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| North Africa Regional Program |
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| The North Africa Regional Program (NARP) operates through ICARDA’s regional office in Tunisia serving Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. Liaison Offices have been established in Morocco and Algeria. The objectives of the program are to contribute to poverty alleviation, natural resources conservation, enhancing productivity of crops and animals, human resources capacity building, and networking in the region. | |||||||||||||||||
| Collaborative projects | |||||||||||||||||
| In 2003, the program implemented many collaborative
projects. Regional-level projects included the “Sustainable Management
of the Agro-Pastoral Resource Base in the Maghreb,” funded by the
Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC); “Obstacles to Technology Transfer
to the Small and Medium Farmers in the Arid and Semi-Arid Zones of the
Maghreb,” supported by the Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Economic Institutes—FEMISE;
“Optimizing Soil Water Use” within the framework of the CGIAR
Systemwide Program on “Soil Water and Nutrient Management (SWNM);”
and the regional program to “Foster Wider Adoption of Low-Cost Durum
Technologies,” funded by IFAD. National-level collaborative projects included the “Pilot IPM Site in Morocco” within the framework of the CGIAR Systemwide Program on “Integrated Pest Management (IPM),” and “Functional Genomics of Drought Tolerance in Chickpea in Tunisia,” supported by BMZ. Six bilateral projects funded by USDA-Tunisia, with ICARDA associated as a partner to provide backstopping, continued to be implemented. Two of these are implemented in partnership with IRA Medenine—“Economic and Cultural Value of Herbal, Aromatic, and Medicinal Plants,” and “GIS for Watershed Management in the Arid Regions of Tunisia.” Others are: “Research on Improving Productivity of Oats as Priority Forage Species;” “Partnership to Improve Rural Livelihoods in North Africa and West Asia through Strengthened Teaching and Research on Sheep and Goat Production;” “Biological Control of Weeds with Plant Pathogens;” and a sub-regional “Expert Consultation on Biotechnology in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.” In addition, NARP started the implementation of a bilateral research-development project called “Rapid Impact Program on Research and Extension in Mauritania,” with support from CIDA. Also, implementation of five new bilateral projects for Morocco started in 2003. The projects are in biotechnology, crop improvement, genetic resources and genebanks, IPM, agro-ecological characterization, and GIS. Seven project proposals were developed in partnership with NARS in 2003. Proposals for which funding has been obtained are: “Watershed/GIS Tunisia,” funded by USDA in collaboration with Purdue University; and “Improving the Livelihoods of Rural Communities and Natural Resource Management in the Mountains of the Maghreb Countries of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia,” funded partially by SDC. |
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| Workshops and coordination meetings | |||||||||||||||||
NARP regional coordinator and scientists participated in several international and regional workshops. These included the (i) “Inter-Academy Council (IAC) Workshop on Science and Technology in North Africa,” held in Rabat, Morocco; (ii) “Third Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Economic Institutes,” held in Marseilles, France, at which a paper entitled “Vulnerabilities of Farming Systems in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas in Maghreb: Hypotheses and Methods” was presented; (iii) “Supplemental Irrigation in North Africa,” organized by FAO in Tunisia; (iv) “Benchmark Rainfed Agriculture,” held in Morocco; (v) “Aromatic and Medicinal plants in the Mediterranean Region,” organized by the EU and
National coordination meetings were held in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia to review results of collaborative research and develop plans of work for the future. There was an increase in the participation of scientists from the different NARS in each country. The Coordination meetings were attended by more than 200 scientists, research managers, and extension agents, in addition to representatives from FAO, OSS, UNDP, IRD, AOAD and NGOs. |
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| New partnership agreements | |||||||||||||||||
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A new agreement was signed with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Algeria, under which ICARDA will backstop the Algeria Rural Development Plan (PNDAR). A liaison office for ICARDA, fully supported by the Government of Algeria, was opened in Algiers in October to strengthen the partnership and facilitate coordination within the country. |
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| Human resource development | |||||||||||||||||
| A two-week training course on “Participatory Community Approaches, Survey Methodologies and Data Collection and Analysis” was conducted by NARP in Morocco in collaboration with INRA Morocco. Twelve Mauritanian scientists participated in the training which was conducted as part of the project “Rapid Impact Program on Research and Extension in Mauritania,” funded by CIDA. Within the framework of a new project “Agro-Pastoral Development and Local Initiatives Promotion Program in the South-East (PRODESUD),” funded by IFAD, NARP scientists trained project personnel on the community participatory approach. This was based on ICARDA’s experience from the “Development of Integrated Crop/Livestock Production Systems in the Low Rainfall Areas of West Asia and North Africa,” project. | |||||||||||||||||
