About ICARDA & CGIAR


	ICARDA's research provides global benefits of poverty alleviation through productivity improvements integrated with sustainable natural-resource management practices. ICARDA meets this challenge through research, training, and dissemination of information in partnership with the national agricultural research and development systems. The results of research are transferred through ICARDA's cooperation with national and regional research institutions, with universities and ministries of agriculture, and through the technical assistance and training that the Center provides. A range of training programs is offered extending from residential courses for groups to advanced research opportunities for individuals. These efforts are supported by seminars, publications, and specialized information services.


	research, with its products being international public goods, and focuses its research agenda on problem-solving through interdisciplinary programs implemented by one or more of its international centers, in collaboration with a full range of partners. Such programs concentrate on increasing productivity, protecting the environment, saving biodiversity, improving policies, and contributing to strengthening agricultural research in developing countries. The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are cosponsors of the CGIAR. The World Bank provides the CGIAR System with a Secretariat in Washington, DC, and a Technical Advisory Committee, with its Secretariat at FAO in Rome, assists the System in the development of its research program.


	Caravan is published four times a year, in spring, summer, autumn and winter, by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria. Tel.: (963-21) 2213477, 2225112, 2225012. Fax: (963-21) 2213490/2225105. E-Mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG Web site: http://www.cgiar.org/icarda Executive editor: Dr Surendra Varma Editor: Mike Robbins ISSN 1025-0972 © ICARDA 1998 ICARDA encourages fair use of this material by media and others provided the source is quoted. A copy is appreciated, and may be sent to the editor.