| Abstract |
The progress in the eight program/components of the major activities in CIMMYT target areas is described in detail in this first Annual Report to USAID. In Human Resource Development the emphasis was put mainly on skill development of the scientists and related persons in various fields as follows: Short term overseas research training. Regional/international wheat and maize scientists/program professional exchange among Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Participation to international and regional professional wheat/maize workshops, meetings, seminars etc. In country traveling seminar/extensive survey/team building events on wheat and maize. In country short term training on maize promotion and statistical analysis. Visits by international/national scientists to the experimental/demonstration sites. Also local scientists had opportunity for presenting the scientific papers, posters at different fora and had scope to earn knowledge through interactions and exchange of ideas. Through Facilitation and Promotion for Adoption of Mechanization, multipurpose use of power tiller has been intensified and diversified in the cropping system for conserving agriculture resources in the existing systems towards sustainable productivity and livelihood improvement. Some of the equipments were procured and distributed to the farmers and NGOs with down payment and on an installment basis for proper utilization and large-scale use. In addition, two wheel tractor based four and five row light weight multiple seed drills, zero till multi-crop drills, cage wheels for puddling and leveling, bed formers cum bed planters, self propelled multi-crop reapers, mould board ploughs were tested and improved through local manufacturers for research and development, and many of them have been in use in the farmers' fields. The Bangladesh Country Almanac successfully established a Technical Implementation Committee (TIC) involving BARC, SRDI, BRRI and CIMMYT. Under this component, the software 'A Where-ACT' 3.0, 3.5 & 3.5a and database versions 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0 (released just in July) were released. The software initially added some features and tools in 12 areas such as Grid ASCII import, model tools and license agreement with Mud Springs Inc, etc. This software was again upgraded including 6 more features. Various types of spatial data were incorporated. Three thanas have been digitized (1 :50,000 scale) and incorporated socio economic and spatial data in database. Five dissemination workshops, two training workshops and one policy workshop were arranged at six locations for familiarization and utilization of the BCA. Six hundred CDs have been distributed to the users. |
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