ICARDA Annual Report 2003

R E S E A R C H S U P P O R T S E R V I C E S

Communication, Documentation and Information Services

The Communication, Documentation and Information Services (CODIS) Unit continued to provide a variety of services to scientists at headquarters, in regional programs, and in NARS.

The year saw the launch of the Arabic version of ICARDA’s website (www.icarda.org/Arabic). The website continued to be enriched with Arabic publications including the Center’s Annual Reports and other information material. In addition, CODIS made design improvements on the English version of the Center’s website, enriching the content and adding new links. Both the English and Arabic sites attracted a large number of visitors from all over the world.

Agriculture Minister of Afghanistan, H.E. Mr Sayed Hussain Anwari (right), is interviewed by Mr Enayat Safi in the Ministry's refurbished studio. Mr Safi produces a weekly radio program for farmers, funded by the ICARDA-led Future Harvest Consortium.

A website on medicinal and aromatic plants was developed within the context of the “Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (PAM)” project in southern Tunisia, implemented by the Institut des Regions Arides (IRA), Tunisia, in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) and ICARDA. Also, web pages were developed on Moroccan Collaborative Research Grants, in response to a request from the Moroccan national program.

Within the framework of the Marketing Group of the CGIAR, CODIS led the development of a proposal to produce a comprehensive report on the role of the CGIAR centers in “Rebuilding Agriculture in Countries Affected by Conflicts and Natural Disasters.” The proposal was approved and contributions from the participating centers were received to develop a monograph on the subject. The monograph is expected to be published in 2004.

Several communication activities related to rebuilding agriculture in Afghanistan were conducted by CODIS during 2003. Within the framework of activities of the “Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan,” supported by USAID, a new audio editing and recording studio was installed at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Kabul, and was officially launched by the H.E. Sayed Hussain Anwari, Afghanistan’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock. Afghanistan pages on ICARDA’s website were redesigned and enriched with research reports on livestock, rangelands and feed. Many news releases were issued to provide updates on the progress of work in Afghanistan.

ICARDA’s Virtual Library continued to serve the NARS by providing them with access to millions of records through the Center’s website. The ICARDA Library, which has a rich collection of scientific publications, acquired 180 new books and over 1000 journals and annual reports during the year.

CODIS continued to offer capacity building support to NARS in the CWANA region. Two training courses were held, one on “Electronic Documents and Bibliographic Database Management on the Web,” which attracted 17 participants from five countries; and another on “Scientific Writing,” which attracted 11 participants from 10 countries. In addition, NARS staff from Sudan, Ethiopia, and Tunisia came to CODIS for individual training in various fields including information management, website development, and multimedia productions.

Many books and information materials were developed during the year including an issue of ICARDA Caravan, devoted to rebuilding agriculture. ICARDA publications were distributed and displayed at major meetings and events including the Annual General Meeting of the CGIAR in Nairobi, Kenya and at the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) meeting, held in Dakar, Senegal. At the GFAR meeting, an ICARDA poster on “Linking Research and Rural Innovation to Sustainable Development” designed by CODIS, won an award.

Computer and Biometric Services Unit

The Computer and Biometric Services Unit (CBSU) enhanced the Internet bandwidth and installed alternative connections including satellite and land-based links. The site design for the ICARDA Intranet was improved. Information on ICARDA, the CRISP database and an English-Arabic dictionary of statistical terms was uploaded to the Intranet. The local area Fast-Ethernet computer network was extended to the Sheep Unit. Migration to Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP operating systems was initiated. The Unit continued to support ICARDA’s outreach offices including the Kabul office. Hardware maintenance, local area network, and Internet access were provided to the ICARDA School.

In cooperation with NRMP, the Unit developed a new Meteorological Database using Oracle DBMS. The Unit also created a “Professionals for Iraq Reconstruction Registry” website and an “Economic Assessment of On-Farm Water Use Efficiency in Agriculture” for ESCWA.

For the Oracle Financial/ Administrative Applications, 15 new custom reports and 2 forms were developed, 57 custom reports and several procedures were modified. The payroll system was re-designed to upgrade it to release 11i, and 22 forms and 15 reports and 5 programs were developed. Offers for the implementation of Oracle Applications 11i and project quality assurance from consultants were solicited and analyzed.

Biometric consultancies were rendered to researchers on 110 occasions. Statistical software and data management support was provided on 80 occasions and online computing on 95 sessions of data analyses. Statistical designs were developed for many experiments including those on crop-loss assessment in cereals; fungicide application on chickpea; supplemental irrigation on two summer crops; diversity studies on wild and cultivated lentils and peas; restoration of species of legumes and grasses for the steppes in Syria; and seed-storage factors on seed germination.

