As the supply of grains rapidly drops across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East due to the crisis in Eastern Europe, CGIAR and key partners like ARC-Egypt are urgently addressing growing climatic challenges, pests, and diseases that hinder domestic production, as well as offering alternatives to imported staples.
Beni Suef, Egypt, March 30.
At the recent ARC Sids Crop Research Station Field Day, CGIAR Regional Director of Central and West Asia and North Africa / ICARDA Director-General Mr. Aly Abousabaa, met with Dr. Mohamed Soliman, President of the Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Egypt, and CGIAR AfricaRice Director-General Dr. Harold Roy-Macauley, to review the latest ARC/CGIAR climate-smart crops innovations, and discuss specific food/nutrition needs & market demand in the region.
Each year in March, ICARDA, CGIAR’s dryland research center and Egypt’s Agricultural Research Center (ARC) invite leading scientists, agronomists, experts, and farmers to the ARC/ICARDA Sids Crop Research station field day to demonstrate new high yield varieties of the strategic crops (wheat, beans, barley, and chickpea) that are resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses in addition to the innovations in crop breeding and irrigation systems.
Given the impacts of climate change on the country and region, as well as the impact of the current conflict in Eastern Europe, high-yielding, resilient, heat- and drought-adapted varieties are vital in helping reduce the food gap of diverse crops and lower dependence on imports.
It is thanks to the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC), and our partners the Egyptian Agricultural Research Center (ARC) that this work is made possible.