The Central Asia and the Caucasus Regional Program (CACRP) works in partnership with NARS of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Caucasus. The Program includes activities relating to germplasm improvement, plant genetic resources, soil and water management, integrated feed and livestock production, and strengthening capacity building of NARS.

were supplied to the national programs during the year.
     A collection mission was launched in Turkmenistan in June in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Vavilov Institute (VIR) scientists. This helped increase the number of accessions so far collected from the CAC region to around 1500. The collected germplasm is being kept by the host country and conserved "in-trust" in ICARDA's genebank, providing safety duplication. Support in the form of technical backstopping and equipment was provided for the renovation of the genebank in Uzbekistan jointly by ICARDA, IPGRI and USDA, and for the establishment of genetic resources centers in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.
     To improve milk productivity of local sheep breed in Uzbekistan, 600 ewes were artificially inseminated with frozen semen provided by the University of Wisconsin, USA. A specialist in artificial insemination from Indonesia assisted the farmers and Uzbek scientists. Several livestock production practices, such as early weaning, early lambing, market oriented lamb fattening and milking, have been tested and some of them have already shown considerable economic promise in Central Asian countries.
    An agreement for research collaboration was signed between ICARDA and the Republic of Tajikistan.

Workshops and coordination meetings
In January, CACRP hosted a meeting for the Consortium on Afghanistan, initiated with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Seventy-four representatives from international and non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies and donor agencies came together to form the "Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan." Ten of the sixteen Future Harvest Centers of the CGIAR are now members of the Consortium. The immediate aim was to develop a work plan for a 12-month project on seed systems, and lay a framework for longer-term activities in seeds and crop improvement; soil and water management; livestock, feed, and rangeland improvement; and horticulture.
     A special Symposium on Central Asia was organized during the Annual Meeting of American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America in Indianapolis on 10-14 November in order to provide special focus on agricultural development in the region. ICARDA and the German Center for Development Research (ZEF) jointly cosponsored the session and supported participation of scientists from the region.
     The heads of NARS from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan participated in the "Interregional Workshop for the Development of Partnership on Cotton Research in Central Asia, South Asia and WANA Regions," organized jointly by AARINENA, APAARI, CAC-Forum and ICARDA Office in Tehran. An Interregional Network for research collaboration on sustainable cotton production systems was established. The organizers as well as AERO, Iran agreed to support this network.
     Senior seed program managers and policy makers from six countries of the region (Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) participated in the "Regional Workshop on Harmonization of Seed Regulations for Central Asia and West Asia," organized by the Seed Unit of ICARDA in cooperation with the SPII, Iran. Harmonization initiative was endorsed to be undertaken in the participating countries.
     CACRP co-sponsored the "International Workshop on Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Wheat Production in Rotation with Cotton in Limited Water Resource Areas," jointly with the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (MAWR), Uzbekistan and FAO. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together farmers, policy-makers, scientists, private sector and decision makers to share information and experiences, and to encourage further interactions and development. Over 155 participants from 15 countries participated in this important event.
     A genetic resources documentation workshop was organized for representatives from the Central Asian PGR Units, whereas a regional workshop for plant genetic resources units was organized jointly with USDA in Tashkent to assess the progress made by the various groups. In addition, another meeting of Central Asian and Trans-Caucasian Network (CATCN) on Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) was organized jointly with IPGRI. The participants discussed issues related to strengthening of PGR activities in the region and approved the proposed work plan for 2002-2004.

Human resource development
Considerable emphasis was placed on strengthening the NARS in the region. A total of 520 CAC scientists and farmers participated in different international conferences, workshops, seminars, field visits and training courses. In addition, more than a hundred scientists were trained in English language skills, and 132 scientists, officials and farmers participated in various traveling workshops organized in Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
     A traveling workshop to Turkey on crop diversification and soil tillage practices was organized for scientists and farmers from the Central Asian countries under an ADB-funded project as already reported under the section on "Highland Regional Program." Conservation practices, such as zero tillage, minimum tillage, and raised-bed planting proved very successful for large-scale adoption in the region. Also, on-farm demonstrations to promote these practices have been taken up.
     Advanced models of soil moisture meters were also made available to the scientists in Central Asia under the ADB project and a training course on its use was organized. An automatic weather station was installed in Kyrgyzstan, and portable soil moisture meters produced by the scientists of SANIIRI, Uzbekistan were provided under the ADB-funded project to all the eight countries of the region. The laboratory of the Karakul Sheep breeding research institute, Samarkand was renovated and equipped for feed quality analysis under a project funded by IFAD. A young scientist involved in this project was trained on feed quality analysis at Macaulay Research Institute in the UK.