| Technical assistance | |||||||||||||||||
| Within the framework of the IFAD-funded program on “Accelerated Project Performance in North Africa,” ICARDA provided technical assistance to the following projects: (i) “Integrated Agricultural Development in Siliana” and “Integrated Agricultural Development in Zaghouane,” in Tunisia—on monitoring, evaluation, impact assessment, alternative feed resources, and enhancing local institutions; and (ii) mountain and rural development projects in eastern Morocco—on sociology, local institutions, and rangeland management. ICARDA also provided technical backstopping to the IFAD-funded “Agro-Pastoral Development and Local Initiatives Promotion Program in the South-East,” to institutionalize the community participatory approach within the project. | |||||||||||||||||
| Nile Valley and Red Sea Regional Program |
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| The Nile Valley and Red Sea Regional Program (NVRSRP) operates through ICARDA’s Regional Office in Cairo, Egypt. Its overall objective is to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers in the region through the improvement of the productivity and sustainability of production systems, while conserving natural resources and enhancing the research capacity of national scientists in Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Yemen. NVRSRP coordinates ICARDA’s activities and several special projects in the member countries. | |||||||||||||||||
| Collaborative projects | |||||||||||||||||
| The collaborative projects within the NVRSRP
include: “Food Legumes and Cereals Improvement in Egypt,” “Transfer
of Improved Production Packages for Wheat and Legumes in Sudan and Ethiopia,”
“Control of Wild Oats in Cereals and other Winter Crops in Egypt,”
“Strengthening Client-Oriented Research and Technology Dissemination
for Sustainable Production of Cool-Season Food and Forage Legumes in Ethiopia,”
“Natural Resources Management in Egypt,” the ICARDA/AGERI project
on “Identification of Resistance Genes in Cereals to Abiotic Stresses,”
and the ICARDA/CLAES project on “Upgrading Faba Bean and Wheat Expert
Systems in WANA.” Several projects in the NVRSRP countries continued to be managed from ICARDA headquarters, covering such areas as integrated pest management in faba bean (Egypt), integrated cereal disease management (Eritrea), grasspea improvement (Ethiopia), barley participatory breeding (Yemen and Egypt) and mountain terrace conservation (Yemen). In addition, NVRSRP contributed to the development of several concept notes on potential collaborative projects in the region for the approved Challenge Program on ‘Water & Food.’ One of them “Improving Water Productivity of Cereal and Food Legumes in the Atbara River Basin of Eritrea” was approved for funding. |
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| Workshops and coordination meetings | |||||||||||||||||
A regional workshop on “Integrated Control
of Orobanche and Viral Diseases in Egypt” was organized jointly
with the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) of Egypt in Fayoum in September.
It was attended by 40 participants from Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan,
FAO, GTZ, ICARDA and IITA, as well as farmers from the Fayoum governorate.
ICARDA also co-organized a regional workshop on “Quality Assurance in Seed Testing” at the Giza Seed Testing Station of the Central Administration for Seed Certification and Testing in Cairo. Participants included senior managers of the most active seed testing laboratories in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey. The World Bank and ICARDA organized a consultation workshop on “Rural Development and the Role of Science and Technology in the CWANA Region” in Cairo, Egypt, in February. Participants from 26 countries included leaders and representatives from the agricultural sector and research organizations, NGOs, farmers’ associations, civil society organizations, and the private sector. Representatives of donor agencies (FAO, GTZ, UNEP, WB and EU) and experts and scientists from the CG Centers and international and regional organizations (AOAD and ACSAD) also attended. More than 130 researchers, scientists, policy makers, extensionists and representatives from different institutions participated in the “Second National Food Legumes Workshop” in Ethiopia, cosponsored by ICARDA. The annual national coordination meetings were held in Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen. For the new partner, Eritrea, the first Eritrea/ICARDA coordination meeting was held in Asmara in October, and was attended by more than 90 scientists, researchers and extenstionists from the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), University of Asmara, Ministry of Agriculture, NGOs, Virginia State University, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Risø National Laboratory of Denmark, ICARDA and other agricultural development agencies. A large number of scientists and research managers from the respective national programs and collaborating universities, and from ICARDA participated in the meetings. Emphasis was put on transfer of improved technologies developed using the community approach.
