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I
National Course on Real-Time PCR Applied to Pathogen Detection
in Plants and Seeds
 CIAT
cordially invites researchers, graduate students, and professionals
in plant diagnosis to participate in the I National Course
on "Real-Time PCR Applied to Pathogen Detection in Plants
and Seeds" that will be held at CIAT headquarters in
Palmira (Valle del Cauca, Colombia) from 3 to 6 August 2009.
The course aims to train participants in the management and
application of this technique in the diagnosis of agriculturally
important pathogens.
Contact: Dr.
Elizabeth Álvarez
Registration: ciatpcrtiemporeal@gmail.com
More information
(in Spanish)
Bean
varieties released in Ecuador using CIAT materials and methodology
 Ecuador's
National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIAP), through
its National Program of Andean Legumes and Grains, released
three new bean varieties applying the CIAL participatory methodology,
designed by CIAT, and using plant material developed by this
Center.
 See
the News Release.
Posthumous
homage to Robert D. Havener
 A
heartfelt homage to honor the memory of Robert D. Havener
was carried out on the CIAT campus last 5 June.
During the ceremony, presided over by the CGIAR Chair Kathy
Sierra and members of the Executive Council (ExCo), a pink
trumpet tree of the Bignoniaceae family, locally known as
guayacán, was planted next to the main entrance.
Dr. Havener, a very dear friend of the Center, served as
interim Director General from 1994 to 1995. Member of the
Center's Board of Trustees during the periods 1992-94 and
1995-98, Havener served as its chair from 1996 to 1998. His
administrative work helped CIAT overcome delicate financial
situations caused by the world crisis. Dr. Havener passed
in August 2005.
Several members of the ExCo who had known Bob Havener personally
shared different anecdotes and highlighted his great personality
and the valuable work he did in favor not only of CIAT but
of the CGIAR.
 See
video.
Job Opening
Program Officer
CIAT is seeking an energetic professional to serve as liaison
between the Director General's office and the Center's research
areas. The position will be based at CIAT headquarters (Palmira,
Colombia).
Closing date for applications: 15 July 2009.
More information
CIAT
Annual Report 2008 online
 The
CIAT Annual Report 2008 is now online. It contains details
of some the Center’s important advances in research to
tackle hunger and poverty in the tropics. It also features
financial results, together with the outlook and challenges
for 2009 and beyond.
See the report.
Download the report
(full text, 1347 kb).
Job Opening
IP & Technology Management
Officer
CIAT is seeking an enthusiastic and energetic person to establish
an IP & Technology Management Office and coordinate all
IP management processes. The position will be based at CIAT
headquarters (Palmira, Colombia).
Closing date for applications: 30 June 2009.
More information
CIAT
researcher wins international award
 An
award-winning scientist in Colombia has paid tribute to his
Colombian colleagues for their dedication, which led to him
winning an international science prize. To show his appreciation,
Dr Andy Jarvis, of CIAT and Bioversity
International, near Cali, will use part of the prize money
to create a scholarship for a promising scientist from the
region to help with his research into the effects of climate
change on agricultural biodiversity.
See the News Release
Knowledge
Sharing Week (KSW09)
 CIAT's
Knowledge Sharing Week (KSW09) started on Monday, 18 May.
This was one of the Center's most important annual event,
gathering scientists from Africa, Asia, and Central America,
and providing a unique opportunity to exchange and discuss
experiences with colleagues at headquarters.
More information
Third
issue of Challenges and Innovations
 The
third issue of CIAT's e-newsletter, Challenges & Innovations,
which welcomes the Center's new Director General, Dr. Ruben
Echeverría, is now online. It also presents CIAT's
new Strategic Directions and offers stories on exciting advances
in rice production partnerships in Latin America as well as
recent news from CIAT and the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
See
this e-newsletter
News Release
CIAT takes the lead to ease
coffee-climate pressure
CIAT is at the forefront of efforts to help coffee farmers
in Central America rise to the challenge of climate change.
The organization will play a key role in a project to study
the impact of rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall
on coffee production in the region, and identify ways for
farmers to adapt.
See the News Release
NIAS
of Japan and CIAT sign agreement
 A
Letter of Understanding was signed by the National Institute
of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS)
and CIAT.
During the 5-year collaborative effort, the two institutions
will develop joint projects in the area of molecular breeding,
including research on transgenic crops. They will also exchange
experiences through visiting scientists, and exchange publications,
information, and other materials of common interest.
