Enhancing Food Security in Arab Countries
Amman, October 2 - A third phase of Enhancing Food Security in Arab Countries began with the financial support of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD). The project’s technical committee met to discuss the achievements so far and develop the action plan for the next phase.
Enhancing Food Security in Arab Countries project is a research for development initiative working across nine countries to raise wheat production and reduce the Arab World’s growing dependence on costly wheat imports. AFESD support will permit ICARDA to start implementing activities during the upcoming 2018-2019 agricultural season in the participating countries.
“I express my gratitude with the successful achievements of the project in all participating countries,” said Kamel Shideed, ICARDA’s assistant director general. He urged the need to adopt and disseminate these results on a large scale.
Nizar Jamal Haddad, director general of Jordan’s National Center for Agricultural Research (NARC), inaugurated the meeting and praised the efforts ICARDA made in increasing the productivity of wheat and barley throughout the first and second phases.
The technical committee is formulating phase 3 action plan based on the results achieved in the previous phases:
- Verifying and fine-tuning recommended technology packages (wheat and food legume cultivars, agronomic, and water management technologies)
- Expanding the number of pilot sites to other agro-ecologies, thereby out-scaling the technologies and making them available to more beneficiaries
- Exploring guidelines for enabling policy environments
- Strengthening the capacity of national research and extension systems to promote the technologies for wider adoption.
The national partners are finalizing their work plans and the project will implement the activities in farmers' fields next month. The participating countries are Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. ICARDA provides coordination and technical support.
Donors: Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD); Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Islamic Development Bank (IsDB); Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED); OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).