The discussion focused on farmer and Farmer¿s Organisation participation in Agricultural Research, particularly with the breakdown of the Researcher-Extension Worker-Farmer triangle. A strong outcome of the meeting was the suggestions with regards to rebuilding the researcher- scientist relationship so that farmers can ensure that research is user- oriented and relevant to their needs.
INTERFACE, le Réseau des Professionnels de l¿agro-alimentaire en Afrique est né le 23 Mai 1997 à Ouagadougou, au Burkina Faso pour répondre aux problèmes de développement du secteur privé africain émergeant, confronté à la mondialisation de l¿économie. Quatorze délégués provenant de l¿Afrique de l¿Ouest : Burkina Faso, Cap Vert, Gambie, Mauritanie, Niger et Sénégal sont à l¿origine de sa création.
Le réseau Interface a été créé pour répondre aux problèmes de développement du secteur agrobusiness confronté à la mutation de l¿environnement des affaires dans ce monde de globalisation et d¿exacerbation de la concurrence.
Setting a Global Strategic Agenda for ARD at GFAR
Whereas all groups involved in agricultural research claim to focus on poverty and food security for the poor, this rhetoric has not been followed through to the strategic principles operational in programmes. The poor remain subjects of discussion, monitoring and evaluation, and have not been actively involved in research processes intended to benefit them. This has become the main concern of the NGO committee of the consultative Group for International Agricultural research (NGOC), and preoccupation of the members in the regions.
The program is located in the southern part of Brazil, at the border between the states of Paraná and Sta. Catarina. Twenty-two municipalities are included in the program, covering 13,000 square kilometers and a population of 55,000 family farmers (roughly 250,000 people).
The area is part of the Atlantic Forest bioma, a very biodiversily rich mixed rainforest. The climate is classified as subtropical, cool and humid, with average yearly rainfalls varying between 1,300 and 1,700 mm.
The 1998 Third External System Review of the CGIAR recommended a stronger CGIAR focus on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and emphasis on the need for increasing the effectiveness of partnerships to achieve increased agricultural productivity toward food and income security. This workshop brought together agricultural research scientists and relevant stakeholders working in agriculture in SSA to do strategic thinking on how to enhance existing partnerships and develop new ones.
The exciting discoveries of molecular biology are not being used in ways to realize their maximum benefit for the world¿s poor; neither are the rich pools of genetic resources that exist in collections held by national agricultural research systems (NARS) and the Future Harvest Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The products of the genomics revolution will not address the needs of the resource poor unless strong coalitions are made by institutions dedicated to alleviating poverty.
[The focus of the CP needs to be rethought. Twenty two crops are considered, but there is only a single target (tolerance of drought stress). While relevant as a model system, choosing only drought tolerance ¿sets the bar very high.¿ A few other model traits, for example those relating to disease and pest resistance, should also be included. If one focus is to be on drought, the CWANA region should be explicitly included in the CP, including its institutions with significant experience on this issue.]
In ICW-99 the CGIAR initiated an exercise aimed at developing a new vision and strategic view of the CGIAR, with the time horizon of 2010. This process is being carried out under the leadership of TAC. At the request of TAC, the NARS Secretariat is playing a role in facilitating the participation of NARS in this process, both through the participation in the electronic forum that recently finished, as well as through involvement in the process that will take place from here to ICW-2000.