Statistical analysis services continued to be provided to headquarters scientists in a variety of ongoing experiments and trials. The Unit provided biometric support to NARS on analysis of wheat yields under supplemental irrigation in Central Anatolia, Turkey and estimations of genotypic and phenotypic correlations. A procedure for estimating heritability in lentil trials exhibiting spatial variability in the presence of G x E interaction was developed. CBSU also developed a program for pair-wise group means comparisons from spatial analysis of field trials. A statistical methodology has been formulated to measure consistency (repeatability) of genotype x location interaction over time, using bootstrap re-sampling of locations.

The Unit developed a joint project proposal on “Utilization of Intelligent Information Systems for Crop Protection” which was submitted to the CGIAR Chief Information Officer. A project proposal for establishing a website for TPN4 was submitted to the UNCCD.

CBSU contributed to various training courses in ICARDA on “Application of Molecular Tools for Bio-diversity Studies,” “Management of Water Resources and Improvement of Water-Use Efficiency in the Dry Areas,” and “Scientific Writing and Data Presentation.” The Unit also trained several scientists from NARS and provided in-house training on various software packages.

Human Resource Development Unit

A training course on DNA Molecular Marker Techniques in progress in ICARDA biotechnology laboratory.

During 2003, ICARDA offered training opportunities to 538 national scientists from 31 countries including CWANA, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region, and Europe. Fifty-one national scientists from both developing and industrialized countries conducted research for MSc and PhD degrees jointly between ICARDA and agricultural universities around the world. About 20% of ICARDA training participants were women.

ICARDA continued its strategy to gradually decentralize its training activities by offering more non-headquarter training courses. During the year, ICARDA offered 15 headquarters training courses and 16 in-country, regional and sub-regional courses.

In its efforts to respond to the demands for training from NARS, the Human Resources Development Unit (HRDU) also facilitated and coordinated the implementation of several training courses for external-funded projects. Examples include:

1-	In-country training course on “Planning and Management of Water Resources,” funded by the Syrian Ministry of Irrigation and UNDP.
2-	Regional training workshop on “Participatory Research Methods and Community Approach and Characterization,” held in Cairo, Egypt, sponsored by IFAD.
3-	Regional training course on “Management of Water Resources and Improvement of Water-use Efficiency in the Dry Areas.” This was the Center’s second year to conduct this ICARDA/JICA joint training course and 28 senior researchers from 16 different countries participated. Several participants in this course were sponsored by the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), based in Dubai, Emirates, and the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR) operating in Afghanistan.
4-	Regional training course on “Biosaline Agricultural and Sustainable Production Systems,” jointly organized and sponsored by ICBA and ICARDA, held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
5-	Training course on “Seed Processing and Storage,” jointly funded by the Southern Anatolia Development Project in Turkey.
6-	Training Workshop on “Intellectual and Tangible Property Management in Agriculture.” This advanced training workshop involved 11 NARS leaders and policy makers from Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia as well as 11 senior scientists and management members from ICARDA. The workshop instructors were Dr John Dodds (ICARDA legal counsel) and Dr Anatole F. Krattiger from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, USA and it was partially funded by SYNGENTA.
7-	In-country training course on “Cereal Diseases and Integrated Disease Management,” held in Halhale, Asmara. The course was organized by ICARDA (ICDM-project and NVRSP) and the Department of Agricultural Research and Human Resources Development (DARHRD), Ministry of Agriculture in Eritrea, and was funded by the Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA).
8-	Regional training course on “Utilization of Expert Systems in Agricultural Research and Production,” held at the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Expert Systems (CLAES) in Cairo, Egypt.
9-	Regional training workshop on “Quality Assurance in Seed Testing,” held in Cairo, Egypt, organized and sponsored by FAO, GTZ, CASC, ISTA and ICARDA.
10-	Regional training course “Electronic Document Management and the Use of WebAGRIS Tools for Database Management on the Web,” jointly organized and sponsored by ICARDA/FAO-RNE in Cairo, Egypt and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD).
11-	Eight different training courses were organized for participants from Afghanistan in different subjects including Integrated Pest Management of Sunn Pest; Weather Station Installation and Use; Seed Health Testing; Quality Assurance in Seed Testing; Seed Production Technology and Enterprise Management and Experimental Station Operation Management. The courses were organized through the Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan (FHCRAA), led by ICARDA, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Afghanistan, and sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The IPM course was jointly organized with Vermont University, USA.
12-	Three courses on “DNA Molecular Marker Techniques for Crop Improvement” were organized at ICARDA headquarters as regional training course, for the University of Khartoum, Sudan, and the University of Tishreen in Lattakia, Syria.
13-	“Dryland Management and Combating Desertification,” funded by the Syrian Ministry of Local Administration and Environment through UNDP. Inter-Center collaboration was also strengthened through participation in the Inter-Center Training Group (ICTG). Efforts were made to further improve the ICARDA training database and place it on the Center’s Intranet. A new home page for HRDU was also developed and placed on ICARDA’s Web page.

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Foreword Highlights of the Year ICARDA’s Research Portfolio International Cooperation Research Support Services Appendices
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