Webinar "Scaling resilient water & agriculture management practices for Sustainable Rice Intensification in East Africa"
The Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) hosted by the FAO Land and Water Division organized its tenth webinar under the title: Scaling resilient water & agriculture management practices for Sustainable Rice Intensification in East Africa.
Achieving food security remains a major challenge in the East Africa region. With increasing demand for food due to population growth and improvements in disposable income, the situation is expected to remain critical as the impact of climate change and unsustainable land and water management practices become more profound. The discourse on sustainable intensification practices to meet growing food demand has become increasingly relevant to balance increasing food production and sustainable agriculture, land, and water management practices.
The webinar was organized in the framework of the research project, scaleWAYS (Scaling out Resilient Water and Agricultural Systems), which is jointly being implemented by the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA), the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) with financial support from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). Additional inputs were provided by the FAO Regional Office for East Africa.
Achieving food security remains a major challenge in the East Africa region. With increasing demand for food due to population growth and improvements in disposable income, the situation is expected to remain critical as the impact of climate change and unsustainable land and water management practices become more profound. The discourse on sustainable intensification practices to meet growing food demand has become increasingly relevant to balance increasing food production and sustainable agriculture, land, and water management practices. [...]
Presentations
Speakers
Remi Nono Womdim - Deputy Director, FAO AGPM
Rémi Nono Womdim is the Deputy Director, Plant Production and Protection Division, FAO, Rome. He has over thirty years of experience in various positions at research, development and management levels in national and international organizations and in the private sector environment in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe. Previously he served as FAO Representative in Cabo Verde, Programme Specialist and Agricultural Officer at AGP in Rome. Prior to joining FAO in 2009, he was Programme Research Manager and Liaison Officer at the World Vegetable Center; Director of Research and Development of an International Seed Company. Earlier in his career, he was Research Associate at the National Agronomic Research Institute in Montfavet, France. He holds a Ph.D. in Life Sciences (Plant Pathology) from the University of Paris XI-Orsay in France.
Dr Ismahane Elouafi - Director General, ICBA
She joined ICBA as Director General in 2012. Prior to that, she had held management positions with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She also worked as a scientist with several international research organizations, including the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), and International Maize and Wheat Center (CIMMYT). She holds a Ph.D. in Genetics (Cordoba University, Spain) and has a passion for science, its management, and its integration with policy. She believes that science has to be the basis of decisions and development plans in order to achieve efficiency and alleviate discrimination and poverty. She is a recipient of many international awards, including the Excellence in Science award from the Global Thinkers Forum (2014), and the National Reward Medal by His Majesty Mohamed VI, the King of Morocco (2014). In 2014, Muslim Science ranked Dr. Elouafi among the 20 Most Influential Women in Science in the Islamic World under the Shapers category, and the CEO-Middle East Magazine listed her among the World’s 100 Most Powerful Arab Women in the Science category.
Dr Didier BAZILE - Senior Biodiversity Advisor at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD)
Dr Didier BAZILE is a senior scientist based at CIRAD, Montpellier France. Agronomist, Didier is an active researcher in agroecology with a focus on agrobiodiversity and plant genetic resources. He received a Ph.D. in Rural Geography (Toulouse, 1998) and was graduated as Director of Research (HdR) (Montpellier, 2014). After different international experiences (Africa, Asia, South America), he joined the CIRAD in 2001 as Principal Scientist where he develops an ecosystem approach for in situ conservation of biodiversity and promotes participatory research. For the International Year of Quinoa in 2013, Didier coordinated the book called “The state-of-the-art report on quinoa around the world in 2013” published by FAO and Cirad. During 2014-2016, he was invited at FAO-HQ to serve as Visiting Expert and Quinoa International Focal Point. During this time, he gave technical assistance to 31 countries experimenting quinoa worldwide. He is the founder and facilitator of the Global Collaborative Network on Quinoa (gcn-quinoa.org) for sharing experiences among 300 researchers from 75 countries. Today, he serves as Cirad Biodiversity Advisor.
Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh - Program Leader Crop Diversification and Genetics section and Principal Scientist (Plant Breeding)
RK Singh, a plant breeder by training, currently working as "Program Leader of Crop Diversification and Genetics" section at The International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) based at Dubai. Before joining ICBA, he worked as lead rice breeder for salinity and problem soils at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Philippines. He has served as Regional plant breeding coordinator for eastern and southern Africa (Tanzania), Rainfed lowland rice breeder for south East Asia (Philippines) and Principal Scientist in Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in India. He has vast experience of more than 3 decades on breeding for abiotic stress tolerance in plants and instrumental to develop more than 25 improved crop varieties.
Ms Ndeye Ndack Diop - Agricultural officer, AGP, FAO
Ndeye Ndack Diop is an Agricultural Officer in the Seeds and Plant Genetic Resources Team of the Plant Production and Protection Division, i.e. AGP, of FAO. She is responsible for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, which in FAO’s terms means crop varietal development and adoption. Typically, her work involves support to countries in evaluating and enhancing, as applicable, their capacities for plant breeding. Prior to joining FAO 3,5 years ago, she worked in the CGIAR centre, CIMMYT, where she supported the integration of efficiency-enhancing biotechnologies and analytics into national crop improvement programmes. She had also worked in advanced laboratories in the United States and France and in the National Agricultural Research and Extension System of her native Senegal. With a PhD in Plant Physiology, her prior research work spanned the areas of Molecular Biology, Genomics and Molecular Breeding.
Ms Tania Santivanez - Agricultural Officer for Europa and Central Asia and Delivery manager of Regional initiative “Natural resources management under a changing climate” FAO
Tania Santivañez has a Master’s Degree in Organic Chemistry at the People’s Friendship University in Russia and post Graduate Degrees on Environmental Management Systems, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Defenders Organization and Social Economy and Fair Trade at the Padre Hurtado University in Chile. Tania has been working at FAO for 20 years now and her key area of expertise is Sustainable and Agri food Systems. For 8 years she acted as Regional agricultural officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, coordinating a Regional program on agrifood system and leading various projects related to sustainable crop production, quinoa food system, seed system, inclusive trade at local and regional level. She was Global Coordinator for the “International year of Quinoa” in 2013, led several projects, initiatives, and contributed to build a global Researchers network to promote quinoa production in the most vulnerable countries. Currently she is Agriculture Officer with FAO's Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and responsible for sustainable natural resources management under a changing climate initiative.
Programme
15:00-15:05 Moderator: Remi Nono Womdim, Deputy Director, FAO AGPM
15:05-15:10 Opening Remarks – Dr Ismahane Elouafi, Director General, ICBA
15:10-15:20 Characterization and sharing of quinoa's biodiversity : its global spreading beyond its origins – Didier BAZILE, CIRAD
15:20-15:30 Germplasm improvement for the saline and dry marginal environments – Rakesh Kumar Singh, ICBA
15:30-15:40 Emerging opportunities in quinoa production - Ndeye Ndack Diop, FAO AGPM
15:40-15:55 Questions and answers
15:55-16:00 Closing remarks – Tania Santivanez, FAO REU