The document was signed by Dr. Teruo Ishige, President of
NIAS, and Dr. Geoff Hawtin, Director General of CIAT.
CIAT
Strategic Directions
 After
more than a year under development CIAT's Director General
Geoff Hawtin announces the availability of CIAT's new Strategic
Directions as endorsed by the Board and the incoming Director
General, Ruben Echeverría.
The document is the result of a rigorous process of reflection,
debate, and consultations with different partners and stakeholders
in agricultural research and the Center's staff.
The new directions aim to achieve a more eco-efficient agriculture
at the service of the poor of Latin America and the tropical
world. The strategy proposed is based on three pillars: (1)
improved crops for the poor, (2) improved soil fertility management,
and (3) programmatic alliances with Latin America and the
Caribbean.
This strategy derives from a new vision of eco-efficient agriculture, which benefits the
poor by delivering sustainable increases in productivity;
by better enabling family farms to compete in markets; by
limiting the damage to natural resources both within and beyond
agriculture; and by showing resilience in the face of environmental
shocks, particularly climate change.
"We believe that the scenario is ready for new advances
in 2009 and beyond", said CIAT Director General Geoff
Hawtin.
Download the complete document in English
(720 kb), Spanish
(645 kb), French
(620 kb), and Portuguese
(596 kb).
Download the synthesis in English
(96 kb), Spanish
(83 kb), French
(85 kb), and Portuguese
(80 kb).
HarvestPlus
launches new research phase
 With
generous support from the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, HarvestPlus
is pleased to announce the launch of its second phase of research
(2009-2013) that will bring nutrient-rich staple crops from
the laboratories of the CGIAR
to the fields of farmer’s around the world. The Gates
Foundation will contribute $45 million of a $75 million dollar
effort to reduce micronutrient deficiencies in developing
countries by breeding higher levels of essential micronutrients
(vitamin A, zinc, and iron) into staple crops.
This 5-year grant to HarvestPlus will be used to test the
nutritional efficacy of promising varieties developed in its
first phase and scale up breeding and testing of rice, wheat,
maize, cassava, beans, sweet potato, and pearl millet. HarvestPlus
will also begin disseminating sweet potato and beans in Africa,
and pearl millet in India.
HarvestPlus is a Challenge Program of the CGIAR. It is co-convened
by CIAT and the International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI).
Tropical
roots and tubers symposium
2 to 6 November 2009, CIP, Lima, Peru
With the theme "Tropical roots and tubers in a changing
climate: a convenient opportunity for the world", the
International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC)
will hold its XV Triennial Symposium from 2 to 6 November
2009.
The symposium will be hosted by the International Potato
Center (CIP)
in Lima, Peru, and will be cosponsored by the Center and the
National Agrarian University (UNALM,
its Spanish acronym).
The symposium provides an opportunity for experts from all
over the world to meet and address key issues related to tropical
roots and tubers (sweet potato, cassava, potato, Andean roots
and tubers, yams, and aroids), which rank third in importance
worldwide as food crops and significantly contribute to income
generation, sustainable development, and household food security.
More
information
News Release
New shipment of seeds to the North Pole
 As
the first anniversary of the inauguration of the Svalvard
Global Seed Vault (Norway) draws near, CIAT has made a second
shipment of duplicate seeds of beans and tropical forages
to this fortress built on a remote archipelago near the North
Pole to safeguard the world's most important food crops in
case of any catastrophe.
See the News Release
The
Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity
Building Workshop
9-10 March 2009, CIAT, Palmira, Colombia
From 9-10 March CIAT will host a workshop to review and discuss
current status and future needs of plant breeding capacity
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The discussions are based on survey results from the region
carried out over the last few years by the Global Partnership
Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB)
in an initiative called Plant
Breeding and related Biotechnology Capacity assessments,
and supported by FAO
and many other partners.
Contact: Oriana
Muriel
New
digital map of Africa's depleted soils to offer insights critical
for boosting food production
 Nairobi,
Kenya (13 January 2009)—Responding to sub-Saharan Africa's
soil health crisis, the International Center for Tropical
Agriculture (CIAT) announced today an ambitious new effort
to produce the first-ever, detailed digital soil map for all
42 countries of the region. This project combines the latest
soil science and technology with remote satellite imagery
and on-the-ground efforts to analyze thousands of soil samples
from remote areas across the continent to help provide solutions
for poor farmers, who suffer from chronically low-yielding
crops largely because of degraded soils.