NVRSRP Regional Coordinator participated in several important international and regional workshops/meetings. These included the (i) “Sustainable Strategies for Irrigation in Salt-Prone Mediterranean Regions: A Systems Approach,” held in Cairo, Egypt; (ii) “Sub-regional Workshop on Science and Strategies for Improved Agricultural Productivity and Food Security in North Africa,“ organized by the Inter-Academy Council (IAC), AARINENA, and Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine in Rabat, Morocco; (iii) “Fourth Session of the General Assembly Joint Committee on Environment and Development in the Arab Region;” (iv) “Fourteenth Session of the Steering Committee for Desertification of Technical Commission of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment (CAMRE);” and the (v) “Second Mediterranean Conference for Agricultural Research Cooperation,” held in Cairo, Egypt. |
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| Human resource development | |||||||||||||||||
| NVRSRP organized a regional specialized training
course on “Participatory Research Methods and Community Approach
and Characterization” in Cairo, Egypt, in April. It was part of the
IFAD-funded NVRSRP project. Thirteen scientists from Egypt, Ethiopia,
Sudan and Yemen attended the course. An in-country training course was held in Eritrea in September on “Cereal Diseases and Integrated Disease Management.” It was attended by 24 participants from research and extension institutions. Coordinated by ICARDA, in collaboration with IAV-Hassan II in Morocco, Risø National Laboratories of Denmark, and the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the course was part of the Integrated Cereal Disease Management Project (ICDM) that ICARDA is implementing in Eritrea. Scientists from Egypt, Ethiopia and Yemen participated in a traveling workshop in March in Egypt. They visited demonstration plots of improved technologies in farmers’ fields in Fayoum, Sakha and Nubaria. This was followed by another traveling workshop on barley production improvement in Egypt in April, in which 43 scientists, extensionists, and farmers participated. They visited farming activities related to barley production in the Governorates of North Sinai and Kafr El-Sheikh. Both workshops were conducted within the framework of the IFAD-funded NVRSRP. |
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| Technical assistance | |||||||||||||||||
| ICARDA scientists provided technical assistance to the Matrouh Resource Management Project (MRMP) in participatory barley breeding. The scientists visited the project to follow up on the field assessment of genetic material provided by ICARDA and planted under farmers’ conditions and to assist the project team in preparing for the harvest. Assistance was provided to Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum in upgrading its library. | |||||||||||||||||
| Interregional cooperation | |||||||||||||||||
| A delegation of scientists from the Chinese
Academy of Agricultural Sciences visited NVRSRP in September. They expressed
interest in initiating cooperation with Egypt through ICARDA’s collaborative
projects particularly in faba bean improvement. NVRSRP and APRP facilitated the visit of two scientists from Afghanistan to the facilities of the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate (CLAC) to familiarize them with the Egyptian experience in protected agriculture. The Director General of SPII, Iran, visited Egypt to discuss possible cooperation between the concerned Egyptian institutions and SPII. A delegation from the Barani Project in Pakistan, consisting of the Director of the Soil and Water Conservation Research Institute (SAWCRI) and a senior researcher, visited research institutes of ARC, modern private farms in the newly reclaimed lands, and Marsa Matrouh resource management project in Egypt. They also visited the department of agronomy and soil science at Ain Shams University, Cairo. |
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| West Asia Regional Program |
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| The West Asia Regional Program (WARP) based in Amman, Jordan, works in partnership with the NARS of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Syria to enhance productivity of crops and rangelands in the dry areas. In spite of the prevailing difficult situation in Iraq and Palestine, ICARDA’s activities in these countries have continued in the areas of capacity building, exchange of germplasm, scientific visits, and developing plans for the rehabilitation of the agricultural sectors. The major collaborative research project in the region is the GEF/UNDP-funded “Conservation and Sustainable use of Dryland Agrobiodiversity.” There are other collaborative activities coordinated directly by the scientists at ICARDA headquarters for Syria and Lebanon. | |||||||||||||||||
| The Dryland Agrobiodiversity Project | |||||||||||||||||
This project, now in its fourth year, continued
its activities in Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Syria,
of promoting the conservation and sustainable use of landraces and wild
species of global importance originating from the Fertile Crescent. In
2003, the project focused on consolidating the achievements and impacts,
and increasing local-community participation (see
Project 3.3).
