GAP (Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi or Southeastern Anatolia Project) is a multisector integrated regional development project in Turkey, and one of the largest integrated rural development projects in the world. It is a multibillion dollar project established in 1977 to promote agriculture and improve the livelihood of farmers in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. It covers nine administrative provinces in the Euphrates and Tigris basins and the upper Mesopotamia— Adiyaman, Batman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Kilis, Mardin, Siirt, Sanliurfa, and Sirnak.

The GAP region extends over 75,000 km², approximately 10% of the entire country, and has a population of about seven million. The region has enormous agricultural potential, but is one of the least developed in the country. It has 3.1 million hectares of cropland, 1.1 million hectares of forests, and 2.4 million hectares of pasture and rangeland. The project is ambitious; aiming to make available 1.7 million hectares of land for irrigated farming, enabling farmers to double or triple their harvest.

ICARDA has been implementing collaborative research, training, and development projects with GAP since 1999, highlights of which are presented in this report.

An agreement to expand the work plan for the GAP project was signed in 2004 by Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy (left), ICARDA Director General, and H.E. Muammer Yasar Ozgull, GAP President.