News
GCARD CAC Face-to-Face Consultations
Date: 2009-10-18 12:00:00
A Face-to-Face consultation meeting, organized by CACAARI in Tashkent, 16-17 October 2009, was attended by about 90 participants that represented research and educational institutions, farmers and farmer organizations, NGOs, policy makers, and private organizations.
The opening speech by the CACAARI Chairperson Acad. H.M. Ahmadov was followed by presentations on CGIAR Strategy Research Framework by Dr. Mohammad Roozitalab representing the CGIAR, GCARD Process by Dr. Ajit Maru of GFAR, and the Regional Review and Results of e-Consultation by Dr. Surendra Beniwal, the Lead Consultant for CACAARI for the CAC region. Following these presentations the group work under two sessions were initiated. A guideline to the facilitators was provided to steer the group work which had seven groups in each session. The participants actively contributed to the discussions around these topics in both groups which were exciting. The group discussions and plenary sessions where the group discussion results were presented with follow up discussions took more than 75 per cent of the time of Workshop. The discussions on the various topics continued during tea/coffee breaks, lunches, bus trips to the venue and during reception and dinner.
A matrix of issues, as identified during the regional review phase and e-consultations for various categories of farmers as the subject of development and various objects around commodities that farmers produced were listed for discussion about their importance, the priorities for research to be undertaken based on their importance and the time by which the research should make an impact were sought to be identified.
The results on priority commodity areas/commodities and researchable areas were identified for different groups of farmers. For crop producers mixed crop/livestock production was recognized as a very common practice. Important crops considered were cereals (wheat, barley, maize), potato, vegetables and fruit crops, whereas cattle and sheep were important livestock. Cotton was considered as important for small-medium-large farmers. Forage crops were considered as important as animal feed.
Among priority researchable areas for mixed crop/livestock production system were access to inputs (seeds/saplings/breeds, fertilizer, credit, farm machinery, etc.), pest management, productivity increases at whole farm/ production system level, water/soil management, post-harvest processing, access to markets, access to knowledge and favourable policies for agricultural development.
For pastoralists important researchable issues considered were livelihoods analysis improved technology for animal production, feed and forage supply, breed improvement and insemination, water access, preventive health care, processing and marketing of milk/meat products, organization of animal producers into cooperatives. Also considered important were use, renewal and conservation of rangelands including biodiversity conservation, innovation technologies and effective extension linkages.
For smallholder farmers in mountains mixed crop/livestock farming was considered important as well as the access to inputs (seed/saplings/breeds, farm machinery, soft credit), land tenure and erosion, soil conservation, conservation agriculture on sloppy lands, post-harvest processing, access to markets, capacity building and extension services.
For forest dwellers soft and hard timber and non-timber products, rangelands and livestock, forest ecosystem and tourism and favourable forest development policies were considered important commodities. Among researchable issues, reforestation, integrated forest/livestock/fisheries production systems, access to improved seeds/saplings, harvesting, post-harvesting and marketing of non-timber products, indigenous knowledge, land degradation, capacity building and education through an improved extension system were considered important.
The seven group discussions provided good insights into the important researchable issues of different cross-cutting issues. The results of each group discussion were presented in Plenary Session which was followed by general discussion. The information on researchable issues was included in the exercise on the final voting.
The final Plenary Session of the Workshop was based on voting on the key researchable issues identified during the two working groups using 16 flip charts and a sticker-based voting system where each participant was given 8 votes to choose farmer categories and themes, and 14 votes to choose from more than 100 researchable issues. These votes were counted and results summarised by the CACAARI Secretariat. Further information and details of the Face-to-face consultations are available with the CACAARI Secretariat (a.rahmetov@cgiar.org) or through the website www.cacaari.org
Regional Brainstorm meeting for Transforming and Strengthening of Agricultural Research and Innovation Systems in Central Asia and Caucasus
Tashkent, 29-30 November, 2011
Samarqand, 01-03 December, 2011
Workshop participants more» 