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| Workshops and coordination meetings | |||||||||||||||||
| The fifth regional technical and planning coordination
meeting of the GEF/UNDP Biodiversity Project was held in Lebanon in September.
It was opened by the Ministers of Agriculture of Lebanon and Syria, and
attended by representatives of GEF and UNDP, Directors General of national
research institutes, national project managers and scientists from the
four countries, and from ICARDA, ACSAD, and IPGRI-WANA. Participants expressed
satisfaction with the achievements of the project in putting in place
the framework for a sound community-based agrobiodiversity conservation
approach. The regional steering committee meeting was held afterwards. ICARDA organized a sub-regional workshop on “Declaring the Badia Benchmark Research Site in Jordan” at NCARTT headquarters in Amman in October, funded by AFESD and IFAD. More than 50 participants from NCARTT, the Ministry of Agriculture, universities, the Higher Council for Science and Technology, representatives of farmers and NGOs participated in the workshop. Participants reviewed the characteristics of the badia in WANA and the strategy for badia development in Jordan. They also visited potential sites in Muwaqqar, Mafraq, and Karak regions, and held discussions with local communities. The ninth Iraq/ICARDA biennial coordination meeting was held in Amman, Jordan in November, and was attended by 12 Iraqi scientists led by the First Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Basil Dalali. Representatives from the Ministry of Environment, the Universities of Baghdad and Mosul, the Research Institute IPA and the Institute of Science and Technology also participated. ICARDA Director General led a team of seven scientists from the Center. Representatives from USAID, JICA, and FAO attended the opening session. Participants were pleased with ICARDA’s collaborative activities to rehabilitate the agricultural sector in Iraq in the past two years, which included the continuous provision of breeding nurseries of cereals and legumes, the initiation of participatory breeding for barley, the survey of insects and diseases of cereals, the assessment of economic impacts of supplemental irrigation and of technologies promoted within the Mashreq/Maghreb project, on-farm water-use efficiency, agroclimatic characterization, and initiation of GIS database. Agricultural research activities to be implemented in the next two years were discussed. |
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| Human resource development | |||||||||||||||||
| The Agrobiodiversity Project organized seven
regional courses and 38 national training activities. More than 1430 farmers,
researchers, and extensionists participated in the training activities,
400 of whom were women. Thirteen students obtained MSc degrees, and most
of them are now working with the project. Traveling workshops for 21 women
and 14 herders enabled participants to share experiences during their
visits to project sites in Jordan, Lebanon, ICARDA headquarters, Syria,
and many income generating activities of different projects. ICARDA organized training for 10 Iraqi scientists at its headquarters, sponsored nine others to participate in international and regional conferences and workshops, and carried out more than 50 literature searches for researchers and university students. Two ICARDA scientists visited Iraq and two Iraqi scientists joined ICARDA to work, respectively, on water and socioeconomic issues. |
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| Arabian Peninsula Regional Program |
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| Collaborative research | |||||||||||||||||
| To improve irrigation management of field crops
in the Arabian Peninsula, fully automatic weather stations have been established
in each country under a special agreement with APRP. The necessary equipment
for networking these stations has also been provided. Data are collected
on a regular basis and the irrigation management software is being developed.
Water-use efficiency for the production of some vegetable crops, under
surface and drip irrigation, has been studied in Bahrain in three locations.
