Announcements




Honors

Chair of the CGIAR System-Wide Integrated Pest Management Initiative wins American Phytopathological Society's International Service Award in 2009

CGIAR scientists win awards and fellowships at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA-Tri-society Annual Meeting 2009 Five CGIAR scientists were among the recipients of prestigious awards and fellowships recognizing outstanding contributions to agronomy and crop science at the 2009 Annual Meetings of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in November 2009. For more information, click here.

Obituary

Cyrus Ndiritu, 24 August 1949 - 7 March 2010

Cyrus Ndiritu, who served in various advisory positions in the CGIAR, passed away on March 7, 2010. He was executive director of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute for 12 years from 1989 to 2000, and he co-founded the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa and Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa. After retiring from public service, Ndiritu dedicated his time and efforts to agricultural research and development programs and undertook various activities in the CGIAR. He was a member of the CGIAR Technical Advisory Committee (the precursor to the CGIAR Science Council) and of the former CGIAR Oversight Committee (the precursor to the CGIAR Executive Council). He also served as a member of the Board of the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water & Food, and chaired the 6th External Program and Management Review of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in 2008. Ndiritu was strongly involved with developing agribusiness in Africa and forging private-public sector partnerships. He is dearly missed among colleagues and friends at the CGIAR.

The CGIAR Science Awards recognize and reward outstanding performance in science among CGIAR staff and partner organizations. Seven CGIAR Science Awards for the year 2009 were presented at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development, held in Montpellier, France, on March 29, 2010. The award categories are Outstanding Scientist, Promising Young Scientist, Outstanding Scientific Article, Outstanding Partnership, Outstanding Scientific Support Team, Outstanding Communications and Outstanding Agricultural Journalism. To learn more about the awards, log on to: http://www.cgiar.org/newsroom/scientific.html

Events

All eyes on black-eyed peas: 5th World Cowpea Research Conference

The 5th World Cowpea Research Conference will take place in Dakar, Senegal, from September 27 to October 1, 2010. Participants will tackle research issues related to enhancing the profile of cowpea as a viable income generating and food security crop.

Organized by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in partnership with the Dry Grain Pulses Collaborative Research Support Programme, Purdue University, and the Institut Senegalais de Recherches Agricoles, the conference will cover a wide range of topics - from cowpea genetic improvement and use of molecular tools to human nutrition and processing and enterprise development.

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.), also commonly known as "black-eyed pea," is a highly nutritious annual legume and one of the most ancient crops known to man. Worldwide, cowpea is grown on about 10.1 million hectares, with annual grain production at approximately 4.99 million tons. The largest areas of cultivation are in Central and West Africa.

For more information, please visit the conference website .