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Continued support for agricultural research to help the rural poor in the dry areas of West Asia and North Africa was strongly echoed this week in Aleppo in the statements by the representatives of three major donor organizations.
Dr Klemens van de Sand, the Assistant President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mr Samir Jarrad, of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), and Dr Eglal Rashed, of the International Development Research Centre of Canada, are visiting the Aleppo headquarters of ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) this week. All three organizations are long-term benefactors of ICARDA, and their representatives confirmed their continuing support to ICARDA and, in particular, for the Mashreq & Maghreb Project which seeks to improve the integration of crop and livestock production in the low-rainfall areas of eight participating countries - Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria. The three donor representatives were participating in the Steering Committee meeting of the Project in Aleppo.
The Mashreq & Maghreb Project was a model for the development, dissemination and transfer of technology to resource-poor farmers in dry areas, Dr van de Sand said. The institutional building of the first phase was now being followed up by placing the national researchers in "the driving seat" for passing research results and improved technology to growers, while ICARDA's role has now evolved to that of technical backstopping.
Dr van de Sand said the way national coordinators in each country worked with rural communities and took part in innovative training with farmers was very important to the success of the project. He was particularly pleased that rural communities were becoming increasingly involved in training, and even in sharing financial costs.
Dr van de Sand, who was making his first visit to ICARDA, said the Center was IFAD's main research partner not just in the West Asia and North Africa region but worldwide, having first formed a partnership 22 years ago when ICARDA was founded. The relationship had worked well because of ICARDA's ability to contribute to meeting IFAD's objectives for investment in agricultural research in the service of the rural poor.
He supported comments by ICARDA Director General Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy that the impact of the Center's research programs was not just economic but had social and political dimensions. The social dimension was exemplified by the movement of poor rural migrants to urban areas in search of better life, but this leads to increased demand for resources and services and can often contribute to social and political upheaval in those areas. These hidden dangers, and how they could be alleviated by the transfer of technology to rural areas, must be appreciated by donor organizations in assessing the impact of their investment. The IFAD-sponsored meetings held at ICARDA's Aleppo headquarters were paving the way for the transfer of technology to the rural poor, said Prof. Dr El-Beltagy.
While in Aleppo, Dr van de Sand also took part in IFAD's first Technical Advisory Notes (TANs) workshop, ever held in the region, to consider simplified presentation and transfer of research results to technical advisers in national agricultural systems, and through them to growers. Dr Mahmoud Solh, ICARDA's Assistant Director General for International Cooperation presented a summary of the Center's achievements; this was followed by presentations by researchers involved in the IFAD-supported projects.
Dr van de Sand pointed out that the vast majority of the world's poor lived in rural areas, and IFAD hoped to correct the trend of placing development assistance away from these areas. This would be necessary if there was to be progress towards meeting the internationally-set goals of a 50% reduction in world poverty by 2015.
ICARDA scientists, regional coordinators from ICARDA's regional programs, national scientists from West Asia and North Africa, and from regional organizations took part in the workshop on the preparation of Technical Advisory Notes. This first workshop of its kind in the region is a follow-up to earlier meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Manila, Philippines, where draft versions of TANs were drawn up. Their aim is to enhance transfer of technology by setting out the results of research projects in a clear but brief form for use by national scientists, extension workers, and farmers.
For more information about the conference, please contact: M.Solh@cgiar.org
About ICARDA: Established in 1977, ICARDA 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.
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