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Natural resource management has been an integral component of ICARDA's agenda since the birth of the Center, along with research on increasing productivity of the food and feed crops. An evaluation of the progress made to date pointed to the need for balancing the equation, and guided the development of ICARDA's Medium-Term Plan for 1998-2000. The Center is now striving more than ever before to integrate improved food production with the efficient management and conservation of natural resources.
In this issue of Caravan, we present a few examples of the harmony of our research with nature. Our collaborative long-term trials in Egypt have produced tentative guidelines which will help farmers to use less water, and fewer external inputs (and thus spend less). We also report here on our collaborative work in Egypt's North-West Coast, where a major Egyptian Government project is seeking integrated productivity and resource management strategies for a fragile environment.
The agricultural research community is increasingly becoming aware that it will have to incorporate climate change--both controlling it if possible, and living with it--as an element in its research agenda. We have already reported on how wise land husbandry can stabilize soil structure and carbon content, preventing the catastrophic loss of carbon sequestration that hasty agricultural development can lead to (see Agriculture--a weapon against global warming in Caravan
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No. 5). In this issue we report our work on rangeland CO2 flux monitoring in Uzbekistan--a project that we hope will be extended to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan soon.
In many areas in ICARDA's geographic mandate, rangeland degradation is a growing problem. If not controlled, this could lead to desertification. In some of these areas livestock production depends on irrigated forages that use frightening amounts of scarce water. Also, there is a need to replace the naturally occurring unpalatable grazing species with palatable ones. ICARDA, in collaboration with its national partners, is tackling this by using indigenous knowledge to identify potential grazing species, and then multiplying the seed and testing the lines for water-use efficiency, palatability, and other desirable qualities. This work has implications for the environment in three ways: biodiversity will be preserved in situ, water use will be cut, and plant cover of the rangeland will be preserved - reducing the threat of desertification. In the meantime, forage production for grazing is being improved, and with it the supply of dairy products which are essential for nutrition.
Fighting hunger is a key part of preserving the environment, so the productivity side of the equation must not be forgotten. This issue of Caravan gives an example of how the use of farmer-selected lines developed from landraces-based barley breeding keeps biodiversity in the field, and raises productivity.
Integrating research on sustainable in
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