Project: Partnership in Higher Education, Research for development (R4D) and Transfer of Technology in the Field of Sustainable Soil Management.

The project is based on the development of a collaborative partnership between IRESA and Texas A&M University via the establishment of an innovation and technology transfer platform for sustainable soil management under rain fed conditions to address soil resources degradation and poor soil management.

Texas A&M Agriculture of the Texas A&M University System is the largest and most comprehensive public agricultural teaching, research, and extension program in the United States. It comprises 15 academic departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 5 departments in the College of Veterinary Medicine, 13 regional research/extension centers, the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, Texas AgriLife Research and Extension, 5 agricultural colleges at affiliated Texas A&M System universities, 8000 agricultural students, 2000 extension staff, and over 23,000 system-wide faculty and staff members located through Texas’ 254 counties.

The partnerships will focus on: i) building a strong cooperation for innovation, upgrading skills and enhancing knowledge on sustainable use ofsoil resources and management, ii) providing effective transfer and knowledge sharing among and between stakeholders, (iii) enhancing technology transfer between IRESA and TAMU and iv) designing collaborative funded research for development projects.

In the starting phase of the project, a workshop was organized by IRESA from the 18th to the 22nd of January 2016 at the National Institute of Agronomy of Tunisia (Maison de l’eau) in order to initiate faculty to faculty networking, identify subjects, and start knowledge sharing among Tunisian and US scientists.

The workshop was attended by around 25 scientists from TAMU, INRAT, INRGREF, INAT, ESAMO, ISA CM, ESIER, ISPT, ESAK as well as representatives of DGACTA, INGC, MESRS and US Embassy in Tunisia.

The workshop provided an opportunity for both information exchange and detailed discussions of research for development activities in sustainable soil management, of education in soil sciences and of the extension models in both countries.

Theworkshop was organized as field days’ visits tothe experimental station of INRGREF at Nabeul (OuedSouhil) and the soil and water laboratories at INATand three indoor days during which speakers from TAMU and IRESA presented research and findings on common research subjects in each country.

During the firstworkshop’s indoor day,the Tunisian system of agricultural research and. highereducation and the outline of its reform have been presented by both Dr. T. Souissi and Dr. M.A. Darghouth.

Overviews of the Tunisian agriculture, the status of soil andwater and conservation agriculture research for development, werepresented byDr. H. Ben Bahri, Dr. M.Annabi, Dr. T. Hermassi and Dr. M. Ben Hammouda respectively.

In the afternoon, Dr. J. Mowrer has made a presentation on soil security, followed by a presentation on applying belowground interactions for improving soil and plant healthby Dr. A. Somenhally(left) and a presentation on soil and crop management in semi-arid environment in the Southern US Great Plains by Dr. X. Qingwu (right).

The second workshop’s indoor day was dedicated to discuss soil management research activities. Dr. A. Ibrahimi highlighted Soil and Crop Sciences Research at TAMU then presented thesmall Grains Improvement program. In her presentation on “Soil Hides the Microbial Roots”, Dr. N. Ben Aissa highlighted the role of soil microorganisms in soil fertility.

Dr. Ben Hammouda made a presentation on Conservation Agriculture as a tool for climate change. Rich discussions on soil management research followed these presentations and allowed the identification of collaboration opportunities between Tunisian and TAMU teams.

During the last day of the workshop, discussions were focused on study programs in soil sciences at the IRESA system and at the department of soil and crop sciences at TAMU, following presentations made by Dr. H. Aichi and A. Ibrahimi highlighting courses offered in soil science from both side. Discussions debated strengths and weakness of both programs and possible collaborations. In the afternoon, both extension models at TAMU and INGC were presented by Dr. J. Mowrer and Mr. T. Jarrahi, respectively.Similarities and differences of the two models were identified and discussed.

Thanks to theattendees’ commitment, the first face to face contact between the Tunisian and the TAMU teams during this first workshop of the project in term of exchanging information and team building was successfully achieved. The ground to go to the next step of the project is well prepared.

By: Thouraya Souissi & Issam Nouiri