ICBA at 20: Stories of Success Creative Commons License This publication is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). © 2019 ICBA. Celebrating 20 Years of Achievement Serving People in Marginal Environments Contents 4 Foreword from the 12 ICBA and BGI Group Director General establish genomics center in United Arab Emirates 6 Safeguarding plant 9 How ICBA preserves 14 ICBA advises United 16 Raising awareness genetic resources for plant genetic resources Arab Emirates on water about soils in future generations in United Arab Emirates management strategy United Arab Emirates 20 ICBA and IsDB help 22 ICBA supports Oman 24 Enhancing drought 26 Boosting cooperation in 28 Helping smallholder Uzbekistan create in developing salinity preparedness in Middle Euphrates-Tigris River farmers in West Asia, international innovation management strategy East, North Africa Basin North Africa produce center and earn more 2 30 Long-term date palm 32 Powering decision- 34 Kyrgyz-grown quinoa 36 Kazakh farmers slowly 38 Solar-powered irrigation research shows making through drone makes its way into warm to sorghum and systems give hope to irrigation savings technology global markets pearl millet small-scale farmers in possible sub-Saharan Africa 42 Farming with reject 44 Strengthening quinoa 46 Building individual and brine and seawater in value chains in Morocco institutional capacities United Arab Emirates in Africa 40 Supporting smallholder 48 Empowering Arab dairy farmers in women scientists Morocco ICBA at 20: Stories of Success 3 Dr. Ismahane Elouafi Director General 4 Foreword from the Director General 2019 marks a significant milestone in ICBA’s Our scientists have developed, tested and Arabia have been evaluated for production history. It has been 20 years since our introduced a wide range of solutions suited and water use. As a result, ICBA has water center was established through the visionary to local conditions in many countries. These productivity data that helps to significantly leadership of the Government of the United solutions range from salt-, drought- and heat- reduce date palm irrigation requirements. Arab Emirates and the Islamic Development tolerant crops for food, feed and biofuel to We now plan to work with EAD and the Abu Bank. technologies for using alternative types of Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority water in agriculture and managing soil and (ADAFSA) to take joint actions based on this Thanks to continued support from ICBA’s water salinity. research, which can help to cut down on date founders, as well as many national, regional palm water consumption across the country and international organizations, our center Under our plant genetic resources program, by as much as 50 percent. has gone from strength to strength over the we have distributed 8,572 seed samples to past two decades. scientists, farmers and other stakeholders in It is also important to mention that all these 57 countries. successes have been made possible by Today ICBA has evolved into a world- collaboration with different stakeholders class research center serving the needs of While smallholder farmers are the main around the world. Over the years, we have smallholder farmers and other stakeholders beneficiaries of our research-for-development built and strengthened partnerships with in marginal environments around the world. efforts, we have also supported decision- organizations in over 50 countries. Our center is in the vanguard of research and making in different countries. Our science- development on alternative, non-traditional based recommendations have informed such More importantly, we have been able to crops and technologies that help to produce policies and strategies as the UAE Water deliver on our mission and vision thanks to more food, save more resources and protect Conservation Strategy, the UAE Agricultural unwavering support of the many donor and the environment. Strategy, the Kuwait Food Security Strategy development agencies. and the Oman Salinity Strategy. To date our center has conducted research- Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the for-development programs in more than 30 One of the highlights is our research commitment and contributions of all past countries in the Middle East, North Africa, collaboration with the Environment Agency and current members of ICBA’s staff. Our sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the - Abu Dhabi (EAD) on precise estimates of people have always been the main drivers Caucasus. date palm water consumption using SAP flow, of our center’s successes. I sincerely thank which will have positive effects on sustainable each one of them for their hard work and Through their work, our scientists have agricultural water management in the country. dedication to our shared vision of food reached out to and demonstrated best Our center has been running one of the most security, better nutrition and livelihoods in biosaline agriculture practices to more than long-term studies in the UAE on effects of marginal environments around the world. 30,000 farmers. saline water irrigation on fruit quality and quantity in date palm. The ten most common varieties from the UAE and eight from Saudi ICBA at 20: Stories of Success 5 Safeguarding plant genetic resources for future generations The history of ICBA’s genebank dates back to 2000. Its mission is to serve as a unique repository of plant genetic resources suited to marginal environments. Since then, ICBA has collected and preserved germplasm of plant species with proven or potential salinity, heat and drought tolerance from around the world. Today the genebank is home to one of the world’s largest collections of germplasm of heat- and salt-tolerant plant species. It stores over 14,000 accessions of around 240 plant species from more than 150 countries and territories of the world. There are also around 250 seed samples of 70 wild plant species from the United Arab Emirates, the center’s host country. Under its program on plant genetic resources, ICBA provides seed samples to different institutions around the world for research, breeding and introduction. Since 2000 ICBA has distributed 8,572 seed samples to partner organizations in 57 countries. ICBA established a unique genebank in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in 2000. 6 Afghanistan Iran Palestine Algeria Iraq Peru Australia Ivory Coast Qatar Azerbaijan Japan Republic of Congo Bangladesh Jordan Saudi Arabia Cameroon Kazakhstan Senegal Canada Kuwait Somalia Chad Lebanon South Korea China Liberia South Sudan Colombia Madagascar Spain Congo Mauritania Syria Denmark Mauritius Tajikistan Djibouti Mexico Togo Egypt Morocco Tunisia Ethiopia Mozambique Turkmenistan Gambia Niger UAE Germany Nigeria USA Guinea-Bissau Oman Uzbekistan India Pakistan Yemen ICBA at 20: Stories of Success 7 Dr. Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the International Treaty, says: “With this agreement, ICBA’s valuable germplasm collection will be more accessible to a broader range of users and ultimately farmers, while affording ICBA new partnerships and involvement in the global governance framework provided by the International Under the Article 15 agreement with FAO, the germplasm collection stored in ICBA’s genebank became officially part of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing. Treaty. This is another important step forward in In 2019 ICBA signed an agreement with the in this vast global gene pool is exchanged Food and Agriculture Organization of the around the world at an average rate of about international access and United Nations (FAO) within the framework 1,000 transfers per day to support farmers, benefit-sharing of plant of Article 15 of the FAO International Treaty plant breeders and scientists in developing on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and new climate-resilient crop varieties to produce genetic material, which form Agriculture. more nutritious food from plants. the basis for the world’s food The FAO International Treaty is a key Under this agreement, the germplasm international legal instrument for the global basket.” collection at ICBA’s genebank became conservation, sustainable use and sharing officially part of the Multilateral System of of the benefits of plant biodiversity, which it Donors and Partners Access and Benefit-sharing, adding to the does through its various mechanisms, most Donors: The Food Security Office of the world’s largest global gene pool of plant notably the Multilateral System, the Global United Arab Emirates, EAD and the Islamic genetic material, available to farmers, plant Information System and the Benefit-sharing Development Bank (IsDB) breeders and scientists for the sustainable Fund. It is also the first legally-binding Partners: FAO, international research production of food from plants. international instrument to acknowledge institutions and national agricultural the tremendous contribution of indigenous research systems The Multilateral System of Access and communities and farmers to the development Benefit-sharing currently comprises over and management of crop biodiversity. 2.6m samples of crop germplasm. Material 8 How ICBA preserves plant genetic resources in United Arab Emirates As part of the conservation of plant genetic resources in the United Arab Emirates, ICBA conducts regular expeditions to different locations to collect some of the economically important indigenous species which may be under threat due to overgrazing and expansion of human settlements. This work, for example,