Goals

– Coordinate research efforts among universities, Arab, regional and international research centers and organizations.
– Develop agricultural research by:

-* Studying the current status of agriculture in Syria and identifying relevant problems and development potentials.
-* Formulating long-term strategies and phased-research plans to increase agricultural productivity; improve quality; reduce production costs; and conserve natural agricultural resources particularly water, soil and vegetation.
-* Developing capacity building by organizing training courses and participating in conferences and workshops, as well as post-graduation.
-* Implementing advanced research projects, particularly in the fields of modern bio-technology, irrigation, drought, livestock production,  specifications of agro-products and clean farming.
-* Linking agricultural research with planning and agricultural extension bodies,  farmers and private sector to implement prioritized agricultural research and accelerate the application of research findings.

Strategy

– Develop new crop varieties to increase productivity and consequently meet the growing demand of home or foreign markets.
– Give consideration to farm crops adaptable to climatic and environmental conditions and which have a comparative advantage.
– Search for new crops adaptable to the Syrian environment.
– Give consideration to low water-consuming crops.
– Reduce production costs; improve technologies; and rationalize the use of production inputs.
– Improve agro-product quality.
– Focus on livestock research.
– Give consideration to bio-technology and genetic engineering research, and benefit from their findings.
– Develop water-saving irrigation methods.
– Conserve and develop agricultural resources (water – soil – vegetation).
– Develop human resources and capacity building, and increase the number of post-graduates.
– Equip labs and research centers to be suitable for the implementation of advanced research.
– Promote scientific cooperation with universities and Syrian, Arab and international agricultural research centers and institutions, as well as agricultural extension, farmers and private sector.
– Give due to attention to informatics and its applications in agricultural research.
– Genetically improve local vegetable varieties and release new varieties and hybrids.
– Genetically improve fruit tree species and benefit from wild stocks available in Syria.
– Give more emphasis to low-prevailing cultivations and conduct trials on them in order to expand their cultivation and improve propagation methods.
– Develop organic farming.
– Study the eco- and bio-distribution of plant genetic resources, and maintain and sustainably use these resources.

Policy

1. Maximizing benefit from available scientific potentials
2. Human capacity building:
   • Internal & external training
   • Participating in conferences, and scientific seminars, locally & internationally.
   • Registration of post graduate students in Syrian Universities.
   • External Scholarships
3. Scientific collaboration and cooperation with local, Arab and international research institutions (ICARDA, ACSAD,..) and universities.
4. Designing research programs in collaboration with : agricultural extension, agricultural planning, farmers and private sector.
5. Focusing on:
   • Drought, water and land use, and biodiversity
   • Productivity, production costs, and quality  improvement
   • Livestock
   • Biotechnology
6. Technology Transfer to farmers in cooperation with agricultural extension.
7. Continuous furnishing labs and research stations
8. Reviewing research programs, results and applications regularly.