ICARDA Annual Report 1998

Abstract

Cooperation, sharing expertise and technology, partnerships, and access to information were the building blocks of ICARDA's achievements during a year in which strategic realignments were made with a forward-looking vision, and a ncw positivism injected into its program of work, in harmony with thc global research continuum. One of the major achievements was the innovative Consortium for Central Asia and the Caucasus which has, for the first time, brought nine centers of the CGIAR to work together through a program initiated and pioneered by ICARDA. The CCIAR program for Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC) may be compared to a 'one-stop shop' for the CAC national agricultural research systems (NARS) where they can develop joint projects and benefit fiotn the collective efforts of the centers involved in the Consortium. The emerging republics in CAC are determined to upgrade their existing research base and rebuild and refocus their agricultural economies for the free market conditions under which they now intend to operate. Populations are predicted to more than double by 2025 in at least three of the five Central Asian Republics and continue expanding rapidly in the others. Overgrazing and encroachment of rangelands for cultivation in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are further aggravating feed deficits. The Consortium is moving forward to serve the needs of the millions of people in CAC, who deserve immediate attention. In line with its thrust on collective work in CAC, ICAWA, in 1998, established a Regional Program Office for CAC in Tashkent, which also hosts the CGIAR Program Facilitation Unit to liaise between CAC NARS and the Consortium of CGIAR centers. There are many other examples of cooperation, each just as innovative in its own way. The establishment of the Agrobiodiversity Project-involving Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, and funded by the United Nations Development Programme's General Environment Facility (GEF)--to be coordinated from ICARDA headquarters, is another pioneering effort for in situ conservation of landraces and the wild relatives of important crop species, and a model of cooperation between international and regional centers, donors, and national programs. The Medium-Term Plan for 1998-2000, implemented during the year, guided the progress of JCARDA's realigned program of work, which involves several strategic thrusts to respond to the needs of NARS in a changing environment. Since water is at the hear1 of the overall research program, work on the conservation and efficient use of this scarce resource has been strengthened, as well as more closely integrated with crop improvement and with overall natural resource management. This is just one of the areas, along with soil management, were the application of remote sensing techniques in combination with geographic information systems (GES) is beginning to demonstrate how considerable savings in human power and timecan be made in planning and executing water harvesting schemes. Use of satellite imagery is being made to develop digital soil maps for effective utilization of natural resources. Simultaneously, increased emphasis was placed on training national partners in the use of these new tools through specialized training courses, offered both at headquarters and in countries of the region. The Center also encouraged the development and use of computer expert systems.