Overview

Participatory approach: From the outset, the project's adaptive research has been conducted in farmer-managed trials on farmers' fields. These also serve as demonstrations where farmers can view and discuss the trials in the presence of researchers and extension workers. Farmers, community leaders, local institutions, and agricultural authorities, together with the national project teams, plan the project's activities during annual coordination meetings.
The project has adopted a community approach, which facilitates the integration of the technical adaptive research with research on the institutional and socio-economic environment. National teams are working in two selected communities within each country, involving the local private and cooperative sector, the local agricultural and extension authorities, and farm households.
The transfer of technology and experience between NARS has meant that the traditional continuum of basic, applied, and adaptive research within each country has been circumvented. A proven technology available in one country can be transferred directly to on-farm participatory adaptation and testing in other countries. This approach has been extended to the exchange of knowledge and experience between farmers through "farmers' traveling workshops."

The Mashreq/Maghreb Project, initiated in 1995, is an adaptive research program for the development of integrated crop/livestock production in the low-rainfall areas of West Asia and North Africa (WANA). The program encompasses two sub-regions of WANA: the Mashreq sub-region, including the countries of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and the Maghreb sub-region, including the countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. The project is implemented by the eight national programs, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

The Mashreq/Maghreb project builds upon previous regional collaborative programs between ICARDA and the national programs, which had already made progress in testing and verifying improved technologies under farmers' conditions. The project has evolved from a technology component testing program to one of integrated adaptive research, addressing issues from a technical, socio-economic, cultural, institutional, and policy perspective, with the full participation of the intended beneficiaries and other stakeholders. This has been further facilitated by shifting to a community approach.

These developments in research concepts and approaches have involved intense discussions and consultations between all partners involved, ensuring that there is a common agreement on the aims of the project and the way that it is implemented. The strength of the regional project comes from its multidisciplinary approach and the interaction between NARS (National Agricultural Research Systems), which has facilitated transfer of technology and experience between countries.

The Mashreq/Maghreb project represents an ambitious undertaking. As financial resources have become more constrained, the national programs are contributing greater resources to national activities. NARS have now assumed leadership of the project, with ICARDA and IFPRI providing a coordinating role and technical support where needed.

Multi-nutrient feed blocks, made from agro-industrial by-products and other ingredients, are a low-cost source of feed and nutrient supplementation. Production of feed blocks by the private sector and community-based units has expanded rapidly. The experience of Iraq in feed blocks technology has been transferred to other countries of the project.
Selection and testing of promising lines of barley, the principal feed in the region, has identified improved cultivars adapted to low-rainfall conditions. The project has supported widespread demonstration of improved cultivars and other management practices.
On-farm feed production has been improved by the inclusion of forage legumes in barley rotations. Adapted legume species have been identified and tested in farmers' fields. Utilization of forage legumes has been demonstrated to improve livestock production.
Cactus (Opuntia spp.) is well adapted to the harsh environments of the dry areas. It provides livestock feed, a source of income from its fruits, and a means of controlling soil erosion. The experience of some Maghreb countries in cactus production and utilization has been transferred to other countries in the project.
Practices for improving the nutrition, fertility, and productivity of sheep have been identified, demonstrated, and widely adopted.
A modeling tool developed by the project provides a means by which policy-makers can assess how policy and institutional reforms might provide incentives for the uptake of new technologies, and how these will affect productivity, incomes, and the natural resource base.
The project has provided empirical information on impacts of actual and proposed land tenure reforms on farmers' investments and land productivity that will assist policy-makers in improving the institutional environment under which rural producers make their decisions.
Since 1995 more than 12,000 participants--farmers, national researchers, technicians, extensionists, policy-makers and NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations)--have benefited from formal and informal training activities, workshops, field days, and field demonstration.