Durum wheat is a staple of Moroccan diets and crucial for national food security. Although Moroccan farmers have managed to produce cereal with limited water for centuries, repeated droughts over the past decade have made it increasingly difficult for cereal farming families to grow enough. A Jewel from the Wild Jawahir, Arabic for “jewels,” is a durum wheat variety bred
QBMS 2.0 streamlines access to breeding data, integrating field, pedigree, and genotyping information across platforms through BrAPI standards. Developed by ICARDA as a public good, the upgraded R package enhances interoperability, reliability, and efficiency. Modern plant breeding operates in a data-rich environment.
With a large and highly urbanized population, high dependence on food imports, and water scarcity, Egypt is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries. For over four decades, ICARDA has worked closely with Egypt’s Agriculture Research Center (ARC) and the government of Egypt to enhance agricultural productivity and build resilience for farmers and communities on the frontline of climate change. On 17 July,
On 14–15 July, a delegation of ICARDA and ARC-Egypt scientists embarked on an exploratory visit to Marsa Matrouh, located on Egypt’s northwestern Mediterranean coast. The visit aimed to enhance understanding of the area’s natural environment, soil types, existing farming practices, and production systems, while identifying opportunities to introduce new farming system innovations. Building on our longstanding collaboration and previous achievements in
To most eyes, deserts look like the end of the line for agriculture – too dry to grow, too hot to handle, and too degraded to offer much promise. But that assumption is being overturned by a science-driven rethink of agriculture in places long considered beyond saving. Across the drylands of the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa,
Despite decades of wheat research, many smallholder farmers across drylands still struggle to access improved wheat varieties – not only due to technical challenges, but more often because of institutional and political barriers. A new publication from ICARDA and its national research partners sheds light on this issue. Political Economy of the Wheat Sector: Seed System, Varietal Adoption and Impacts,
In a small village near Bonga, in Southwest Ethiopia, smallholder farmers rely on a mix of crop production and livestock to support their livelihoods. In this landscape, shaped by tradition, a woman in her sixties is leading change through ICARDA’s Community-Based Breeding Program (CBBP). Ayelech, whose name means “she became victorious,” has become a symbol of perseverance and possibility
June 3, 2025 | Svalbard, Norway – Tucked deep inside a mountain in the Arctic Circle, a new batch of seeds from ICARDA has just joined the world’s most important freezer: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Our boxes arrived safely and were officially taken into the Vault on Thursday, June 3, 2025, joining nearly a million other seed samples from