Proceedings of the Workshop on Technology Transfer In the Production of Cereals and Legumes

Abstract

In 1989 the Mashreq Project was initiated with the participation of three counties: Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. The project aimed at improving the production of barley, forage, and sheep to meet the large demands of feed and red meat. Since the beginning of the Mashreq Project, Iraqi researchers and extension workers have been involved actively in conducting the various activities of the project. These activities included on-farm researcher-managed trials and on-farm demonstrations in addition to on-station back - up research. Monitoring studies are being carried out to determine the farmer's acceptance of the new technologies and their effectiveness at the farmer level. The researchers as well as the technicians, extension agents, and farmers have all benefitted by acqui~ing additional experiences and knowledge, particularly in the field of technology transfer and adoption. This is one of the most important aspects of the project. Here in Iraq, scientists have developed a number of technologies that were ready to be transferred to farmers' fields. The adoption of a given technology by the farmers requires an experienced and knowledgeable team so as to reach satisfactory results quickly and efficiently. Scientists, technicians, and extension agents have achieved good results in this area. For this reason, it was decided to organize this workshop to present and discuss results reached by Iraqi scientists. Further, this workshop was a good opportunity for scientists from the Iraqi National Program and ICARDA to review and discuss collaboration between the Iraqi National Program and ICARDA and to tackle common research problems.