Regional Training Workshop, Reclamation of land affected by salinity in Africa (BADEA)

Dr Ismahane Elouafi, Director General of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) launched on 13 January 2013 the Regional Training Workshop on “Reclamation of land affected by salinity in Africa”. The 2-week training workshop is organized for African French-speaking countries at ICBA headquarters in Dubai and funded by the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA). Participants came from Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mali, Chad, Niger and Guinea Equatorial. 

In her speech, Dr Elouafi welcomed the participants and urged them to gain knowledge from ICBA’s scientists and experts. She also highlighted ICBA’s participation in implementing research and strategic studies and projects in many regions in the world affected by water and soil salinity especially Sub Saharan Africa. 

Dr Elouafi also emphasized the importance of the capacity development in this field and commended on the strong cooperation with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa for many years, especially in the area of human capacity development of the African continent in Biosaline Agriculture and implementing it in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the host of the centre. 

Dr Mohamed Amrani, ICBA’s Director of Research & Innovation highlighted in his speech the main topics of the training workshop and mentioned that ICBA has carried out several training courses since 2008 in collaboration with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa which had benefited about 75 researchers and technicians from 20 African countries.