Second External Programme Review of ICARDA, 1988

External program review of ICARDA conducted in 1988, concurrently with an external management review, by a panel chaired by Dr. Dieter F. R. Bommer. The document contains a summary of the CGIAR discussion of the two reviews at its meeting of October-November 1988, a TAC commentary, ICARDA's response, transmittals from the chairmen of the panel and TAC, and the conclusions and recommendations of the EMR. The report was discussed at TAC 46.The review characterized ICARDA as a firmly established and mature IARC with visible and accumulating impact on national programs in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Reviewers called for ICARDA's strategic plan to be more explicit, with more analysis underpinning proposed decision making and priority setting in the center's future program. Increased research is suggested on winter rainfall farming systems, water harvesting and supplemental irrigation, and efficiency of water use. The panel endorsed the focus on lentils because of their importance as livestock feed and in human diets.Members recommended stopping faba bean improvement research and reducing work on food legumes, increased staffing of socioeconomic research (including a full time social anthropologist), and increased livestock research. Linkages with basic research institutions and establishment of a biotechnology laboratory were encouraged with the caveat that such upstream work be needs-driven and problem-oriented. There were several joint recommendations with the EMR panel. The panel endorsed decentralization of ICARDA's regional program to strategic locations in the region made necessary by the region's agroecological heterogeneity