representatives included the Department for International Development (DFID), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as the primary donor.

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) was designated to lead the Consortium in implementing both short- and long-term interventions. The four main focus areas identified were: seed systems and crop improvement; soil and water management; livestock, feed and rangelands; and horticulture.

About ICARDA and the CGIAR

Established in 1977, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is governed by an independent Board of Trustees. Based at Aleppo, Syria, it is one of 16 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
     ICARDA serves the entire developing world for the improvement of lentil, barley and faba bean; all dry-area developing countries for the improvement of on-farm water-use efficiency, rangeland, and small-ruminant production; and the Central and West Asia and North Africa region for the improvement of bread and durum wheats, chickpea, and farming systems. 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, from residential courses for groups to advanced research opportunities for individuals. These efforts are supported by seminars, publications, and specialized information services.

The CGIAR is an international group of representatives of donor agencies, eminent agricultural scientists, and institutional administrators from developed and developing countries who guide and support its work. The CGIAR receives support from many country and institutional members worldwide. Since its foundation in 1971, it has brought together many of the world's leading scientists and agricultural researchers in a unique South-North partnership to reduce poverty and hunger.
     The mission of the CGIAR is to promote sustainable agriculture to alleviate poverty and hunger and achieve food security in developing countries. The CGIAR conducts strategic and applied 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 the strengthening of 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 International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are cosponsors of the CGIAR. The World Bank provides the CGIAR System with a Secretariat in Washington, DC. A Technical Advisory Committee, with its Secretariat at FAO in Rome, assists the System in the development of its research program.

© 2008 International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).
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