UC Davis is part of a new international effort aimed at sowing the seeds of peace in the Middle East through agricultural research.

The Multinational Agricultural Research and Development initiative is focused on expanding agricultural, food, and natural-resource research among scientists in Israel, Jordan, Palestine and the United States.

The program has sponsored six workshops to date on vegetable crop production and breeding, postharvest technology, agricultural biotechnology, medicinal and aromatic plants and herbs, veterinary medicine, and water scarcity. A scholarship program to bring students from the Middle East to universities in the United States is also in development.

"This initiative has the potential to have a profound impact not only on agricultural and resource sciences but also on international relationships in the Middle East," said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. "Scientists who develop international research collaborations build a foundation of trust on which political and diplomatic agreements can rest."

This multinational initiative is modeled after the Binational Agricultural Research and Development program, a successful collaboration between Israel and the United States that was established in 1977 by matching endowments from the two governments. Projects in the binational program are selected and competitively funded on scientific merit and relevance to common resource issues.

Van Alfen serves on the boards of directors of both the binational and multinational initiatives. UC Davis and UC's Agriculture and Natural Resources division are providing financial support for both programs.