A chance to reflect on the past year but also look forward to the future. That was the ICARDA Annual Presentation Day which took place this year on April 24.
         It brought together the ICARDA Board of Trustees and a large number of distinguished guests, including members of the diplomatic corps, senior government officials and representatives of collaborating institutes from the WANA area and further afield. Members of the External Program and Management Review (EPMR) Panel also attended during the course of their review visit.

Dr Alfred Bronnimann, ICARDA Board Chairman, who welcomed the many distinguished guests to Tel Hadya.

to enhance public awareness of ICARDA's work.
        Dr Bronnimann, who retires as a Board member in August 1999 after six years including five as Chairman, praised ICARDA for its expertise and efficiency. He pointed out that the overwhelming evidence from the 28 different experts involved in nine internally-commissioned external reviews, carried out over the last four years, of ICARDA's work, including research programs, finance and administration, and management, was that the Center was making efficient use of grants obtained from donors.
        Dr Bronnimann said ICARDA had introduced a number of new techniques, systems and plant varieties in the regions of West Asia and North Africa, and had extended its activities to new parts of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
        It had been a privilege, he said, to contribute to ICARDA's development, and he would always cherish his association with ICARDA, with colleagues from the other 15 CGIAR centers, and with the people of Aleppo.

year of excellence in science enhanced by closer cooperation with farmers and others making use of ICARDA's research was reported at the Annual Presentation Day.
        One of the highlights of 1998 for the scientific staff was the award of the CGIAR Chairman's Science Award for identifying genes tolerant to several biotic and abiotic stresses. But, in his review of the year, ICARDA Board Chairman Dr Alfred Bronnimann, who is Director of the Swiss Federal Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture, also highlighted the renewed thrust on conservation and efficient use of water; the integration of work in natural resource management with crop improvement; enhanced use of geographical information systems (GIS) for soil and water management and for biodiversity conservation. He also praised the decentralized breeding, which has brought the introduction of new varieties suited to specific production conditions.
        During the year technologies for information management were upgraded and a major effort made

future of challenge but one in which ICARDA expertise in many areas of technology will play a major combative role was outlined by the Center's Director General Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy in his address on Annual Presentation Day.
         Acute shortage of water, scarcity of land, an expanding population, and the threat of global warming combine to pose this daunting challenge for the future, he said. While 840 million people worldwide are classed as hungry, a further two billion suffer from malnutrition. These numbers could rise even further because of unchecked population growth, warned Prof. El-Beltagy.
          As a result, the pressure on already limited arable land will increase even more. Since it takes a minimum of 0.07 hectares of arable land to feed one person, the net effect is that four billion people are likely to be affected by land scarcity by 2050. The prospects for millions of people in the dry areas are particularly alarming. Out of a population of one billion in 41 countries in these areas, 696 million have a per capita income of less than $2 a day. About 300 million live below their nationally-determined poverty lines.
         ICARDA, with its focus on research and training to increase the production, productivity and nutritional quality of food, while preventing degradation of natural resources and protecting the environment, was seeking to challenge this scenario with solutions and alternatives, in partnership with all stakeholders.
          Among these is the development of technologies for making best use of limited water. This includes breeding varieties more efficient in water use, and by establishing agronomic practices which are not wasteful of this valuable but limited resource. The Center's joint work in Iraq, Syria and Turkey clearly demonstrated that the right amount of supplemental irrigation at the right time can raise wheat yields substantially and consistently.
         Equally successful are water harvesting techniques, such as the microcatchment harvesting system of semi-circular bunds to trap rainwater--an approach being tried out as part of an ecoregional project in which Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Syria, and Tunisia are participating.
         But ICARDA does not ignore the past. It is taking stock of indigenous knowledge and is adopting a consciously multidisciplinary approach to natural resource conservation and management to permit use of both conventional and modern technologies. The Center is developing an inventory of  indigenouswater-harvesting systems used in the region for thousands of years while, at the same time, a three-year project has been completed on the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to identify areas of high water-harvesting potential.
          Research by the Center into management of natural resources includes rehabilitation of degraded rangelands by planting shrubs suitable for grazing; development of pitting machines to make small pits for water capture to assist the germination of seeds of native range plant species; and on shallower rangeland soils, reseeding with these species using a 'Land-Imprinter' to trap moisture.
         Prof. El-Beltagy highlighted the impact of ICARDA work in the world beyond the Center's mandated areas. Rangelands play a key role in controlling global warming by capturing carbon dioxide in their vegetation. ICARDA has set up monitoring equipment to assess carbon-dioxide sequestration in the rangelands of Uzbekistan. In Central Asia and the Caucasus--which account for 225 million hectares of rangelands and which are seeing an alarming drop in the population of mall ruminants--the Center is developing technologies to arrest rangeland degradation and improve livestock production.
          Improved feed sources to provide better nutrition and increase livestock fertility rates have been developed. "This is significant as rangelands support livestock, and livestock play an important role in             

breaking the vicious circle of poverty and environmental degradation," he added.
        Take-up of such new techniques was often rapid. Introducing vetch in rotation with cereals in El-Bab, Syria, proved so effective that the number of farmers adopting the practice rose dramatically from three in 1991 to 200 in 1998.
         This was also an example of how ICARDA interacted with farmers and created partnerships with national programs in pursuing its research strategy. One of the key functions of ICARDA is to link different research efforts so that, together, they reach critical mass. Looking at the immediate future, Prof. El-Beltagy presented a potential production-consumption scenario for food grains in 29 Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) countries. By 2020, total grain consumption was expected to be 323 million tonnes against a total production of 247 million tonnes, assuming a 2% growth rate, he said, giving a grain deficit in these countries of 76 million tonnes. Exclude Turkey and Kazakhstan and the deficit in 2020 would be a staggering 114 million tonnes. If this 114 million tonnes was to be imported by CWANA countries in one go, "it would take a train 17,000 kilometres long, and cost us US$14.8 billion!" he observed.
          Prof. El-Beltagy thanked the various donors, and also the Government of Syria and its President, H.E. Mr Hafez Al-Assad, for their generous and continuing support for ICARDA and its mission.

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