Newsletter December 2003 - GFAR Secretariat News

A new Business Plan for GFAR

The current GFAR Business Plan (BP) the second in the series was designed to cover the period of 2001 to 2003, and a new one the third in the series will cover the period of 2004-2006. The preparatory phase for this third BP started a little while ago, when the Dakar 2003 Conference working group indicated that one of the main expected outputs of that Conference was the definition of a framework or the identification of essential elements for the GFAR Business Plan for the triennium 2004-2006. Stakeholders responded admirably during the Conference, and formulated a series of recommendations which contained such essential elements. Shortly after the Conference, the Secretariat synthesized and summarized these recommendations, and combined them with an analyzis of the status of implementation of the 2001-2003 BP, to produce a working document for the formulation of the new BP (2004-2006).

Representatives of the various GFAR stakeholder groups have been invited to a BP formulation retreat during which they will use the working document and other pertinent documentation to complete the process of formulating the third GFAR BP (2004-2006). We believe this approach of active participation and involvement of GFAR Stakeholders in the development of our next BP fully respects the participatory decision making principles of GFAR, and will ensure a strong stakeholder commitment to its implementation.

The invited 25 participants are: the Executive Secretaries of Regional Fora, and representatives from the Farmers' Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, International Agricultural Research Centres, Advanced Research Institutions, the Private Sector and Donor support Group. Members of the GFAR Management Team will participate as well, to play an oversight role. The process will be moderated by a facilitator.

The retreat will be held from the 2nd to the 3rd of February 2004, at the Istituto Agronomico per l'Oltremare in Florence, Italy. We look forward to what promises to be an exciting and fruitful retreat, and will promptly share the outcome with the GFAR family and friends.

O.S.

The year 2003 in retrospect: a report from the GFAR Secretariat

The year 2003 was an eventful one in many respects. This was the year that a new Executive Secretary came on board to manage affairs at the Secretariat with all of the changes that implied. It was also the year of GFAR triennial Conference, an important land mark in the affairs of GFAR. In reviewing our stewardship during the year 2003, we were able to group our accomplishments under the following four categories of activities: facilitating the system governance operations, engaging and interacting with stakeholders, facilitating Research Partnerships, and providing a medium of communication and knowledge sharing for GFAR stakeholders and their collaborators.

With regards to facilitating the systems governance operations, we organized a series of statutory meetings during which important decisions related to the governance of GFAR and the activities of its stakeholders were taken. These meetings ensured that the governance wheel of GFAR moved smoothly, and that GFAR remained functional. Examples are:

A Management Team Meeting (MTM) held in February 17th -18th 2003, during which important decisions were taken with regards to such issues as the minimum critical staffing at the Secretariat; relationship with GPP Facilitating Units; fine tuning preparations for the GFAR 2003 conference.
The GFAR 2003 conference itself (May 22-24), which constitutes an important statutory meeting of GFAR that brings all of its stakeholders together to renew alliances and provide guidelines and input on the issues on which the group as a whole should focus over a three-year period. It was a major undertaking for the Secretariat which, in collaboration with a Conference Organizing Committee, designed the meeting agenda, and then undertook all of the organizational activities required for the meeting to hold as scheduled, including raising funds to finance the meeting. By all accounts, including formal and informal evaluation by the participants as well as a meeting post mortem by the Secretariat, GFAR 2003 was successful in that it addressed the set objectives and achieved the expected outputs.
A series of four committee meetings held in October (25-27) in conjunction with the CGIAR AGM 03. These were the NARS sub-committee, the GFAR Steering Committee and the Donor Support Group (DSG) meetings. The fourth meeting (the first of its kind) was convened to allow the Executive Secretaries of the Regional Fora to meet and deliberate on how to facilitate and promote inter-regional collaboration, an issue of great importance to GFAR.

Detailed reports of all of these statutory meetings have been prepared and disseminated for information via several media, including on the EGFAR web-site.

In accordance with our mandate of interacting with and providing support to stakeholders, the following activities were carried out during the current year.

