NVSSARP started in 1979 as the Nile Valley Project (NVP) with Egypt and Sudan, and expanded in 1985 to include Ethiopia. After Yemen joined the program in 1995, the project became the Nile Valley and Red Sea Regional Program (NVRSRP). Eritrea later also became an active member of the NVRSRP. In 2007, it was agreed that the Program would include all dry areas of the sub-Saharan Africa region, and it became the NVSSARP.
Although Yemen is not part of the Nile Valley or sub-Saharan Africa, its agroecology and agriculture production systems are very similar to those in the Nile Valley, and it opted to remain part of the Regional Program. Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen have between them a total population of over 165 million, and some of the highest population growth rates in the world. With the exception of Egypt, they include some of the poorest countries in the developing world. Agriculture contributes over 40% of the GDP in Ethiopia and Sudan.
NVSSARP promotes and facilitates the implementation of ICARDA’s research portfolio, which is built on four major research programs:
- Biodiversity and Integrated Gene Management (including the genebank, cereal and legume breeding, and supportive biotechnology)
- Integrated Water and Land Management (including water-harvesting, supplemental irrigation)
- Diversification and Sustainable Intensification of Production Systems (including conservation agriculture, small ruminant production, protected agriculture, high-value crops)
- Social, Economic and Policy Research
Major activities and key achievements
Through its partnerships, ICARDA expects the following strategic achievements and impacts over a 10-year horizon:
- Stronger national agricultural research systems (NARS), with trained scientists, improved access to modern scientific tools and literature, and increased capacity to design and implement national strategies to promote economic development through sustainable agriculture.
- Crop improvement technologies that increase productivity and help farmers cope with climate variability and change.
- Precision farming to improve yield and efficiency of input use.
- Integrated resource management practices to enhance conservation and sustainable use of soil, water, and biodiversity.
- Enhanced water productivity technologies and management practices.
- More diversified farming systems that reduce risk, improve resource-use efficiency, and provide higher returns to farming communities.
- Market-oriented production systems linking farmers to both local and export market outlets.
- Enhanced quality and added value of farm products and institutional options to support community-based production enterprises.
- Improved policy options that encourage public and private investments, promote technology uptake, and support the involvement of communities and resource users, particularly women, in rural development.
Over its 30-year history, ICARDA has trained more than 15,000 scientists, support staff and farmers, and substantial numbers of scientists from the Nile Valley and sub-Saharan region have benefited from this training. ICARDA’s NVSSARP is capitalizing on ICARDA’s plan to play a major role in initiatives to increase the level of science quality among the scientists in the dry areas. In the Nile Valley and sub-Saharan region, wheat leaf rust resistant genes have been identified and incorporated into high-yielding, susceptible wheat cultivars. In addition, races of wilt and root-rot diseases in food legume crops have been identified and resistant sources shared between countries. Heat and moisture-stress tolerant germplasm has also been developed.
- Forty-five improved wheat, barley, faba bean, lentil, and chickpea cultivars have been released to farmers by NARS since 1993, and improved production technology packages have been demonstrated to farmers. Adoption of improved wheat technologies in Egypt, for example, increased wheat yields by up to 33%, while in Sudan there was an average increase of 46%. Farmers in Ethiopia and Yemen have also started adopting new technologies developed on NARS research stations
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Future Directions
Agriculture will continue to be an important sector in the economy of several countries in the Nile Valley and sub-Saharan Africa region, and as in most developing countries, a high proportion of poor households and malnourished people are concentrated in rural areas. For example, the proportion of the rural population in Ethiopia living below $1 a day is estimated at 45%. In terms of food insecurity, the prevalence of undernourishment in the population is as high as 46% in Ethiopia and 27% in Sudan, while the situation is much better (3%) in Egypt (FAO, 2006).
Improving the performance of small-scale farmers is one of the key elements of national development strategies to improve food security, reduce poverty, and improve livelihoods through sustainable use of land, water and other resources. It is expected that increases in small-scale farm production and improving farm incomes will also lead to improved livelihoods for rural non-agricultural poor households through spillover effects which stimulate rural economies as a whole. Following several years of participatory research in the NVSSA region to address the biotic and abiotic stresses which affect crop productivity and yield stability in the region, a development project was implemented to ensure dissemination of new technologies to farmers. Any new project aims to link research outputs directly to human development objectives, given well-known weaknesses in the capacity and performance of national extension systems. At the same time, the efforts are made to increase incomes, improve food security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in diverse agricultural production systems in the region through increased productivity and resource use efficiency. Add to that crop improvement and control of biotic stresses (diseases, viruses, and pests), through an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach, will continue to be important. Abiotic stresses, especially drought and salinity, will be given more attention.
The intent of ICARDA is to capitalize on the great achievements that have been realized, such as in the case of Egypt’s improved resource management practices, and extend it to other countries.
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Objectives of the NVSSA Regional Program
To meet the research and development demand of countries in the region to further alleviate poverty and improve the well-being of those that live there, attention is needed to help countries improve water productivity, to meet the growing urban, agriculture, and environmental water demands of the growing population of the Nile Valley and sub-Sahara region.
ICARDA’s NVSSA Regional Program management principles
Aims are being made to conducting research at cross-regional levels at representative sites in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa; including the Nile Basin and East Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa. This research, on plant, soil, moisture, water, and poverty alleviation through improved agricultural plan and soil water management follows the overall ICARDA research agenda. It is organized around key principles for effective and efficient management of the NVSSARP Office:
Germplasm
Development of germplasm tolerant/resistant to the major biotic and abiotic stresses.
Crop improvement
Development of techniques and practices through traditional and nontraditional breeding to control biotic stresses (diseases, viruses, and pests), through an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach.
