University of Arizona, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
OFFICE
OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
|
University of Arizona, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences |
This report provides a summary of the Office of International Programs' (OIP) activities and accomplishments during the first quarter of fiscal year 2003-2004. It also highlights College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) participation in international research and development during this period.
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS GENERAL ACTIVITIES
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Peace Corps Contract
The International Programs proposal for renewal of Peace Corps Strategic Plan was granted funding for 2003-2004. Under the contract, OIP will assist the campus Peace Corps representative in recruiting and recommending University of Arizona students for overseas service as Peace Corps volunteers. To promote on campus recruiting, a brief brochure “Peace Corps at the University of Arizona” was prepared and distributed to students and various departments.
Update on RAISE PLUS
The Pragma Corporation has informed CALS and other organizations participating in the proposed consortium that USAID will probably make some decision on final awards within the next 120 days.
Turkey Training Programs
OIP learned through AGRIN that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in Turkey has awarded the IFAD-financed rural development project to the United Nations Development Program. OIP has contacted the UNDP Representative in Ankara and expressed CALS' interest to provide short-term training on campus for Turkish agriculture scientists under the Project. A summary of training programs in five areas which were previously proposed were resubmitted. These include: irrigation management, soil and water conservation, aquaculture, forest land management, and farming system research and extension.
INTERNATIONAL VISITORS
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CALS Hosts Syrian Visiting Scholar
Dr. Akram Al-Kouri, Head of the Forestry and Environmental Department, Damascus
University, was a visiting scholar with Dr. Peter F. Ffolliott in the School
of Renewable Natural Resources for six months beginning in early March through
the end of August 2003. Dr. Al-Kouri was supported primarily by a Fulbright
Research Scholarship. His training activities included participation in a graduate-level
course on "Dryland Forest
Management," special study programs in the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research
and the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory, and a review of scientific
literature on the conservation, management, and sustainable use of natural resources
in dryland regions of the world. Supporting research centered on learning the
procedures of data collections and analyses linked to ongoing research in the
School of Renewable
Natural Resources on assessing the impacts of fire on the hydrological and ecological
functioning of forest, woodland, and grassland watersheds. These procedures
will form a basis for initiating similar research activities in Syria. An agreement
to further the level of collaboration between Damascus University and the University
of Arizona is evolving from Dr. Al-Kouri's visit.
ACTIVITIES
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Development of Human Resource Capabilities in Agriculture/Mexico
A partnership program between the University of Arizona and Chapingo Autonomous University in Mexico has gotten underway this summer with the enrollment of three MS students from Chapingo in programs in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. The project, "Development of Human Resource Training Capabilities in Emerging Areas of Agricultural Production and Processing in Mexico," is funded by USAID as part of the Presidential Initiative, the Training, Internships, Exchanges and Scholarships (TIES) Program. The $299,937 project provides for MS training for four Mexican students in the US as well as several shortcourses taught in Mexico by U of A and Chapingo faculty. It also provides for three faculty members from Chapingo to spend up to three months each at the U of A working with counterparts here.
Dr. Mark Riley traveled to Chapingo during the first week of September to present a shortcourse on "Bioprocess Engineering" with two faculty members from Chapingo. Additional shortcourses will be offered at Chapingo and a number of faculty and students from Chapingo will be attending the International Shortcourse on Controlled Environment Agriculture at the University of Arizona in January, 2004.
In addition to the shortcourses, the project provides funding for a number of Mexican students to undertake internships in Arizona and for several students from the U of A to do internships in Mexico. Dr. Don Slack is the project coordinator.
Arizona Aquaculture and International Projects
CALS has a longstanding reputation as a leader in the rapidly developing aquaculture industry, the fastest growth sector in global agriculture. Dozens of species of aquatic plants and animals are being domesticated. CALS scientists have expertise in shrimp, tilapia, seaweeds and aquaculture economics. In that capacity they work world-wide and attract students from across the globe.
Last May, Dennis McIntosh (SWES), Kevin Fitzsimmons (SWES) and Don Lightner (VETSci) presented papers at the World Aquaculture meetings in Salvador, Brazil. They also visited farms designed and/or operated by former UA students near São Paulo and Minas Gerais. They also took the opportunity to visit one of the largest tilapia farms in South America, which was set up by Aecio D’Silva (RNR). In June, Fitzsimmons returned to South America to make presentations and visit tilapia and shrimp farms and hatcheries in Peru and Ecuador. Ecuador is a major exporter of farm-raised tilapia and shrimp to the US. Chad King (SWES) participated in a short course on tilapia culture and hydroponics at the University of the Virgin Islands. During the UA summer session Lightner’s shrimp pathology group offered a course in shrimp diseases that was attended by students from several countries. In August, Carlos Pantoja (VETSci) presented a seminar to potential tilapia farmers in Nicaragua. In September, Fitzsimmons and Lightner participated in the Asia-Pacific aquaculture meetings in Bangkok, Thailand. Lightner continued on to Singapore to meet with shrimp producers and Fitzsimmons traveled onto the Philippines to meet with colleagues on joint UA-Central Luzon State University research.
This summer David Moore (SWES) returned from a three year assignment of technical assistance to a shrimp-tilapia farm in Eritrea, in East Africa. Steve Nelson (SWES) and Ed Glenn (SWES) visited and sent students to a seaweed-fish research project on the island of Moloka’i in Hawaii.
The UA’s global scope in aquaculture was further recognized by the election of Fitzsimmons to the presidency of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS). The WAS is the professional/technical association of aquaculture scientists, farmers and suppliers. WAS publishes two professional journals, technical books and organizes regional and international professional meetings with trade shows.