The results showed the advantages of the drip system over surface irrigation
in water saving and yield. In Yemen, a study on the utilization of water
dams and reservoirs in the highlands showed the need for regular record
keeping of the amount of annual floods reaching the dams, and of the status
of underground water. Utilization of indigenous species as alternative forage plants is one of the major themes in the ‘Forage Production and Rangeland Management’ work in APRP. Studies to identify priority indigenous grass species continued in the UAE, Bahrain, the Sultanate of Oman, and Saudi Arabia. In the Al-Jouf area of northern Saudi Arabia more than 10 tonnes of native shrub seeds of 40 species were produced. Experiments carried out by APRP in the Al-Jouf covered (i) transplanting native shrubs under natural conditions with supplementary irrigation, (ii) comparison of two different methods of rangeland reseeding, and (iii) water-use efficiency of Medicago sativa in comparison with the local shrub Atriplex leucoclada. The results showed that (i) native range species adapted better to lower moisture content situations, and only a small amount of water provided at the time of planting was sufficient to establish the range shrubs; (ii) naturally distributed species were better adapted to transplanting, while perennial grass species needed reseeding to rehabilitate rangelands; and (iii) Medicago sativa had highest productivity in conditions of high moisture content, whereas Atriplex performed better under low moisture supply and remained productive even when the amount of water decreased to 6 mm in the root zone. Seed multiplication of important forage grasses also continued in Yemen. Adropogon barbanoides, Cenchrus ciliaris and Pennisetum thunbergii are the most important range/forage species identified earlier by AREA-Yemen and are being multiplied at the North Highland Research Station, Al-Erreh. A soilless vertical growing system for the production of cash crops under protected conditions was established in Oman by ICARDA working with Omani scientists. The technique offers a way of improving water-use efficiency and obtaining better water and fertilizer management in crop production. Integrated Production and Protection Management (IPPM), a package of simple techniques and practices to provide greenhouse growers with environment-friendly crop protection without relying on hazardous agro-chemicals to produce high quality crops, has been introduced by APRP to the different research stations of the AP countries and adopted by growers. Use of insect-proof netting and hotspots control in an IPPM house eliminated aphids, leaf miners, and spiders, and only one spray of aphidicide was applied to control aphids as compared to the ‘control’ greenhouse where 10 sprays had to be applied during the season. In collaboration with the Agriculture Research and Extension Authority (AREA) cultivation of cash crops in greenhouses was introduced to farmers in the mountain terraces of Yemen, because a careful assessment of the socioeconomic characteristics of these production systems had revealed that there was a need to diversify the sources of income for the farmers by introducing high value crops. A Protected Agriculture project was started two years ago with three green houses, but the number has increased rapidly to fifteen. The Project has particularly helped the women farmers to earn additional income. |
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| Workshops and coordination meetings | |||||||||||||||||
| The regional technical coordination meeting
of APRP was held at ICARDA headquarters, Aleppo, Syria in December, and
brought together over 40 scientists from all the Arabian Peninsula countries.
Over 35 scientific papers were presented and discussed and plans for the
future were elaborated. Several regional seminars and workshops were organized by APRP in the UAE. These included the (i) “Participatory Breeding for Stressful Environments,” (ii) “Information Technology and its Effect on Improving Water-use Efficiency,” (iii) “Integrated Pest Management,” and (iv) a sensitization workshop on “ICARDA activities in Arabian Peninsula.” APRP also conducted a workshop to review activities of ICARDA in the countries of Arabian Peninsula, with special emphasis on Saudi Arabia. ICARDA sponsored scientists from AP countries to participate in the “Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR)” meeting held in Dakar, Senegal, in May, and the “Seventh International Conference on Development of Dry Lands,” held in Tehran, Iran, in September. |
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| Human resource development | |||||||||||||||||
| During the year, 21 researchers from the Arabian
Peninsula countries participated in different training programs organized
by ICARDA. These included: “Management of Water Resources and Improvement
of Water-Use Efficiency in the Dry Areas,” “Scientific Writing
and Data Presentation,” “DNA Molecular Marker Techniques for
Crop Improvement,” “Electronic Document Management and the Use
of Web AGRIS Tools for Database Management on the Web,” the “Regional
Training Workshop on Participatory Research Methods and Community Approach
and Characterization,” and “Utilization of Expert Systems in
Agricultural Research and Production.” An on-the-job training program on greenhouse management was organized by APRP in collaboration with the Arab Qatari Agriculture Production Company (AQAPC) for two Yemeni researchers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. The participants spent two months in the modern farm of AQAPC in Qatar getting hands-on training. |
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| Highland Regional Program |
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| The Highland Regional Program (HRP) promotes agricultural production in the highland areas of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, as well as the Atlas mountain range in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and the highland areas in Central Asia and the Caucasus. ICARDA project staff are located in Iran and Afghanistan, while work in Turkey is handled from the headquarters. | |||||||||||||||||
| Iran |
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| Collaborative research | |||||||||||||||||
ICARDA scientists, along with their Iranian
partners in Dryland Agricultural Research Institute (DARI), carried out
collaborative experiments on germplasm (barley, lentil, chickpea, forage
legumes) improvement and natural resources management, including soil
fertility, tillage, and supplementary irrigation. More farmers adopted
the improved technology for wheat growing developed by the collaborating
program leading to an increase in production levels. The technology was
adopted by farmers on an area of over 60,000 ha in four provinces as opposed
to 4,000 ha in the previous season. Despite the terminal drought that
prevailed in most of rainfed areas, about 12.5 million tonnes of wheat
was harvested, enough to meet nearly 90% of the country’s needs.