Update of the Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Data Base. The current GFAR database on CSOs was updated and expanded through a formal survey and web searches, which yielded an additional 50 odd entries. The database will soon be linked to the EGFAR in the form of a searchable database, which will eventually be managed by the CSOs themselves through the EGFAR Back Office system (EBO), in order to ensure regular updating and an increased sense of ownership
Building a CSO network in the Southern Caucasus. The Secretariat participated in an initiative of NGOs and farmers organizations (FOs) in the Southern Caucasus designed to organize themselves into a network, for a more effective contribution to a common objective. During a two-day meeting held on 31 March to 01 April 2003 in Tbilisi Georgia, NGOs and FOs from Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, met with the objective of laying the foundation of a network that will take up the challenge of raising awareness to current constraints to the agricultural sector, map out strategies to ensure the voices of the NGOs and FOs are heard and that they contribute to decision making processes related to ARD. One of the outputs of the meeting was the adoption of an agenda that will guide them towards achieving the set objective. The Secretariat will continue to monitor and facilitate this initiative, and will make use of the outputs of this workshop in defining future efforts to strengthen CSOs in the region.
Contribution to the development of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) research priorities. This year we intensified on-going collaborative efforts between the GFAR Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Interim Science Council. The objective of our joint effort was to ensure that recently identified Regional Fora research priorities are taken into account by the CGIAR centres as they formulate new research priorities and implementation strategies for their own programmes of research. The GFAR Secretariat identified and recommended participants for the various stakeholder and scientific consultations organized by the Interim Science Council Secretariat, and also facilitated a feedback process to GFAR stakeholders during the GFAR 2003 conference. In addition, the Secretariat participated actively in the development of the Challenge Programme (CP) on Unlocking genetic diversity in crops for the resource poor, and represents GFAR on the Progamme Steering Committee (PSC) of the CP. Moreover, it facilitated the participation of 4 representatives from GFAR stakeholder groups in a Technical Planning Workshop of the CP during the month of August. Finally the Secretariat started the process of establishing a GFAR stakeholder committee to advice the PSC, and provide a feedback and consultative mechanism to the various stakeholders.

During the current year, the Secretariat facilitated the development of a number of Global Partnership Programmes focused on one or the other of the four areas of global importance identified in our Business Plan. Two of the more advanced initiatives focused on Rural Knowledge Systems and Innovation Processes and Rural Innovation for the Support and Development of Small and Medium sized Agro-Enterprises. The two initiatives have brought together a number of different stakeholders who are moving towards working together on common problems. We hope that these and perhaps one or two others will start being implemented in the coming year.

In order to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing amongst GFAR stakeholders, the Secretariat was given the mandate to develop, manage and maintain an electronic Global Forum on Agricultural Research (EGFAR) and to assist Regional Fora to develop manage and maintain their own Regional Agricultural Information Systems (RAIS). This mandate was admirably addressed by the Secretariat during the current year. Firstly, the EGFAR became a more dynamic, iterative and user friendly site, and now features a new tool for uploading information allowing stakeholders to manage the content of some pages and/or information contained in EGFAR database through a decentralized input process. This tool, the EGFAR Back Office System (EBO) brings us that much closer to our goal of developing a truly decentralized information and communication management system because of the decentralized nature of the GFAR set up and our commitment to full and active stakeholder participation in all of our activities.

Secondly, within the context of a Global Regional Agricultural Information System (Global -RAIS) project the Secretariat facilitated the implementation of three (WANA, CAC and APAARI) out of five planned workshops. The two others (FARA and FORAGRO) will be held early in 2004, as will the Inter-regional workshop. The objective being on one hand for each RF/SRF to develop and implement an information-communication strategy that will benefit from synergies and economies of scale at both the national and regional levels, and on the other hand, to develop a global strategic agenda that will link all of the regions, and facilitate a bottom up approach for the implementation of a global information system.

In terms of knowledge sharing and information dissemination, we continued the tradition of publishing an EGFAR quarterly newsletter in two formats - PDF distributed to the 1500 stakeholders on the GFAR-stakeholder mailing list, and - HTML available online in the newsletter section. The only edition of the newsletter published this year, focused on the GFAR 2003 conference.

