1st Day of Training Webinar for Mena Region Conducted by IOFS, COMSTECH and PARC-BCI

The Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) conducts a First day of an International Training webinar “Acquisition, Conservation, Exchange, and Safety Duplication of Plant Genetic Resources in OIC Member Countries – MENA Chapter” on September 21, 2021 in partnership with the Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the OIC (COMSTECH) and Bio-resources Conservation Institute (BCI) of Pakistan Agricultural Research Centre (PARC). In the scope of the signed Memorandum of Understanding, the institutions agreed to hold a series of training sessions for OIC member countries in 2021. Training has previously been done for Asian and African countries between July and August 2021. The 1^st day of training which had 72 participants from MENA countries talked about Importance of conserving plant genetic resources, plant identification and herbarium, intellectual property rights and PGR, as well as overviewing National Gene Banks of Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey.

Mr. Yerlan A. Baidaulet, H.E. Director-General, stressed the Secretariat's strong belief and intention to build beneficial collaboration and networking among OIC genebanks, including the availability of accessions exchange. H.E. Mr Prof. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General of COMSTECH thanked H.E. Director-General of IOFS for joint implementation of activities, and expressed his willingness to continue this collaboration in the future. It is essential to note that two OIC Institutions commit all their resources and efforts to achieve best possible outcomes for the interest of Member countries.

On the 2nd day of training, 22 September 2021 the important issues such as  Genebanks establishment, operations and Information Management, as well as Plant Genetic Resources Utilization would be discussed and finalized.