Egypt Launched Cooperation to Boost Rice Production

Cairo, Egypt | July 20, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

D-8 has identified some potential cooperation to combat the rising food prices threat, one of them is establishing a Seeds Bank in D-8 Countries

The Egyptian International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) Director General Dr. Mahmoud Solh and Dr. Ayman Abou Hadid, President of Egypt’s Agriculture Research Center, agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to launch a 10 year Wheat Improvement Program in Egypt.

The objective of the new program is to develop wheat germplasm with the attributes (high yield potential, heat tolerance, good grain quality, resistance to diseases and insect pests) suitable for irrigated agriculture in Central and West Asia and North Africa; and to make the germplasm freely available, in the form of international nurseries, to national wheat breeding programs throughout the region.

Activities are scheduled to begin this crop season (2009-2010) at Sids Research Station, Middle Egypt.

The anticipated outcome of this collaboration is adapted wheat varieties that can produce grain yields substantially higher (up to 30% more) than currently used varieties.

The new varieties are also expected to be more resistant to the major wheat diseases, including yellow and black rusts.

Established in the in the early 1970s, the Egypt Agricultural Research Center (ARC) aims to maximize the economic return per unit of land and water.

ARC’s work covers various areas: applied and basic research to generate a continuous flow of technologies that help increase productivity and reduce production cost; transfer of new technologies to farmers through extension service; monitoring their adoption; and human capital development.

Established in 1977, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

ICARDA’s mission is to contribute to the improvement of livelihoods of the resource’ poor in dry areas by enhancing food security and alleviating poverty through research and partnerships to achieve sustainable increases in agricultural productivity and income, while ensuring the efficient and more equitable use and conservation of natural resources.

ICARDA has a global mandate for the improvement of barley, lentil and faba bean, and serves the non-tropical dry areas for the improvement of on farm water use efficiency, rangeland and small ruminant production.

In the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, ICARDA contributes to the improvement of bread and durum wheat, kabuli chickpea, pasture and forage legumes, and associated farming systems.

It also works on improved land management, diversification of production systems, and value-added crop and livestock products.

Social, economic and policy research is an integral component of ICARDA’s research to better target poverty and to enhance the uptake and maximize impact of research outputs.

Institutional development, capacity building, marketing and public diplomacy for food security cooperation are important  for the Developing Eight (D-8) Organisation for Economic Cooperation member countries.

During the 6th Summit of D-8 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 2008, D-8 head of states has identified some potential cooperation to combat the rising food prices threat, one of them is establishing a Seeds Bank in D-8 Countries for enough seeds stock whenever are needed for increasing more food products within the countries, as well as a ready stock whenever needed by farmers because of natural disasters, and other unfortunate situation.

D-8 will have D-8 Seed Bank Working Committe Meeting in Izmir, Turkey, on 21-24 July 2009 to look into the problems and challenges in detail in order to establish modalities of a downstream tri-level seed bank within D-8 countries.

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