Other publications that were completed and disseminated this year were:

case studies on Innovative Research Partnerships presented during the 2000 GFAR conference, held in Dresden in the form of a CD ROM
Initiative on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in a book form
GFAR 2003 proceedings in a book form

As indicated earlier, the year was an eventful one, and we have highlighted some of those events that show GFAR is poised to take giant strides towards its goals, and that its Secretariat has positioned itself to facilitate movement in that direction. With an expanding Donor Support Base, and increasing expression of interest in GFAR and its activities, the future looks bright and promising, and we invite all stakeholders to also renew their commitment to the GFAR.

O.S.

NARS Sub-Committee meeting

The meeting was held on 25 October 2003 from 14:00 to 18:30 in Nairobi, Kenya, and was presided by GFAR Chair Mohammad Roozitalab. Present during the meeting were all the Chairs and Executive Secretaries of the five regional fora.

Each regional fora was given 15-minutes to make their presentation which was then followed by a 15-minute discussion, it was noted that all the RF are making good process as regards their respective activities. During this meeting, the new Chair and Executive Secretaries from Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC), Latin America and the Caribbean (FORAGRO), AARINENA and FARA were introduced as they have just been elected to their post recently.

Potential thematic areas for inter-regional collaboration were identified. However, given the large number of potential areas, it was agreed that there is a need to be strategic which means to focus on, as well, on the building of comparative advantage and on the strengthen and merging of opportunities in each region.

It was recommended to that the functions, membership and mechanisms by which the NARS Sub-committee operates be revisited. It was intended that in the future the NARS sub-committee will be playing a more programmatic role. As the topic has implications on the current GFAR Charter, it was recommended that the Charter be revisited. A group will be charged to conduct the review with the GFAR Management Team driving the process.

A detailed report of the meeting can be find on the web site.

GFAR Steering Committee meeting

The GFAR Steering Committee was held last 26 October 2003 in Nairobi, Kenya.

During this meeting which was attended by various stakeholders, GFAR Secretariat presented progress made so far since the Manila meeting which took place in October 2002. The outline of the GFAR Business Plan 2004-2006 was also presented. Participants also endorsed the process by which the Business Plan will be developed.

Updates on some Global Partnership Programme (GPPs) and pending projects were also presented, namely: outcome of the International Workshop on Under-utilized species; Promoting Local Innovation (Prolinnova): Ethiopian Experience; Global RAIS; Programme DURAS; portfolio of projects aimed at strengthening civil society organizations (CSOs); and Post-harvest Systems Initiative. In the ensuring discussion, the need for active involvement of Regional Fora on all these activities was stressed.

Stakeholders made their respective statements and reported their activities in the previous year. For instance, the advanced research institutions (ARIs) stakeholder group expressed their preference not to be referred to as "ARIs" as the term itself appears to be a misnomer since even in the so-called "South," there exist some "advanced research institutions." It was also cited that European "ARIs," are grouping them as forum where NGOs are also involved, thus qualifying them as a regional fora. Several suggestions were also put forward in establishing North American Fora (NAFAR), as well as inviting China as an observer in GFAR.

The financial situation of GFAR in 2003 and budget for 2004 was presented. It was also reported that several projects in support of achieving the objectives of GFAR will be launched in 2004.

Also during this meeting, the NGO group took over the GFAR Vice-chair position after an extensive consultation amongst them. Ms Monica Kapiriri (Aga Khan Foundation) was nominated to serve in that capacity. Meanwhile, the Farmers' Organizations have accepted to start consultations amongst themselves in order to nominate a new representative to the GFAR Steering Committee as a replacement for the current incumbent who has served over the last three years. Recently, Mr. Jack Nicholson, President of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), was nominated to the GFAR Steering Committee. It was also decided during this meeting that the GFAR charter will be revisited and that a small group will be tasked to do this, with the GFAR Management Team driving the process.

CGIAR Chair Ian Johnson and CGIAR Director Francisco Reifschneider joined GFAR towards the end of its Steering Committee. Among others, they acknowledged the role played by GFAR in the development of some Challenge Programmes, and expressed interest in exploring with GFAR ways by which the CGIAR can from GFAR experience in engaging NGOs. Possible World Bank support to GFAR will also be explored in the future.

