Fourth International Meeting of FORAGRO "Technological Innovation and Agribusiness Priorities: Devel

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Fourth International Meeting of FORAGRO
"Technological Innovation and Agribusiness
Priorities  Developing a new Institutional
Dimension in the Americas," Panama in April 13-15
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AARINENA MISSION
To contribute to the enhancement of agricultural
and rural development in the region through
fostering agricultural research and technology
development and by strengthening collaboration in
this regard within and outside the region to
achieve greater degree of self-reliance in food
and agriculture, and to improve the nutritional
well being and overall welfare of the people of
the region, while at the same time sustaining and
further improving the productive capacity of the
natural resource base.
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AARINENA SubRegions
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Status of Agriculture sector in WANA Region

• The Near East and North Africa Region is a food
  deficit region, and perhaps the largest net
  food importer among developing countries.
• The food gap in the region is expected to
  increase due to limited supply compared to
  effective demand, and therefore food insecurity
  has become a very serious problem in some
  countries
• Approximately 60 of the population in the region
  lives in rural areas and is dependent on
  agriculture for their livelihood, and therefore
  the decreasing agricultural production has a
  negative impact on food security, as well as on
  efforts toward poverty alleviation.

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Status of Agriculture sector in WANA Region

• The region is characterized by high population
  growth rate amounting to 3 , which is higher
  than the world rate (1.7) and the industrialized
  countries rate (0.7).
• The population growth varies greatly from 4.2 in
  Libya, 3.5 in Yemen, 3.1 in Syria, and 1.9 in
  Egypt.
• The population in 23 countries in the region was
  estimated as 385 millions in 1995, and expected
  to reach 582 in 2015

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Main Problems Bottlenecks of the Agriculture
SectorWeak Linkages in WANA Region are Caused
by
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EXTENSION WORKERS Bottlenecks Causing Weak
Linkages in WANA region
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RESEARCHERS Bottlenecks Causing Weak Linkages in
WANA Region
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Regional Networks In Strengthening Agricultural
Sector And Inter-regional Collaboration
Technical cooperation networks have become an
increasingly important means of action and were
initiated by AARINENA and supported by GFAR.
These networks have become a generic model for
the establishment of functional mechanisms for
collaboration and enhancement of communication
and exchange of experiences among different
countries in one region and/or different regions
of the world.
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Secretariat Cotton Research Institute of
Iran Varamin Branch - Iran
Secretariat UAE University Al-Ain - UAE
Secretariat Agriculture Research
Center Cairo - Egypt
Secretariat Olive Tree Institute Sfax
Tunisia
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The Importance of Regional Networks In
Strengthening Linkage on both National ,
Regional Inter-regional levels
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Example of Networks Structural Organization of
AARINENA MODEL
Regional Network Linked to Other
Regional Similar Network
Coordinating Board of the Olive Network
AARINENA Network
ESCORENA (Europe)
Secretariat
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Regional Agricultural Research Information System
(RAIS)

• 1. AARINENA RAIS-Web Site was established in
  July 2002 operating from AREO Iran in
  collaboration with GFAR .
• 2. Then ICT Steering Committee was established
  to strengthen RAIS .
• 3. The Members of the steering committee are
  composed from representatives of the five sub
  regions and representatives of AOAD, FAO, GFAR,
  and ICARDA .

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The ICT Steering Committee held its second
meeting at AREEO, September 8-9,2004

• The Committee adopted the strategy which
  consists of the following
• Framework of Action to develop the WANA-RAIS
• Implementation Plan
• Collaborative Programs
• Implementation Priorities
• The committee achieved the following
• Data on the status of NAIS and human resources
  have been collected and analyzed
• AARINENA Web site has been enhanced
• A project Proposal has been prepared and ready
  for donors

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The Challenge to Agricultural Research in the
WANA Region

• The main research themes and projects that need
  to be conducted in collaboration with researches
  from developing countries as well as from
  developed industrialized world
• Germplasm Enhancement
• Production Systems Management
• Natural Resource Management
• Socioeconomic and Policy
• Institutional Strengthening
• Information System Management

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THANK YOU