ICARDA News

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DRY AREAS
P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105; E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
Website: http://www.icarda.cgiar.org

30 October 2003
For more information contact: S.Varma@cgiar.org
Eighth Arab Congress of Plant Protection
Deemed Success by Organizers, Participants

Under the patronage of El-Gaddafi International Foundation for Charitable Societies, the Eighth Arab Congress of Plant Protection, organized by the Arab Society of Plant Protection and the Faculty of Agriculture, Omar Al-Mukhtar University, was held in El-Beida, Libya, 12–16 October 2003.
     Around 250 researchers from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen took part and delivered oral and/or poster presentations.
     From ICARDA, eleven scientists and graduate students made 11 oral and 6 poster presentations. The ICARDA participants included Drs A. Elahmad, B. Bayaa, S. Kumari, S. Asaad, Messrs I. Ghannoum, M. Naimi, A. Joubi, A.N. Terrisi, H. Obaido, Ms R. Shamsi, and Mr M.N. Mouselli (General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Syria).


Seated at the head table, from right, are: Dr Ibrahim Al-Gheryani, Head, Eighth Arab Congress of Plant Protection Committee; Dr Bassam Bayaa, Head, Arab Committee for Plant Protection; Brigadier General Muftah Dakhiel, Coordinator, Public Leadership in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar; Dr Abdallah Zayed, Rector, Omar Al-Mukhtar University; and Mr Wanis Al-Allouni, Secretary of Public Conference in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar.
     Two of the six congress awards for graduate students went to ICARDA delegates: H. Obaido, for best oral presentation, and A. N. Terrisi, for best poster. It is also worth mentioning that the book of abstracts and congress program were prepared and edited at ICARDA by Drs Bayaa, Khaled Makkouk, and Kumari.
     As a pre-congress activity, 10–11 October, a workshop on Arabization of plant protection terms was organized and attended by 50 Arab specialists. Around 10,000 terms were discussed and agreed upon. These terms will be published and distributed soon by the society.
     At the congress, four scientific symposia were held: ‘Knowledge Transfer to Farmers in Plant Protection’, ‘Safe Management of Pesticides’, ‘Desert Locust Control’, and ‘Pest Resistance to Pesticides’. Invited speakers from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Centre de Cooperation International en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement, University of Western

Participants in the pre-congress workshop on Arabization of plant protection terms, held in El-Beida, Libya, 10-11 October. About 10,000 terms were discussed and agreed upon.
England–Bristol, University of Ain Shams, and University of Al-Manar, Tripoli, Lebanon took part.
     The congress was very well organized and a great success. Activities were well covered by television, radio, and newspapers. A new executive committee for the society was elected. Dr S. Kumari was made a member; Dr Makkouk will continue as Editor-in-Chief for the Arab Journal of Plant Protection; Dr B. Bayaa will be Editor-in Chief of the Arab and Near East Plant Protection Newsletter.
     Dr A. Zayed, rector of Omar Al-Mukhtar University, expressed interest in signing a collaborative agreement with ICARDA in relation to training, crop improvement and plant protection, and sent a letter in this regard to ICARDA Director General Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy.
ICARDA’s participants would like to thank the Center’s management for making their participation in this important congress a reality and enabling them to interact with their regional colleagues.

ICARDA's (www.icarda.org) mission is to improve the welfare of people and alleviate poverty through research and training in dry areas of the developing world by increasing production, productivity, and nutritional quality of food, while preserving and enhancing the natural resource base. ICARDA is a Future Harvest Center.
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