Donor Support Group meeting

The meeting was held on the 27th of October in Nairobi, Kenya and was chaired by Dr. Rodney Cooke of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It was well attended, and thus reflected GFAR's renewed effort to broaden its support base.

Current and new donors present during this session reaffirmed their commitment to support GFAR. Some others, which GFAR considers as potential donors (e.g. DFID, USAID, WB), adequately directed GFAR in how to pursue negotiations for possible support.

It was recommended to work other ways of channeling funds to GFAR in order to minimize administrative constraints and to avoid overhead costs. One example cited was the Italian contribution which would be channeled through FAO as if it were an Italian funded project. There were also discussions as whether donors could consider the BP 2003-2006 as basis for pledging its financial contribution to GFAR. This proposal received mixed reactions, and many responded that they would have to study if this would be possible.

The GFAR Chair underscored in his concluding remarks that GFAR goes beyond agricultural research per se and plays an important role in agriculture and rural development while focusing on building national capacities and effective partnerships in ARD.

He then thanked everyone present in the meeting for their participation.

A detailed report of the meeting can be find on the web site.

First meeting of the Regional Fora Executive Secretaries

The Regional Fora Executive Secretaries' Meeting was the first of its kind convened by the GFAR Secretariat. It was held on the 27th of October 2003 in Nairobi Kenya and was attended by all the Executive Secretaries of all the five Regional Fora, with Dr. Ola Smith, GFAR Executive Secretary as presiding. The aim is to establish a stronger and more efficient coordination among the RF, facilitate inter-regional collaboration, and exchange of information on relevant activities that they plan at regional level.

Issues discussed involved the schedule of the GFAR Statutory meetings, interactions between the GFAR Secretariat-RF and themes for inter-regional collaboration.

Participants agreed that GFAR SM meetings would be held twice yearly - one linked to AGM, and another one linked to RF Executive Committee meeting - in the next two years. The advantages and disadvantages of this set-up would be studied and then decide later on whether to continue or not with such schedule. GFAR was requested to play a facilitating role in bridging AARINENA and FARA together. Towards this end, FARA invited a North African country representative to sit in the ExCo as an observer. Regional Fora Executive Secretaries also recognized the need to foster discussions for the development of effective inter-regional collaborations. It was agreed to share the programs of work of the Executive Secretaries to facilitate the planning of activities ahead of time.

FORAGRO and AARINENA came forward and made their respective offers to host the next Executive Secretaries Meeting. The two proposals will be studied and a final decision will be taken as soon as possible.

A detailed report of the meeting can be find on the web site.

ICT

AGORA: 69 Countries qualify for free access to scientific literature over the Internet

Mark your calendars for October 14! On that day in Rome, the Food and Agriculture Organization, together with Cornell University’s Mann Library, the Rockefeller Foundation and nine major publishers will roll out AGORA: Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture. AGORA is an Internet portal that links users to full-text articles in 600+ agricultural science journals. From Agricultural Economics to Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, eligible developing country researchers will be able to download the world’s latest published literature to their office or home computer at no cost.

Founding publishers include Blackwell Publishing; CABI, Elsevier, Kluwer Academic Publishers; Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Oxford University Press, Spring Verlag and John Wiley and Sons. An additional 60 commercial publishers, learned societies, governmental and international organizations will be approached to contribute content as well.

Anyone can use AGORA and browse its journal collection up to the abstract level. Free access to the full-text articles, however, is only offered to countries, areas and territories with annual GNP per capita of less than US$1,000. Sixty-nine countries qualify in this initial phase.

Within eligible countries, institutions whose staff and students may have access to the journals include educational, government and research organizations that have a non-profit status and focus on agriculture and related biological, environmental and social sciences.

