| ICARDA :: Sustainable Agriculture for the Dry Areas

Board of Trustees reviewed the Center’s recent achievements and planned the road ahead

ICARDA’s Board of Trustees recently reviewed the Center’s planned decentralization and its continued efforts to improve food security and livelihoods across the world’s dry areas. The 52^nd meeting of ICARDA’s Board of Trustees, hosted by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) in Kuwait, came at a time of change and evolution for ICARDA, which is strengthening its partnerships and programs.

Opening the meeting, His Excellency, Dr. Abdlatif Al-Hamad, Director General and Chairman of the Board of the AFESD, recalled the Fund’s long-standing support for ICARDA. He referred to more than three decades of cooperation between the two organizations, starting with the Center’s creation in 1977. He conveyed his appreciation for ICARDA’s research, and the CGIAR as a whole, on the difficult task of improving food security in the Arab region, which represents the most water scarce region of the world. He concluded that ICARDA will have the continued support of the Fund – both for its current work and the Center’s planned decentralization.

Speaking at the meeting, ICARDA’s Board Chair, Dr. Camilla Toulmin, commented that the Center is set to enter a dynamic new era in its life: “The world of research for development is evolving rapidly, as is the CGIAR. The increased unpredictability of temperature extremes and extended droughts will have their most severe impact on those living in dry areas and on marginal lands.” ICARDA’s integrated approach, she says, brings new solutions to this changing landscape. “With this expertise, ICARDA is particularly well-placed to provide effective solutions to countries with extensive dryland systems”.

The planned decentralization will involve the establishment of regional research platforms to strengthen ICARDA’s current regional programs and expand its partnerships with national programs, with a view to enhancing the Center’s engagement with the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) in which it is involved - including the ICARDA-led CRP on Dryland Systems.

ICARDA’s Director General, Dr. Mahmoud Solh, explained that the strategy would help the Center integrate its research more closely with national partners and provide more effective support to their food security priorities.

The Board was also briefed on developments at ICARDA’s headquarters at Tel Hadya in Aleppo, Syria, and the contingency measures taken to protect the Center’s assets and ensure the ongoing work of its research program. The Board paid tribute to ICARDA’s partnerships with national programs, which enabled the Center to implement its contingency plans. In closing the meeting, Dr. Toulmin recognized the achievements of the Center’s management and staff in maintaining the Center’s operations, and for their commitment to the Center at this difficult time in its history.

ICARDA’s Board of Trustees with Dr. Abdlatif Al-Hamad, Director General of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD)

Presentation by ICARDA Board Chair, Dr. Camilla Toulmin, to AFESD Director General, Dr. Abdlatif Al-Hamad

Medicinal plants value chain empowers rural women

A project in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco is empowering rural women by increasing and diversifying income through the production of medicinal and aromatic plants. Effective value chain management through processing and packaging high value farm goods is a key tool in alleviating rural poverty that is often overlooked.

‘Empowering rural women through the sustainable management of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants’ is an ICARDA led project that is meeting its poverty reduction goals by focusing on this key strategy.

In order to understand where improvements in the system could be made, a value chain assessment was undertaken, which identified the major aromatic and medicinal plant species that are marketed in the area, their distribution chain, constraints and opportunities for smallholder farmers, and existing traders and processors in 10 rural communities. Based on the study two communities were chosen to set up processing and packaging facilities that are run by local women’s community based organizations (CBOs).

Agricultural trainings run by the Project have been based on the farmer-to-farmer method and are focused on growing, harvesting and packaging saffron, lavender, rose, and oregano. The program is also facilitating training in specialty soap making, including packaging and labeling, so that the CBO controls a significant portion of the value chain and can maximize profits.

The products are being successfully and widely marketed at regional fairs and their excellent quality is being recognized because of the strong quality control program set up to certify and label products.

The project is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and carried out by the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique and the Institute Agronomique et Veterinaire Hassan II.

Medicinal plants on display at a food stall

Rolling out new irrigation technologies in Pakistan

A project to demonstrate and disseminate new irrigation practices and technologies is helping farmers to more efficiently capture, store and use water, and to reduce the loss of fertile top soil in Pakistan. Led by ICARDA, the multi-year “Watershed Rehabilitation and Irrigation Improvement in Pakistan” project is helping rural farmers to employ best practices and technologies to maximize yields and minimize environmental damage through soil loss.

