ICARDA News

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas

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E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
Website: www.icarda.org
30 October 2008
Media contact: icarda-media@cgiar.org
 
CAC Program Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Partners in development. Left to right: Sherali Nurmatov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Uzbekistan; Acad. Bobo Sanginov; Acad. Hikmatullo Akhmadov, former and current Presidents of the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the New Chairman of CACAARI; Mahmoud Solh, ICARDA Director General.
The CGIAR Program for Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC), as well as ICARDA's CAC Regional Program, celebrate their 10th anniversaries this year.

ICARDA's cooperation with countries in the region dates back to the late 1980s. After the CAC countries gained independence in 1991, these partnerships became progressively stronger. In December 1995, ICARDA organized the first meeting of all CAC-NARS leaders with senior management from CGIAR Centers and other international organizations. ICARDA's CAC Regional Program was formally established in May 1998. The CGIAR Program for CAC was established the same year, with ICARDA as the convening center. The program involves eight NARS, nine CGIAR Centers and three advanced research institutions. The Program Facilitation Unit (PFU) is hosted at ICARDA's office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The CGIAR Program partners have implemented close to 70 projects in the region, leading to significant achievements in various areas: collection, conservation, documentation and rational utilization of plant genetic resources, germplasm enhancement, seed production, natural resources management, water management at basin level, crop diversification, integrated pest management, livestock production, rangeland management, socioeconomics and policy research – and above all, in capacity building. About 15,000 researchers, farmers and research administrators from the region have been trained.
Partners from across the CAC region – and well beyond – celebrated the 10th anniversary of the CGIAR and ICARDA regional programs.

An international conference on Agricultural research competence for CAC – celebrating 10 years of the CAC program was organized in Tashkent on 16 September. It was attended by almost 200 participants from national research programs across the region, CGIAR centers, advanced research institutions, development agencies (JICA), international organizations (ADB, World Bank), regional fora (APAARI, AARINENA), and others. Prof. Adel El-Beltagy, Chairman of the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) and former Director General of ICARDA, was the guest of honor. The ICARDA delegation was led by Director General Mahmoud Solh.

Success(ion) planning. Left to right: Surendra Beniwal, Raj Paroda and Christopher Martius, the first, second and current heads of ICARDA's CAC Program and the CGIAR-PFU.
In his welcome speech, Sherali Nurmatov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources and Director General of the Uzbek Scientific Production Center of Agriculture, thanked ICARDA and all other partners CGIAR consortium partners for their contributions to agricultural development in the region. Dr Solh presented an overview of the key achievements of the program, and thanked the partners for their continuous support. He also highlighted the visionary role of Prof. El-Beltagy in establishing the program, and the contributions of Surendra Beniwal and Raj Paroda, former Coordinators of ICARDA's CAC Program and Heads of the CGIAR-PFU. Other speakers at the opening plenary included Drs El-Beltagy, Paroda, Beniwal, and Acad. Jamin Akimaliev, Director General, Research Institute of Agriculture and Adviser to the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan.
The late Saidmakhmud Usmanov, Minister of Agriculture, Uzbekistan, was a visionary who helped build research partnerships across the region. His son accepts an ICARDA plaque from Dr Solh, honoring his father’s work.
Drs El-Beltagy, Paroda, Beniwal, Acad. Mekhlis Suleimenov and twelve key NARS partners from the CAC countries, who played crucial roles in the establishment of the CGIAR Program, were presented with awards in recognition of their "tireless and enthusiastic commitment and leadership that significantly strengthened the collaborative CGIAR programs."

Christopher Martius, Coordinator of ICARDA's CAC Program and Head of the CGIAR-PFU, presented the future plans for the program, based on the recommendations of a recent external review and the priorities identified by national partners. This External revicew (CCER) stated that the CAC Program to be productive and highly mportant for the region. It is a Program that definitely needs to be continued and efforts must be undertaken at various levels of the CG System to ensure its future sustainability. Several CGIAR consortium partners made presentations on various program activities, covering different crops, research themes and countries.
 

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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