Biodiversity and Wheat Improvement

Abstract

ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas Established in 1977, ICARDA is governed by an independent Board of Trustees. Based at Aleppo, Syria, it is one of 18 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which 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 seeks to enhance and sustain food production and, at the same time, improve the socioeconomic conditions of people through strengthening national research systems in developing countries. ICARDA focuses its research efforts on areas with a dry summer, where precipitation in winter ranges from 200 mm to 600 mm. The Center has a global responsibility for the improvement of barley, lentil and faba bean, and a regional responsibility -- in West Asia and North Africa -- for the improvement of wheat, chickpea and pasture and forage crops and the associated farming systems. Much of ICARDA's research is carried out on a 948-hectare farm at its headquarters at Tel Hadya, about 35 km south-west of Aleppo. ICARDA also manages other sites where it tests material under a variety of agroecological conditions in Syria and Lebanon. However, the full scope of ICARDA's activities can be appreciated only when account is taken of the cooperative research carried out with many countries in West Asia and North Africa. The results of research are transferred through ICARDA's cooperation with national and regional research institutions, universities and ministries of agriculture, and through the technical assistance and training that the Center provides. A range of training programmes is offered, extending from residential courses for groups to advanced research opportunities for individuals. These efforts are supported by seminars and publications and by specialised information services.