Professional Conference Travel will allow ten Iraqi faculty to reconnect with their regional and global peers after the long isolation period they endured under the former regime and imposed sanctions.
Workshops will be held in Iraq and neighboring countries as part of “fast-track” efforts to enhance the overall quality of agricultural administration, instruction/curriculum and research and extension programs at UM and UD. Workshops focusing on Agricultural Economics, Horticulture, Crop Protection and Food Science & Technology have been completed and additional workshops on will be held in February 2005. For more on program workshops.
The Research Grant Program, based on Requests for Proposals (RFP ), is expected to stimulate agricultural research programs at the Universities of Mosul and Dohuk by building enhanced capabilities and expertise in such fields as agricultural biotechnology, aquaculture, forest management, crop production, sustainable agriculture, agribusiness, irrigation management and salinity control and wood products.

OBJECTIVE 2
To rehabilitate the research infrastructure and agricultural research programs at both colleges.

Justification
        The 13 buildings and ample research acreage at UM/CAF in Hamam Al-Alil were destroyed and looted as the former political regime was falling. The college was forced to evacuate to its present site and was provided with only one half of one building. The status of classrooms, laboratories, instruments, chemicals and supplies is beyond dismal, and the condition of the University library collection is particularly poor. Although UD/CA has not suffered the same loss in physical facilities as has UM/CAF, it has steadily declined in infrastructure and programmatic advancement over the past decade and a half.