 | |
| Founded | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit NGO |
| Focus | food security |
| Headquarters | Beirut, Lebanon |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Michel Afram, Chairperson; Aly Abousabaa, Director General |
| Affiliations | CGIAR |
| Website | ICARDA website |
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), a member of CGIAR, supported by the CGIAR Fund, is a non-profit agricultural research institute that aims to improve the livelihoods of the resource-poor across the world's dry areas.
ICARDA's origins begin in April 1972 when the Technical Advisory Committee of CGIAR (then known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) expressed interest in agricultural research in the Near East and North Africa. TAC identified the semi-arid winter rainfall zone of the region as an important ecological area with specific crops and significant agricultural challenges which were not adequately addressed by any of the international agricultural research centers at the time. TAC selected Professor Dunstan Skilbeck to head a study during March and April of 1973. The Skilbeck Mission recommended the establishment of a new agricultural research center to deal with the agricultural issues of the region. TAC recommended the establishment of an international center in Lebanon. [1]
The eruption of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 made prevented the establishment of a center in Lebanon. [2] The President of Syria Hafez al-Assad who had hoped to secure his own country's agriculture by working with this new institution made an attractive offer of free land for the center to the south of Aleppo. In 1977, ICARDA's headquarters were established in Tel Hadya, Syria. [2]
Today ICARDA's research activities include the development of new crop varieties, water harvesting, conservation agriculture, the diversification of production systems, integrated crop/rangeland/livestock production systems, and the empowerment of rural women.
ICARDA was forced to re-locate again in 2012 due to the Syrian civil war. [3] The center established headquarters in Beirut after leaving Aleppo in 2012. [2] [4] [5] Support is provided by research centers and offices in Jordan, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Afghanistan, India, Iran, Oman, Pakistan, Sudan, Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
ICARDA's decentralization builds on the Center's existing organization. Staff have been relocated to Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey, and the Center has established temporary headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.
As part of its decentralization, ICARDA has established integrated research platforms that address research priorities in each region, but serve dry areas globally through collaboration and partnerships with national programs, advanced research institutions, and other partners in the development and dissemination of international public goods.
The Center has developed four major Platforms, including the headquarters:
Headquarters (West Asia): ICARDA has established temporary headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, and expanded facilities and activities in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
North Africa, with a Platform in Morocco: Building on the existing partnership with INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), and focused on the intensification and diversification of rainfed cereal-based production systems. Morocco also hosts a CRP Dryland Systems Action Site.
Sub-Saharan Africa, with a Platform in Ethiopia: Building on the partnership with ILRI in the CRP on Livestock and Fish and on-going collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR).
South Asia, with a Platform in India: Building on the existing partnership with ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), and focused especially on food legumes systems.
Under ICARDA's decentralization strategy, the Center is operating four additional research locations with specific themes:
Egypt, for high-input agriculture: a platform with a targeted focus on high-input irrigated agricultural systems, building on collaborative research on irrigated wheat improvement and irrigated systems management.
Turkey, Central Asia and Iran, for Winter Wheat and Winter Barley: a distinct environment with extensive high altitude and highland agro-ecologies with severe winters particularly suitable for breeding winter wheat and winter barley.
Turkey/ICARDA Cereal Rusts Research Center in Izmir: Providing expertise on wheat rusts through the Regional Cereal Rust Research Center within the Aegean Agricultural Research Institute, part of Turkey's Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock. Founded in 2017. [6]
Sudan Heat Tolerance Research Location: This research location breeds heat-tolerant wheat and food legume varieties, in collaboration with Sudan's Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC)
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize. Edible grains from other plant families, such as buckwheat and quinoa, are pseudocereals. Most cereals are annuals, producing one crop from each planting, though rice is sometimes grown as a perennial. Winter varieties are hardy enough to be planted in the autumn, becoming dormant in the winter, and harvested in spring or early summer; spring varieties are planted in spring and harvested in late summer. The term cereal is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of grain crops and fertility, Ceres.
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a staple food around the world. The many species of wheat together make up the genus Triticum ; the most widely grown is common wheat. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BC. Botanically, the wheat kernel is a caryopsis, a type of fruit.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center is a non-profit research-for-development organization that develops improved varieties of wheat and maize with the aim of contributing to food security, and innovates agricultural practices to help boost production, prevent crop disease and improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods. CIMMYT is one of the 15 CGIAR centers. CIMMYT is known for hosting the world's largest maize and wheat genebank at its headquarters in Mexico.
CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security. CGIAR research aims to reduce rural poverty, increase food security, improve human health and nutrition, and sustainable management of natural resources.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East and North Africa together. However, it is widely considered to be a more defined and apolitical alternative to the concept of the Greater Middle East, which comprises the bulk of the Muslim world. The region has no standardized definition and groupings may vary, but the term typically includes countries like Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center that provides research-based policy solutions to reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition throughout the developing world in environmentally sustainable ways. For nearly 50 years, IFPRI has worked with policymakers, academics, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, development practitioners, and others to carry out research, capacity strengthening, and policy communications on food systems, economic development, and poverty reduction.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure backup facility for the world's crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. The Seed Vault provides long-term storage of duplicates of seeds conserved in genebanks around the world. This provides security of the world's food supply against the loss of seeds in genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease and natural disasters. The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).
Sunn pests are grain insect pests belonging to several genera of the 'shield bug' family Scutelleridae, with the species Eurygaster integriceps being the most economically important. Sunn pests are found in parts of North Africa, throughout West Asia and many of the new independent states of Central Asia.
Stem rust, also known as cereal rust, black rust, red rust or red dust, is caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis, which causes significant disease in cereal crops. Crop species that are affected by the disease include bread wheat, durum wheat, barley and triticale. These diseases have affected cereal farming throughout history. The annual recurrence of stem rust of wheat in North Indian plains was discovered by K.C. Mehta. Since the 1950s, wheat strains bred to be resistant to stem rust have become available. Fungicides effective against stem rust are available as well.
Mahmoud Solh is a Lebanese agricultural economist and genetic scientist who was formerly the Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, ICARDA based in Beirut, Lebanon.
Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization that delivers scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural biodiversity to attain global food- and nutrition security, working with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation. In 2019, Bioversity International joined with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture to "deliver research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives".. Both institutions are members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.
Crop diversity or crop biodiversity is the variety and variability of crops, plants used in agriculture, including their genetic and phenotypic characteristics. It is a subset of a specific element of agricultural biodiversity. Over the past 50 years, there has been a major decline in two components of crop diversity; genetic diversity within each crop and the number of species commonly grown.
Despite the crisis in Syria, agriculture remains a key part of the economy. The sector still accounts for an estimated 26 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and represents a critical safety net for the 6.7 million Syrians – including those internally displaced – who still remain in rural areas. However, agriculture and the livelihoods that depend on it have suffered massive losses . Today, food production is at a record low and around half the population remaining in Syria are unable to meet their daily food needs.
Deficit irrigation (DI) is a watering strategy that can be applied by different types of irrigation application methods. The correct application of DI requires thorough understanding of the yield response to water and of the economic impact of reductions in harvest. In regions where water resources are restrictive it can be more profitable for a farmer to maximize crop water productivity instead of maximizing the harvest per unit land. The saved water can be used for other purposes or to irrigate extra units of land. DI is sometimes referred to as incomplete supplemental irrigation or regulated DI.
Wheat yellow rust, also known as wheat stripe rust, is one of the three major wheat rust diseases, along with stem rust of wheat and leaf rust.
The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative was founded in response to recommendations of a committee of international experts who met to consider a response to the threat the global food supply posed by the Ug99 strain of wheat rust. The BGRI was renamed the Borlaug Global Rust initiative in honor of Green Revolution pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug who worked to establish and lead the Global Rust Initiative.
Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram was an Indian-born Mexican scientist and winner of the 2014 World Food Prize. He was awarded this prize for his scientific research in developing 480 wheat varieties that have been released in 51 countries. This innovation has led to an increase in world wheat production – by more than 200 million tons – building upon the successes of the Green Revolution. The Government of India awarded him India's fourth- and third-highest civilian awards Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2022).
Ismahane Elouafi is the Executive Managing Director of CGIAR. Formerly Chief Scientist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), she is ranked among the 20 most influential women in science in the Islamic world and is internationally known for her work on promoting neglected and underutilized crops, use of non-fresh water in agriculture, and empowerment of women in science.
Safaa Kumari is a Syrian born plant virologist. She is known for developing a disease resistant variety of faba bean that is resistant to the faba bean necrotic yellows virus (FBNYV).
Geoffrey Hawtin OBE is an agricultural scientist and World Food Prize laureate who has served in public institutions working in agricultural biodiversity, plant genetic resources, crop breeding and research management. He was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II and has been recognized for his career "dedicated to using agriculture as a weapon in the war against poverty in developing countries." He played key roles in the creation of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and the negotiation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. He has headed two CGIAR Research Centers and currently is on the Executive Board of the Crop Trust.
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