|
News
Releases Archive
News releases of public interest, related to CIAT activities,
have been organized by themes to make their consultation
easier.
See the archive.
Good
Practice Guide Series
 This
series of guides is designed to support agencies implementing
participatory agroenterprise development programs operating
within defined geographical areas. The following four
are on-line:
- Strategy Paper: A Participatory and Area-based Approach
to Rural Agroenterprise Development. Good Practice
Guide 1
- A Participatory Guide to Developing Partnerships,
Area Resource Assessment and Planning Together. Good
Practice Guide 2
- Identifying Market Opportunities for Rural Smallholder
Producers. Good Practice Guide 3
- Participatory Market Chain Analysis for Smallholder
Producers. Good Practice Guide 4
More
information on and download of the guides.
Contact: Mark
Lundy
Proceedings On-line
7th Regional Cassava
Workshop
(28 October-1 November 2002, Bangkok, Thailand)
 This
Workshop not only dealt with cassava breeding and agronomy
research, as well as the progress made in the Nippon
Foundation-funded FPR projects in China, Thailand, and
Vietnam, but also included the recent research conducted
in various new topics, such as the use of cassava roots
and leaves for animal feeding, the latest developments
in cassava processing into starch and many starch-derived
products, as well as the development of cassava growth
models.
More
information
Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based
Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA)
CGIAR, NARS,
NGOs, and Private Sector Partners Join Forces in the
Great Lakes Region
The CIALCA initiative emphasizes strong partnerships
and capacity building through Center-led projects. The
following three projects are currently funded by the
Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGDC-Belgium)
and led by IITA,
TSBF-CIAT,
and IPGRI-INIBAP:
- Sustainable and Profitable Banana-based Systems
for the African Great Lakes Region (led by IITA).
- Enhancing the resilience of agro-ecosystems in Central
Africa: A strategy to revitalize agriculture through
the integration of natural resource management coupled
to resilient germplasm and marketing approaches (led
by TSBF-CIAT).
- Building Impact Pathways for Improving Livelihoods
in Musa-based Systems in Central Africa (led by IPGRI-INIBAP).
More
information
Visit the CIALCA
Web site.
TSBF-CIAT contact: Bernard
Vanlauwe
CIAT's
Medium-Term Plan
 See
the 2008-2010 version of this document, which presents
CIAT's research through a product line approach. These
product lines are grouped within the framework of two
broad Research and Development Challenges (RDCs): People
& Agroecosystems and Sharing the Benefits of Agrobiodiversity.
Download the Plan
(758 kb).
2007
Scientific Poster Competition
 A
key event of the Knowledge Sharing Week, held at CIAT
headquarters from May 18 to 25, was the 2007 Scientific
Poster Competition. The content and design quality of
the 56 participating posters received very favorable
comments from viewers. Poster were arranged according
to the CIAT Product Lines: Beans, Cassava, Forages,
Rice, TSBF, and Markets, Institutions and Livelihoods.
More information
Bean
Atlas of Africa — Available Data
 The
Atlas is an ArcView 3.0 project. It is a result of a
table join operation between the bean polygon map and
the bean database (ref: Bean Database). The polygon
map, presenting major bean producing areas, is derived
from a revision/update of a previous bean point map
for Africa (J.L. Gray and C. Wortmann, 1994). For purposes
of the atlas, the area of interest has been defined
as from 15.75°N extending South to represent sub-Saharan
Africa.
More
information
Leaders
Elected
CIAT is reorganizing its research under two major themes:
Sharing the Benefits
of Agrobiodiversity and People
and Agroecosystems. The leaders of the so called
Research for Development Challenges are plant geneticist
Joseph Tohme and agronomist Roger Kirkby, respectively.
Both scientists have broad experience and are internationally
recognized for the quality of their research.
Dr Tohme is currently leader of the Center's Biotechnology
and Agrobiodiversity Project, and Dr Kirkby is Regional
Coordinator for CIAT in
Africa. Beginning next year, plant pathologist Robin
Buruchara will assume the position of Regional Coordinator
for Africa.
CIAT
Has a New Slogan
CIAT adopted a new slogan that will accompany its logo
in presentations, publications, and official documents:
Partners in Research Cultivating the Future.
This change illustrates a new facet of the Center's
research activities and replaces that slogan that has
identified CIAT for almost a decade: Solutions That
Cross Frontiers.
CIAT
Receives Recognition in Washington
 CIAT
received two high-level recognitions during the recent
Annual
General Meeting of the CGIAR held in Washington:
the first, shared with the Latin American Fund for Irrigated
Rice (FLAR),
as example of innovative collaboration, and the second
as member of the multidisciplinary team that supports
the CG Virtual Library (CGVlibrary).