USAID Grant for International Agricultural Development
The University of Arizona was awarded up to $9.9 million under an existing MOU to assist countries in developing their agricultural sector. The International Arid Lands Consortium (IALC), headquartered at the University of Arizona, will receive the funding from USAID. This money follows the $1 million the consortium received last year and specifically is used to rebuild the agricultural infrastructure and develop sound natural resource conservation practices in five developing countries over the next four years. The project will fund the research and technical assistance programs performed by a team of scientists and researchers from six U.S. land grant institutions, Israeli and Jordanian collaborators in Afghanistan, India, Jordan, Pakistan and Yemen.
Faculty Conducts Teaching and Research in Ethiopia
Dr. Muluneh Yitayew, Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, recently completed a sabbatical leave and leave in Ethiopia. Over the past two years, Dr. Yitayew was a Fulbright Scholar in Ethiopia and taught hydraulics structures and water resources development for graduate students and irrigation engineering for undergraduate students at the Civil Engineering department at Addis Ababa University Faculty of Technology. He also taught advanced hydrology and advanced irrigation engineering for graduate students, and irrigation engineering for undergraduate students, at the Arbaminch Water Technology Institute located five hundred kilometers south of the capital Addis Ababa. He conducted research on trans-boundary river basin management, focusing specifically on the Nile Basin Initiative’s (NBI) impact on Ethiopia’s water resources development and management program.
Dr. Yitayew also advised the Ministry of Water Resources on the water sector development programs, urban water supply and sanitation, and on transboundary water issues. He organized workshops, chaired several meetings and coordinated a program to establish a sustainable relationship between the water professionals at the different universities and the Ministry of Water Resources. He made several invited presentations on the Nile Basin Initiative throughout the country as a Fulbright Scholar.
Dairy Training Proposal/Kazakhstan
The Department of Animal Sciences, in collaboration with a private-sector firm, is developing a proposal to be submitted to USAID for training dairy faculty and students from Kazakhstan. The proposal will include some funding for the ARC given the heat stress concerns and will likely include a technical support person to conduct embryo transfers to upgrade the genetics from red steepe cattle to brown swiss/holstein crosses. A tour of CALS dairy farm for the executives of the participating firm was conducted by the department in early June, 2003.
CALS Awarded a Mini-Grant to Internationalize Extension
CSREES launched an initiative last year to strengthen the international dimension of state extension programs. Twenty-six land-grant universities submitted proposals for a “mini-grants” program which was announced this past March. The CALS was among the ten which were selected following a panel review. Sherry Betts and her colleagues will conduct an experiential professional development program that partners communities in Arizona and Kingston, Jamaica. The joint community development training cuts across Arizona’s extension program areas and is the state’s first attempt to integrate international programming into its plan of work.
PROJECT REFERRALS
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Request for Information on Online Agricultural Courses
Dr. Charles (Chuck) Riemenschneider, the Director of FAO’s Liaison Office for North America has asked if we could provide his office with information on online agricultural courses that the University of Arizona offers to overseas students. This request was forwarded to Dr. Ralph Price for providing information on his NUSC 104 course. Please let Chuck know if we offer such courses. You may want to also direct him to a relevant website. His email address is mailto:charles.riemenschneider@fao.org. or he can be reached at (202) 653-2400.
ALO 2003 Request for Applications
The Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO) is pleased to announce the release of a 2003 Request for Applications: U.S. – Mexico Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships (TIES) Partnership Initiative. This one is specifically for Mexico and has an upper limit of $300,000. The deadline for receipt of applications is November 12, 2003, 5:00 p.m. EST. OIP forwarded this announcement to CALS departments and units for information and followup, if there is faculty interest.
This program will establish institutional linkages between U.S. and Mexican colleges and universities in support of NAFTA and the Partnership for Prosperity. The institutional partnerships will focus on increasing Mexico’s competitiveness and contributions to local and regional development.
For more information on this RFA or on other ALO activities, please visit their website at www.aascu.org/alo or contact Jennifer Sisane, Program Associate, Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development at sisanej@aascu.org, 1307 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005, telephone: (202) 478-7830, fax: (202) 478-4715.
2003 Special Request for Applications:
Institutional Partnerships in Higher Education for International Development
OIP forwarded the following request for applications to CALS department heads and directors for information and follow-up, if there is faculty interest:
ALO in cooperation with USAID is issuing this call for applications for higher education partnerships that focus on one of the following six areas of strategic interest: (1) higher education leadership and administrative transformation; (2) workforce development and community colleges; (3) agriculture and environment; (4) management of private and public sector institutions in countries severely affected by HIV/AIDS; (5) improving the quality of teacher training colleges and institutions; (6) MBA programs and private sector development; and (7) ALO and USAID also invite applications for higher education partnerships that address other critical development needs targeted towards the strategic objectives of USAID missions or that reflect emerging policy and technical solutions to development problems. ALO plans to conduct a peer-reviewed competition to make eighteen (18) awards of up to $100,000 each to implement cooperative partnerships over a two-year period.
The deadline for receipt of applications is November 4, 2003, 5:00 p.m. EST. For more information on this RFA or on other ALO activities, please visit our website, or contact Tony Wagner, Communications Coordinator (wagnera@aascu.org; 202-478-4704).
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For further information or to submit an item for a future Quarterly Report, please contact:
The University of Arizona
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Office of International Programs
P.O. Box 210436
Tucson, Arizona 85721-0436
Tel: (520) 620-9374
Fax: (520) 882-2980
Email: intagric@u.arizona.edu
Updated: 2 March 2004.
URL: http://cals.arizona.edu/oip/1stquarter03.html
Copyright the Arizona Board of Regents 2004.