Knowledge Management Portal

 The National School of Agriculture (ENA) in Meknes (ENA) is a public institution of higher education in agriculture with administrative and financial autonomy.  Since its creation in 1942, ENA was placed under the Governmental Authority in Charge of Agriculture.  As an institution of higher education, ENA must comply with the regulations of the law 01‐00 which organizes higher education sector in Morocco. Accreditation of the education curriculum and the management of faculty members career is under the Governemental Autority in charge of Higher Education

ONCA is responsible for piloting, coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the agricultural advisory strategy at the national level. It is responsible for applying government policy in terms of agricultural advice. Given the changing context of its missions (Green Generation, digitization of the agricultural sector, young people, etc.), ONCA has launched a new project for the development of an advanced version of the ARDNA platform to improve the quality of services provided to farmers and their organizations.

The MLR itinerary is planned from Chefchaouen - located in the Northern region of Morocco receiving about 880 mm of rain annually- to Marrakech in the South, suffering from drought with 240 mm/year. The objective of the visits aims at sharing the adaptation process of local stakeholders to different constraints regarding their agricultural and economic activities. The genebank visit in Settat witnesses the government preoccupation regarding the management of biodiversity mainly through the conservation of local resources. The university UM6P presents a new modern university model that is fully integrated into social and economic context. The university has developed within few years a high-quality level of training and research as well as entrepreneurial and innovation activities. An incubated start-up focusing on the quinoa valorization will be visited as well. Finally, the agro-industrial sector is introduced through two different case studies. Apia shows how a local company started a few years ago from scratch, led by an engineer, and has now become an international company for local product valorization, employing thousands of people in different locations in Morocco and abroad. The second case concerns the cluster innovation mechanisms supporting women's cooperative, helping their empowerment and inclusion in society. The table 1 highlight the main topics to be discussed during each study visit, and table 2 shows a Cross-table of cases and thematic areas.

Case studies were carefully selected through multiple consultations processes among stakeholders to ensure inclusivity and consideration of different aspects of KM and thematic areas on the SKiM project. The target group is country institutions dealing with agricultural and rural solutions. Potential institutions for inclusion in this project include key decision and policy support agencies, departments, and units housed or associated with 10 different Ministries such as Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, or Water, and Rural Planning Institutions that are responsible for rural welfare, natural resources management, and agricultural production. The organization of the learning route in Morocco aims to present to Moroccan and international partners participants best practices in the KM, focusing the whole chain of innovation. Indeed, the visits will start by presenting institutional arrangements regarding KM in higher education and research institutions (IAV, INRA and ENA) as well as in extension agency (ONCA).

The first set of institutions are producing knowledge through either research activities, expertise or capitalizing on end-users and stakeholders returns. ONCA, is one of the last chain links, holds the responsibility of sharing knowledge on the field. The designed program of the MLR considers several SDGs as presented in the following figure1. In addition, the case studies are located in different regions in Morocco which differs from their climate and soil conditions, economic development and agricultural specialties. The MLR itinerary is planned from Chefchaouen - located in the Northern region of Morocco receiving about 880 mm of rain annually- to Marrakech in the South, suffering from drought with 240 mm/year. The objective of the visits aims at sharing the adaptation process of local stakeholders to different constraints regarding their agricultural and economic activities. The genebank visit in Settat witnesses the government preoccupation regarding the management of biodiversity mainly through the conservation of local resources. The university UM6P presents a new modern university model that is fully integrated into social and economic context. The university has developed within few years a high-quality level of training and research as well as entrepreneurial and innovation activities. An incubated start-up focusing on the quinoa valorization will be visited as well. Finally, the agro-industrial sector is introduced through two different case studies. Apia shows how a local company started a few years ago from scratch, led by an engineer, and has now become an international company for local product valorization, employing thousands of people in different locations in Morocco and abroad. The second case concerns the cluster innovation mechanisms supporting women's cooperative, helping their empowerment and inclusion in society. The table 1 highlight the main topics to be discussed during each study visit, and table 2 shows a Cross-table of cases and thematic areas.

Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat (Triticum aes- tivum L.) worldwide causing huge yield losses every year. Development and deployment of resistant varieties is the most economical and environment friendly approach for controlling this disease. However, because of the continuous evolution of the pathogen, resistant genes are easily overcome by new virulent Pst races, which necessitates a continuous identifcation and introgression of resistance genes to develop resistant wheat varieties. To identify efective source of resistance, a genome- wide association study was performed using 426 elite bread wheat genotypes based on 5176 polymorphic Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) markers. Adult-plant-resistance was evaluated under feld conditions for yellow rust resistance for two consecutive years (2014 and 2015) at ICARDA Merchouch station, Morocco. Out of the 426 genotypes, 51.17% were highly resistant with 5–10% level of severity to yellow rust. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) using a mixed linear model (MLM) identifed three DArT markers on chromosomes 1B, 2B and 7B which are signifcantly associated with stripe rust resistance at false discovery rate p≤0.05. BLAST analysis confrmed that the marker 412,394 in chromosome 2B overlapped with two previously reported QTLs (QYrlu.cau-2BS1 Luke and QYrid.ui-2B.1_IDO444). However, the two other markers 542,318 (1B) and 583,038 (5B) were not mapped within any of the previously reported gene/QTL regions; therefore, these markers may represent novel resistance loci for yellow rust. The highly resistant elite genotypes and linked molecular markers are recommended for further gene introgression and pyramiding purposes in the wheat breeding programs after validation.

High temperature during the reproductive stage limits the growth and development of lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus). The reproductive and seed filling periods are the most sensitive to heat stress, resulting in limited yield and nutritional quality. Climate change causes frequent incidents of heat stress for global food crop production. This study aimed to assess the impact of high temperature during the reproductive stage of lentil on grain yield, nutritional value, and cooking quality. Thirty-six lentil genotypes were evaluated under controlled conditions for their high temperature response. Genotypic variation was significant (p < 0.001) for all the traits under study. High temperature-induced conditions reduced protein, iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) concentrations in lentils. Under heat stress conditions, mineral concentrations among lentil genotypes varied from 6.0 to 8.8 mg/100 g for Fe and from 4.9 to 6.6 mg/100 g for Zn. Protein ranged from 21.9 to 24.3 g/100 g. Cooking time was significantly reduced due to high temperature treatment; the range was 3–11 min, while under no stress conditions, cooking time variation was from 5 to 14 min. Phytic acid variation was 0.5–1.2 g/100 g under no stress conditions, while under heat stress conditions, phytic acid ranged from 0.4 to 1.4 g/100 g. All genotypes had highly significant bioavailable Fe and moderately bioavailable Zn under no stress conditions. Whereas under heat stress conditions, Fe and Zn bioavailability was reduced due to increased phytic acid levels. Our results will greatly benefit the development of biofortified lentil cultivars for global breeding programs to generate promising genotypes with low phytic acid and phytic acid/micronutrient ratio to combat micronutrient malnutrition.

The present research aims to identify the efficient combination of drought-tolerance selection criteria and associated quantitative trait loci. A panel of 197 bread wheat genotypes was evaluated for yield- and drought-tolerance-related traits in two environments (favorable and semiarid) for 2 years (2015–2016). Grain number, biomass, number of fertile spikes per plant and ground cover exhibited a significant correlation with grain yield and constitute potential secondary selection criteria for yield under drought conditions. About 73 significant marker–trait associations were detected along various chromosomal positions. The markers “wsnp_Ex_Rep_c67786_66472676” and “ExcalibuR_c24593_1217” exhibited important genetic gains associated with yield increase under drought (11 and 7%, respectively). The markers “KukRi_c94792_127” and “wsnp_Ex_c298_580660” showed a significant correlation with grain yield, biomass and grain number and were associated with a significant increase in yield performance at the semiarid site (+6 and +7%, respectively). The ground cover was found associated with grain yield and biomass through the markers “wsnp_Ex_Rep_c67786_66472676” (+11%) and “KukRi_c49927_151” (+10%). One marker “Tdu- RuM_contig25432_1377” on chromosome 5B at 20 cM was consistently correlated with the number of fertile spikes across both environments. Further research should be considered to validate the efficiency of these markers to