June
2002
Established
in 1977, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
(ICARDA) is governed by an independent Board of Trustees. Based at Aleppo, Syria,
it is one of 16 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
ICARDA serves the entire developing world for the improvement
of lentil, barley and faba bean; all dry-area developing countries for the improvement
of on-farm water-use efficiency, rangeland, and small-ruminant production; and
the Central and West Asia and North Africa region for the improvement of bread
and durum wheats, chickpea, and farming systems. ICARDA’s research provides
global benefits of poverty alleviation through productivity improvements integrated
with sustainable natural-resource management practices. ICARDA meets this challenge
through research, training, and dissemination of information in partnership
with the national agricultural research and development systems.
The results of research are transferred through ICARDA’s
cooperation with national and regional research institutions, with universities
and ministries of agriculture, and through the technical assistance and training
that the Center provides. A range of training programs is offered, from residential
courses for groups to advanced research opportunities for individuals. These
efforts are supported by seminars, publications, and specialized information
services.
The
CGIAR is an international group of representatives of donor agencies, eminent
agricultural scientists, and institutional administrators from developed and
developing countries who guide and support its work. The CGIAR receives support
from many country and institutional members worldwide. Since its foundation
in 1971, it has brought together many of the world’s leading scientists
and agricultural researchers in a unique South-North partnership to reduce poverty
and hunger.
The mission of the CGIAR is to promote sustainable
agriculture to alleviate poverty and hunger and achieve food security in developing
countries. The CGIAR conducts strategic and applied research, with its products
being international public goods, and focuses its research agenda on problem-solving
through interdisciplinary programs implemented by one or more of its international
centers, in collaboration with a full range of partners. Such programs concentrate
on increasing productivity, protecting the environment, saving biodiversity,
improving policies, and contributing to the strengthening of agricultural research
in developing countries.
The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are cosponsors
of the CGIAR. The World Bank provides the CGIAR System with a Secretariat in
Washington, DC. A Science Council, with its Secretariat at FAO in Rome, assists
the System in the development of its research program.
Caravan is published
twice a year, in June and December, by the International Center for Agricultural
Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Tel.: (963-21) 2213433, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490/2225105/2219380
E-Mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
Web site: http://www.icarda.cgiar.org
Executive editor:
Surendra Varma
Editor: David Abbass
ISSN 1025-0972
© ICARDA 2002
ICARDA encourages
fair use of the articles published in Caravan, provided the source is quoted.
The Center would appreciate receiving a copy of the article (or link to appropriate
web pages) in which Caravan material is used.
