Syrian Researcher Receives ACSAD’s First Award

DAMASCUS, (ST) – Agronomist Researcher Nibal Khaz’al received ACSAD’s Award, the first in the scientific agricultural research in dry areas. The prize is estimated at $12000.

The Minister of Agriculture Ahmed Qadri, during the ceremony, underlined that the award is an indication of the importance of scientific research and its role in the agricultural revival that occurred during the past three decades in Syria. He pointed to the importance of the work of agricultural scientific research in the development of sorts of high production and using modern technologies because of its positive impact on the farmer and production through adoption of their application and cultivation of these varieties.

“Syrians researchers have demonstrated once again their superiority in scientific research where one of the researchers is honored today with the co-develop team to reproduce a variety of wheat that is durable disease, which formed an epidemic on the wheat crop in 2009 and 2010,” the minister said.

This sort, he added, is marked by high productivity and suitability for cultivation in the region of stability.

For his part, the Director General of ACSAD, Dr. Rafiq Ali Saleh, referred to the development of this new sort because of collaboration between researchers at the Ministry of Agriculture and researchers at ACSAD, indicating that this product has high productivity that reached about 8 tons hectares in research centers and 4 tons hectares in the farmers’ fields. This sort is durable drought and resistant to yellow rust disease.

Dr. Saleh noted the scientific development in Syria and superiority of the Syrian researcher Nibal Khaz’al on winning the first prize to more than 14 searches of the various Arab countries that were submitted to “ACSAD.” The researches also deal with growing wheat in dry areas.

Agronomist Khaz’al expressed proud to receive the award, which is the fruit of the efforts of all workers in the Agricultural Research Association, which, in turn, made great efforts in the development and advancement of the agricultural sector and provided all facilities to the researchers.

On the sidelines of meetings of the thirty-second session of the Assembly of Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Areas, Dr. Saleh handed ACSAD‘s second award estimated at $8000 in Cairo to researcher Dr. Abdullah Al-Salem Karama Alwan from  Yemen .

Sharif el -Khatib