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This article reports on the profiles of the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in the three Maghreb countries: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, through their research policies, human resources, governance, funding and scientific production. A bibliometric study was carried out for the three selected countries based on the Scopus database covering the period between 2005 and 2019. The research shows the distinctive case of Tunisian growth of scientific production compared to the other two countries; it also stresses the universities’ emergence as a major research actor, thus challenging the predominance of the public mission-oriented institutions dedicated to agriculture and veterinary sciences. Finally, it indicates significant differences between the three countries concerning governance and funding, and human resources. Overall, the NARS in the three countries are still very fragile, and a need for significant changes in the research policy making is certainly required to overcome these shortcomings.

The faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is an ancient crop that is represented in collections by cultivated forms only. Botanic and molecular data suggest that the wild ancestor of this species has not yet been discovered or has become extinct. This fact makes ex situ collections more crucial for the present and future breeding activities of this crop, especially when the modernization of agriculture reduces genetic diversity. At the world level, more than 38,000 accession entries are included in at least 37 listed collections. The partial allogamous status of this crop makes maintenance activity of genotypes more expensive and difficult. In addition to the requirement of fixed genotypes to support new association genetics strategies, there is a need for more research on pollinators and maintenance of genetic diversity within populations. A large genetic variability has already been identified in V. faba in terms of floral biology, seed size and composition, and also tolerance to several biotic and abiotic stresses. More knowledge is needed on the interactions of V. faba with parasitic and pollinator insects, on traits related to environmental adaptation and impacts, on nitrogen fixation in interaction with soil Rhizobia and on bioenergy potential, which strengthens the demand for new and large phenotyping actions. Diversity analysis through genotyping is just beginning. The use of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) or simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers has allowed genetic resources to be distinguished according to their geographic origin and the structuring of collections. Conservation of gene sequences among legume species and the rapid discovery of genes (particularly in the model species Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus), together with robotic developments in molecular biology, offer new possibilities for the analysis of sequence diversity for V. faba genes and to evaluate their impact on phenotypic traits. Combined genotyping and phenotyping projects must continue on V. faba so that core collections can be defined; these will help in the discovery of genes and alleles of interest for breeders. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., The contribution of M.J. Suso was partially supported by the RF2006-00002-00-00 project.

L'objectif de cette recherche est de selectionner des genotypes de pois chiche pour la capacite de fixation symbiotique de l'azote (SNF) sous des contraintes salines. Deux cents lignees marocaines ont ete evaluees pour l'activite de la nitrogenase, la matiere seche, la masse des nodules, la couleur de la plante et l'azote total sous 0 mM, 25 mM et 50 mM NaCl en serre sur du sable depourvu d'azote. L'inoculum comprend un melange de 4 souches locales de Rhizobium tolerantes a la salinite. Sept lignees tolerantes a la salinite pour la SNF ont ete selectionnees. Les lignees selectionnees ont ete evaluees en hiver 1998 sur un sol salin et un autre non salin en station experimentale. Les resultats ont confirme la superiorite des lignees tolerantes au sel par rapport aux temoins pour le rendement et les caracteres associes a SNF en sol salin. Le rendement a ete reduit de 26 a 38 % en sol salin selon les genotypes. Sur la base des donnees des deux sols, les lignees MCA103, MCA131 et MCA250 ont ete selectionnees pour leur tolerance au stress salin pour la fixation symbiotique et le rendement. En 1999 ces 3 lignees ont ete evaluees pour la production a la ferme dans 2 regions. Les resultats ont montre leur superiorite par rapport aux temoins Douyet et Rizky. MCA250 est la lignee la plus performante dans les 2 sites.

Much of the worlds' annual harvest loss to pests and diseases occurs as a consequence of crops grown in monocultures, or crop varieties with uniform resistance. This uniform resistance is met by the continuing evolution of new races of pests and pathogens that are able to overcome resistance genes introduced by modern breeding, creating the phenomenon of boom and bust cycles. Until recently, IPM methods have concentrated on using agronomic techniques to modify the environment around predominantly modern cultures to reduce the need for pesticides, making limited use of the opportunities offered by the effective deployment of the intra-specific diversity of local crop varieties themselves within IPM practices. One of the few assets available to small-scale farmers in developing countries to reduce pest and disease damage is their local crop varietal diversity, together with the knowledge to manage and deploy this diversity appropriately. Through a research partnership, over the past eight years, among Biodiversity International and over 30 national and local government and non-government organizations in China, Uganda, Ecuador, and Morocco, high levels of diversity were found within the traditional varieties of a set of globally agreed upon staple crops for the specific pest and disease systems in the four countries: (i) maize (Zea mays): northern leaf blight (Setosphaeria turcica) and stem borer; (ii) common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris): angular leaf spot (Phaeoisariopsis griseola), anthracnose (Colletotrichum lindemuthianum), rust (Uromyces appendiculatus), and bean fly (Ophiomyia phaseoli; O. spencerella); (iii) faba bean (Vicia faba): aphids (Aphis fabae), chocolate spot (Botrytis fabae), seed pod weevil (Bruchus rufimanus; B. dentipes); (iv) banana and plantain (Musa spp.): black leaf streak (black sigatoka; Mycosphaerella fijiensis), Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense), nematodes, and weevils (Cosmopolites sordidus); (v) barley (Hordeum vulgaris): net blotch (Pyrenophora teres) and powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis); and (vi) rice (Oryza sativa): rice blast (Pyricularia grisea) and rice plant hopper (Nilaparvata lugens). Resistance of traditional and modern varieties to the above pests and diseases was assessed from both participatory diagnostics of farmer knowledge and from cross-site on-farm and on-station trials. By performing cross-site onfarm experiments, it was possible to identify traditional varieties with more effective resistance to pest and diseases when grown outside their home sites in all four countries. Increased diversity of crop varieties, measured by number of varieties (richness) and their evenness of distribution across the farmer's fields corresponded to a decrease in the average damage levels across sites and to a reduction of variance of disease damage for common bean and plantain in Uganda, and for maize and rice in China. In sites with greater disease incidence in Uganda, households with greater levels of diversity in their production systems had less damage to their standing crop in the field compared to sites with lower disease incidence. The results support what might be expected of a risk-minimizing strategy for use of diversity to reduce pest and disease damage.