Pictured left to right, Franklin Moore
(Head, US Delegation-CGIAR), Gonzalo Zorrilla (Executive
Director, FLAR), Luis Roberto Sanint (Director for Public-Private
Partnerships and Agronatura Science Park, CIAT), and
Katherine Sierra (Chair, CGIAR).
New
Issue of PABRA Outlook
 Issue
2 of PABRA Outlook, the newsletter of the Pan-Africa
Bean Research Alliance (PABRA),
is now on-line. This 4-page bulletin has feature articles
on outcomes and achievements in bean research and development
in sub-Saharan Africa as well as news items, and information
on previous and forthcoming courses and conferences.
Download this issue
(375 kb).
Visit the CIAT
in Africa Web site.
Contact: Robin
Buruchara
New Translations
French and Portuguese
Versions of Seed Aid for Seed Security:
Practice Briefs
 The
ten Practice Briefs, that offer advice on how to sustain
and strengthen seed systems during disaster response
and recovery periods, are now also available in French
and Portuguese.
Download the full set of Practice Briefs in French,
Portuguese,
and English.
Visit the Seed
Systems Under Stress Programme Web site
Contact: Louise
Sperling (CIAT) and Tom
Remington (CRS)
Latest
Issue of the Journal Pasturas Tropicales
 The
latest issue
of the journal Pasturas Tropicales, published
by CIAT's Tropical Grasses
and Legumes Project, is now on-line.
More
information on the journal
Contact: Michael
Peters
From the CGIAR Newsletter
Finding the Seeds
of Recovery Close to Home
 Research
led by Louise Sperling of the Seed
Systems Under Stress Program finds that stressed
communities usually need seed imports less than help
in restoring farmers’ ability to buy and use locally
available seed.
Donating seeds is one of many forms of aid offered
to farm communities under stress. More unusual is to
offer seed system relief and, even more unusual, to
study the effectiveness of such relief. This is what
the Seed Systems Under Stress Program does in Africa,
where most seed aid is sent. The program is a broad-based,
fluid coalition whose members aim to improve the effectiveness
of seed-related responses to disaster. They see seed
systems as central to smallholder agriculture and seed
aid as key to supporting it.
Read the whole story: www.cgiar.org/enews/march2007/story_02.html
Integrated Soil Fertility
Management in the Tropics
TSBF-CIAT's Achievements
and Reflections, 2002-2005
 This
document presents the achievements and reflections for
the period 2002-2005 of the CIAT Tropical Soil Biology
and Fertility Institute (TSBF-CIAT). As such, this document
complements and updates the TSBF-CIAT Strategy Document
“Integrated
Soil Fertility Management in the Tropics: From Knowledge
to Implementation”.
Download the document
(768 kb).
On-line: A Brochure for PABRA
in English, French, and Portuguese
Better beans for
Africa ... thanks to the work of the Pan-Africa Bean
Research Alliance (PABRA)
 This
brochure outlines the achievements made in the past
10 years and assesses the challenges that lie ahead.
Download the PABRA brochure in English
(483 kb), French
(489 kb), and Portuguese
(480 kb).
Visit the PABRA
Web site.
Contact: Robin
Buruchara
Friendship
Award for Dr. Segenet Kelemu
 Dr.
Segenet Kelemu has been conferred the 2006 "Friendship
Award" by the State Administration of Foreign Experts
Affairs, authorized by the State Council of the People's
Republic of China. Selected
from more than 200,000 foreigners working in China,
46 experts received the award, the highest honour that
the Chinese Government can confer on foreigners.
The
winners, from 19 countries, have expertise in a wide
range of fields. Dr. Kelemu was the only CGIAR
representative to win the award this year.
International
Awards for Dr. Reinhardt Howeler
Third
Class of the "Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant"
and International
Service in Agronomy Award
 On
May 1, 2006, Dr. Reinhardt Howeler, CIAT soil scientist,
was conferred with a Royal Decoration in the Third Class
of the "Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant"
in the presence of his Thai colleagues in the Department
of Agriculture, in recognition of his work to develop
and disseminate together with farmers improved agronomic
and soil conservation practices in Thailand.
The
American Society of Agronomy (ASA)
nominated Dr. Reinhardt Howeler recently together with
Mr. Watana Watananonta and Dr. Tran Ngoc Ngoan, representing
his cassava colleagues in Thailand and Vietnam, respectively,
to receive the "International Service in Agronomy
Award". The award is granted each year to a person
or team who have made a significant contribution to
world agronomy.
