Dr Ismahane Elouafi, ICBA Director-General, attended the GCARD2 (Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development) conference, Foresight and partnership for innovation and impact on small-holder livelihoods, held from 29 October – 1 November in Punta del Este, Uruguay. The conference, which is the second in a new series of global conferences held by the Global Forum on Agricult

ICBA scientists, Dr Rachael McDonnell and Dr Shoaib Ismail, were invited by the Prime Minister’s Office, UAE Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, to join other leading scientists and researchers in the UAE Water Think Tank held on 24 October 2012.

Integrated management technologies of saline water was the focus of a four-day workshop held at ICBA from 15-18 October which brought together delegates from the Ministry of Environment and Water, Abu Dhabi Food Control Agency, municipalities and specialists from ICBA. In her introduction to the workshop, Dr Ismahane Elouafi, ICBA Director General, highlighted the importance of biosaline agricu

16 October 2012 is World Food Day; a date chosen to mark the anniversary of the founding of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Opportunities for students from the Duabi campus of BITS Pilani (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani) to work with scientists at ICBA will continue with the extension of a partnership between the two institutions.

The National Strategy to combat salinity and protect water resources from pollution and salinity in Oman was launched on 2 October 2012 in Oman by Sheikh Fadl bin Mohammed Al Harthy, Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers. Sheikh Fadl praised the strategy as ‘a scientific and realistic diagnosis of the problem and places that experience salinization’.

Having shared a long and fruitful partnership over many years, representatives of ICBA, FAO and ICARDA met on 4 October 2012 at ICBA headquarters in Dubai to map out future possibilities for cooperation within the United Arab Emirates specifically and the wider region in general.

Dr Samuel Gameda, Director of Soil Health and Fertility Program at the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) based in Addis Ababa visited ICBA on 30 September 2012.

HE Dr. Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water congratulated Dr Ismahane Elouafi on her recent appointment as the ICBA Director General when he met with her on 15 September 2012.

Sixteen people from seven countries in the region (Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen) learnt more about the importance of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and soil and irrigation management in the use of marginal quality water (MQW) in agricultural production when they participated in a specialized workshop organized by ICBA.