General objectives: 1) To help alleviate poverty and improve food security for more than 80 million people in 86 countries who depend directly on coconut production and processing for their livelihood.
2) To increase the productivity of coconut farms producing coconuts for home consumption and local

The demand for diverse genetic resources and expertise in functional genomics requires a
common platform where information and genetic resources can be broadly shared to accelerate
trait discovery. The key elements of this collaborative platform are: public access to sequence data,
abundant genetic resources for functional assignment, capacity for biological assay, delivery of genes and traits into varieties.To begin such collaboration, IRRI proposed the formation of an international working group on functional genomics

Content: 1) Strengthening Research and Policy Capacity in GRFA. Three concrete proposals are being presented in this first topic:a) Awareness Building Workshops. b) Lists of Regionally Important Genera for Food Security. c) Research and Policy Capacity Building. 2) Strengthening Informal Seed Production and Distribution. 3) Improving Characterization and Inventorying of PGRFA

Objectives: a. Develop and test methodology for identifying priorities for pearl millet breeding work in Rajasthan, India; b. Develop methods for understanding farmers¿ needs and priorities for pearl millet production; c. Develop concepts and methods for understanding farmers¿ concepts of seed management,
environmental adaptation and quality requirements; d. Develop concepts and strategies for farmer participatory variety development; e. Develop strategies for on-farm conservation and management of genetic resources

General objectives: To assist developing countries, regional and global fora in decision making on public sector applications and priority setting in biotechnology for food and agriculture

Objectives : Synthesis and wide distribution of the existing but dispersed information on the
estimated 7,000 useful plants of Tropical Africa. Activities : The PROTA partnership (scientific institutions in Africa and Europe now being identified) intends to establish an Information Base on the estimated 7,000 useful plants of Tropical Africa, by compiling, critically evaluating, summarizing, publishing and widely distributing the existing but dispersed information, in order to contribute
to an equitable access to knowledge, which is essential to achieve food security and

ICLARM (an IARC) in partnership with the Institute of Aquaculture Research, Norway (an ASI), Central
Luzon State University and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Philippines (NARS) undertook
genetic improvement of Nile tilapia and demonstrated for the first time that performance of tropical
finfish could be improved through simple selective breeding methods. NARS from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya
and Senegal collaborated in this effort by supplying wild germplasm from their countries. The 6th

Main results: The programme started in 1994 and is ongoing. Many steps have been taken: research
strategy detrmined, sources of resistance have been identified, crosses with local material
have been made, testing in the trial fields is in progress. In 1999 three new cultivars of
Chrysanthemum for the Indonesian market have been released, more will follow. Likewise,
rose varieties will become available from this year onwards. Gladiolus, tomato and hot pepper
breeding materials will be released during the coming years as well. The commercialisation is

Objectives: i) to describe microbial biodiversity and demonstrate the applicability of this resource;
ii) to introduce newest technology for description and exploitation of microbial biodiversity; iii) to strengthen national capacity for research in and protection of microbial resources; iv) to promote true collaboration between researchers from developing countries and Biotechnological Institute

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) is a major agricultural crop in tropical areas. The only hopes for
its asexual propagation lie on in vitro vegetative multiplication of high performance individuals using
in vitro culture techniques and more particularly in somatic embryogenesis, remains the only hope for
a substantial improvement in the productivity of plantations. Unfortunately, however coconut is a