The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr Kanayo Nwanze, visited ICBA on Sunday 11 November 11th to discuss current and future collaboration with ICBA. Mr Fawzi Sultan, ICBA Board of Directors Chairman, also attended the meeting.

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) has conducted a training workshop in Egypt on 4-7 November, 2012 – titled: “Farmer schools for Forage production and utilization techniques under the use of marginal water resources”.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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’.

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.