December, 1995. The CGIAR is reaching out to the new nations of the former Soviet Union through ICARDA, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas. In December, ICARDA will hold a major workshop for its colleagues in the national programs of eight former Soviet republics.
The workshop, which is being organized with generous funding assistance from the German Government, will take place in Tashkent from 5-9 December. It will look at seed production and research needs in the newly-independent republics, or NIRS; but it will also hear presentations from each country on the current state of its agricultural research and development. It is a joint venture between ICARDA, the Uzbekistan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the German technical cooperation body, GTZ.
The workshop will help ICARDA to establish how best it can collaborate with the new republics in raising food production and protecting the natural-resource base.
"There has been enormous change in these regions over the last few yearsa real upheaval," says ICARDA's Director General, Prof. Dr Adel El Beltagy. "Such times are exciting, but for a stable future, it is essential that both food production and the environment are protected. I hope we can involve the NIRS closely in our own efforts to protect the fragile environment; to raise food production; and to share our experience of working for stable yields. The latter point is crucial for stability in any country where a high percentage of the population is involved in agriculture.
"Neither do I expect this to be a one-way process; ICARDA's work is always collaborative, and we may find that their experience is as relevant to our work as ours is to theirs."
ICARDA is managing its side of the workshop through its Highlands Regional Program, based in Ankara. The Program's coordinator, Dr S.P.S. Beniwal, stresses that ICARDA is the most appropriate source of international collaboration for the Republics.
"There is a marked similarity, both in agro-ecological conditions and in crop and livestock systems, between the dryland areas for which ICARDA has long been responsible, and the eight newly-independent republics," he says. "We are talking about, on the one hand, vast areas of steppe and of cereal production and, on the other, of highland areas similar to those of Turkey, Iran and other countries in which we have collaborating with the national programs for many years."
Both farming systems are relevant. The eight newly-independent republics include not only the West Asian ones (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzistan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) but those of the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia). "I think we could argue that we have a foot planted firmly in both types of environment," says Dr Beniwal. Moreover, these regions are a source of genetic diversity for many of ICARDA's madate crops; chickpea, for example, originated in them.
Although ICARDA is the CG Center making contact with the NIRS, its contacts with other parts of the CG system will also be important to them. For example, much of ICARDA's expertise in wheat ,highly relevant in Central Asia, has been developed in collaboration with CIMMYT, which will be represented at the workshop, as will IPGRI- the state of biodiversity in the region is likely to be one of the challenges; while matters of research organization and food policy are subject to collaboration with ISNAR (also to be represented) and IFPRI. "I dare say that we'll be finding a few more links, as well," adds Dr Beniwal. "Complementarity is important between CG Centers, just as it is between national programs!"
Specifically, the workshop participants will identify: constraints at the regional level; priority areas for assistance; training needs; areas where the NIRS could assist each other; and ways to link participating countries with regional and international partners to enable them to share resources and exchange information, expertise, technologies and germplasm. (First stop for this last point could certainly be ICARDA itself; its germplasm collection now contains 110,000 accessions.)
At the workshop, ICARDA's scientists will describe their activities in germplasm conservation, pasture and forage, livestock, natural resource management, seed production and the Highlands Regional Program. There will also be a presentation on what ICARDA can offer in training.
Their NIRS colleagues will make two presentations each. The first will cover needs in agricultural research and training, with an overview of their national agricultural sectors and of their resource bases and farming systems. The second will concentrate specifically on current status of seed production, distribution and marketing. The latter area is one in which GTZ has been very active in ICARDA's home area and elsewhere; has just helped with a seed privatization seminar being organized by ICARDA's North Africa Program in Tunis.
"I'm excited by the Tashkent workshop; I think we all are," says Dr Beniwal. "I expect to come home with a lot of ideas."
Prof. Dr Beltagy endorses this. "The workshop should provide tremendous food for thought. What we have to do is translate that, with our NIRS colleagues, into food for the future.
"I'd like to think that on the golden road to Samarkandwell, all right, Tashkent! the gold will be from healthy fields of wheat, to say nothing of other cereals, and of course rangelands...helping the newly-independent republics to be stable and prosperous players in the world into which they have just emerged."