TAC is grateful to the Chair and members of the EPMR Panel for a comprehensive evaluation of ICRAF. The Committee is pleased with the forward-looking nature of the report; it is balanced, critical and yet constructively positive. The Panel identified a number of crucial issues facing ICRAF in the management of its transformation from an information to a strategic research centre. TAC is generally in agreement with the Panel's recommendations and offers the following commentary to supplement the Panel's report.
Scientific Quality
TAC reiterates the Panel's concern that the rationalization and consolidation of ICRAF's existing work programmes in Africa, and the expansion into Latin America and Southeast Asia under the alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture initiative will involve a heavy input of staff and management time. Hasty staff recruitment may lead to a dilution of scientific quality at a time when ICRAF needs to maintain the momentum in developing high-quality science in its research programmes. TAC also agrees with the Panel that the relative lack of extensive and dependable experimental results and fully-proven technologies has become a handicap in agroforestry. There is a need for research to validate agroforestry technologies before wide dissemination.
Collaboration
TAC concurs with the Panel's view that ICRAF should seek and maintain collaboration with other relevant centres and NARS to ensure complementarity and avoid duplications, particularly in its multipurpose tree germplasm research. The Committee notes that ICRAF is selective and confines its collaboration to organizations which provide mutual advantages in the context of ICRAF's mandate and goals. TAC agrees with the Panel that such collaboration should include arrangements with advanced institutions to measure and analyse the indirect costs and benefits of agroforestry technologies, especially their impact on downstream activities. The Committee will follow with interest ICRAF's plans for developing links with scientists in national institutes and universities. ICRAF should also consider the potential impact of its expansion in collaboration with other organizations. TAC feels that ICRAF should be careful not to build up an image of being aggressive and expansionist, which the Panel cautioned against.
TAC supports the Panel's recommendation that ICRAF should establish early collaboration with CIFOR with the aim of clarifying responsibilities in areas of potential overlap. TAC notes the initial steps taken in this direction and will be monitoring the progress. The Committee also notes the assurances given at TAC 60 by the Directors General of ICRAF and CIFOR that their collaboration is progressing in a constructive fashion.
Tree Improvement and the Germplasm Resource Centre
TAC agrees with the Panel's suggestion that, since species evaluation and breeding activities involve expensive, long-term experiments, ICRAF should confine its work to priority problems and ensure that all experimental procedures, management and monitoring are of the highest quality. In particular, ICRAF should explore new rapid methods and experimental designs to evaluate tree traits of particular interest to agroforestry. It should consider limiting the number of species with which it will deal and decide how far its activities should be extended into fully-fledged tree breeding programmes. Moreover, TAC shares the Panel's concern about the high maintenance and operating costs of a large germplasm resource centre. ICRAF needs to consider carefully the implications of long-term funding, and should rely wherever possible on the cooperation of other relevant centres that already have an installed capacity. In this connection, TAC supports ICRAF's strategy to link up with germplasm acquisition and conservation in other CGIAR centres and NARS in order to achieve optimal utilization of resources. The mechanisms envisaged for effecting this collaboration need to be clarified.
Research-Planning Process
TAC agrees with the Panel's view that ICRAF should be more transparent in its priority-setting process and more systematic in programme planning, monitoring and evaluation. The Committee notes that ICRAF is in the process of developing a mechanism for implementing this recommendation. TAC supports the Panel's suggestion that ICRAF should produce a clearer statement of its perceived advantage.
Capacity in the Social Sciences
Development of viable agroforestry technologies and systems will depend on an understanding of both biophysical and socioeconomic constraints. It is not clear how ICRAF will achieve and maintain a balance and complementarity between the biophysical research and the socioeconomic and policy research. TAC supports ICRAF's action to increase its capacity in the social sciences. This will strengthen ICRAF's overall research and increase its ability to undertake strategic research on priority issues at both the policy and household level.
Research Output and Impact
In the long run, ICRAF will be judged by the impact of the quality of its research in alleviating poverty and improving the capacity of resource-poor farmers to function without degrading the environments, by the application of the agroforestry technologies developed.
Ecoregional Role
TAC finds the highlands and the alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture initiatives to be interesting variations of the ecoregional approaches being developed within the CGIAR system and commends ICRAF's enterprise in these collaborative activities. TAC would like further clarification on how ICRAF will align and coordinate its activities with other programmes aiming at the same objectives (CIAT's forest margin initiatives and ILCA's East African highlands initiative, for example).
Training and Information
TAC commends ICRAF for the success of its training and information programmes, particularly its pioneering efforts to establish useful agroforestry databases. TAC agrees with the Panel's suggestion that the training and education programmes might be combined within the next 5 years.
Financial Management
TAC notes with satisfaction the reforms initiated by the Centre in the management of its finances.
