Knowledge Management Portal

Goat rearing as a means of family subsistence and cash earning is common in arid and semi-arid areas, especially for the poor sections of the community. Depending on the area, production systems may be sedentary, with flocks remaining in the same locality throughout the year and being taken out to graze during the day and brought back in the evening. Flocks are small, usually between 20 and 40 animals (but much less for the poorest households) and graze stubble, roadsides, canal banks, waterlogged areas, rangeland and weeds. Women frequently keep a few animals, mostly goats, near the house and feed them on household scraps, weeds and nearby grazing. Goats are kept in complementation with sheep to optimize the use of available scarce feed resources. Before the feast of Eid-ul-Azha, at the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, some households or small entrepreneurs purchase male sheep and goats, which they fatten and sell at a high price. Goat production suffers, like other livestock production systems, from several constraints resulting in poor productivity, including poor feed and fodder resources; infectious diseases; lack of government interest and investment in the sector; and a poor marketing system with many middlemen.

Under the umbrella of the CGIAR HarvestPlus Program, ICARDA in collaboration with CIAT & IFPRI is facilitating national programs on the production and harvesting of lentil in five countries, i.e. India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Lebanon and Morocco. The aim is to breed lentil crop varieties with higher iron and zinc concentration and to develop the related production technologies to ensure greater and stable yields on farmers’ fields.

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and managed by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Water and Livelihoods Initiative (WLI) aims to improve livelihoods of rural households and communities in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, and Yemen.

The India Collaborative Program between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and ICARDA was set up for a period of three years (2014-15/2016-17) to promote, among other areas, community-based pasture management, improvement of small ruminants' productivity, feeding strategies and integration of crop-livestock systems, and development of high yielding barley genotypes for malting, food, feed and dual purposes for different agro-ecological conditions of India.

The collaboration between ICARDA and Iran started in 1978 working, mainly, with Dryland Agricultural Research Institute (DARI) and since then extended to 8 other research institutes affiliated to AREEO. The workplan for 2018-2020 is consisting of projects and activities on the three thematic areas included: 1. Biodiversity and integrated gene management (BIGM), 2. sustainable intensification and resilient production systems (SIRPS) and 3. Integrated water and land management.

International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP) is a joint program between the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Center for Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). The Program main objective is to develop winter/facultative wheat germplasm for the region of Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA). IWWIP also facilitates the winter wheat germplasm exchange for the global breeding community.