Knowledge Management Portal

The extra harsh climatic conditions of the season 2019-2020 posed a great challenge to our improved lines emanating from crop wild relatives project (DIIVA-PR) especially in Safi region where rainfall was less than 100 mm. The covid-19 epidemy was also a serious challenge to visit DIIVA-PR trials, however, our connection with farmers has persisted throughout the period of the epidemy. Remarkable results were achieved especially regarding high yield potential, drought resistance, and disease resistance by using the improved lines of durum wheat, barley and lentil. These lines hold potential in contributing to improve the living conditions of many farmers, and therefore, make their food system more sustainable.

A new paper listing the 961 described bee species of Morocco was recently published in the journal Zootaxa. This paper includes a review of historical records from the literature on the bee fauna of Morocco and recent records compiled from contemporary entomologists. Bee species richness in Morocco is almost half of European bee diversity while surface area of Morocco represents only 7% of the European surface area.

ADFCA is tackling major date palm pest infestations in Abu Dhabi through precision-system-informatics, farm-system optimization

The results form this study recommends policies that improve the opportunities of different farmer groups to adopt and benefit from agricultural technologies.

Learning Routes were introduced as a key knowledge management and learning methodology to the Sudan in the context of the IFAD Country Programme. Learning Routes are a means to exchange knowledge between peers, here usually farmers and rural development practitioners. Sudanese development stakeholders started abroad with Learning Routes on Best Practices in Natural Resource Management, Agricultural Productivity and Women Empowerment. Then insights were modified and successfully applied to the Sudanese project contexts and have significantly contributed towards greater development effectiveness. The Learning Route Methodology has been recognized, replicated, scaled up and institutionalized.

In the frame of SKiM project, Strengthening Knowledge Management for greater development effectiveness in the Near East, North Africa, Central Asia and Europe, CIHEAM-Bari, in collaboration with ICARDA will organize a one-week training. This virtual training week is a starting point for sharing, using and managing the knowledge, information and experiences created by the partners involved in the project following specific models. In each institution, and in order to continue providing quality service, sharing knowledge and expertise should be occurring

Lithurgus bees are commonly named wood-boring bees because of their specific nesting behavior. These species dig holes in dead wood to make their nest. They are robust and large-sized bees (10-12 mm in length on average and up to 19 mm), commonly with hair bands on the abdomen. There are 33 species worldwide, including 3 species already known in Morocco. We describe here the first observation of the wood-boring bee Lithurgus tibialis in Morocco.