I C A R D A    N e w s

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
For more information contact: Dr Surendra Varma (s.varma@CGIAR.ORG)
 
 
14 April 2005
Workshop on Participatory Plant Breeding
Participants of the workshop on “Participatory Plant Breeding,” held at ICARDA on 30-31 March 2005.
The varieties developed/identified through Participatory Plant Breeding programs (PPB) are the result of the efforts of many people: farmers, plant breeders, other researchers, extensionists, and occasionally donors and policy makers. While this diversity of participants helps improve the efficiency of the research process, it also raises questions on how to acknowledge and compensate individual and collective contributions to the PPB processes and products fairly; how to adequately define collective (group, community) contributions to the PPB processes and products; how to provide incentives for the poorest farmers as well as researchers involved in PPB; how to change variety release policies and systems (including fiches techniques) to enable and support PPB; and how to ensure access to new varieties.

ICARDA organized a Planning Workshop on 30-31 March 2005 to address these questions. The participants included Dr Ronnie Vernoy, IDRC, Canada; Dr Humberto Rios, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Agricolas, Cuba; Dr Yiqing Song, Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), China; Dr Pratap K. Shrestha, LiBird, Nepal; Dr Sally Humphries, University of Guelph, Canada; and Dr Eva Weltzien, ICRISAT, Mali. From ICARDA, Dr Yasmin R. Mustafa; Ms Mokhlesa Al-Zaeim; Dr Elizabeth Bailey; Dr Stefania Grando, and Dr Salvatore Ceccarelli attended the workshop.
Participants visiting an on-going PPB trial at Bylounan, in Raqqa province, Syria.
The participants discussed the legal, political, ethical and scientific issues of: (1) germplasm access and exchange to ensure the most open and equitable flow of genetic resources between farmers, other rural people, and researchers; (2) knowledge/skills conservation with focus on the need to protect, promote and conserve indigenous knowledge; and (3) innovation management and the creation of an enabling policy and legal environment focused on the need to encourage innovative genetic resources research for the benefit of current and future generations. The participants also visited an on-going PPB trial at Bylounan (Raqqa, Syria).

The workshop paved the way for a new initiative that will use a case study approach. The initiative will be a collaborative effort organized as a small and informal network between research teams and local partners from ICARDA; ICRISAT, Mali; INCA, Cuba; LiBird, Nepal; and FIPAH, Honduras, with CCAP serving as administrator. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) will provide technical and financial support.

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 countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations supporting15 international research centers that mobilizes cutting-edge science to promote sustainable development by reducing hunger and poverty, improving human nutrition and health, and protecting the environment.
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