“Issue Identification” Workshop
Delhi
15-16 March 2002
Workshop Purpose:
To identify main policy-related issues for a GECAFS study on the Caribbean Food System as a key step in developing detailed research plans.
Workshop Objectives
- Establish clear priorities for policy-relevant research issues for the IGP within the GECAFS framework
- Identify principal potential collaborators
- Design Follow-up Meeting and draw-up preliminary invitee list
- Identify research issues that could contribute to the CGIAR Challenge Program on Climate Change.
Acknowledgements
The workshop organisers gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Global Programs (NOAA-OGP) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The assistance of the Rice Wheat Consortium of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (RWC) with local arrangements is gratefully acknowledged.
Programme
(Detailed timings and breaks have been deleted for this web report version)
Friday 15 March
Welcome and Introductions - Raj Gupta, RWC Facilitator and Peter Gregory, GECAFS Chair
Session I: The Rice-Wheat Food System - Context and Issues
- Rice-Wheat Food System – Socioeconomic and Policy Issues - P K Joshi, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi.
- Global Change Impacts on Rice-Wheat Provision and the Environmental Consequences - Peter Grace, Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting-Australia and Sinclair Knight Merz-Australia
Session II: Introduction to GECAFS
GECAFS overview - Peter Gregory
Session III: Information needs of policy-making process at national & regional level in relation to GEC and the R-W system [Chair: Mrs Shashi Misra, Secretary ICAR and Additional Secretary, Department of Agriculture Research and Education, India]
Presentations from invited policy makers/advisors and discussion:
- D N Panday, Deputy Secretary, Planning Commission, India
- Mangala Rai, Deputy DG, ICAR, India
- IGPFS Nepal Issues, Kishore Sherchan Chief, Environment Unit, NARC, Nepal
- IGPFS Bangladesh Issues, Anwar Iqbal, BARC, Bangladesh
Initial discussion on potential overall GECAFS R-W objectives - Peter Gregory and Mrs Shashi Misra.
Saturday 16 March
Summary of Friday discussions - PK Aggarwal
Working Groups to identify and prioritorise research needs for policy in relation to R-W within GECAFS context.
Working Group Questions:
- What are major Government and societal policy issues regarding RWS in IGP?
- e.g. Current Surplus; Future food and water supplies; Ethical considerations
- What are the policy issues of relevance to GEC and RWS?
- e.g. Future food and water supplies; Vulnerability of different groups across the IGP.
- What tools are at the disposal of policy making processes, how are they designed and how flexible are they?
- e.g. Subsidies; Promotion of technology; Taxes; Trade; Markets….
- What would be the consequences for livelihoods and environment of their use?
e.g. Income; Health; GHGs, Water tables
The outcome of this meeting is incorporated into the continuously developing example of a GECAFS Research Project: GEC and the Food System of the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
IGBP/GCTE contribution to GECAFS-RWC - John Ingram