NORTH-SOUTH CENTRE - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

As peers we interact mainly with the Swiss members of the
National Centre of Competence in Research North-South
(NCCR North-South). Among others, we had Urs Wiesmann
from the University of Bern as speaker at our North-South
Forum in May. Subsequently, we agreed to organise these
fora in the future as joint events. We continued our friendly
ties with the office for international relations of the University
of Zurich, mainly in an informal manner.
Reflecting our long tradition in agricultural research, the
North-South Centre remained an active partner in the Swiss
Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIAR). The
SFIAR Award 2009 was given to our Steering Committee
member Silvia Dorn and her team of the Applied Entomology
Group for a project in a former North-South programme.
Furthermore, we continued to manage the secretariat of
the association LivestockNet (see below).
The North-South Centre liaises with the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation (SDC) and with other federal
offices. Contract-wise, SDC is still our main counterpart. We
interacted with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
(SECO) concerning framework conditions for research in
India, with the State Secretariat for Education and Research
(SER) on a national research agreement with Ethiopia,
and we explored closer collaboration with the Federal Office
on Agriculture (FOAG) in the context of the Swiss commitment
to FAO.
With respect to the private sector we maintained contacts
with the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
and with Nestlé.
Throughout the year, we presented our research collaboration
activities at various national and international events,
LivestockNet
LivestockNet is a Swiss network of university, private sector, NGO
and government stakeholders working in livestock and development.
Since 2007, the North-South Centre has managed the
secretariat of this association. In 2009, two meetings were held.
The first meeting at the premises of the member organisation
Intercooperation, was dedicated to administrative tasks and
exchange among the members. The discussion on the future of
LivestockNet, its mission, and its structure was continued. In
2009, LivestockNet could celebrate its tenth year of existence.
The book launch of “Livestock in a changing landscape”, to which
several members of LivestockNet contributed was identified as a
potential opportunity to make a public appearance. It finally took
place in March 2010.
The second meeting was held at the field station of Swissgenetics
in Mülligen. It was dedicated to the topics of artificial insemination
and to the fertility enhancing plant Maca (Lepidium peruvianum
Chacon), a vegetable from the Andes. A study conducted
by a joint ETH Zurich/Swissgenetics group in Peru and at the
field station of Swissgenetics explores the potential of Maca as
a fodder supplement.
113
Networking and communication
Networking
Padruot Fried, SFIAR President, and Silvia Dorn,
SFIAR Award winner 2009