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Archives
January 16-31, 2001
Asian
Corn BIOTECH links BAR and CIMMYT
by Rita T. dela Cruz
CIMMYT Director David Hoisington recently
met with BAR Director Eliseo Ponce for a possible link
up with the Bureau's National R&D System in Agriculture
and Fisheries, particularly the Corn R&D Network.
The meeting was held at the CERDAF Board Room and participated
in by Dr. Maria Luz George, Project Coordinator of the
Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET). AMBIONET
is a collaborative research and training network established
in April 1998 and aimed at building the biotechnology
capacity of national maize programs in Asia. It is a
partnership between CIMMYT (International Maize and
Wheat Improvement Center) and the national agricultural
research systems (NARs) in China, India, Indonesia,
Thailand and Philippines. A Steering Committee composed
of representatives from each of the five countries was
created to provide the overall supervision of its policy
issues and program directions. Presently, the Philippine's
representative is PCARRD Executive Director Patricio
Faylon.
Essentially, the purpose of this meeting
was to discuss possible areas of collaboration between
AMBIONET (locally based at IRRI, College, Laguna) and
BAR. Areas discussed during the meeting were:
- The need for implementing downstream R&D to complement
the ADB-assisted project;
- Addressing concerns like drought conditions, downstream
research or on-farm R&D, biodiversity, technology
utilization, strengthening of R&D capacity at the
field level, and other activities that can be easily
surmounted through joint programs;
- and the need to clarify the issue of public goods for
the farmers to benefit more.
During the discussion, Dr. Ponce reiterated
the need for downstream research for corn. According
Ponce, there is not much data in the field for technology
to be fully utilized thereby an immediate necessity
for getting technology from R&D stations be brought
to the farmers' fields. Furthermore, he mentioned the
need for strengthening the capacity of the institution,
thus new people from the Cotton Development Administration
(CODA) shall be assigned for this work. Likewise, to
improve the "quality of science" in the country,
the methodology in corn R&D needs to be improved,
as present R&D outputs were not enough.
Also present during the meeting were Dr.
Artemio Salazar, National Team Leader of the Corn RDE
Network and Mr. Victoriano Guiam of the Public and International
Relations Division of the Bureau. The role of BAR for
this possible link up with AMBIONET is to provide some
support through additional funding to the Consultative
Group for International Research (CGIAR) as restricted
grants for R&D projects that will directly benefit
the Philippines. In the meantime, the National RDE Network
for Corn with the orchestration of Dr. Salazar shall
look into the possibility on how CIMMYT will be able
to interact with the network for it to serve as an exemplar
for other International Agricultural Research Centers
of CGIAR. 
January 16-31 2001 Articles: ::
Asian
Corn BIOTECH links BAR and CIMMYT
::
Strengthen
extension linkage, improve quality of governance: SSAC
::
NTLs
to conduct 1st quarter meeting for 2001
::: More January 2001 articles :::
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