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
6 March 2003
For more information contact:S.Varma@cgiar.org
Workshop Promotes Participatory Approach in Barley Breeding
Under the patronage of H.E. Dr Noureddin Mona, Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Syria, a workshop on the "Adoption of a Participatory Approach in the Barley Breeding Program" was held in Hama, Syria, 17-19 February 2003. H.E. Dr Mona; Dr Mohammad Saied Akil, Governor of Hama; Comrade Mahmoud Eskaf, Secretary, Baath Party branch in Hama; Dr Majd Jamal, Director General of the General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR); and Dr S. Ceccarelli, Barley Breeder, ICARDA, presented keynote addresses. The workshop was sponsored by GCSAR, the Embassy of Switzerland in Damascus, and ICARDA, and was attended by more than 70 participants including the Directors of Agriculture, Heads of extension departments, Heads of research centers, researchers, extension officers, and 21 farmers from five provinces in Syria.
    "What is common among technicians, extension agents and researchers is the commitment to improve the welfare of the people in Syria under the leadership of President Dr Bashar Al-Assad," the Minister said. "Agricultural development will not be achieved unless we have such a collective effort."
    "Scientific research remains a kind of curiosity unless it is transformed into reality and adopted by the farmers. I wish to thank Dr S. Ceccarelli from ICARDA, whose name comes to mind whenever we speak about participatory plant breeding. This participatory approach recently became a management methodology used in the Syrian Government," the Minister said.
    The Minister referred to the importance of barley as a rainfed crop, and how it is prone to failure. Its yield ranges from 0-1000 kg/ha. This fluctuation is the result of the rainfall conditions, and the role of the researcher is to find ways to reduce the risk of failure.
    In his closing remarks, the Minister thanked ICARDA—"the faithful partner in scientific cooperation"—particularly Director General Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, who "saved no effort in training and research," Dr Faysal Maya, Director, Government Liaison Office, ICARDA, and Mr Nabil Trabulsi, Assistant National Research Coordinator.
    "Barley is an important crop at both the national and international level. It comes in the second position after wheat, and it is one of the most important sources of animal feed, being used to feed both small and large ruminants," said Dr Jamal.
    "Drought is the major limiting factor in barley crop
Senior government officials and farmers met in Hama on 17-19 February to review the merits of the participatory approach to barley breeding and discuss ways to take best advantage of the approach for the good of the agricultural sector. At the opening session, from left, Comrade Mahmoud Eskaf, Secretary, Baath Party Branch in Hama; Dr Noureddin Mona, Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform; Dr Mohammad Saied Akil, Governor of Hama Province; and Dr Majd Jamal, Director General, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research.
ICARDA Barley Breeder Dr Salvatore Ceccarelli addresses the audience on the value of farmer participatory breeding. Mr Majdi Kebbe, from ICARDA's Communication, Documentation, and Information Services unit, provided simultaneous translation.
Participants listen to opening remarks at the workshop entitled "Adoption of a Participatory Approach in the Barley Breeding Program."
production. The barley improvement program has developed several drought tolerant varieties. However, many of the developed varieties were not accepted by the farmers," Dr Jamal added. "This workshop focuses on farmers' participation to obtain barley varieties with high productivity as well as palatability to the animals."
    Dr Ceccarelli gave a presentation on "participatory plant breeding" in which he emphasized the methodology to develop varieties appropriate for the farmers' needs, the achievements, and how to scale up participatory barley breeding to have an impact at the national level.
    Mr Abdalla Khabaz, from the Extension Directorate in Damascus, presented the views of the extension service on participatory plant breeding, and this was followed by presentations by one farmer from each of the communities involved in implementation of the ICARDA barley project.
    On the second day of the workshop, Mr Dr Sultan Yahya, Deputy Director of the General Organization for Seed Multiplication (GOSM), and Mr Baha El-Din Jamal, barley breeder at GCSAR, presented papers on "Barley Production Status in Syria and Methods of Improvement" and "Barley as an Economic Crop," respectively. This was followed by a long discussion among all the participants.
    In the wrap-up session, the participants presented their recommendations for future work.

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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