The INDIA-GFAR-APAARI (Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions) day as a pre-event to the Conference gave an overview of ARD in India and Asia.

Mangala Rai (Director General, Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Government of India) described ICAR as an “apex national organization for conducting and coordinating agricultural research & education”. This inclusive organization tries to ensure food security by research in biodiversity, biotechnology, plant and animal breeding, conservation agriculture, fisheries (including pearl farming and ornamental fish), within a framework for technology development and delivery system. The Indian NARS is among the largest in the World with more than 30000 scientists and technicians.

Adel El-Beltagy (Chairman, GFAR) described that enhancing interregional partnerships was an important GFAR activity:. GFAR fostered collaborative research partnerships like DURAS (a competitive grant scheme), and PROLINNOVA (to promote local innovations) and manages a communication platform for all ARD stakeholders (egfar.org).

Raj Paroda (Executive Secretary, APAARI) described the medium term regional priorities of APAARI, set after ten years of participatory consultation, as natural resource management, genetic resources and biotechnology, enterprise development, post harvest and value addition for LFM, as well as 2 cross cutting issues policy and institutions and capacity building. On the long term, climate change, biofuels and crisis management will have to be taken into account.