List of countries which will be eligible for free access (GNP per capita < $1000):

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Angola	Ethiopia	Niger
Benin	Gambia	Nigeria
Burkina Faso	Ghana	Rwanda
Burundi	Guinea	Sao Tome & Principe
Cameroon	Guinea-Bissau	Senegal
Central African Republic	Kenya	Sierra Leone
Chad	Lesotho	Somalia
Comoros	Liberia	Sudan
Congo	Madagascar	Togo
Côte d'Ivoire	Malawi	Uganda
Dem Rep of Congo	Mali	United Rep of Tanzania
Djibouti	Mauritania	Zambia
Eritrea	Mozambique	Zimbabwe

Asia-Pacific
Afghanistan	Kiribati	Papua New Guinea
Bangladesh	Lao People's Dem. Rep.	Solomon Islands
Bhutan	Mongolia	Tokelu
Cambodia	Myanmar	Tuvalu
Dem. Rep. of Timor Leste	Nepal	Vietnam

West Asia and North Africa
Yemen

Central and Eastern Europe & the Caucasus
Albania	Kyrgyzstan	Ukraine
Armenia	Rep. of Moldova	Uzbekistan
Azerbaijan	Tajikistan
Georgia	Turkmenistan

Latin America & the Caribbean
Guyana	Nicaragua	Honduras
Haiti

To take full advantage of AGORA, users must have at least a 56 kbps Internet connection. The system is designed to work best with Internet Explorer version 4.0 or higher, or Netscape version 4.5 or higher. Users will also need an Adobe Acrobat viewer for journal articles in PDF.

The AGORA website will offer an indexed database for searching AGORA’s content, with direct links to the journals’ abstracts and full-text articles. AGORA incorporates the fundamental design and systems elements of two existing resources: TEEAL and HINARI. TEEAL is The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library, which was developed by Mann Library at Cornell University and provides access to agricultural journals on CD-ROM. TEEAL offers the most affordable solution to information access at institutions that cannot yet take advantage of the Internet. HINARI is the equivalent to AGORA in the health sector. It was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and launched in January 2002. AGORA builds on and shares the infrastructure of HINARI. This collaboration between the agriculture and health sectors saved significant costs for systems development and will allow for efficiencies in training and outreach.

Financial assistance for AGORA’s development has been provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the UK’s Department for International Development and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Interested users need to complete and submit the online registration form. If you have any questions that cannot be answered by visiting AGORA’s website, please .

Olivia Went
TEEAL/AGORA Outreach Coordinator

GLOBAL.RAIS project: where we are

The GLOBAL.RAIS project is half its way now; after the first regional workshop held in February this year in the AARINENA region, the second regional consultation has recently been held for the APAARI region in Bangkok, Thailand, at the beginning of December. The pause between the first and second workshop was due understandable constraints: GFAR Conference held in May that fully engaged all GFAR Secretariat staff not only in the preparation but also in the follow-up.

Finally the GFAR Secretariat team is now ready to organize all the remaining regional consultations and the inter-regional workshop that will mark the end of this first phase of GLOBAL.RAIS.

Next dates are:

27-28 January 2004, Tashkent, Uzbekistan: Regional Workshop for the Central Asia & the Caucasus region
Last week of February 2004 (date to be defined), San José, Costa Rica: Regional Workshop for the Latin America & the Caribbean region
Last week of March 2004 (date to be defined), Accra, Ghana: Regional Workshop for Sub-Saharan Africa
27-28 April 2004, Rome, Italy: Inter-regional Workshop

The project has been extended until the end of April. A very positive outcome of the two regional consultation, is the participation of representatives coming from other regions leading to very interesting discussion and opened the way to future fruitful collaborations at the inter-regional level.

We are now envisaging the second phase of the GLOBAL.RAIS project; once the picture of regional requirements and possible ways of interaction/collaboration between regions is clear, it will be the time to work at the practical level, connecting existing systems (EARD-Infosys+, APARIS, INFOTEC) or developing modules for the "new" ones (AARINENA, FARA, CAC).

Personal contacts with RAIS managers as well as initial collaboration at technical level make us very optimistic in this regards.

F.B.

GFU for Underutilized Species website

We are pleased to inform the GFAR community that the GFU’s website has been launched. The aim of the site is to be the internet gateway to information on underutilized species for a large and diverse clientele. The site is not intended to duplicate existing efforts, but rather to provide an umbrella or portal to all available sources of information about underutilized species. The kind of information accessible through this portal ranges from details of specific crops, events of interest, important topics related to underutilized species, to relevant publications. Shortly it will provide a database of experts and ongoing activities on underutilized species. Besides making knowledge available for download, the site also intends to offer a platform for communication among interested parties. The portal is hosted at IPGRI. After analyzing various options this decision was taken during the last steering committee meeting in March. All members appreciated IPGRI’s offer and support to this site. IPGRI has committed itself to host the portal for the time being, while the GFU is still using its resources to maintain and update it. IPGRI, however, would be pleased to collaborate with other agencies to seek resources for a long-term solution.