Oilseed crops (rapeseed and safflower) were tested by DARI research staff at several sites including Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Maragheh, Ilam, Gonbad, and Gachsaran. In general, rapeseed performs better in higher rainfall (³400 mm), mild winter areas, with yields of up to 4 t/ha or more under good management. Yield is below 1/ha in mild, dry areas, and about 0.5 t/ha in dry, cold or moderately-cold areas. Therefore, rapeseed cultivation is hindered primarily by lack of moisture, and by cold conditions at germination and establishment. Spring types with high yield identified are primarily the hybrids ‘Hayola 401’ and ‘Hayola 308.’ Winter types that did well in Kermanshah in 2003 include the hybrids ‘Elite,’ ‘Ebonite,’ and the open-pollinated variety ‘Parade,’ under rainfed conditions. Under irrigation, the recommended and available varieties for farmers are ‘Okapi,’ ‘Orient,’ and ‘Cobra.’ Safflower was better adapted than rapeseed in harsh, dry areas and has potential of fitting in rotation with barley, in contrast to rape seed which fits in rotation with wheat. Improved varieties of safflower are being evaluated. Allelopathy experiments in wheat confirmed again the weed-suppressing ability of the genotype ‘Batera,’ which, in artificially weed-infested fields at Maragheh, caused a reduction in the number and dry weight of weeds by 60% and 85%, respectively. Its grain yield (2.5 t/ha) was similar to that of ‘Azar 2,’ a top yielding cultivar at Maragheh. Other wheat entries showed a lower degree of weed control. Experiments on chickpea and lentil, at Maragheh and Ardebil, showed that residues of some crops mixed with the soil hinder the development of weeds in field conditions. Sunflower residue seemed able to control weeds to an appreciable extent in both chickpea and lentil. Studies were continued on sunn pest control in the hot spots in Esfahan province. Two documents summarizing agronomic research (soil fertility, tillage, etc.) and supplementary irrigation experiments conducted by DARI during the past several years reached completion, and will be published in 2004. |
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| Workshops and coordination meetings | |||||||||||||||||
| The “Seventh International Conference
on Development of Dry Lands” was held in Tehran, Iran in September.
More than 200 scientists from 25 countries and international organizations
including FAO, ICRISAT, ICARDA, and UNEP, participated in the conference,
organized under the auspices of the International Dry Lands Development
Commission (IDDC). It was cosponsored by ICARDA and the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture
of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Scientific contributions included 100
oral presentations and 80 posters covering diverse topics related to soil
and water conservation, forage and range management, biodiversity conservation
and utilization, stress physiology, biotechnology, development and transfer
of new technologies for dry lands, and the use of indigenous knowledge
and heritage. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and genetic resources were the focus of a national seminar organized by ICARDA in collaboration with the Plant Variety Registration Control and Certification Institute (PVRCCI) and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). The seminar, held at Karaj, was attended by about 100 policy makers, directors and technical staff of various agricultural centers and institutes in Iran, as well as experts from UPOV and ICARDA. Participants reviewed the global mechanisms of plant variety protection and made recommendations to PVRCCI. The eleventh Iran/ICARDA annual planning and coordination meeting took place at Maragheh on 6-11 September, with the participation of more than 50 Iranian and 7 ICARDA scientists. Collaborative work with DARI was reviewed, including the research experiments on breeding wheat, barley, chickpea, lentil, and forage crops; soil and water resource management; and diseases control. A day was devoted to a discussion at AREO-Tehran among a number of scientists from ICARDA, the Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII), and the Plant Pests and Diseases Research Institute (PPDRI) on (i) breeding of wheat, barley, and faba bean with SPII, and (ii) IPM of wheat and barley diseases and insect pests with PPDRI, with particular emphasis on Sunn pest, root diseases, and nematodes. A stakeholders meeting was held at Karaj by NARS of Iran in collaboration with ICARDA, IRRI and IWMI for