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Capacity Building

  • Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS)

    A consortium led by the U of I College of ACES received a $9 million grant to improve the livelihoods of rural farmers in the world's poorest nations by modernizing and strengthening their agricultural Extension systems. The U of I was selected as the lead institution to undertake the MEAS project, granted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This five-year project involves a strategic analysis of the activities and investments needed to strengthen the pluralistic Extension systems in 20 of the poorest developing countries. The objective of MEAS is to define and disseminate good practice strategies and approaches to establishing efficient, effective, and financially sustainable rural extension and advisory systems in select countries. More information is available at: http://www.meas-extension.org.

  • Middle East Water Livelihoods Initiative (WLI)

    Funded by USAID and managed by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), WLI is established to improve the livelihoods of rural households and communities in the Middle East (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen) where water scarcity, land degradation, and water quality deterioration are prevalent. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the U.S. University partners for this project. More information is available at: http://www.icarda.org/WLI.

  • Agricultural Innovation Partnership (AIP)

    Cornell University--in partnership with University of Illinois College of ACES, University of Georgia, Ohio State University, Tuskegee University, University of California-Davis, John Deere, Tat Chemicals Ltd., and Sathguru Management Consultants--has been awarded a $9.6 million grant from USAID to undertake this five-year project to work with Banaras Hindu University to increase agricultural production and food security in the north of India. AIP was launched by India and USAID under "Feed the Future," the U.S. government's global hunger and food security initiative. The consortium will strengthen the capacity of state agricultural universities by revising university curricula to include important issues such as market-led demand and the potential impact of climate change on agriculture. The consortium will also develop and pilot innovative extension models to improve hte expertise of agricultural graduates in their provision of management and agri-technology support to farmers as they move from subsistence farming.

  • Afghanistan Water, Agriculture, and Technology Transfer (AWATT)

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagin has been working on the ground in Afghanistan since 2003 when U of I and Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) were partnered with the NWFP Agricultural University in Peshawar, Pakistan in an effort called "Human Capacity Development for the Agricultural Sector in Afghanistan." Then, starting in 2005, U of I and SIUC were selected to implement the "Balkh University Agriculture Faculty Development" project. In addition, MOUs have been signed with Nangarhar University in Jalalabad, Balkh University in Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat University in Herat, Kabul University, nad what is now named the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock (MAIL). In collaboration with New Mexico State University, Colorado State University, and SIUC, U of I has been working to increase food security, agricultural productivity, and employment in rural Afghanistan through the AWATT Program, a USAID-funded project. AWATT was a three-year program that started on the ground in Afghanistan in 2008 and was completed on June 30, 2011. Its objective has been to improve community and farm level management of irrigation water resources for increased agricultural productivity and food security in Afghanistan.