The website’s URL is www.underutilized-species.org.

Please, visit the site and send us your feedback and contributions to be included.

We recently have conducted a global survey among different stakeholder groups to get an overview on current and past activities on underutilized species activities and on the organizations being involved. The data obtained will be compiled in a searchable database. This will facilitate improved networking and development of synergies among stakeholders. An essential part of the information will be an expert list, which will allow interested actors to contact each other in their particular field of expertise. We are confident that this kind of information will be useful to stakeholders and will contribute to active and fruitful interactions among the “underutilized species community”. It will provide an opportunity to make the work and expertise of an organization or an individual known to a large community.

An International Workshop on Underutilized Plant Species was held in May 2003 in Leipzig, Germany. The workshop was jointly organized by the GFU, Capacity Building International InWEnt, and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation GTZ. The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ, the International Fund for Agricultural Cooperation IFAD and the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation CTA sponsored the workshop. The meeting has convened more than 50 representatives of government bodies, the private sector, development agencies, NGOs, networks, donors and research institutions. The objectives of the workshop were to identify the strategic elements for the promotion and sustainable utilization of underutilized plant species and to recommend next steps and potential actors for their implementation. In brief the following outputs were obtained:

1) In view of the range of existing terms used for underutilized plant species, which include minor, neglected, local, traditional, underexploited, underdeveloped, orphan, lost, new, niche, promising and alternative, and which all have their limitations, advantages and disadvantages the participants agreed on the following working definition:
Underutilized plant species are those with a potential, not fully exploited, to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation. The promotion of their use should happen in a sustainable fashion
A particular point of discussion was the range of species to be included (e.g. traditional varieties of major crops, which remain underutilized) and the level of utilization to be characterized as underutilized. The clarification of these issues was beyond the scope of the workshop and will remain as an important future task.

2) It was recognized that due to the diversity of underutilized plant species it is important to identify groups of species, which share key commonalties with regard to their contributions to food security/health, income generation, non-material benefits and biodiversity/environmental services. This is not for the purpose of prioritizing plant species at an early stage, but rather to be able to develop more targeted promotion strategies based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats identified for each of these plant groups.

3) Several approaches generally used for the promotion of underutilized species were discussed. All approaches have their individual strengths and weaknesses, which suggests that no single approach can be successful- a combination of different approaches will be required, depending on the objective of the promotion of underutilized plant species, the type of species and the respective project context. The participants identified the following key characteristics required within an approach to successfully target and benefit poor people with the promotion of underutilized plant species and to minimize the available risks and weaknesses of each approach:

Recognition of underutilized plant species as public goods in order to ensure the continued availability and accessibility of the plant genetic resources to present and future generations
Fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the use of underutilized plant species for sustainable agriculture and food security.
Strengthening the capacity of marginalized people in the negotiation with private sector and government.
Access to information for all stakeholders in order to ensure equal positioning in decision making.
Participatory and multi-stakeholder oriented approaches to provide for inclusion and consideration of different interests and needs

4) The participants established eight intervention areas, which allow for targeted support to underutilized species. These areas are: Conservation/improvement of and access to plant genetic resources; policy and legislation; capacity building; information generation and management; awareness creation and lobbying; marketing; post-harvest handling and processing; and inter-sectoral interventions.

5) Strategic elements relevant for the promotion and sustainable utilization for underutilized plant species have been identified under each area of intervention.

6) Actors have been identified that should contribute to the implementation of the strategic elements under the different areas of intervention.

A full workshop report will be soon available on our website.

