Newsletter September 2005 - News from the Regional Fora

		September 2005
		Issue 14/2005
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News from the Regional Fora Sub-saharan Africa Harmonizing investment in African agricultural research FARA General Assembly, June 2005 West Asia & North Africa Latin America & the Caribbean Asia Pacific Back to CONTENTS	Sub-saharan Africa Harmonizing investment in African agricultural research For several decades, Africa received aids from donor countries to alleviate poverty. Several formulas were developed on how to sustain economic growth in the region, but the impact achieved is less than expected. The region's average per capita income is the lowest in the world; almost half of the continent's 700 million people live with less than one dollar per day. Africa's share of the world's absolute poor rose from 25 to 30% during the 1990s, and the number of malnourished children rose from 10% of the developing countries' total to 20% between 1970 and the mid-1990s. In the recently held G8 summit in Gleneagles, England, world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further increase aid in Africa based on reports by the United Nation's Millennium Project and Tony Blair's Commission for Africa. The theme was to 'make poverty history'. But to 'make poverty history', Africa needs to be committed to make a change and make a difference. African leaders through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) are initiating several programs to make poverty history. Aside from several food security programs, it recognizes the importance of agriculture as an engine of economic growth in the region. Therefore, it invests in agricultural research for development. NEPAD is working with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the sub-regional research organizations in coordinating and harmonizing the investment in African agricultural research for development. FARA has co-authored the framework for African agricultural productivity (FAAP). FAAP overall goal is to dramatically increase productivity, competitiveness and incomes in African agriculture and the rural non-farm sector, by improving farmers' access to technologies well suited to their opportunities and constraints, with a specific emphasis on the needs of poor and vulnerable groups. MAPP's specific objectives are to: strengthen capacities of African agricultural technology systems and increase investments by African governments in technology development and dissemination; foster and support needed reforms in African research and extension institutions, and in markets and the agricultural policy environment; and link national, subregional and regional programs/networks with strong international partnerships to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in technology generation, dissemination and adoption. Achieving these objectives will require the commitment and support of a broad coalition of stakeholders (governments, end users and external partners) to provide adequate and sustainable funding. Mobilizing this support will require significantly increased efficiency and stakeholder accountability of technology generation and transfer systems, based on the following principles: stakeholder participation in the definition of research priorities and in the system governance to ensure that research programs and results are relevant to stakeholders' concerns, including social and environmental objectives; promotion of pluralistic, competitive systems open to multiple service providers (universities, NGOs, private sector) and based on competitive contractual schemes for service delivery; increased accountability of technology generation and transfer institutions through improved internal management information and monitoring and evaluation systems; and promotion of cost sharing arrangements with end users according to their capacity to pay, to increase their stake in the efficiency of service provision and improve the financial sustainability of the system. FARA together with NEPAD is organizing an investor's meeting in Accra, Ghana from the 27th to the 29th of September 2005. The meeting will define the role of investors for the effective implementation of FAAP and the plan of action for stakeholder's involvement. Monty Jones Sub-saharan Africa African Agricultural Scientific Week: FARA General Assembly 06-12 June 2005 The Forum on Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA: www.fara-africa.org) held its 3rd General Assembly (GA) 06-12 June 2005 in Entebbe, Uganda. This year, the GA was hosted by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), one of the founding members of FARA, under the auspices of the Government of Uganda. The theme of this FARA biennial event was "Innovation to transform agriculture for improved livelihoods and development in Africa". The novel feature of this 3rd FARA GA was to show case the emergence of African ownership of the agricultural research agenda. Among the high profile figures that participated in the event was the president of Uganda H.E Yoeri Museveni, who opened the plenary session of the GA. The General Assembly gathers all FARA stakeholders, namely: sub-regional organizations (ASARECA, CORAF/WECARD and SADC/FANR); research institutions (NARSs, ARIs, IARCs, and Universities); civil society organizations (farmer organizations, NGOs and private sector); donors; and other development partners. It�s during the GA that FARA Business Plan is approved by the stakeholders. To read or download the highlights of the GA click here. N.A. West Asia & North Africa AARINENA's Major Achievements AARINENA RAIS The Arabic Version of AARINENA RAIS-Web Site has been completed and the English Version was enhanced. AARINENA cosponsored with GFAR the Second Inter-Regional ICT Workshop in Cairo 10-11 May 2005 which was attended by participants from AARINENA, APAARI, FARA and FORAGRO. The main output of this meeting was the adoption of AARINENA-RAIS INFOSYS proposal to initiate inter-regional sharing and Exchange of Experiences, skills and tools leading to the development of National agricultural Information system(NAIS) Networks Date-Palm Global Network (DPGN) held an International Workshop on true-to -type of date palm tissue culture in morocco 23-25 May, 2005 and recommended to provide updates on tissue culture abnormalities electronically to DPGN web site. Inter-regional Cotton Network (INCANA) plans to hold an Inter-regional traveling workshop on hybrid and BT cotton in India in October 2005 Olive Network cosponsored the Second International Conference on "Olive Productivity, Quality and Partnership" in Sfax_Tunisia ,May, 2005. Medicinal & Herbal Plants Network: The focal points in Egypt and Jordan have established Medicinal and Herbal Plants local teams to prepare working plans for the network. Planned Activities Workshop on the Assessment of plant Genetic Diversity for Water-Use Efficiency, INRA-Marrakech, Morocco, 10-12 Oct. 2005. INCANA Hybrid & Bt Cotton Workshop in India,16-22 OCT. 2005. Workshop on Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Industry: The Link between Producer and European Consumer, Malta, 7-9 Nov. 2005. Network Coordinators meeting to finalize project ideas, Al-Ain, UAE, 15-17 November 2005 Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Guidelines for Olive, Cyprus, 19-21 December 2005 Ibrahim Hamdan Latin America & the Caribbean FORAGRO's Main Activities, second semester 2005 In a previous newsletter an article on the 4th FORAGRO General Assembly held in Panama in April 2005 was published. The assembly endorsed an action plan which will be implemented by the sub-regional forums and facilitated by FORAGRO. In the second half of the year, FORAGRO plans to facilitate the implementation of the following four activities identified in the Panama action plan: To enhance hemispheric cooperation in: Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Genetic Resources: The 4th FORAGRO assembly gave high priority to promoting the efforts of the regional ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources initiative through the active cooperation of the Global Trust Diversity Crop and the six regional plant genetic resources networks under the Sub regional Fora (PROCIS) of the Americas; Development of new biotechnology initiatives: by promoting hemispheric efforts and joint actions in close collaboration with the recently initiated Hemispheric Biotechnology and Biosafety Program supported by IICA; Agribusiness and Innovation: defining priority lines of action for intra-regional cooperation; and Natural Resources Management: defining priority lines of action for hemispheric cooperation. To formulate a proposal to initiate a hemispheric horizontal reciprocal cooperation between FORAGRO and the other Regional Forums under GFAR in the field of institutional innovations, in order to enhance and increase the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of agricultural research and innovation. Worldwide, agriculture and the rural milieu face a number of highly visible challenges in a global context in which a true scientific and technological revolution is under way, giving rise to the rebirth of societies of knowledge and the need to redouble efforts to develop agriculture with knowledge. These challenges imply developing a new vision and clearly defining the important roles that R&D and the public sector can play in contributing to the global efforts, as well as reforming the traditional R&D institutional framework. In this context, in order to achieve goals associated with food security, competitive agriculture, poverty reduction, sound utilization of natural resources and the mitigation of climate change, countries must innovate not only technologically, but also institutionally. To continue FORAGRO activities related to its Regional Agricultural Information Systems (RAIS), known as INFOTEC, in four main areas: Promoting information access and sharing, through FORAGRO online platform that includes various databases and which allows remote uploading by users, searches and subscription to weekly bulletins. Providing sub-regional organizations, such as PROCISUR and Red-SICTA, with independently managed information systems according to their needs, based on the Infotec platform. Capacity building and advocacy for information management through