During the last year the project has provided a remarkable array of services including: trainings on drip irrigation system design for dozens of farmers, three month internships for 11 college students, installation and evaluation of high efficiency solar-driven sprinklers and water pumps, aquaculture developed for fish production, micro- catchments developed, rainwater harvesting systems set up, over 3000 forest plants for erosion control planted, numerous irrigation systems constructed for training purposes, knowledge gaps identified, and technologies disseminated through farmer field days, radio broadcasts, TV programs, and websites.

43% percent of the total labor force in Pakistan is employed in agriculture, making it a crucial sector for addressing poverty.

The project is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture and carried out in cooperation with the Water Resources Research Institute, the Social Sciences Research Institute of the Pakistani Agricultural Research Council, the Water Management Research Center, the University of Agriculture - Faisalabad, the Barani Agricultural Research Institute, and the Soil and Water Conservation Research Institute.

Pumping groundwater with solar energy in Faisalabad

Celebration of 10 years of successful partnership between The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture and ICARDA

Celebrating a successful partnership that has spanned more than 10 years, ICARDA and the Afghan Department of Agriculture recently took time to commemorate their joint work to improve the livelihoods of poor Afghan farmers. Both parties acclaimed their ongoing partnership for its successes in four different Afghan provinces, despite potentially life-threatening circumstances for researchers and extension staff.

Over the course of a decade more than 8000 people have been trained in Afghanistan through a range of activities such as in-country and abroad trainings, field days, workshops, and educational visits. ICARDA’s most successful initiatives have been in the areas of crop improvement, on-farm water utilization, seed production and processing, and protected agriculture. In the future, ICARDA’s joint research will be focused on watershed management, rainwater water harvesting and forage production, building on previous successes.

To address the rural development needs of ICARDA’s partners, the Afghanistan program covers a broad range of agro-climatic conditions, through four regional offices located in the Nangahar, Mazar-Sharif, Baghlan, and Kabul provinces. These hubs provide technical support for national food security goals and coordinate activities with the Ministry of Agriculture, other national partners, and local communities.

Afghan-ICARDA 10 year partnership: ICARDA’s Country Manager, Javed Rizvi receives a plaque from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Efficient use of rainfall and deficit irrigation for thirsty crops in the Arab world

Strategies and technologies for improving water-use efficiency in the world’s most water stressed regions were recently presented at the Arab Water Council Governors Meeting in Cairo by ICARDA senior water scientist Dr Fawzi Karajeh.

He noted that every Arab country, with the exception of Iraq, is expected to be chronically water scarce by 2025 because of rapid population growth at the same time that agricultural water availability and quality are in rapid decline. These facts are contributing to increasing food insecurity across North Africa and West Asia where countries have to import millions of tons of grain every year in order to meet the food needs of their populations.

Dr. Karajeh stressed that significant opportunities for increasing food production in the dry areas do exist through the more efficient use of rainfall for enhancing food and feed production.

Productivity increases are being accomplished in the dry areas through rainwater harvesting technologies as well as through tapping new methods in the use of irrigation water such as deficit irrigation. These practices have the potential to vastly improve and stabilize crop yields. New crop varieties produced and distributed by ICARDA and its partners are also improving yields through disease and pest resistance.

Rainwater Harvesting under Arid Conditions

Hands-on advanced training for young wheat breeders

A training course aimed at improving wheat productivity through advanced techniques in plant breeding for West Asia and North Africa was recently completed in Cairo, Egypt. The course augmented the skills of National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) wheat breeders to help bridge the gap between national wheat production and consumption.

The ICARDA run course hosted 15 scientists from nine nations and included a strong emphasis on practical skills development through field visits and practical sessions. The mixture of lectures immediately followed by practice allowed for hands-on application of new evaluation and breeding techniques.

The two-week course benefited young wheat breeders from the CWANA region by training them in both classical and molecular techniques and sought to increase working collaboration with NARS for more efficiency in wheat varietal development, release, and promotion.

The cost of importing wheat can be prohibitive for developing nations. Therefore NARS scientists are tasked with producing novel crop varieties that can provide robust yields under challenging conditions. High producing - drought and disease resistant varieties are a key ingredient to success.

The course was supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Union, and the Arab Fund, and hosted at the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute and the Sids Agricultural Research Station in Egypt.

Preparation of wheat for Gene Analysis

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