The objective of the
Seed Unit of ICARDA is to strengthen
national seed systems in Central and West
Asia and North Africa (CWANA) and build sustainable seed supply systems.
The Unit has received
financial support from the Government of the Netherlands and the
Government of Germany. These
generous financial contributions provided an extra opportunity for key
activities in the field of human
resource development and economics of seed production.
As the Unit has not published an annual report since 1997, this
five-year report reviews the activities,
which have been carried out in the period 1997-2001. This report
discusses work carried out by the Unit
in nine sections: WANA Regional Seed Network (Section 2), Economics of
Seed Production (Section
3), Seed Security (Section 4), Research (Section 5), Human Resources
Development for the Seed Sector (Section 6), Seed Production and
Distribution (Section 7), and International Activities (Section 8).
Section 9 summarizes the Status of Cooperation with Regional Programs
and Countries, and Section 10 and 11 present the Seed Unit Staff,
External Consultants and a list of Publications.
WANA REGIONAL SEED NETWORK
The WANA Seed Network operates under the guidance of the WANA Seed
Council (WSC), which is
composed of senior seed program mangers of member countries who serve as
Country Representatives
(CRs). The Seed Unit provides a proactive Secretariat. From the outset,
the WANA Seed Network has
been a catalyst in promoting cooperation, enhancing exchange of
information and providing a mechanism
for sharing experiences to build an integrated seed industry across the
region. Through its member
countries, the Network undertakes various initiatives to develop a
common platform for the integration of
national seed systems , with a view to promote regional seed trade.
These activities are focused on the
following key areas:
• Collection and dissemination of information through technical
publications, review of national seed
programs and a regular newsletter.
• Harmonization of policy, regulatory and technical procedures relevant
to varieties and seeds.
• Linkage with regional and international organizations working on seeds
and development.
The Secretariat manages the Network and monitors the progress of
activities carried out by lead countries as part of technical
backstopping. Financial support from the GTZ Seed Project in Egypt for
conducting Steering Committee and WSC meetings is highly acknowledged.
See
http://www.icarda.cgiar.org/seed_unit/Pdf/5_Years_%20Annual_Report/SUrep1.pdf
(PDF file)
See
http://www.icarda.org/seed_unit/SeedUnit/Activ/Networking.Html
Network Publications
The revision of
three Network publications namely; WANA Variety Catalogue, WANA Field
and Seed Standards Catalogue and WANA Seed Directory is now completed
and expected to be published in 2002.
The WANA catalogue
of standards includes field and seed standards which are used for
certification of most important agricultural and horticultural crops in
member countries. The document now includes standards for cereals,
legumes, oilseeds, industrial crops (cotton, sugar beet), forage crops
and some horticultural crops (beans, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, egg
plant, onion, potato, pepper, tomato, water melon). An AOSCA scheme used
for varietal certification in Canada and USA and a proposal developed by
FAO for Quality Declared Seed are included for selected crops to enable
comparisons among different systems.
The WANA Catalogue
of Crop Varieties compiles information on crop varieties (and their
synonyms) as well as breeders/maintainers of varieties grown in the WANA
region. This document is a revised version of 1998 and covers varieties
of cereals, legumes, oilseeds and forage crops currently released and
under commercial seed production.
The WANA Seed
Directory lists public and private organizations involved in the seed
sector of the member countries as a source of reference and to
facilitate communication. The present document includes lists of public
and private institutions as well as managers and specialists in the seed
sector from 15 countries. |
