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Opening Session
Welcome Address
MOHAMED A. NOUR
Deputy Director General, ICARDA
I would like to opep this meeting by introducing Dr. Harry Darling, the Director
General of ICARDA, who will give his opening statement. But before giving the
floor to Dr. Darling I would like also to take this opportunity to welcome our
distinguished guests from the various parts of the world to ICARDA and say to
them that they have brought rains with them which -s a good sign. We say in
Arabic "Your feet are green"; I do not know whether this expression is used in
other places but certainly this rain will be adding a little bit of greenery to the
already green scenery of this part of the world.
There are a few announcements that I would like to make, concerning your
program which each one of you should have received by now. If you have a look
at your program you will find that the first day will be devoted rliainly to a visit to
ICARDA's experimental farm at Tel Hadya, where you will see various experiments
and discuss aspects of breeding, agronomy, weed control and other research
areas concerning chickpeas. Your second day will be entirely here in the
conference room and it will be devoted to the presentations on ascochyta blight.
Your third day will again be a field day when you will visit our off-station sites
and on-farm trials.
In the closing session we will have discussions and approval of recommendations
on ascochyta blight and I would like to request you to address your recommendations/
comments on this subject to Dr. Nene or Dr. Singh. Also, after tea,
there will be a discussion and approval of recommendations on the winter sowing;
please address your recommendations/comments on this subject to Dr. Hawtin
or Dr. Nygaard. I hope you will not miss to send or hand over your comments to
them. Your comments and suggestions will make the proceedings meaningful.
It is my real pleasure now to ask Dr. Darling to take the floor and give his
opening statement.
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