Project Summary

• Sector: Communications, Information, Media and Advocacy
• Country location: Australia, Morocco
• Grantee: The Crawford Fund

Project description

The project involves a visit to the internationally renowned agricultural research centre, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Morocco by an ABC journalist to look at innovative agricultural and food security research underway, including research directly involving Australian breeders who are part of the CIMMYT Australia ICARDA Germplasm Evaluation (CAIGE). The visit to ICARDA's operations in Morocco will be timed to coincide with Australia's CAIGE project participants visit to Morocco. ICARDA and CAIGE work closely together on crops suitable for use in dryland cropping environments, with visits between the country's researchers often taking place to evaluate how cropping lines behave in the different countries. Key staff including research leaders, experiment station and germplasm researchers, leaders of projects of interest to Australia, and farmers will be interviewed. The ABC has partnered with The Crawford Fund on such visits in the past resulting in significant national media coverage. This project highlights developments in dryland agriculture and agricultural development to mitigate climate change and its impact on farmers globally.

Key dates

• 17-27 January - Visit to ICARDA including field trials, farmer farms and the genebank, including a visit by the Australian Ambassador, Mr Michael Cutts based in Rabat, Morocco. 

• Visit to ICARDA including CAIGE trial sites, Rabat, 1 Mar – 30 Apr 2019

• Council for Australian-Arab Relations grant offer: $9,660.
• Total project value: $12,660.