ICARDA annual report 2004

Meeting of the CGIAR Program for CAC on Centers' and Members' Day at AGM04
on 25 October. From left to right: Dr Ali Ahoonmanesh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture
and Head of AERO, Iran; Dr Franklyn Moore from USAID; Dr Philippe Vialatte from the
European Union; Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, ICARDA DG; Dr Kevin Cleaver from the
World Bank; and Dr Tumurdavaa Bayarsaihan from ADB.
in August. About 35 participants
from Central Asian countries and
Azerbaijan, including policy makers,
representatives of NARS,
NGOs, farmer organizations and
donor agencies attended.
The Second Meeting of the
Inter-Regional Cotton Network for
Central Asia and North Africa
(INCANA) was held in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, in September. The
meeting was organized by
ICARDA-CAC Regional Office
under the umbrella of the Central
Asian and Caucasian Association
of Agricultural Research
Institutions (CACAARI). About 35
scientists from 10 countries participated
in the meeting, including
representatives from Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and
Azerbaijan.
An ADB Mission headed by Dr
Katsuji Matsunami, Director,
Agriculture, Environment and
Natural Resources Division, ADB,
visited ICARDA-CAC Regional
Office in Tashkent in February.
Also, the ICARDA Director
General, Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy,
and the ICARDA-CAC Program
Coordinator, Dr Raj Paroda, visited
ADB Headquarters in May and had
meetings with senior officials of the
Bank. They discussed issues related
to strengthening cooperation
between ICARDA and ADB.
A special donor support meeting
for the CGIAR Program for
CAC was organized in Mexico in
October during the annual general
meeting of the CGIAR. The meeting
was chaired by Prof. Dr Adel
El-Beltagy, ICARDA Director
General, and attended by representatives
of the World Bank, ADB,
European Union, USAID, IFAD
and other stakeholders.
Human resource development
A total of 306 CAC scientists and
farmers participated in different
international conferences, workshops,
seminars, field visits and
training courses. In addition, 23 scientists
from all CAC countries were
trained through an intensive training
course in English, held in
Tashkent.
A training course on ”Biosaline
Agriculture: Principles and
Applications, with Reference to the
Central Asia and Caucasus
Region,” organized jointly by the
International Center for Biosaline
Agriculture (ICBA) and ICARDA,
in collaboration with the
International Cooperation
Government of Uzbekistan, was
held in September in Tashkent. A
total of 35 participants from five
Central Asian countries and
Azerbaijan attended the course.
Also, 12 scientists and agronomists
from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
participated in a traveling workshop
to north Kazakhstan and
western Siberia on “Conservation
Tillage and Crop Diversification” in
July. The group was introduced to
on-going research activities on
tillage and crop diversification.
A training course on
“Participatory Approaches in
Natural Resource Management
Research” was organized within the
framework of the ADB project in
Tashkent in September. A total of 18
participants from Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan attended. Also, 11
scientists from Central Asia,
Azerbaijan and ICARDA participated
in a traveling workshop to India
in September, organized by
ICARDA in collaboration with the
Indian Council for Agricultural
Research (ICAR) within the framework
of the ADB-funded project.
The group visited several agricultural
research centers located in the
north-west of India where they were
acquainted with on-going research
on crop diversification, zero-tillage,
and improved irrigation.
Latin America Regional
Program
The Latin America Regional
Program (LARP) operates through
ICARDA’s office based at CIMMYT
headquarters in Mexico, and headed
by an ICARDA/CIMMYT barley
breeder. Its overall objective is
to collaborate with NARS in the
region in germplasm enhancement
and facilitate networking with the
researchers based at ICARDA’s
headquarters in Aleppo.
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