STCU Participates in Integrated Pest Management Stakeholders Forum for the Central Asia Region

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07 May 2005

From May 5-6, STCU Uzbekistan Senior Specialist, Lawrence Leahy, and Administrative Assistant, Alexey Kim, participated in an international seminar in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, titled ‘Integrated Pest Management Stakeholders Forum for the Central Asia Region.’ This workshop was organized by Michigan State University in collaboration with the STCU. More than fifty participants representing various institutions in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan attended this Forum. In addition, representatives of ICARDA, AVRDC, CIP, USAID, The World Bank/IFC, UNDP, UNESCO, JICA, GTZ, and Winrock International attended. Key representatives from the government, national agricultural research institutes, universities, international agricultural research centers, industry, and NGOs also participated. Representatives from Michigan State University were joined by experts from UC-Davis and Virginia Tech University.

Central Asian countries are moving away from monoculture systems to more diversified agricultural systems to meet the challenges of local food security, environmental quality, and natural resource management. As a result of these changes, there is a need to conduct research looking at the impacts of crop diversification on the dynamics of pests and beneficial organisms. One of the important environmental issues in the region is related to the overuse of chemical pesticides. The STCU is collaborating with Michigan State University (MSU) – an STCU Partner – in their efforts to develop participatory, multi-disciplinary and collaborative Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs in the region to provide alternative pest control methods.

Conference objectives were to:

Review the current status of IPM in Central Asia by interacting with partner institutions and assessing their IPM research and training capacity.

Identify key partners for developing a proposal for a Regional IPM program.

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Build a regional IPM Network in Central Asia for sharing of IPM information, experiences, and technologies.

Mr. Leahy and Mr. Kim gave a presentation on the STCU and highlighted the STCU’s support for IPM and the Center’s interest in collaborating with other donor organizations in these fields. As a result of the workshop, a full proposal is under development by MSU for submission to USAID for a long-term IPM regional program in Central Asia. In addition, two additional proposals are being developed for submission to the STCU; one, in collaboration with Tashkent State Agrarian University and MSU, will focus on potato biotechnology and the other, in collaboration with ICARDA, will focus on disease management in wheat. The STCU hopes to receive additional proposals that involve Uzbek scientists, US collaborators and other international organizations working on IPM.

MSU also identified an Uzbek scientist from the Institute of Plant Protection whom they are inviting to attend their ‘Integrated Pest Management and Sustainable Agriculture’ workshop from June 19-29. MSU is funding all the conference related costs, and the STCU is funding the international travel costs for this scientist through our Travel Grant Program.