Food crop research

The project, to be implemented by the ICR, focuses on establishing a cadre of trained personnel and on providing consultants to initiate preliminary research. To upgrade ICR staff capability, 7 ICR staff members will earn M.S. degree equivalents in irrigation engineering, agronomy (field and vegetable crops), plant breeding, economic/agricultural anthropology, and business/public administration; and 2 other ICR staff members will earn Ph.D."s in soil science (with emphasis on irrigation) and crop science/whole plant pathology. Courses will be taken at a U.S. institution identified during short-term visits by the ICR"s Director General, but trainees will conduct thesis research at the ICR. Select lower-level ICR staff will receive short-term training in specific research methods and field/laboratory operations in third countries or at international research institutes. Long-term counterparts to the ICR"s Research Director and Subdirector General will develop a national applied agricultural research plan, in part by planning and supervising project-funded research (cf. above). The two advisors will also initiate pilot projects in their respective specialties. An economic anthropologist and an agricultural economist will help the ICR conduct a comprehensive survey and analysis of the Cape Verdean rural economy. Research will examine existing cropping and livetstock production activities (particularly labor allocation, production techniques, cultivars, and farmer beliefs about these activities); crop and livestock consumption, distribution, and marketing; land tenure and income distribution; non-farm economic activities affecting labor requirements in cropping or infrastructure building; and agricultural policy, especially pricing, credit, input, supply, infrastructure provision, and extension. Finally, the consultants will help the ICR establish management and financial systems and an information and communication center, and 2 houses and 1 duplex will be built for project and long-term ICR needs. Amendment of 5/21/87 extends PACD to 6/30/90 at increased funding. The revised project will: (1) finance a long-term participant in Brazil (Ph.D.) and another in the United States (M.Sc.), plus limited short seminars; (2) provide returning scientists with equipment for laboratory and on-farm experiments; (3) add a food crops production economic survey and extend University of Arizona TA until counterparts finish their academic programs; and (4) add integrated pest management activities. (PD-BBH-276)