Dubai, 24 Dec. 05 (WAM)--The International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), Dubai, UAE and the National Salinity Research Centre (NSRC), Yazd, Iran,organized recently a seminar and farmer's day in Yazd.

The occasion marked the end of the first phase of a 3-year bilateral project on 'Production of halophytes in Iran'.

The seminar was attended by Dr. Mohammad Al-Attar, Director General ICBA, Prof. Faisal Taha, Director Technical Programmes and Dr. Shoaib Ismail, from ICBA.

Regional heads and agricultural scientists from Yazd provincealso attended the seminar.

Dr. S.M. Cheraghi, Director General NSRC introduced the project to the participants followed by the address of Dr. Al-Attar. In his address, Dr. Al-Attar highlighted the importance of these bilateral projects both for ICBA and the participating countries and that Iran was among the firstbatch of countries that were selected for such co-operative research work.

He was pleased with the achievements of the project and that ICBA looks forward for more collaboration in Iran. He also emphasized the importance of scientific publicationsof such projects to earn credibility for funding from donor agencies.

Later on, speaking to the media, he explained the missionof ICBA and the different mode of collaborations in developingcountries.

Prof. Taha gave a presentation of ICBA's work and Dr.

Cheraghi and Dr. Ismail spoke on the project activities.

Technical staff of NSRC then presented results of the projectsto the audience.

Later on, all participants visited the experimental fieldsites and reviewed the progress of the work, which was commended by many.

A Farmer's day was organized on the next day which was attended by about 35 farmers. They were briefed of the work and then visited the greenhouse at NSRC station where studieson salinity and fertilizer treatments to grow halophytes is beingundertaken.

Later on they visited the field site where trial is carriedout on different types of irrigation systems using saline waterto grow these halophytes. The farmer's enquired about informationrelated to the seeds of halophytes, irrigation volume, and profitability's of growing halophytes.