Twelve participants from Egypt, India, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan attended the meeting. In the opening session, Dr. Majd Jamal, Director General of GCSAR addressed the opening session and stated the importance of cotton crop in the Syrian economy, where about one million of people depend heavily for their livelihoods. Moreover, Syria is a leading country with high productivity (more than 4 tons/hectare) using IPM techniques and biological control.
Dr. Ibrahim Hamdan, Executive Secretary of AARINENA highlighted the importance of exchanging knowledge and information among the stakeholders of agricultural research of the region and the role of the networks in achieving such goal.
Mrs. Aisel Gharedaghli, Coordinator of INCANA presented a report on INCANA activities and achievements including the network expectations from the member countries and the establishment of active workgroups.
Country reports of Egypt, India, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan addressed the problems and results in cotton research and development, Bt cotton, and IPM program on cotton.
