ICARDA’s South Asia & China Regional Program: 4th Regional Coordination Meeting
Participants of the fourth Regional Coordination Meeting of ICARDA’s South Asia & China Regional Program in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 27-29 February 2016, looked at the progress made in various areas of collaborative research in South Asia & China since 2009 and discussed the future areas of research for development partnerships and collaboration. NARS leaders and scientists from various research institutes in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan, Dr. Mahmoud Solh, Director General of ICARDA along with Drs. Andrew Noble (DDG-R), Barbara Rischkowsky (Director-SIRPS), S.K. Agrawal, RPS Verma, Vinay Nangia and Ashutosh Sarker from ICARDA participated in discussions.
“ICARDA’s research activities, particularly in lentil technology development, are commendable,” said Dr. Yama Pandey, Executive Director of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) welcoming the participants. “We look forward to a broader partnership to discuss various future research agendas in tackling food and nutritional security in the region, and in the developing world,” he added. The meeting was inaugurated by Mr. U K Bhattarai, Secretary, Ministry of Agricultural Development, Nepal.
Dr. Solh elaborated upon the South Asia and China Regional Program, which builds on strong synergies between ICARDA and the national agricultural research systems in the partner countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Nepal, India and Pakistan) for the benefit of the region and dryland agriculture in all countries of South Asia. “We need to address critical capacity development issues and facilitate integration of countries in the region to provide a platform for exchange of germplasm, technological and scientific knowledge dissemination, and cater to the need for collaborations with support from international and national donors,” he said.
“With generous support from the Government of India and the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, ICARDA has recently launched a Global Pulses Research Platform in Madhya Pradesh, India, to increase the region’s pulses production significantly and reduce dependencies on imports,” Dr. Solh informed. “This platform will also be used for research on barley, durum wheat, forages, Conservation Agriculture and water productivity to address regional and global issues,” he added.
Technical and Plenary Sessions were held on Genetic Enhancement, Land and Water Management, and Crop-livestock-Rangeland systems to deliberate on regional agendas as well as country specific research issues. Participants visited the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), and National Gene Bank of Nepal, where Dr. Renuka Shrestha, Head of Agronomy Division and her colleagues showed lentil experiments on crop management and genetic enhancement.