ICARDA Annual Report 2001

The Central Asia and the Caucasus Regional Program (CACRP) involves cooperative research with Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia in the Caucasus. Collaborative projects include germplasm improvement, plant genetic resources, soil and water management, and integrated feed and livestock production.

On 18 September, ICARDA Director General Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy (left) and Academician Asad Musaev, Director General of Research and Production Association, Azerbaijan, signed an agreement outlining collaboration in plant genetic resources.

During the Fifth CAC/ICARDA Regional Coordination Meeting, participants formally agreed to collaborate in the collection, evaluation, conservation, and documentation of plant genetic resources in Azerbaijan. Other agreements of collaboration with ICARDA were signed in June by the National Academic Center for Agricultural Research in Kazakstan, and in Uzbekistan by the State University of Samarkand, the Samarkand Institute of Agriculture, Tashkent State Agrarian University, and Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers.

ICARDA scientists have been working with CAC colleagues to collect germplasm and set up national genetic resources units (see Project 3.3). In December 2000, a technical plant genetic

The CAC countries agreed to adopt the Issyk-kul Declaration, committing all key partners to play a proactive role in building and supporting a strong agricultural research system in the region.

Traveling workshops for CAC researchers were organized in Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan on crop diversification and soil tillage, and in Jordan, Syria, and Turkey on water conservation technologies.

resources meeting was organized in Tashkent to identify the practical elements of starting plant genetic resources work. The participants identified three scientists in each CAC country to work full-time on genetic resources activities.

CAC scientists were sponsored by ICARDA to attend the yellow rust conference in Iran, two traveling workshops in Uzbekistan, and consultation meetings on improving food legumes and spring barley in Kazakstan. Two scientists from Central Asia visited ICARDA headquarters to study the operation and maintenance of automatic weather stations.

Forty-three participants attended training workshops on “Integrated Feed and Livestock Production in the Steppes of Central Asia.” In addition, regional workshops on “Improving Feed Resources in the Caucasus’ and “Breed characterization of Livestock in the Caucasus” were jointly organized by ICARDA and ILRI.