Lebanon & ICARDA

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
(ICARDA) and the Republic of Lebanon have been closely bound
together since 1977, when ICARDA was established with the signing of
an agreement between the Government of Lebanon and the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
ICARDA emerged from, and expanded, the former Arid Land
Agricultural Development (ALAD) Program of the Ford Foundation that
operated in Lebanon in the 1960s and 1970s. The objectives of that
program remain valid today; to make the best use of limited water
resources, to improve production of staple food crops in a region of
major food gaps, and to address the complex integration of crop and
livestock production in the dry areas.