Annual Report
- 2004
Annual Report 2004
From here you can explore the various stories contained in IPGRI's Annual Report for 2004. The supplementary information -- for example Financial Information, Staff and details of IPGRI's projects -- are not published on the Web. However, they can be found in a printable PDF of the Annual Report, which can be downloaded here. The file is about 6Mb.
Alternatively, if you would prefer to receive a printed copy, please send your address details by e mail.
Foreword
IPGRI is now well on the way to implementing our new strategy, in which we have set ourselves the task of making a real contribution to helping the world to meet the Millennium Development Goals through the use of agricultural ...
IPGRI's new strategy: making the most of agricultural biodiversity
Almost two years of effort and a huge exercise in consultation have delivered a new strategic map that will guide IPGRI's future direction.
For more than 30 years the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute has...
Getting a grip on nutrition and diversity
Stephen Kimondo has built a thriving farm enterprise based on traditional leafy vegetables.
A new project is under way to explore the links between agricultural and dietary diversity and better nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.
A core element of IPGRI's new strategy is to use agricultural biodiversity to deliver...
Learning to be more effective
An IPGRI led effort is helping CGIAR centres and their partners to be more useful and more focused in their work. It is a truism that those who do not understand history are condemned to repeat it, one that applies to the work...
Date palm project at the halfway mark
The project has worked with local supermarkets to promote date diversity
An independent assessment has concluded that IPGRI's Date Palm Project is on target to meet all its objectives and is already having considerable impact. In three North African countries -- Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia -- an ...
Support for European forests moves into a new phase
Beech forests are a feature
Changes in structure and objectives will help the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme adapt to meet new challenges and responsibilities. The Steering Committee of the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme ...
Banana plantlets help convert rags to riches
Eddie Ynion, agronomist with the project, shows off a fine hand of Virlanie's bananas.
Former street children in the Philippines have transformed a barren patch of land into a lush banana garden, gaining skills and an income and bringing hope to a devastated banana-growing area. In February 2003 staff at the...
The Global Crop Diversity Trust
The Trust is helping genebanks to develop a rational strategy for conserving their barley samples over the long term.That may include oddities like this variety collected in Nepal, which has two distinct seed colours on a single spike.
+The past year saw the Trust legally established as an international organization and well on the way to meeting its goal of helping to secure the long-term future of crop diversity. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is a joint...
Low-cost technologies for seed conservation
A researcher from National Museums of Kenya examines a seed storage basket made of twigs wrapped with grass and smeared with cow dung. Farmers in Marimanti village of eastern Kenya do not really distinguish grain stores from seed stores.
All rural farmers need to store seeds at least from harvest to the next planting season. A survey of their techniques identifies promising avenues for genebanks to explore for longer-term storage. Seeds genebanks in developing...
A distributed approach to banana distribution
Clean plantlets ready for dispatch.
Responding to what partners need and working through networks has enabled IPGRI to assist banana farmers across Asia and the Pacific. Pests and diseases are the biggest constraint to banana production in Asia and the Pacific,...
Building a regional network for public awareness
On a visit to a date palm oasis, CWANA public awareness specialist Rami Khalil shared his vision that PANAB would "grow up, be fruitful and accessible to everyone, like an oasis date palm." Isehak Weled Hajo, a farmer member of IPGRI's Maghreb Date Palm Project team, offered a symbol, a young date palm of a local variety -- Ighess Isehak -- that he had improved by selection. Participants planted the tree to mark the conception of PANAB.
A meeting at an oasis provided an opportunity for media professionals and scientists to create a network for public awareness. Many of the audiences IPGRI and other agricultural organizations want to reach simply do not...
Making a start on conservation of crop wild relatives
Wild peanuts -- this one is in Bolivia -- have already made substantial contributions of disease resistance to cultivated varieties.
Progress has been made in a global effort to manage the sustainable use and conservation of the wild relatives of domesticated plant species. A large project to support the conservation of crop wild relatives (see Annual Report...
Examining the options for genetic engineering in Africa
The full report Regional Consultation on Genetic Engineering/GMOs for Development in Eastern and Southern Africa by K. Attah-Krah, F. Gasengayire, J. Ndung'u-Skilton and N. Nsubuga, edited by E. Obel-Lawson is available from IPGRI's website.
A regional consultation to promote understanding rather than seek consensus asked whether, and how, genetically modified organisms could be useful in agricultural development south of the Sahara. Genetic engineering (GE) and...
