Technical Advisory Committee Sixtieth Meeting, 22 March - 2 April 1993: Report of the Meeting

Report of TAC 60 held at FAO Headquarters in Rome, March 22 - April 2, 1993, Alex McCalla presiding. TAC joined the ICRAF external review panel in warning against too rapid expansion of the center. On the basis of an experimental interim review of CIMMYT, TAC recommended postponement of a full review until 1998.TAC endorsed the views of the IRRI external review panel, which praised the scope and extent of IRRI's move toward equity and environmental concerns. It also endorsed the praise for WARDA's transformation from an external review panel, and urged the center to adopt the concept of an open center to achieve a viable program. Much of the discussion of the inter-center review of rice research concerned the panel's proposal to reduce funding for research on rice in Africa. TAC put its views into the form of a draft strategy statement on rice research for consideration by the CGIAR.The Committee prepared a commentary on the report of the TAC/Center Directors Working Group on the Ecoregional Approach, suggesting four models for implementation. TAC further discussed and revised its paper on priorities and strategies for livestock research in the CGIAR. TAC identified four institutional options, and preferred a new global center. The Committee asked for further clarification of proposals from the CGIAR Task Force on Banana and Plantain on the precise role of INIBAP.TAC prepared interim commentaries on the medium term plans of IBPGR, ICARDA, ICLARM, ICRAF, IFPRI, ILCA, ILRAD, INIBAP, IRRI, and WARDA