developing plans for Kerkhah River Basin research project under ‘Water & Food’ Challenge Program. The participants also toured the Basin area. Based on these, concept notes were developed and submitted for support, of which two were accepted for funding under the above Challenge Program. Two researchers from PPDRI were sponsored to participate in the workshop on “IPM for Orobanche in Food Legumes Systems in the Near East and North Africa,” held in Rabat, Morocco, in April. The scientists presented the Iranian experience in Orobanche control. Also, five Iranian scientists involved in the ICARDA-coordinated Sunn pest project participated in a “Sunn Pest IPM Workshop” held in Adana, Turkey in September. As an outcome of the workshop, participants prepared workplans for future research. Other participants came from Syria, Turkey, USA, UK, and ICARDA. Following the meeting, Iranian and ICARDA scientists visited research sites in Esfahan to observe experiments conducted on entomopathogenic fungi. A follow-up two-week training visit was made to ICARDA’s entomology laboratory by six Iranian scientists in December. |
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| Human resource development | |||||||||||||||||
| A training workshop on “Monitoring and
Assessing the Adoption and Impact of Improved Production Technology in
the Rainfed Areas of Iran” was jointly organized by the Department
of Extension and Farming System (DEFS), DARI, and ICARDA in October at
Tabriz. Twenty-one participants from Iran and three from ICARDA attended
the workshop. Participants discussed concepts and methods of monitoring
and evaluating the adoption and impact of improved technology, and reviewed
data from a survey conducted by Iranian DEFS staff during 2003. Five researchers from DARI received specialized short-term training on wheat and barley improvement, chickpea breeding, and farm machinery. Two researchers from SPII participated in a six-week training on barley improvement. Other researchers participated in short courses on: water resources management, scientific writing, soil-borne cereal diseases, and wheat expert systems. An in-country course was held at Maragheh in February on “Cropping System Models for Extrapolation of the Site-Specific Research Results.” Fifteen scientists from DARI and one from ICARDA participated in the course. |
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| Turkey |
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The annual GAP- RDA/ICARDA technical coordination meeting was held at ICARDA headquarters in March. Achievements of the previous season were reviewed and a workplan for the next season was developed. The meeting noted the considerable progress made in crop improvement, and rangeland/ livestock and seed production. Future plans for GAP-RDA ICARDA collaboration were also discussed. Twenty-four progressive farmers from GAP-RDA areas visited ICARDA. The farmers viewed crops, seed, and livestock production activities in Syria and ICARDA. Seventeen Turkish scientists from GAP and the Ministry of Agriculture visited ICARDA to participate in courses on seed production, Sunn pest, scientific writing and data presentation, use of taxonomic keys of forage legumes, DNA molecular marker techniques for crop improvement, and water management. Two training courses were conducted in Turkey; one on “Straw Ammoniation and Feed-Blocks,” in which 27 farmers and 12 technical GAP staff participated, and the second on “Soil-Borne Pathogens of Cereals,” which attracted scientists from the CWANA region. Collaboration was continued within Turkey, CIMMYT/ICARDA International Winter Wheat Improvement Project. The ICARDA and CIMMYT Directors General visited the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Turkey in February 2003 to discuss on-going cooperation and explore opportunities for new initiatives. |
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| Central Asia and the Caucasus Regional Program |
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The Central
Asia and the Caucasus Regional Program (CACRP), based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,
promotes regional cooperation in research, capacity building, and human
resource development in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan in Central Asia; and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in
the Caucasus. The program has built strong partnerships with the CAC NARS
in germplasm improvement, plant genetic resources, soil and water management,
and integrated feed and livestock production.
