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SYRIA

CROP VARIETIES THAT CAN GROW WELL UNDER ARID CONDITIONS

I went to Syria as a member of the CGIAR team to select a site to build the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), I met Hafez al-Assad, the then President of Syria. He supported the idea and ICARDA came up in 1977 in Aleppo. The non-profit agricultural research institute performs a very important role in developing technologies and new varieties for the arid zone, particularly water management technologies, water harvesting technologies and identifying crop varieties that can grow well under arid conditions. My friend Dr Adel El Beltagy was DG of ICARDA between 1995 and 2006, and he developed and strengthened partnerships with national institutions and advanced research institutions. A lot of good work was carried out in ICARDA. Now it has been moved to Beirut because of all the unrest in Syria.