Location
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) was established in 1977. It is one of 15 such centers supported by the CGIAR. ICARDA’s founding mandate to promote agricultural development in the dry areas of developing countries remains highly relevant today.
ICARDA works with a tight focus on the problem-solving needs of resource-poor farmers, achieving this through the in-field delivery of its research outputs. Although global food production has increased by 20 per cent in the past decade, food insecurity and poverty remain widespread, while the natural resource base continues to decline.
International research centers such as ICARDA, which have helped drive previous improvements, continue to deliver new technologies to support sustainable growth in agriculture, and crucially, to work with a wide range of partners to accelerate the dissemination of these technologies.
ICARDA’s biggest strength is its staff – 600 highly skilled men and women from 32 countries. Our research and training activities cover crop improvement, water and land management, integrated crop-livestock-rangeland management, and climate change adaptation.
Other interventions include:
- Water harvesting - supplemental irrigation and water-saving irrigation techniques
- Conservation agriculture methods to reduce production costs and improve sustainability
- Diversification of production systems to high-value crops – horticulture, herbal and medicinal plants
- Integrated crop/rangeland/livestock production systems including non-traditional sources of livestock feed
- Empowerment of rural women – support and training for value-added products.
The ICARDA genebank holds over 135,000 accessions from over 110 countries: traditional varieties, improved germplasm, and a unique set of wild crop relatives. These include wheat, barley, oats and other cereals; food legumes such as faba bean, chickpea, lentil and field pea; forage crops, rangeland plants, and wild relatives of each of these species.
ICARDA’s research portfolio is part of a long-term strategic plan covering 2007 to 2016, focused on improving productivity, incomes and livelihoods among resource-poor households.
The strategy combines continuity with change – addressing current problems while expanding the focus to emerging challenges such as climate change and desertification.
We work closely with national agricultural research systems and government ministries. Over the years the Center has built a network of strong partnerships with national, regional and international institutions, universities, non-governmental organizations and ministries in the developing world and in industrialized countries with advanced research institutes.
THE ‘DRY AREAS’
Research and training activities cover the non-tropical dry areas globally, using West Asia, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus as research platforms to develop, test, and scale-out new innovations and policy options.
Dry areas cover 41 per cent of the world’s land area and are home to one-third of the global population. About 16 per cent of this population lives in chronic poverty, particularly in marginal rainfed areas. The dry areas are challenged by rapid population growth, frequent droughts, high climatic variability, land degradation and desertification, and widespread poverty. The complex of relationships between these challenges has created a "Poverty Trap."
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Resources
Displaying 41 - 45 of 431Extension circular for the double-up legumes for smallholder farmers in Malawi
Double up legumes is intercropping two legumes (in this case groundnut and pigeonpea) that have different growth habits and takes advantages of beneficial interactions of the two legumes on the same piece of land. Intercropping groundnut and pigeonpea using the correct spatial arrangement increase land productivity, provides more types of food and profits while conserving and sustaining the environment through enhancement of soil fertility.
Mid-term review inception report: Restoration of degraded land for food security and poverty reduction in East Africa and the Sahel: taking successes in land restoration to scale
This report is the results of the mid-term review for the EU-IFAD project "Restoration of degraded land for food security and poverty reduction in East Africa and the Sahel: taking successes in land restoration to scale" Project.
Participatory Survey on Soil and Water Conservation Practices and Water Harvesting Systems in the Savannah Belt of Northern Nigeria
The Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (CASP) of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nigeria (FMARD) aims at mainstreaming climate change adaptation measures in the savannah belt of Northern Nigeria, through a landscape rehabilitation approach focused on sustainable land management. Demonstration sites will be established across seven Nigerian states (Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto).
Application of systematic monitoring and mapping techniques
Drylands cover over 40% of the earth's surface and support over 2 billion people, globally (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). In East Africa alone, over 250 million people depend on drylands for their livelihoods (De Leeuw et al., 2014) and in Kenya, 70% of the total land area is classified as arid- and semi-arid (Batjes, 2004). Over the last several decades, an increasing and more sedentary human population has resulted in more pressure on these lands, and an expansion of agricultural production into marginal dryland areas that were traditionally rangelands.
Managing rangelands: promoting and establishing sand dune fixing species: Stipagrostis pungens (Desf.) De Winter: a xerophytic quicksand- and dune-fixing species adapted to sandy deserts
Stipagrostis pungens is a perennial grass species which belongs to the Poaceae family. It is usually found with several erect culms, grows up to 1.5 m in height, and forms substantial tufts. It is a tall stiff glabrous grass with pungent leaves, and a C4 grass with sclerophyllous, spine-tipped, inrolled leaves, with sunken stomata. The root system extends laterally for a radius of 20 m or more. The roots are covered throughout their length by a sandy sheath, which is penetrated by the root hairs that occur throughout the entire length of the sheath.