Knowledge Management Portal

In order to further agricultural development and improve the livelihoods of small farmers in Palestine, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to update the National Agricultural Research Strategy established in 1999 to achieve the main objectives of national social and economic plans and to serve agricultural and rural development.

The project is an initiative of the Government of Sudan with the aim of contributing to the CGIAR research and technology and at the same time be able to benefit from it. The research on agricultural dryland systems has the the highest potential of benefiting to Sudan’s agriculture. The main focus of the project is that of identifying and disseminating improved crops varieties, range, livestock and sustainable farming practices. The ultimate goal is improved food security, nutrition and NRM.

The dairy subsector contributes around 22% to the annual production from livestock, 7.2 % to total annual production from agricultureand 7% to the supply ofthe existing agro-food industry. Milk production reaches approximately 1 billion liters annually, with around 112,000 pro ducers contributing to this national yield. The subsector is dominated by small producers; 82% keeping < 5 cows while only 11% ofthe producers have herd sizes of6 to 20 producing cows. However, unreliable milk collection networks and missing on-farm cooling facilities lead to productivity losses through erratic milking regimes and cash income losses because of uncooled storage resulting in low quality, deprival of the cooling premium and even rejection of unsuitable milk at the collection center. The proposed innovation on solar-powered milk cooling is a climate-smart, off-grid solution which may foster resource-poor dairy cattle keepers towards increased productivity, income, production and consumption of safer and more nutritious products. The on-farm solar milk cooling technology to be applied by the project was developed at the University of Hohenheim based on commercial stand-alone refrigeration kits that are commercialized by German company and project partner, Phaesun GmbH. The refrigeration units (direct-current domestic refrigerators from the German company Steca GmbH) to cool down milk, have the following characteristics: a) Conventional 20 liter milk-cans are used. b) A special milk-can cover allows the use of ice for a fast milk cooling rate to assure milk quality. c) The ice is produced and stored in a refrigeration unit which has been adapted to work as a "smart ice-maker" that produces ice during sun radiation hours. This fact highly reduces the need for batteries, hence improving system reliability and cost efficiency. d) Thermally insulated plastic milk cans allow the transport of the milk, preserving its quality. In this case, we refer to "configuration A". e) A second refrigeration unit to preserve milk

The project aims at enabling small scale sheep and goat farmers and other poor value-chain actors in Ethiopia to increase their share of the benefits from sheep and goat production and marketing. This will be achieved through developing, adapting and disseminating innovative approaches and technologies, together with enabling policies and institutions jointly with all actors along the value chains, to achieve impact at scale and to increase availability and affordability of meat and milk.

Afghanistan seed sector is at cross-roads. There is a need to strengthen the existing “Seed Certification Authority” with minor changes by creating a new executive authority with members from public, private, traders, producers and farming sector. The second step is to explore and support the development of seed certification system within the private sector and promotes a constructive Public-Private-Producers Partnership (PPPP) model

The main research objective of this project is scale out the evidence-based integrated solutions to poor-resources farmers in rural communities to improve their livelihood through sustainable management of natural resources in MENA countries. The Project has a strong focus on dissemination of proven agriculture production systems’ packages including, mechanized raisedbed technology, greywater treatment, conservation agriculture and deficit supplemental irrigation.

Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) and Abu Dhabi Farmers Services Centre (ADFSC) as beneficiary partners in collaboration with ICARDA are working on Date Palm Integrated Pest Management and Agricultural Extension and Technology Transfer Systems in Abu Dhabi. Project components include Research for development activities on date palm IPM, enhancement of technology transfer and agricultural extension systems, capacity building, biological control in greenhouses and socio-economic analysis.

With the overall goal of transforming national and regional land use, the ELD project in Central Asia will provide sound knowledge and information about the economics of land degradation and suststainable land management practices for public and private decision-makers. It aims to value current land use strategies and economically feasable alternatives to promote sustainable land management, using the financial support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany.