriculture. He also visited Hamranieh Research Station on 16 October to discuss project workplans.
 

About ICARDA: Established in 1977, ICARDA (www.icarda.org) is one of the 15 international research centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). ICARDA serves the entire developing world for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean; and dry-area developing countries for the on-farm management of water, improvement of nutrition and productivity of small ruminants (sheep and goats), and rehabilitation and management of rangelands. In the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, ICARDA is responsible for the improvement of durum and bread wheats, chickpea, pasture and forage legumes and farming systems; and for the protection and enhancement of the natural resource base of water, land, and biodiversity.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) is a strategic alliance of countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations supporting15 international research centers that mobilizes cutting-edge science to promote sustainable development by reducing hunger and poverty, improving human nutrition and health, and protecting the environment.

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