The Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) during its Sixth General Assembly Meeting, in November 2000 resolved to begin implementation of APAARI vision 2025 (APAARI 2000a). As part of this process, the Association decided to revisit the regional and sub-regional research priorities that were formulated in 1996 (APAARI 1996). The need is to integrate additional considerations, and to systematically undertake the research priority setting exercise by incorporating needs of the key stakeholders and nations within various sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific region.
The research priority setting exercise was considered to be of paramount importance by all sub-regional and regional fora and by a number of leaders of NARS at the meeting of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), held in October 2000. At the same time, the international agricultural research centers under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), during their week (the Centers Week), approved and accepted Plank 4 of the new vision and strategy that called for the adoption of collaboration with national and regional partners and of a regional approach to research planning, priority setting and implementation (TAC 2001).
Consequently, APAARI accorded high priority for the research priority setting exercise during 2001 for the sub-regions of the APAARI region (i.e. for South Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific) and to further synthesize, refine and develop priorities for the Asia-Pacific region. The Association asked the PNG National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) to take lead in co-ordinating this exercise for the Pacific sub-region and decided to solicit support from ACIAR, SPC and other regional and international organizations that are actively involved in the sub-region.