Ties that Bind: Lebanon and ICARDA. 32 years of partnership for sustainable agriculture
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the Republic of Lebanon have been closely bound together since 1977, when ICARDA was established with the signing of an agreement between the government of Lebanon...
ICARDA has long-standing outreach programs in North Africa, the Nile Valley, and the Red Sea region (Fig 2). In its current strategic plan, the Center will extend its work to the drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Detection and Characterization of Chickpea Chlorotic Stunt Virus in Syria
Field surveys were conducted in Syria during the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 growing seasons to identify viruses which affect cool-season food legumes, volunteer crops, and weeds with yellowing, reddening and/or stunting symptoms. Serological tests...
Isolation and sequence analysis of DREB2A homologues in three cereal and two legume species
The transcription factor, DREB2A, is one of the promising candidate genes involved in dehydration tolerance in crop plants. In order to isolate DREB2A homologues across cereals (rice, barley and sorghum) and legumes (common bean and chickpea)...
Effect of Small Ruminant Grazing on the Plant Community Characteristics of Semiarid Mediterranean Ecosystems
Rangeland degradation has been widespread and severe throughout the Syrian steppe as a result of both unfavorable environmental conditions and human induced impacts. To explore the effectiveness of management-based strategies on establishing...
Effect of water harvesting on growth of young olive trees in degraded Syrian dryland
Olive (Olea europaea L.) is a drought-tolerant tree which is usually grown in areas with a Mediterranean climate that receive >350 mm of annual rainfall. However, olive growing in Syria has recently expanded into drier areas (200–300 mm annual...
Modelling water-harvesting systems in the arid south of Tunisia using SWAT
In many arid countries, runoff water-harvesting systems support the livelihood of the rural population. Little is known, however, about the effect of these systems on the water balance components of arid watersheds. The objective of this study...
Soil and Plant Analysis Council: A Model for Scientific Innovation, Education, and Development
Soil and plant analysis has been a major contribution to the development of the agricultural sciences and indirectly to sustaining mankind. The advances that have occurred in the various disciplines in soil science, agronomy, and crop science...
Durum Wheat and barley productivity in saline-drought environments
In two successive years, durum wheat (Triticum turgidum Desf.) and barley (Hodeum vulgare L.) were tested in a factorial salinity–drought experiment, combining three levels of salinity and two levels of drought. The two drought treatments were...
Impact of Crop Improvement and Management Winter-Sown Chickpea in Syria
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an annual grain legume or 'pulse' crop used extensively for human consumption. Dried chickpea seed is commonly used in soup in India, while in the Middle East and elsewhere it is more frequently cooked and...
