RA 00183.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

4. National Program scientists should be trained up to degree level, since senior level
groundnut research staff are lacking in most of these programs. ISC should also send to
these programs, conclusions from workshops on ICRISAT's Training Program and future
plans and explain how they could be utilized by these programs.
5. ICRISAT should collaborate with international organizations operating in the region to
ensure better preparation (including translation into English or French) and dissemination
of bilingual publications.
6. The heat unit system should be standardized and made simple for use by breeders in the
region to define genotype growth duration.
7. ISC should take into account major breeding activities undertaken by the national programs.
Such information should be made available to all other national programs. This
would facilitate exchange of materials with specific traits, and exploit capabilities of these
programs in germplasm screening.
8. A publication on groundnut breeding methods should be prepared to complement the
published bulletin on hybridization.
9. Regional meetings should be held every two years and specialists' meetings should be
organized by ISC on request, if funds are available.
10. The meeting noted that recommendations 2, 5, and 6 of the 1988 Plant Breeding Group
had been satisfactorily implemented.
Working Group on Plant Protection
The group was pleased to note that some of the recommendations, made at the 1988
meeting, were beginning to be implemented:
• the Training Center will soon be opened,
• regional trials are being established,
• the groundnut disease manual is being published.
Consequently the Plant Protection Working Group renews and puts forth the following
recommendations:
1. Considering the important role played by international institutions (IRHO, Peanut CRSP,
ICRISAT, ORSTOM) in strengthening national research programs, it would be advisable
for ICRISAT to coordinate scientific cooperation so that national programs can derive
maximum benefit.
2. From the technical and scientific angle, the Group favored central coordination for plant
protection and subcordination in three fields : pathology, entomology, and nematology.
3. The group recognizes the economic damage of viral diseases to groundnuts in West
Africa and would like ICRISAT to help national programs coordinate research activities
including breeding for resistance, epidemiology, vector ecology, and control methods.
4. ICRISAT should organize a discipline-specific meeting on : plant protection, breeding,
agronomy, and groundnut utilization between two regional groundnut meetings. If, necessary
funding is made available to national research programs, it would be possible for
them to participate in meetings convened by other organizations which cannot finance
their participation.
5. Emphasis should be placed on research by teams and by disciplines in programs and
organizations in West Africa using a system centrally coordinated by ICRISAT. To avoid
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