Natural resource protection management
Promote through research, pilots and demonstrations, and different outreach activities, sustainable approaches to agriculture productivity. This work is undertaken through watershed management, alternative crop rotations, irrigation regimes and crop management options, soil moisture conservation, water harvesting, use of non conventional water sources such as treated wastewater and marginal water-quality sources, on-farm soil conservation, on-farm moisture and irrigation management, improved water productivity, rangeland rehabilitation, and crop–livestock integration.
Water management
Advocate effective management of the region’s water resources to benefit the people and the natural and human environments. We strive to protect, conserve, sustain, and enhance the limited water resources for sustainable agriculture production systems. We are proactive and provide internal and external leadership in the management of agriculture production system to include plant, soil, and moisture, and on farm water management.
Socioeconomic and policy
ICARDA gives stronger emphasis to enhancing its capacity to reach the poor by obtaining a deeper understanding of the nature, causes, intensity, and effects of poverty at the community and household levels, and by promoting technical, institutional and policy options that can respond to their needs. Similarly, efforts are directed toward the involvement and active participation of end-users in research development, testing and verification so that relevance and adoption by individuals, communities and institutions is maximized. Frameworks and methodologies for participatory and community-based research are also being developed and implemented in partnership with NARS to enhance the impact on rural livelihoods.
Service
NVSSARP Office is a service-oriented office that attempts to respond thoughtfully, courteously, and promptly to the needs of ICARDA scientists and employees, support programs, national programs, scientists and organization worldwide.
Commitment
NVSSARP Office honors its commitments and responsibilities to ICARDA’s mandates and responsibilities, to obey and respect the laws and policies of collaborative countries, national and international public services, ethics, and agreements to generate International Public Goods.
Quality
Through collaborative and/or cooperative research programs and partnership with National Agriculture Research Services, analyze issues and facilitate studies to develop sound data, reasonable recommendations, and sensible conclusions. The Office based its planning and programming on up-to-date applied science. It is committed to reporting findings and recommendations in timely, clearly written publications and high-quality multimedia productions.
Relationships
ICARDA’s NVSSARP strives to meet the needs of national programs, regional authorities, local, national and international environmental groups, the media, the public, and our employees by establishing effective working relationships based on trust, competence, mutual respect, open communication, collaboration, and fairness.
Fair employment
ICARDA’s NVSSARP is an equal opportunity employer and thrives to achieve and maintain a culturally diverse and discrimination-free workplace with equal opportunity for all.
Efficiency
ICARDA’s NVSSARP strives to be innovative, productive, and practical with our available time and funds. We endeavor to manage resources effectively to complete projects on time and within budget without sacrificing quality. We measure our performance against international best practices. We train our staff to work productively and courteously.
Teamwork
Work together across divisions, disciplines, and functions to accomplish our mission and goals. Whenever possible, we develop partnerships with our stakeholders, negotiate, and compromise to find workable solutions to difficult problems.
Loyalty
Value employee loyalty and strive to be loyal to our organization and its clientele.
Safety
Work to provide a safe environment for our employees and the public. We strive to reduce and prevent accidents, injuries, and property damage.
Capacity building
Maintain staff competence in a rapidly changing technological world by providing employees with ample and appropriate training opportunities, both inside and outside ICARDA.
African partners
All ICARDA's research is done through partnerships. Alliances have been built with universities, national and international nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, and governments. ICARDA also participates in a number of regional partnerships and networks within Africa cotenant.
The Head of the NVSSARP Office in Cairo Egypt serves as a personal representative of the Director of ICARDA and is responsible for creating and executing a shared vision and plans of the Center’s mission within NVSSA region.
ICARADA HQ (Aleppo Syria)
Street address
Aleppo-Damascus Highway,
Tel Hadya, Aleppo,
Syrian Arab Republic
ICARDA’s NVSSARP - Cairo Office
Mailing address
Nile Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Program (NVSSARP),
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
Giza, P. O. Box 2416
Cairo, EGYPT
Street address
Nile Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Program (NVSSARP),
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
15 G Radwan Ibn El-Tabib Street
Cairo, EGYPT
Regional Coordinator
Fawzi Karajeh, Ph.D.
Regional Coordinator,
Nile Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Program (NVSSARP),
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
15 G Radwan Ibn El-Tabib Street
Giza, P. O. Box 2416
Cairo, EGYPT
Telephone (+202) 35724358 / 35735829 / 3572578- ext. 101
Fax (+202) 35728099
Fax (+202) 35728099
icarda-cairo@cgiar.org
f.karajeh@cgiar.org
http://www.icarda.org/
Mobiles of key ICARDA NVSSARP Staff:
+20 109999809 (Fawzi Karajeh, Office Head)
+20 168827015 (Yasmina Tarek, Office Assistant)
+20 101033363 (Mostafa Abaza, Office Government Liaison)
+20 168827014 (Yasmina Samy, Secretary)
ICARDA- Ethiopia Office
Geletu Bejiga, Ph. D.
Country Manager
ICARDA-Ethiopia
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
P. O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Telephone: +251 11 617 2281
Fax +251 11 617 2001
Mobile: +251 920 05 4562
E-mail: ICARDA-Ethiopia@cgiar.org; g.bejiga@cgiar.org
ICARDA-Sudan Office
Hassan El-Awd, Ph. D.
Country Manager
ICARDA-Sudan
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
ARC – Shambat Research Station
Khartoum North
P. O. Box: 87334 Dhamar, The Sudan
Telephone: + 249 185216178 ; 185217528
Fax: + 249 185213263
Mobile: +249-123092120
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