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: www.icarda.cgiar.org
9 September 2004
For more information contact:
Surendra Varma (s.varma@CGIAR.ORG)
ADB-ICARDA Regional Workshop Held in Tashkent
Inaugural session of the ADB/ICARDA Partnership Conference.
A regional workshop on "Strengthening partnerships for more effective planning, research, and development in agriculture in Central Asia" was held in Tashkent on 23-25 August 2004. The workshop was organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and ICARDA as part of the Eighth Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) Program for the CGIAR to identify practical options for more effective collaboration and information exchange between stakeholders in agricultural sector planning, research and development.

About 35 delegates from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, including policy makers, representatives of NARS, NGOs, farmers' organizations, and donor agencies participated in the workshop. H.E. Mr Voris Madaminov, Minister of Agriculture, Tajikistan, and Mr Gurban Attagarryev, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Turkmenistan, attended the workshop.

H.E. Mr Abduvohid Juraev, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Water Management of Uzbekistan, officially opened the workshop. He thanked ADB and ICARDA for their useful and timely initiative in bringing together representatives of the key stakeholder groups involved in agriculture research and development. He hoped that the workshop would analyze the relationship between stakeholder groups in terms of information flow, decision-making processes, feedback mechanisms, and cooperation, all of which are very important for agricultural development in the region.

Participants with H.E. Mr Abduvohid Juraev, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Water Management of Uzbekistan.
The inauguration ceremony was co-chaired by Dr Raj Paroda, Head, CGIAR-PFU for CAC and Regional Coordinator, ICARDA, and Dr Sherali Nurmatov, Director General, Uzbek Scientific-Production Center for Agriculture (UzSPCA). The participants were also addressed by Mr Sean O'Sullivan, Country Director, Uzbekistan Resident Mission of ADB, Dr Mohan Saxena, Assistant Director General (At-Large), ICARDA, and Dr Pratima Dayal, Senior Regional Cooperation Specialist, India Resident Mission of ADB.

 During the plenary session, Dr Paroda made a presentation on "Research for sustainable agriculture in Central Asia - a supplier perspective for planning, research and development," in which he emphasized the importance of strengthening partnerships among all the stakeholders involved in agriculture development and underlined the need for improved mechanism of technology transfer. Mr Oliver Oliveros of the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) made a presentation on "Facilitating strategic partnerships in agricultural research for sustainable development."

Six case studies–representing a national research institute, two international centers, a donor agency, two community-based NGOs, and a farmer leader–were presented on the second day to discuss the features of effective partnerships.

As an outcome of the workshop, the following actions were proposed by the participants:

• Prepare a submission for technical assistance to the Central Asian Countries Initiative on Land Management (CACILM) to: widen the scope of the recently created forum of research institutions -the Central Asia and Caucasus Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (CACAARI) - to include development stakeholders and civil society institutions; build an inventory of stakeholders in the complete national agricultural system of each country in the region to enable new partnerships between research and development; and link regional and national information systems to international systems to improve access to better information and technologies for development. GFAR, CACAARI, and ICARDA will be responsible for the submission.

• Create National Agricultural Fora to involve all stakeholders in the national agriculture planning, research and development system in resource allocation and planning. ADB will be responsible for convening further discussions with governments.

• Expand Donor Coordination Committees to include ministries, NGOs, International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs), and others in Uzbekistan, and create similar committees in other countries in the region. ADB will start discussions regarding this in Uzbekistan.

• Involve IARCs and other stakeholders in project development and impact assessment. ADB will identify pipeline proposals and ongoing projects, where this can be implemented.

• Circulate contact information and workshop outputs among participants and stakeholder groups.
 

About ICARDA: Established in 1977, ICARDA (www.icarda.cgiar.org) serves the entire developing world for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean; and dry-area developing countries for the on-farm management of water, improvement of nutrition and productivity of small ruminants (sheep and goats), and rehabilitation and management of rangelands. In the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, ICARDA is responsible for the improvement of durum and bread wheats, chickpea, pasture and forage legumes and farming systems; and for the protection and enhancement of the natural resource base of water, land, and biodiversity.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) is a strategic alliance of 62 members and 16 Future Harvest Centers that mobilizes cutting-edge science to promote sustainable development by reducing hunger and poverty, improving human nutrition and health, and protecting the environment.
Back