ICARDA Annual Report 2001

ICARDA developed a new strategy and initiated a project-based system in 1998, outlined in this chapter, of conducting and administering its research and training activities.
While detailed descriptions of all projects can be found at ICARDA’s web site (www.icarda.cgiar.org), the pages that follow present some key achievements made in each project during 2001.

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Agricultural systems in the dry areas are dynamic. Global linking of national economies and urban market development are creating new, more intensive, and more diverse demands on agricultural producers. The demographic pressure on the land combined with the need to produce more food from a limited resource base is forcing producers to follow practices that maximize short-term returns at the expense of long-term sustainability. Environmental resource degradation and human poverty are most pronounced in low-potential agricultural environments, particularly those with low and uncertain rainfall, in mountainous areas, and in the rangelands. Rural to urban, as well as international migration, is widespread, particularly in the Mediterranean region, and threatens social, political, and economic stability.
To deal with the challenges of poverty, food insecurity, and resource degradation, ICARDA’s research agenda is built around five general themes:

1. Crop Germplasm Enhancement
2. Production Systems Management
3. Natural Resource Management
4. Socioeconomics and Policy
5. Institutional Strengthening

The eco-geographic mandate of ICARDA's research covers the countries of Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), as well as other developing countries with subtropical and temperate dry areas. The term 'dry areas,' in the context of ICARDA's research program, refers to those areas where the length of the crop growing period is less than 180 days because of the limitation of rainfall. These dry areas comprise five ecoregions, namely, the cool subtropics (with winter rainfall); the warm, seasonally dry subtropics (with summer rainfall); the highland subtropics; the seasonally dry tropics; and dry temperate areas. Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are located in the cool subtropics; Botswana, Namibia, Nepal, northern Mexico, north-western India and Pakistan are located in the warm, seasonally dry subtropics; Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey are located in the highland subtropics; Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Oman, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are in the seasonally dry tropics; and Armenia, Azarbaijan, Georgia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, northwestern China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are located in the temperate dry areas.