See the News Release
Samples
of amylose-free cassava starch now available
 In
2007, CIAT's Cassava Improvement Project identified a recessive
mutation among its self-fertilized materials that was characterized
by producing an amylose-free starch, also referred to as 'waxy'
starch.
Given the importance of this finding for the starch production
sector, the Cassava Improvement Project has decided to prepare
a Collaborative Agreement on Cassava Starch through which
samples of this 'waxy' starch, extracted by CIAT from the
same genetic material in which the mutation was identified,
is made available to the starch production sector.
More
information
MAIN
(Model for Assessing the Impact of Nutritional Interventions)
 MAIN,
a user-friendly system for the empirical estimation of the
DALYs framework, is available. It is used to evaluate the
potential benefits and costs of developing the nutritional
intervention to reduce deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, and/or
zinc.
More information
CIAT
appoints new Director General
 CIAT's
Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the appointment of
Dr. Ruben Echeverría as the institute's next Director
General.
"CIAT is extremely fortunate to have someone of the
caliber of Dr. Echeverría as its next Director General,"
said Gordon MacNeil, Chair of the Board of Trustees. "He
brings to the position a wealth of experience both in Latin
America and globally."
Dr. Echeverría currently serves as the Executive Secretary
of the CGIAR Science Council in Rome, Italy. He previously
had a distinguished career as an agricultural economist in
various international institutions, and held a notable position
as the Head of Agriculture and Rural Development at the Inter-American
Development Bank in Washington, DC.
"Dr. Echeverría is the ideal person to lead CIAT
over the next coming years, during this period of rapid and
radical change not only in CIAT but also within the international
agricultural research system as a whole," MacNeil said.
A Uruguayan citizen, Dr. Echeverría received both
his master's and doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota.
He is expected to take up the appointment in March 2009.
New
brochure on CIAT in Southern Africa
 A
new brochure which outlines CIAT's work in southern Africa
is now available. It explains how scientists are helping to
meet some of the most urgent developmental challenges, not
only by evaluating new technologies and other innovations
but also by helping poor people to help themselves.
Download the brochure
(328 kb).
Contact: Rob Delve
Now in Spanish
Evaluating
Capacity Development: Experiences from Research and Development
Organizations around the World
 What
has proven to be a valuable tool for managers and evaluators
in R&D organizations, as well as the organizations which
support them, is now available for Spanish speakers across
Latin America and the Caribbean. The book, titled Evaluating
Capacity Development: Experiences from research and development
organizations around the world, shares the knowledge and experiences
of a group of managers and evaluators from 12 national and
international organizations who, over the years, carried out
a series of evaluation studies in Bangladesh, Cuba, Ghana,
Nicaragua, Philippines, and Vietnam.
Originally published in English in 2003, the much anticipated
Spanish version was recently translated thanks to the financial
support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
(SDC)
and the technical input of CIAT and the Programme for Strengthening
the Regional Capacity for Monitoring and Evaluation of IFAD's
Rural Poverty-Alleviation Projects in Latin America and the
Caribbean (PREVAL).
Download this publication in Spanish:
Full
text (1731 kb).
By
sections.
The English version of this publication can be accessed at
the CTA
and IDRC
Web sites.
Online
presentations of the seminar "Agriculture and nutrition:
A healthy alliance"
 CIAT
celebrated World Food Day by hosting a seminar "Agriculture
and Nutrition: A Healthy Alliance". This event, which
gathered over 200 participants, aimed to share different viewpoints
on the nutritional problems affecting Latin America, with
special emphasis on southwestern Colombia.
All 16 presentations highlighted the role played by agriculture
as fundamental for improving human nutrition and food security,
and are now available online on the AgroSalud's
Web site, one of the seminar's co-organizers.
More
information (in Spanish).
World
Tapioca Conference 2009
15-16 January 2009, Bangkok, Thailand
 Thailand
is one of the world's largest exporters of cassava products
and for this reason it was fitted that Bangkok hosted the
World Tapioca Conference from 15 to 16 January 2009.
This Conference was organized by the Department
of Foreign Trade of Thailand's
Ministry of Commerce.
CIAT Director General Geoffrey Hawtin was invited as guest
lecturer and addressed the use of innovation to shape the
future of cassava. Dr. Hernán Ceballos also participated
as panelist in a discussion on the potential of Thailand's
tapioca industry, with Dr. Reinhardt Howeler as moderator.