More
information
Announcement
Innovation Africa
Symposium
(20th-23rd November 2006, Kampala, Uganda)
 An
international symposium on agricultural innovation systems
in Africa was held on 20-23 November 2006 in Entebbe,
Uganda. It was jointly organized by CIAT, IFPRI-ISNAR
(International Service for National Agricultural Research
program of the International Food Policy Research Institute),
ILRI
(International Livestock Research Institute), IIRR-Africa
(International Institute for Rural Reconstruction),
and PROLINNOVA
(Promoting Local Innovation). The Innovation Africa
Symposium brought together researchers and practitioners
involved in innovation systems to share current thinking,
experiences, advances, and lessons. It included plenary
keynotes, small group discussions, mini-workshops, and
an interactive information market for researchers and
practitioners, who include innovative farmers. Together,
the participants drew lessons for policy, research,
development, and practice of innovation in agriculture
and natural resource management (NRM) in Africa.
More
information
Enabling
Rural Innovation in Africa Guide Series
A Market Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Agroenterprise
Development
 This
manual is a product of the experiences and lessons learned
while implementing agroenterprise
projects in eastern and southern Africa. The manual
aims to provide market facilitators with skills in participatory
methods that will enable them to help farmers engage
with markets. It provides a guide to identifying and
evaluating market opportunities and for selecting the
most attractive business options a given community may
have. It is intended for use by any institution interested
in building their staff capacity in market facilitation.
Download the manual.
Contact:
Shaun Ferris
New
Publications
Managing
the Whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum in String
and Field Beans
 The
biology and management of the whitefly Trialeurodes
vaporariorum in string and field beans: a technical
manual is now available for agronomists and technicians
in Latin America. Likewise, three primers on this worldwide,
persistent pest, written for farmers in Bolivia, Ecuador,
and Colombia, have also just been published.
 The
publications are part of a strategy to disseminate research
results from the project on the Sustainable integrated
management of whiteflies as pests and vectors of plant
viruses in the tropics, financed by the British Department
for International Development (DFID).
Coordinated by CIAT, the project is executed by CIAT's
Bean Entomology (Colombia),
the Corporación Grupo
Randi Randi (Ecuador), and the PROINPA
Foundation (Bolivia).
For queries on electronic
copies of the publications, contact Isaura Rodríguez
at irodriguez@cgiar.org
New
Publications
Aid
for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners
 These
ten
Practice Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and
strengthen seed systems during disaster response and
recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses
issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting
agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities
during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific
aid-response tools are also offered, including methods
for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused
evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid
proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
and Catholic Relief Services (CRS),
with CARE–Norway.
Download the
full set of Practice Briefs
Visit the Seed
Systems Under Stress Programme Web site
Contact:
Louise Sperling
(CIAT) and Tom
Remington (CRS)
Agreement
to Access Plant Genetic Resources
CIAT, together with other 10 centers of the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),
signed an agreement that guarantees the long-term access
to several of the most important collections of agricultural
biodiversity, under the International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, ratified
by 105 countries.
More
information
See the International
Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
CIAT Contributed
CG Virtual Library—Gateway
to Global Agricultural Knowledge
 Get
instant access to research on agriculture, hunger, poverty,
and the environment using a valuable new resource—the
CG
Virtual Library. From just one search engine, tap
into leading agricultural information databases, including
the online libraries of all the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
research centers. Use the CGVlibrary to discover resources,
go directly to the full text of thousands of publications,
and stay current on CGIAR research. Custom-select which
databases you want to search or use the topic-based
QuickSets preselected by CGIAR information specialists.
Poster
Exhibit during the Science Council Meeting at CIAT
The Science
Council of the CGIAR held its sixth meeting at CIAT
headquarters in Cali, Colombia, between 8 and 13 September.
This was a great opportunity to present different aspects
of the research carried out at the Center and to show
how it directly relates to the priorities set by the
Council.
See the list of posters
and download them in PDF.
A
System of Drought Insurance for Poverty Alleviation
in Rural Areas
 This
CIAT project, supported by the German Bundesministerium
für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung
(BMZ)
and the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
(GTZ),
with the collaboration of Catholic Relief Services (CRS),
studied the feasibility of a practical method of drought
insurance that is self-sustaining and ready for use
by poor farmers, NGOs, or other development organizations.
Although insurance is widely used by farmers in developed
countries to protect them against weather risk, weather
insurance has rarely been offered to poor smallholder
farmers in developing countries. In the case of drought,
insurance works by encapsulating the best available
scientific estimate of drought probability at a site
within a single number—the insurance premium. The
premium allows insurers to offer insurance to insurable
parties in a transparent risk-sharing agreement.
Download the document
(1068 kb)
Visit the Land
Use Web site
For more news, see our CIAT
Newsletter archive
|
Downloads