Established in collaboration with the SELCO Foundation, the International Centre of Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) recently hosted a ceremony to launch a Millet Demo Farm, designed to showcase the whole value chain for millets and raise awareness about its benefits for climate change adaptation in agriculture
More than 140 delegates including CEOs of private companies and senior government officials from various countries attended the event, to learn about ongoing millet trials at ICBA’s research station and post-harvest processing machines, while also tasting a variety of millet-based dishes.
The millets and technologies presented at the Millet Demo Farm are a result of ICBA’s extensive research and collaboration with different partners, including the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and SELCO Foundation. The purpose is to promote the production and consumption of millets in the Middle East and North Africa and other regions through technology transfer and capacity development.
“As we work towards more sustainable and resilient agrifood systems, we must embrace neglected and underutilised crops such as millets,” said director general of ICBA, Dr Tarifa Alzaabi. “Not only are they climate-smart but are also nutrient-dense. So, millets can be a powerful tool in our efforts to adapt agrifood systems to climate change and improve food security and nutrition. But this requires that we conduct applied research studies and scale up innovations to achieve a lasting impact.”
SELCO Foundation’s senior programme manager, Nirmita Chandrashekar also emphasised the importance of looking at the entire MENA region adopting decentralised and sustainable clean energy-driven processing for smallholding farmers at the farm gate. “Together with ICBA, we are ready to transfer knowledge to all countries where ICBA works.”
For more information, visit: www.biosaline.org and www.selcofoundation.org
