ICARDA's Partner-Led Research in Lebanon

On May 22, 2023, ICARDA hosted a partner field day at its Terbol Research Station in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, showcasing its groundbreaking and transformative dryland agri-innovations.

For more than four decades, ICARDA has been at the forefront of game-changing dryland research and innovations, delivering resilient agri-food systems transformation to reduce rural poverty, increase food and nutrition security, and sustainably manage natural resources.  In Lebanon, ICARDA's scientific activities are anchored in four research stations located in the Central Bekaa Valley, including Tel Amara, Kfardan, Kfarshakhna, and Terbol. Our Lebanon Research Center also hosts the ICARDA genebank, part of world-renowned facilities supporting national and global science programs. Our work in Lebanon also links to the demand-driven priorities of national research institutions and key partners across Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) and beyond. 

The field day at the Lebanon Research Station showcased ongoing activities in conserving precious plant genetic resources that offer the resilient traits crucial to develop new crop varieties capable of withstanding increasingly harsh conditions under the climate crisis. Through cutting-edge labs, test fields, and the genebank, the Lebanon research center holds a successful record of delivering new, globally distributed, and climate-smart crop varieties able to cope with modern agri-stresses such as water scarcity, extreme temperatures, and increased pests and diseases. ICARDA's climate-smart varieties of bread wheat, durum wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas, faba beans, and feed legumes are critical components of our integrated packages of solutions that offer rural communities sustainable approaches to increase yields and improve nutrition security.

The field day also demonstrated ICARDA's contribution to CGIAR's Global Portfolio of Research Initiatives, such as the F2R-CWANA and Genebanks Initiatives that aim to create real and lasting impact for rural communities.   These initiatives pool CGIAR's considerable global agri-expertise and capacities to deliver seismic shifts in sustainable and effective food systems transformation and meet the demands of intensifying climate impacts.

At the field day, Dr. Michel Afram, Director of the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI) and ICARDA Board Member spoke on the importance of developing productive partnerships with key national research institutions such as LARI to ensure that our agri-solutions are demand-driven, adopted, and scaled. Dr. Hassan Machlab, ICARDA Country Manager for Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, then outlined how ICARDA's research activities in Lebanon contribute to global research on food systems transformation through our open-access ethos on knowledge sharing of our climate-smart technology.

Garrick Long, Special Advisor to ICARDA Director General and CGIAR Regional Director-CWANA Aly Abousabaa, also outlined new developments in the OneCGIAR transformation, and how, through CGIAR's Global Portfolio of Research Initiatives, CGIAR's collaboration with partners can optimize shared knowledge, expertise, and capacities for relevant, affordable, and effective agri-solutions.

Guests visited the center's extensive research crop test fields to examine the latest climate-smart crop varieties and were shown the cutting-edge laboratories at ICARDA's Genebank, before being treated to a traditional lunch prepared by women's cooperatives in Lebanon. The meal represented a full range of rich and diverse Lebanese cuisine and was prepared with ingredients sourced by the women's cooperatives that ICARDA supports by improving quality certification and better access to local markets.

As climate change accelerates, global collaboration and knowledge sharing in agri-research have become primary drivers in generating food systems transformation, especially in the highly vulnerable, water-stressed drylands of CWANA. The resulting innovation and new technology demonstrated at the field day prove what can be achieved when partners work together towards the same goal.

ICARDA Guests at the Event: 

• Michel Afram, Director General, LARI and Board Member, ICARDA

• Garrick Long, Special Advisor to ICARDA Director General and CGIAR Regional Director-CWANA, ICARDA

• Fidele Byiringiro, Economic Affairs Officer, ESCWA

• Garabed Haroutunian, Bekaa Area Manager, UNDP

• Kassem Jouni, Programme Policy Officer/Livelihoods, Agricultural Engineer, World Food Programme

• Hart Ford, Regional Director for Middle East, ACTED

• Madhumitha, Regional Environment Technical Coordinator, ACTED

• Rania Hayek, Head of Import and Export, Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture

• Rola Amil, Researcher, LARI

• Nadine Nassif, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University

• Farah Kanj, Professor and Researcher, Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University

• Lamis Chalak, Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University

• Samar Azzi Achkouty, Head of Agriculture & Food Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik

• Naim Ouaini, Professor and Researcher, School of Engineering, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik

• Marc Beyrouthy, CEO, Made By Nature

ICARDA in Lebanon