ICARDA Annual Report 2001

In 2001, ICARDA responded to numerous challenges. Several areas in the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region were hit by drought. Turning this to their advantage, the Center’s researchers, in collaboration with their national partners, were able to test their new drought-tolerant lines of food and feed crops in the field. Progress made in plant breeding and natural resource management, using new tools of science such as biotechnology, remote sensing and geographic information system, was significant in the face of global warming, which is predicted to make the world’s dry areas drier and warmer. As in past years, ICARDA greatly relied in 2001 on the power of partnerships in addressing the complex problems of dry area agriculture. The Center both expanded and strengthened its partnerships with national research systems and advanced research institutes during the year.

Some of the highlights of the work on promoting science through partnerships during the year under report are presented here. Progress made in specific research projects is reported in subsequent chapters.

During the mid-term meeting of the CGIAR in Dresden, Germany, in 2000, the CGIAR Technical Advisory Committee’s proposal for a regional approach to agricultural research priority setting and for greater integration of the CGIAR Center activities into regional priorities was approved. The Center Directors Committee (CDC) assigned ICARDA to facilitate the process of integrating regional priorities with the CGIAR research in CWANA.

The goal is to enhance the effectiveness of the CGIAR in helping NARS address key problems at the sub-regional and regional levels. The process in CWANA was initiated in close collaboration with the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) and the NARS Forum for Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC). ICARDA is following a bottom-up approach that encourages broad participation from a wide range of stakeholders. The process began with the development of an inventory of CGIAR activities in CWANA, and was supplemented with a questionnaire and consultation meetings.

Three sub-regional priority setting meetings were held in 2001: for CAC in September in Tashkent; for the Nile Valley and Red Sea countries in September in Cairo, and for West Asia in November at ICARDA headquarters. Meetings are planned for North Africa, in Tunis, Tunisia, and for the Arabian Peninsula, in Kuwait, in January 2002. Outputs from these meetings will be discussed and recommendations developed at a regional meeting for the CWANA region, scheduled for May 2002 at ICARDA. The priority setting efforts are supported in part by the Global Forum for Agricultural Research.

Participants in the “Brainstorming Workshop on Agricultural Priority Setting for CAC,” held in September 2001 in Tashkent. Dr U. Kazaryan from Armenia, Dr A. Musaev from Azerbaijan, Acad. G. Agladze from Georgia, Prof. A. Satybaldin from Kazakstan, Acad. J. Akimaliev from Kyrgyzstan, Dr B. Sanginov from Tajikistan, Dr Shamurad Kheremov from Turkmenistan, and Dr Sh. Nurmatov from Uzbekistan made presentations on behalf of their respective countries and highlighted their priorities. These were then discussed in detail by the participants.

More than 50 stakeholders’ representatives from the Nile Valley and Red Sea sub-region attended a priority setting workshop in Cairo in September 2001. Dr Fawzi Naim, Director General, ARC, Egypt; Dr Salih H. Salih, Director General, ARC, Sudan; Dr Ismail Muharram, Chairman of AREA, Yemen; Dr Geletu Bejiga, Director, Field Crops Research Division, EARO, Ethiopia; Dr Nawfal Rasheed, Advisor to the President of the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development in Sudan; and Dr Christo Hilan, representing AARINENA, participated in the workshop.