Cereal Improvement in Dry Areas: Cooperative Cereal Improvement in Tunisia (1980-1985)

摘要

The document highlights ICARDA's impact in Tunisia since the inception of the Tunisia-ICARDA collaborative project on cereal improvement in 1980. The project considers three aspects; barley improvement, cereal pathology, and training. In early 1985, three barley cultivars were officially released for Tunisian farmers, thus fulfilling one of the aims of the project. This will increase the national barley production by over 20% in both low and high rainfall areas. Intensive testing against various diseases and identification of wheat and barley lines with high yield potential and multiple disease resistance should help to replace, if necessary, commercial varieties susceptible to the prevailing diseases. Two bread wheat and one barley varieties are now at the stage of pre-release testing and multiplication. The findings of the project indicate that the national program is making full use of the genetic variability existing in the cereal program of ICARDA as well as elsewhere. Training in different categories has been given high priority from the start of the project, to further strengthen the research programs in trained manpower. The aim is to strengthen the capacity of national programs to carry out their own crop research.