During this workshop and through other interactions with stakeholders it became clear that exploiting the economic potential of underutilized species is most attractive for many countries and communities and represents the driving force for conservation of these species. The growing demand in developed and developing countries for more variety and novelty in food and other products is creating new markets for underutilized species. This situation can generate new opportunities for additional income for poor farmers in less favored environments where these species have a comparative advantage over staples and other commercial crops. However, producers and exporters are often lacking information on what the market demands and do not have the necessary contacts with potential importers/buyers. The GFU was requested to provide support in these areas. Therefore a study on “Market opportunities for underutilized species products – What does the market want?” has been commissioned. It will provide an overview of the interest of commercial food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and other companies in Europe and the USA for underutilized species products. The survey focuses on fair trade companies in order to guarantee benefit sharing to the producers, but also includes conventional business companies for the purpose of a broader view. The information gathered will be made available to the stakeholders together with a list of contacts of the interested companies for a further and detailed market research on particular species and their products.

A potential trade barrier for commercialization of underutilized species products in Europe is the EU Novel Food Regulation. This regulation refers to food that has not been consumed within the EU to a significant degree before May 1997. If a food is considered novel, an assessment of the food’s safety by the member state’s competent authority is required before it can be placed on the market. The process scrutinizes the novel food against the objectives of the Novel Food Regulation, which are to ensure that it does not represent a danger for the consumer nor that its consumption is nutritionally disadvantageous. The person or firm that wants to place a food item on the EU market has to first evaluate whether the food is novel or not and to present evidence to support the case. If the product is novel, the applicant has to provide scientific evidence that proves the safety of the food for the consumers. The Regulation has in some cases led to the rejection of an imported food within the EU. Many novel food items are derived from underutilized species. The costs, complexity, duration and uncertain outcome of the NFR procedures have discouraged the typically small firms in this sector to file applications. Against this background the GFU together with the GTZ Project on Agro-biodiversity has commissioned a study to analyze the implications of the NFR on trade with underutilized species. The study is available to all interested parties on our website. The results of the Novel Food study have been presented to the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ. It has been pointed out that the Regulation might be in conflict with the Ministry’s and EU’s objective to facilitate the access of developing countries to international markets. A meeting at the German Ministry of Consumer Protection, Nutrition and Agriculture BMVEL was organized involving also BMZ, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation GTZ, the International Potato Center CIP and GFU. A proposal, prepared by CIP, containing suggestions for an amendment of the Regulation that considers the interests and needs of developing to export these products to the EU was discussed. In a joint CIP-GTZ-GFU activity an update of the proposal has been prepared for official submission to BMVEL. The Ministry committed itself to analyze the suggestions for their compliance with German Food Law and then to submit them to the EU working group on Novel Food for their potential consideration during the upcoming revision of the Regulation.

Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon
Coordinator, GFU for Underutilized Species

Outcomes of the International Workshop on a Global Post-harvest Initiative - Linking Farmers to Markets

Investment in the post-harvest sector has potential to contribute to sustainable economic growth, poverty alleviation and food security in developing countries. Yet the focus of development assistance is still substantially in favour of increased agricultural production which under some circumstances may lower farm incomes , for example, through falling prices. Cognizant of the importance of post-harvest development in developing countries, GFAR, the Agricultural Support Systems Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO/AGS) and the Global Post-Harvest Forum (Ph Action) recently agreed to work collaboratively on the development of a new post-harvest initiative: A Global Post-harvest Systems Initiative for the 21st Century: Linking Farmers to Markets. To this end, a Draft Strategic Framework was developed.

With the objective to review and endorse this framework an International Workshop was convened by GFAR, AGS, and PhAction on 7-9 October 2003. A vast diversity of stakeholders from both the supply and beneficiary sides, representing all regions, attended the event. During the three days of the workshop, working groups on a Regional basis were formed, which carefully analyzed and modified each section of the Strategic Framework. It was recognized that the new initiative offers an innovative platform for a supply chain approach to post-harvest development. The framework acknowledges the central role of a market-oriented approach to address the post-harvest and production problems. The initiative also offers participation of stakeholders in the development and implementation of the initiative, at the lowest most effective level in keeping with the concept of a Global Partnership Programme.

In the last day, during Plenary session, the Framework was finally endorsed, and the next steps for moving forward the initiative defined: GFAR, FAO/AGS and PhAction were asked, in fact, to convene an Interim Coordinating Committee. A revised version of the Strategic Framework, which takes into account the various suggestions of all the stakeholders is now being prepared.

