The Association of International Research and Development Centres for Agriculture (AIRCA) was launched last month (30 October) at the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development in Uruguay. The partnership's overall aim is to improve food security and help communities meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
By looking at how agriculture works across broad areas containing a range of ecosystems, such as forests and pristine habitats, AIRCA hopes to strike a productive balance between livelihood improvement for small-scale farmers and long-term environmental sustainability. The alliance hopes that grouping together will raise the profile of members' work and improve the visibility and recognition of research and development (R&D) capacity building at grassroots level — elements of which are already being pursued by individual centres. For example, the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), an alliance member based in Costa Rica, has been developing biodiversity awareness among local farmers.
Meanwhile an alliance member in India, the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (CABI) has been improving farmers' access to agricultural information through mobile phone services. Serving more than 60 countries, as well as partners from across the Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, the new alliance has collective access to a wide variety of crops and ecosystems.
During a pilot phase, a common online gateway will aim to improve collaboration and allow members to share library and information tools, and reports.
Currently, all centres manage their projects independently, but AIRCA hopes to develop joint project proposals for demand-driven research and capacity-building programmes.
Opportunities to identify research gaps and to collaborate with other organisations such as the CGIAR Consortium and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as well as the private sector, have also been mooted, although these are dependent on securing financial support.
The nine founding members of the alliance are:
- Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center,
- CABI,
- CATIE,
- Crops for the Future,
- International Center for Biosaline Agriculture,
- International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development,
- African Insect Science for Food and Health,
- International Fertilizer Development Center and
- International Network for Bamboo and Rattan.
