ARDis research which addresses the agricultural challenges and issues faced by developing countries, emerging countries and countries in transition. Agriculture is used in its broad sense and includes crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries, environment and natural resources management. ARD includes capacity-building and research into agricultural production, productivity, storage, processing and marketing; dissemination, up-scaling, uptake and distribution of the research products; as well as policy, institutional and societal issues.Agricultural Research for Development: a vital contribution to facing the challenges of the planetAgricultural Research for Development (ARD) plays a critical role in fighting poverty and hunger and in supporting more rapid and sustainable development in the poorest countries of the world. Most developing countries rely on agriculture as the engine for their economic growth, and more than 70% of the poor live in rural areas. In Europe, agriculture and food chains are increasingly confronted with challenges such as food safety, animal health and welfare, agro-biodiversity which clearly have a global dimension. |
Recent ERA-ARD Events
![]() Promote collaboration in European agricultural research for the World's poor |
The 1st ERA ARD Call on "Bioenergy"This call is the 1st Coordinated Call under the ERA ARD Net. The major objective of the call is to contribute to exploring the opportunities and threats that bioenergy production poses for the rural poor in terms of food security, poverty alleviation and rural development and to investigate how bioenergy production influences land use and affects natural resources. InfoSys+The European Information System on Agricultural Research for Development ERA-ARDis an FP6 Project of the European Commission’s ERA-NET Scheme.The objective of the ERA-NET scheme is to step up the cooperation and coordination of research activities carried out at national or regional level in the Member States and Associated States. ARD in EuropeFor historical, socio-economic and cultural reasons, European Member States have developed a unique field-based scientific expertise in ARD, and support ARD directly or indirectly through their bilateral and multilateral programmes. With the European Commission, the Member States also contribute to the funding of the international agricultural research centres of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), providing more than 140 million euros per year. The European Commission also supports ARD through its development assistance programmes, and under the international dimension of the RTD Framework Programmes. In Member States, the responsibility for ARD programme planning and funding is often dispersed and shared between different ministries, public institutions and/or foundations. This means that there are substantial potential efficiency gains from enhanced cooperation and coordination. |
ERA-ARD/SAG Special event on "Bioenergy"
