A two-day workshop for elaborating the strategy and workplans to develop a Regional Agricultural Information System in CAC (CAC-RAIS) was organized by the Central Asia and the Caucasus Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (CACAARI) in partnership with the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) and ICARDA on 15-16 January, 2007 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan..

In his welcoming speech, Dr. Raj Paroda, Regional Coordinator, ICARDA-CAC, and Head, PFU-CGIAR, expressed his satisfaction that NARS leaders and ICT experts from all the eight CAC countries are attending this event, which “demonstrates their commitment to support and strengthen an agricultural information system in the region”. In addition, Dr. Raj Paroda emphasized that the participation of ARIS coordinators and ICT experts from other Regional Fora such as AARINENA and APAARI, as well as the Sub-regional Office of FAO for Central and Eastern Europe to share their experiences in this area was especially important. Dr. Khanazarov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources of Uzbekistan and Executive Secretary, CAC Regional Forum thanked GFAR and ICARDA for their continued support and facilitation for this regional initiative and expressed his good wishes for its success.

Dr. Ajit Maru, Agricultural Research Officer, GFAR Secretariat, Dr. Sahdev Singh, ARIS coordinator for APAARI, Mrs. Taraneh Ebrahimi, ARIS coordinator for AARINENA, Mr. Michal Demes, Information Management Specialist, FAO SEUR/KCEF shared their experiences of developing agricultural information systems. The National Information Nodal Points (NINPs) from all the CAC countries made presentations on the current status of agriculture and agricultural information systems in their countries, which was then synthesized into the regional report.

As a result of the workshop, a Steering Committee for the CAC RAIS was established and the blueprint workplan for 2007-2009 actively discussed by the participants. Following these discussion, it was decided that a Working Group, made up of NINPs and representatives of GFAR and ICARDA will draw up a detailed draft of the workplan and present it to the Steering Committee for approval. Subsequently, the NINPs will implement the workplan in their countries.