WB meet on new strategy at Icrisat

Attending the meeting on January 19-22 are the bank's sector directors and managers for agriculture, rural development and environment from its headquarters in Washington DC, and country program managers from eight countries in Asia and Africa.

Dyno Keatinge, the deputy director-general of Icrisat, said that both the World Bank and Icrisat shared the common goals of alleviating rural poverty in Asia and Africa through increased crop productivity.

This meeting would give an opportunity for the senior World Bank and Icrisat officials to interact and dovetail strategies to meet this goal, he observed.

According to Shawki Barghouti, an adviser to the World Bank, there is an increased emphasis on agriculture and rural development in the World Bank.

International agricultural research institutes like Icrisat , which operate under CGIAR, play an important role in improving crop productivity, livelihoods and food security in the rural areas. Barghouti, a former director-general of Icrisat, added that the meeting at Icrisat was a starting point in this direction, since it would discuss on how the new bank strategy can be made relevant for South and East Asia.