More detailed information on the elements of the Strategic Framework, and on the moving forward of the initiative can be obtained by contacting directly the GFAR Secretariat.

A.S.

Inter-Regional Network of Cotton in Asia and North Africa (INCANA)

INCANA was established on the recommendation of the Inter- regional Workshop on Cotton which was held in October 2002 in Tehran, Iran. The countries participated in the workshop were Azerbaijan, Greece, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In addition to these countries, representatives from some international and regional research organizations naming APAARI, AARINENA, CAC, GFAR, and ICARDA attended this workshop.

Cotton plays an important role in the economy of many developing countries. This strategic industrial crop has a wide range of application and provide significant employment opportunities for rural poor people in many developing countries. Some important facts about cotton are as follows:

Cotton is not just a fiber, but food (oil) and fuel (white gold)
Grown by many resource poor farmers in about 70 countries in 5 continents around the world
Provides significant employment and rural livelihood in many developing countries
No international research centers to support NARS and develop technologies for sustainable cotton production in different regions
Many agronomic, environmental and economic constraints

Considering the importance of cotton role in sustainable development of developing countries, optimization of cotton agronomy and farming through performing research projects in different fields such as seed improvement, pests and diseases control, irrigation, application of pesticides and fertilizers, cotton quality, processing, etc. is of prime importance.

In this regard, the most pivotal challenges should be addressed through an intact research priority setting. The participants in the Workshop agreed upon the following research priorities for cotton:

Water management and increasing water use efficiency.
Development of early maturing varieties tolerant to drought, salinity and biotic stresses.
Integrated pest management and decreasing pesticides applications.
Cotton quality and technology.
Weed management.
Nutrient (both micro and macro) management.
Growth regulators.
Hybrid and transgenic cotton.
Mechanization & farm management.
Increasing crop productivity and intensity of cropping system.
Economics and commerce.

The participating countries in the Workshop felt the necessity of establishing a cotton research network in order to harmonize and make coordination between the research activities and share the new research findings with other members. This could accelerate research development and decrease the costs and provides a collaborative environment for different stakeholders to work together on collaborative research projects.

As agreed by the Network members, the Secretariat of the Network was established in the Cotton Research Institute, Agricultural Research and Education Organization (AREO) in Iran.

Missions of the Network are:

Establishment of an information management system on cotton.
Exchange of germplasm.
Publication of a monthly electronic and a regular newsletter.
Organization of conferences, workshops and training courses.
Publication of successful cases on cotton production within the member countries.
Organizing the annual meeting of Network- Steering Committee in member countries.

The workshop established the Steering Committee which consists of directors of cotton research institutes/heads of cotton research departments of the member countries and representatives from APAARI, AARINENA, CAC, GFAR, ICARDA, and AREO. The Steering Committee will have an annual meeting: on a rotational basis in one of the member countries to review the progress made and to oversee the activities of the Network.

Financial Contributions have been received in 2003 from APAARI, AARINENA, ICARDA and AREO for starting the activities.

Agricultural Research and Education Organization (AREO), Iran has also provided an office and needed facilities including , fax and telephone as well as appointing the Network Secretary and staff.

Network Achievements in 2003 are:

Contacting the NARS in APAARI/AARINENA/CAC regions as well as ARIs such CIRAD, France (joining the Network, exchanges of germplasm and information).
Establishment of a data base on the AARINENA Website.
Planning to prepare the data bases (research institutes, research programs and scientists) for NARS in the APAARI/AARINENA/CAC regions.
Publishing soon an electronic and regular newsletter on cotton.
Organizing in June 2004 in Tashkent the 2nd Network Steering Committee Meeting.

Workplan 2004-2005 is the following:

Information exchange through coordinating units, website, newsletters, booklets, annual reports, etc.
Directory of cotton researchers in the region.
Data base on research programmers and projects in the network countries.
Publication of success stories from different countries on cotton production technologies.
Information on area, production, productivity, incidence and damage due to the pests and diseases, abiotic stresses, etc.
Pest risk analyzis.
Training programs.
Visits of scientists.
Travelling workshops.
Exchange of germplasm.
Joint research projects.

Mohammad H. Roozitalab
GFAR Chair