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sion followed. The Directors General recommended that Morocco be used as a base for regional follow-up courses for North Africa to minimize problems of language and to enable broader participation, and that a bilateral project proposal be developed. Morocco is in fact suggesting that a mother course be held in-country for the Maghreb region--a suggestion that ICARDA takes very seriously. To mix a metaphor or two, this would certainly mean that the multiplier effect is spiralling!
The choice of subject matter and content of any training activity are targeted at specific needs in seed production. The Seed Unit works with national programs to formulate course curricula based on need and comparative advantage. Gender issues are considered too. For example, seed testing courses are offered more for female workers, as they seem more interested and proficient in this task. On the other hand, field inspection courses are more for male participants since these involve extensive travel to countryside locations. Much of this training takes place in the national programs in partnership with government agencies, the private sector and NGOs. This is to ensure that training is demand driven by the development needs of particular countries, thus focusing efforts on location-specific needs and constraints. "Together with ICARDA, we should bring training to focus on our urgent developmental needs," said Dr Aberu Dagnew, General Manager of Ethiopian Seed Enterprise, at a follow-up course in Economics of Seed Production in Addis Ababa in September 1997.
The trend in training needs also changes over time, reflecting the evolution of seed industry development in particular countries. For instance, as countries seek to commercialize new varieties and develop cost-effective systems, courses in Morphological Variety Description and
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Economics of Seed Production are becoming more popular, with decreasing need for normal courses in seed agronomy and quality control. There is also increasing awareness about the informal seed sector and forage management.
The train-the-trainers approach is being applied to all of this. But any methodology must be tested to make sure it is doing what it is supposed to do. Monitoring and assessing
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importance in seed crop production. Similar courses in Economics of Seed Production have been instrumental in setting up management-accounting systems, which have encouraged the production of high-quality seed at lower cost. As a direct consequence of trainer and follow-up courses, trainees and ICARDA staff have jointly assembled user-friendly training materials in the forms of manuals, field guides, and audio-tutorials, which are currently used in further training and as guidance materials on the job. Examples of these include Field Inspection Procedures (Egypt), the Legume Seed Production Manual (Pakistan), Seed Science and Technology (Jordan), and Economics of Seed Production (Egypt/Ethiopia, forthcoming).
This is all encouraging. But realizing returns from investment in training is long-term, and accomplishments are generally difficult to assess and quantify. Experience with the Train-the-Trainer approach shows that careful selection of subject matter and targeting of needs is crucial in assessing the impact of training programs.
So evaluation should not be considered as a single study conducted at the end of a training effort. It should be continuous. And ICARDA plans to assess the impact of the Train-the-Trainers program at farmer level, too; what effect has it had on, say, seed selection?
By the time the current donor support ends in 1999, we should have a well-established methodology. And we should also see impact in the area where it really counts. More food.
Dr Sam Kugbei is Seed Economist, and Dr Lahcen Grass is Training Scientist, Seed Unit, at ICARDA.
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