participation in the AECI-INIA-IICA-FONTAGRO training course on preparation of competitive innovation projects (September, Bolivia) and participation as co-coordinators for the FAO Module D training for LAC managers through Fodepal. Development of Agricultural R&D indicator and information policies in partnership with CYTED and other partners. To continue the advocacy role of FORAGRO with key political players such as the legislators of the Agricultural Commission of the LAC countries implementing actions under a new agreement signed between FORAGRO and the Latin-American Parliament PARLATINO. As part of its advocacy activities, FORAGRO will ensure fair participation of regional family farmer groups in the ARD discussions and debates in the region in order to promote and develop innovations applicable to family agriculture. Enrique Alarcón Asia Pacific APAARI's Major Activities We present below a brief description of some of the on-going and planned activities for the latter part of the year. These include meetings, training activities and information sharing through hard copy and on-line publications. Activities specific to the Asian Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology (APCoAB) are also included. Meetings A "High Level Policy Dialogue on Biotechnology for Food security and Poverty Alleviation : Opportunities and Challenges" organized jointly by APAARI, FAO and GFAR will take place from the 7th to the 9th of November 2005 in Bangkok Thailand, to assess the current status of bio-technologies and their application in the Asia-Pacific Region. The main objective of this policy dialogue is to facilitate appropriate policy decisions by developing countries in Asia and the Pacific region with respect to the application of biotechnologies in the food and agriculture sector, so that they can contribute towards meeting the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals on hunger and poverty. The policy dialogue is expected to promote greater understanding of the issues, sharing of knowledge on new developments and findings, and raise awareness of their potential benefits and risks and the implications in terms of needed regulatory framework, institutional capacity building and human resources development. Executives of the national agricultural research systems (NARS), heads of related regional and international CG institutions in the Asia-Pacific region have been invited to this important forum. Ministers of Agriculture from a number of countries in the region have been invited to participate in a round table discussion session during the forum. APAARI Training Workshop on National Agricultural Information Systems (NAIS) A training workshop on agricultural information systems will take place at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand from the 1st to the 5th of November 2005 The main objectives of this training workshop are to train appropriate officers on the principles of Information Communication Management (ICM) and in the identification and development of essential components of their respective National Agricultural Information Systems (NAIS. Participants will also be assisted to integrate developed NAIS into APARIS (Asia-Pacific Agricultural Research Information System) of APAARI), keeping in view different user groups and different application platforms. One to two participants from NARS of developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region and one resource person from each of the following organizations, APAARI, AIT, GFAR and FAO will participate in the workshop as well as RAIS managers and representatives of regional ICT/ICM in ARD. During the workshop, the trainees will be assisted to develop prototype NAIS of their respective NARS as a delivery medium for national ARD information and databases. At the end of the workshop, these NAIS will be uploaded on APARIS. This collaborative effort of APAARI, GFAR, AIT and FAO will bring together complimentary resources to assist developing NARS of Asia-Pacific region. The Third Steering Committee meeting of APCoAB was held in New Delhi on the 28th of June 2005.The proceedings have since been circulated to all members and other concerned partners and follow up actions initiated. The fourth Steering Committee of APCoAB has been scheduled for the 6th of November 2005 and will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. Publications Proceedings of Expert Consultation on Post-harvest Technologies for Ensuring Food Security and Value Addition for Enhanced Income and The Eighth General Assembly Meeting of APAARI, 1-3 December 2004, Bangkok, Thailand. Success Story on Rainbow Trout Culture in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal (APAARI Publication: 2005/1) APAARI Newsletter Vol. 13, No. 2, December 2004 issue; and Vol. 14, No. 1, June 2005 issue. Brainstorming Session on Public-Private-Partnership in Agricultural Biotechnology: highlights and recommendations. APCoAB, New Delhi, 14 p On-line publications. All of the above publications and other quality information have been posted on the APAARI Web Site: www.apaari.org P.K. Saha & R.K. Arora
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