A REPORT ON SHORT TERM TRAINING IN EICA AND DDC IN EGYPT
According to the agreement signed between MHE&SR and HawaiiUniversity. A delegation composed of 28 teaching staff and 10 Agriculture engineers(trainees) from the Ministry of Agriculture has paid a one month visit to EgyptianInternationalCenter for Agriculture (EICA) and the Desert Development Center (DDC) at the AmericanUniversity inCairo. According to the Ministerialdecree Ref. 3/7079 dated May 29th., 2007 they depart Iraqi Kurdistan Region on June 1st, 07 for Amman and then Cairo where they welcomed warmly by the representatives of EICA and DDC at Cairo air port . Three groups out of four specialized groups, namely, Animal Production, Plant Protection, Soil and Water were dwelled at Selma Hotel in Cairo, while the fourth group wento Buhaira which is 150 km apart from Cairo. This createa problem for the this group, whichwas solved after three days since they were transferred to the Selma hotel in Cairo.
On June 2nd, the opening ceremony started with a speech delivered by the director of the center to which the Coordinator of the Ministry of Agriculture forForeign Affairs attended. Also a speech was delivered by the head of Iraqi Kurdistan Region team and he transferred the special thanks and appreciation of both the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Agriculture to the Egyptian side besides demonstrating the objective of their visit to Egypt. Furthermore the head of the delegation attended the opening ceremony of DDC on the same date.
At the end of the opening ceremony, each group pursued its program and forwarded some suggestions concerning modification of the programs. Indeed, the Egyptian centers responded to the trainees requests and carried out the required modifications according to the needs of the trainees. Therefore the course became more intensive through inserting lectures during afternoon hours.
By June, 28th, 2007, i.e., at the end of the training course, A graduation ceremony was arranged for the trainees. Besides the directors and the training center staff, representatives from the Ministry ofAgriculture, Ministry of Foreign and, the Iraq Council in Cairo attended this ceremony. After a speech delivery by the director of the center and the head of Iraqi Kurdistan delegation, the center distributed graduation certificates and medals among the trainees. Furthermore, the head of the delegation and the team leaders for the existing individual groups distributed the dedicated gifts from Iraqi Kurdistan among the director and some distinguishedstaff of the center. By June 29th, 07, the delegation departed Cairo for Amman then arrived Erbil safely.
In the light of the results obtained from several meetings with members of each group about the content of the training course,the overall comments and opinions can be summarized as follows:
- The activity was in form of a round tour rather than to be a short term training due to:
a-Heterogeneity of the specializations of the members within one group. For instance within the soil group, there were specialized candidates in soil chemistry, soil physics, soil classification and etc.
b-Some groups included quite different specialization. For instance Food Technology with Animal Production. In DDC their were food tech candidates with veg. and fruit group
c-Some groups were unable to have access to some instruments and machines at some establishments such as the plant for producing nitrogenous fertilizers in Alexandria. It may have relevance with the security of the country.
2Most of the lectures were belonging to the research centers instead of being from academic institutions such as University of Cairo or Ain-Shams. The contents of lectures were not updated and it was very specific to the condition of Egypt.
3Some technical and administrative problems were existing
a-the means of transportations were not air conditioned
b-The level of the hotel was modest; two personswere living in a room.
c-The audio-visual aids were under the level of our ambitions.
4. The existing Universities did not play a considerable role in building the capacity of the trainers
5. The Egyptian partner was very cooperative and responded very urgently to the request of the delegation. Furthermore they showed sympathy toward the visiting delegation and more specifically to Kurdish people. They took pain to carry out all the requests allotted to them. They fulfilled most of our demands based on the available Egyptian potential.
6. All the groups paid a visit to FAO headquarter in Cairo. They were received warmly by Dr. Talib Ali (Cairo FAO Rep.) who provided the groups with available journals, publications and brochures. Also Dr Talib arranged a launch for all the trainees in Cairo. Furthermore, he accompanied the delegation when they left Cairo and showed his readiness to cooperate and assist the delegation.
Recommendations:
1. The trainees must have the same level for future training . The B.Sc holders must not be trained with M.Sc. and/ or/ PhD holders.
2. The training course must focus on specialized area for instance training on a special instrument or on a special topic.
3. Awarding all allocations (paid to the teaching staffs of the Ministry of Higher Education) to MSc and PhDholders who are working in the offices belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture in Kurdistan region encouraging them to stay their and to transfer to universities. This point was observed implemented in Egypt.
4. Suggesting establishing many specialized centers linked to the Ministry of Agriculture to fulfill the demands of the agricultural sector in the region, for instance centers for eradication of sauna insect, keeping honey bee, embryo transfer and something on the sort. This phenomenon was observed in Egypt.
5. Requesting some distinguished trainees to deliver a series of seminars on updated topics and the lessons they earnedfrom Egypt's centers.