ANNEX 2
1818 H STREET, N.W.. WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360
!Jovenber 4, 1974 Subject: October meeting of the Consulta- tive Group on International Agricultural Research
Pledges of about 545 million for support in 1975 of international agri-
cultural. research activities designed to increase food production in the
developing world have heen made by donor governments and organizations of
the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. The money
was pledged yesterday during the second and final day of the Group.'s yearly
meeting held at the headquarters of the World Rank in Washington, D. C.
In their discussions, the membersof the Group took note of the re-
commendations to be considered next week by the World Food Conference in Rome
for the strengthening of agricultural research, both national and international,
in and for the benefit of developing countries. Apart from the Group's own
support of international research, which is expected to go .on growing in future
years, members discussed ways in which international agricultural research
activities might be more effectively employed to assist and reinforce national
research programs in developing areas.
When it first met, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research obtained pledges from its donor members of $15 million for research
programs in 1972. Yesterday's.pledges totalling almost S45 million, which con-
trast with the $33 million pledged for 1974, illustrate the rapid expansion
which has taken place in support of research efforts to.help meet the world's
food needs.
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The Croup also confirmed its approval of the establishment of a new research center to serve the world's dry areas, to be located in the region of the Near East and Yorth Africa. The International Center for Agricultural
Research in the Dry Areas -- ICARDA for short -- is expected to have its head- quarters in T,ebanon. Two associated centers in designated zones of the re- gion with differing ecological conditions would also be established. The establishment of ICARDA rounds out the world-wide network of research activities which the Group sponsors. A substantial number of members of the Group have indicated their intention to cooperate in setting up a preparatory fund for the further planning of ICARDA. The Consultative Group has, since its inception in 1971, supported the ongoing work at five international agricultural research centers, and has established new centers in East Africa and India. -. The two best known centers supported by the Group -- and the oldest -- are the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), located in the Philippines, and the Wheat and Maize Improvement Center (CINYYT), located in Mexico. The two centers jointly received the Unesco Science Prize in 1970 for their de- velopment of new high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, and Norman Rorlaug, director of CI1WT's wheat research, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in that same year.
Other research centers w?w!loseongoin? programs have been supported by the
Consultative Group include:
-- the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Nigeria, which is focusing on farming systems for the humid tropics, mostly in Africa, with special attention to the .use of tropical soils;
^-- the International Center of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in Colombia, a pioneer in developing effective farming systems for lowland tropical areas of the Western Hemisphere; /more -3-
-.- and the International Potato Center in Peru, a one-crop institute working to expand potato cultivation in developing areas..
New organizations formed under the sponsorship of the Consultative Group and drawn under its international umbrella are:
-.- the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT), in India, which stresses farming systems and water conservation methods of particular benefit to small-scale farmers in hot but water-short regions;
-- the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD), located in Kenya, which concentrates on finding immunological methods for con- trolling two major animal diseases -- East Coast fever and trypanosomiasis;
-- the International Livestock Center for Africa (ILCA), in Ethiopia, which is working to increase animal production in the developing world through improved techniques of animal husbandry; and
-- the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, based on Rome, which is worlcing to conserve valuable plant types and to make them available to crop research and production programs in developing countries.
The original reputation of international agricultural research efforts was built by the achievements of CIMMYT and IRRI. Advances continue: for example, high-yielding, high-protein maize (CIMMYT); a new high-yielding rice variety with an unprecedented range of resistance to, or tolerance of disease and insect pests (IRRI); a rice-production system with high potential for large areas of land in South America which are now mostly unproductive (CIAT); an improved maize variety which can double yields in Western Africa (IITA); and a promising start in the development of potato varieties that will be highly resistant to late blight, the most important disease of potatoes (CIP).
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The Consultative Croup, during its two days ‘of deliberations, also agreed
to support financially an information system that would collect data on and
provide information about agricultural research work undertaken throughout
the world. This system, called CARIS (Current Agricultural.Research Infonna-
tion System), would, for instance, publish directories of all research in-
stitutions, research workers, and a directory of all main lines of research
in agricultural research.
The Group also:
-- affirmed its financial support for a program of rice trials currently underway by the West African Rice Development Association in its 14 member states;
-- gave responsibility for a program of research on groundnut development to ICRISAT, the newly-established (1972) center in India; and
-- approved the 1975 program of the International Board for,Plant Genetic
Resources.
The Consultative Group is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organiza- tion (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The World Bank is Chairman of the Group.
Among its 30 members are 21 donors: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United
Kingdom and the United States among governments; the Inter-American Development
Eank; three private foundations -'- Pord, Kellogg, and Rockefeller; three agencies in the United Nations system --UNDP, the World Bank and the United Nation8 Environment Programme; and the International Development Research Centre, an autonomous Canadian organization.