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| Collaborative projects | |||||||||||||||||
| Collaborative research made considerable progress
in 2003. ‘Dostlik,’ a variety of winter wheat from Turkey/CIMMYT/ICARDA
nursery, was released in Uzbekistan. In addition, more than 40 promising
varieties of wheat, barley, chickpea and lentil were under testing by
the State Varietal Testing Commissions for future release. In all, 4650
new accessions/ breeding lines of different crops were supplied to the
national programs during the year. Two germplasm collection missions were conducted (see Project 3.3) in Tajikistan and Armenia in July-August in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Vavilov Research Institute (VIR). Besides the establishment of plant genetic resources (PGR) groups in each of the eight countries of CAC, ICARDA provided technical backstopping and equipment for the setting up of genetic resource centers in Georgia, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, and Kyrgyzstan. An agreement for research collaboration was signed between ICARDA and the Republic of Turkmenistan. Two other agreements were signed with Kazakh Agrarian University, Almaty and the Kyrgyz Agrarian University, Bishkek. In June, a strategic partnership agreement for the Global Mechanism (GM) initiatives in the Central Asian countries was signed by the GM and ICARDA in Tashkent. As a starting point in the collaboration, the CACRP Office in Tashkent is now hosting a regional management environmental consultant, who coordinates the GM’s work in Central Asia and facilitates the effective implementation of the UNCCD in the region. The progress in ADB-funded regional project on soil and water management was reviewed in a meeting of national coordinators from five participating countries in which the Project Economist of the East and Central Asia Division of the ADB participated. Proposal for a second phase of the project was discussed. |
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| Workshops and coordination meetings | |||||||||||||||||
The “First Central Asian Wheat Conference,” was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, cosponsored by Kazak NARS, CIMMYT, ICARDA, and donors. It was aimed at assessing the status of research and cooperation on wheat improvement in Central Asia, particularly, in the field of wheat breeding, genetics, plant protection, biotechnology and agronomy; evaluating the achievements of the regional cooperation on wheat varieties’ promotion and seed production; and facilitating information exchange between scholars and specialists from Central Asia and other countries. Over 200 scientists participated.
The seventh ICARDA-CAC regional coordination meeting was held in Yerevan, Armenia in September. Forty-five participants, including the heads of the seven NARS from the CAC region, ICARDA scientists, representatives of other international and donor organizations as well as NGOs, attended the meetings. Discussions focused on germplasm enhancement and natural resources management. Two separate special sessions were held on developing project proposals on mountain agriculture and livestock and range biodiversity.
A joint FAO-ICARDA mission visited Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan from 21 January to 16 February to assess the efficiency of seed supply, distribution, and marketing systems. The team met with senior officials of the ministries of agriculture, representatives of public and private seed sectors, NGOs and donors. They proposed an action plan to address key issues including reformation of the governmental seed sector support programs, improvement of local seed production systems, and development of regionally competitive seed industries with effective links to the international seed industries. The mission was followed by a special meeting on seed harmonization in the CAC region held in September in Armenia. Participants agreed that in order to harmonize issues of seed production, marketing, and quality control, the NARS of the region should be assisted to organize a regional seed network. Senior agricultural research managers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan attended a Workshop on “Rural Development Strategy in CWANA,” organized by ICARDA in Cairo, Egypt. The workshop focused on the World Bank’s new strategy on rural development. |
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| Human resource development | |||||||||||||||||
| Strengthening the capacity of the NARS in the
region continues to be a priority of ICARDA. A total of 460 CAC scientists
and farmers participated in different international conferences, workshops,
seminars, field visits and training courses. In addition, 35 scientists
from all CAC countries participated in an intensive training course in
English held in Tashkent. CACRP, in partnership with the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), organized a training course on “Biosaline Agriculture and Sustainable Production Systems,” in Tashkent. Twenty-seven participants from five Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan attended the training which addressed issues of soil salinity and water management. Scientists from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan participated in the second traveling workshop on food legumes in Central Asia. The objectives of the workshop were to evaluate and select improved lentil and chickpea lines, and discuss problems and a future plan of action for legume improvement. The group jointly visited Andijan and Galla-aral research stations in Uzbekistan and Krasny Vodopad station in Kazakhstan. CACRP supported the participation of six scientists from the CAC region in the seventh International Conference on Development “of Dry Lands,” held in Tehran, Iran. The Conference provided on opportunity to exchange research results and experience in dryland development and control of desertification. |
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Foreword Highlights of the Year ICARDA’s Research Portfolio International Cooperation Research Support Services Appendices .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... |
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