More
information
Tentative
agenda
16 October 2008 — World Food Day
Agriculture
and nutrition: A healthy alliance
A Seminar for Southwest Colombia
 To
celebrate the World Food Day, the International Center for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the National
University, and the Valle
University organized a 1-day seminar to analyze nutrition-related
problems in Latin America and Colombia, with special emphasis
on southwestern Colombia. This seminar was held at CIAT headquarters
on Thursday, 16 October.
More
information (in Spanish).
CIAT's
new Board of Trustees elected
CIAT now has a new Board of Trustees with 11 members, five
of which are new, two reelected, and the remaining four ex
officio (because of their positions).
The new Board members are Juan Lucas Restrepo from Colombia,
Anthony Cavalieri from the United States, Pietro Veglio from
Switzerland, Luis Fernando Vieira from Brazil, and Fina Opio
from Uganda.
Two recently appointed members of the former Board, Emilia
Boncodin from the Philippines and Gordon MacNeil from Canada,
were reelected to ensure a smooth transition with the outgoing
Board. Dr. MacNeil was appointed Interim Chair.
The four remaining members are ex officio members and continue
to be the Minister of Agriculture of Colombia, the Rector
of the National University, the Director General of the Colombian
Corporation of Agricultural Research (Corpoica), and the Director
General of CIAT.
Visit the Board of Trustees
Web site.
New publications
-
Innovation Africa:
Enriching Farmers' Livelihoods
 This
book, edited by Pascal Sanginga, Ann Waters-Bayer, Susan
Kaaria, Jemimah Njuki and Chesha Wettasinha and published
by Earthscan, covers new conceptual and methodological
developments in agricultural innovation systems, and showcases
recent on-the-ground experiences in and lessons from related
research and development in different contexts in Africa.
The contributions show how innovation is the outcome
of social learning through interaction of individuals
and organizations in both creating and applying knowledge.
The book brings examples of how space and incentives have
been created to promote collaboration between farmers,
research, extension, and the private sector to develop
better technologies and institutional arrangements that
can alleviate poverty. In 25 broad-ranging chapters, the
book reflects cutting-edge thinking and practice in catalyzing
and supporting innovation processes in agriculture and
management of natural resources.
More
information
Contact: Jemimah
Njuki
- Challenges
to Managing Ecosystems Sustainably for
Poverty Alleviation: Securing Well-Being in the Andes/Amazon
 This
report aims to guide research and capacity-building priorities
related to ecosystem services and poverty alleviation
in the Amazon basin and eastern Andes. It is the result
of extensive engagement with stakeholders in the region,
combined with novel analysis of secondary data on poverty
and ecosystem services such as water provision, biodiversity,
and soil quality. The report presents a list of priority
research challenges for the region, concluding that it
is far more cost effective to prevent future degradation
through incentive-based schemes that empower local communities
rather than force people to comply authoritatively. Commissioned
by the Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme
(ESPA),
a UK-based initiative of DFID,
NERC,
and ESRC
to promote multi-disciplinary research in sustainable
ecosystem management, this study will be valuable to direct
environmental-management policy at all levels.
Download the report
(1663 kb).
Contact: Andy
Jarvis
- When Disaster Strikes:
A Guide to Assessing Seed System Security
 Droughts,
floods, locusts, civil war, tsunamis.... When disaster
strikes, threatening lives and livelihoods, humanitarian
agencies must respond swiftly and decisively. Making sure
people have enough to eat is usually at the top of the
list of emergency measures. But that task invariably raises
the important issue of seed supplies. Will farmers in
the stricken area have enough seed to plant during the
next growing season?
When Disaster Strikes: A Guide to Assessing Seed System
Security is a practical assessment tool. It will help
emergency relief agencies and their field workers to decide
whether a seed-related intervention is warranted in the
first place, and if so, to design the best strategy to
help farmers. The method is laid out in seven steps. Each
includes how-to notes, guiding questions, and action checklists.
Besides helping agencies understand and cope with acute
stresses on seed systems, the guide also tackles the issue
of longer-term stresses and how to take advantage of development
opportunities.
Download the manual
(726 kb).
More information
Contact: Louise
Sperling
Ethiopia
recognizes CIAT's work
 The
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) made an
important recognition of the work carried out by CIAT in beans
in that country, on the occasion of the Ethiopian Millennium
and its 40th Anniversary.
More
information
News Releases
For more news, see our new e-newsletter Challenges
& Innovations.
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