Technical Advisory Committee Twenty-Sixth Meeting, 23-30 June 1981: Report of the Meeting

Report of the 26th meeting of TAC held June 23-31, 1981 at IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria, Ralph Cummings presiding. TAC approved a statement on its role in the CGIAR, to be considered in the Second System Review. (Text attached as Annex IV.) It was agreed that the CG and TAC secretariats should consult about ways to ensure that the CGIAR did not receive different advice in integrative reports on scientific and technical issues from that given by TAC. TAC reduced center budget proposals for 1982 by $10 million below the initial ceiling based on funding expectations. The Quinquennial Review of ILRAD was endorsed for transmittal to the CGIAR. Arrangements for reviews of ILCA, IRRI and CIMMYT were discussed.Long term planning by centers and by the CGIAR was the topic of a joint discussion with center directors. TAC reviewed a consultants paper on plant breeders rights and provided information and guidance for its completion. TAC and the center directors commented on a report by two consultants on plant nutrition in the CGIAR , to be revised and discussed at TAC 27. The center directors told TAC of their concern about the creation of a new center for water management, to be the subject of an ad hoc meeting in July 1981 in Washington.After discussing with the center directors a paper by TAC member J. M.. Hirst on crop protection, TAC decided that a stripe analysis was not required. Instead a summary of pest management activities at IARCs should be completed, and presented to the CGIAR along with Professor Hirst's revised paper. TAC asked its Secretariat to explore the willingness of relevant institutions to cooperate in research on upland rice with a coordinator located at IRRI. It also supported the idea of meetings of economists from other centers with IFPRI, and provision by IFPRI of appropriate macro-economic analyses to other centers.