The "little center," as Dr. Abdullah Al Dakheel, a senior ICBA scientist and Forage Agronomist calls his workplace, is a 30-person strong research and development facility located in Dubai, second city of the United Arab Emirates. It became operational just three years ago as the Biosaline Agriculture Center and has grown rapidly since then in relevance and profile. One and a half years later, the center shifted from maintaining a local UAE focus to expanding its work internationally to include other Islamic and developing countries. Though there are only 30 staffers at the center, of which only five are scientists, the facilities are big in size and scope, situated on a 100 hectare plot of land. Operating now as an umbrella organization, ICBA's network of partner organizations is growing actively in the region and internationally. The ICBA is unique in the region as an organization that deals exclusively with biosaline agriculture research.

Dr. Shoaib Ismail, an agronomist at the center, explained the mission of the ICBA. "Our goal is to demonstrate the value of saline water resources for the production of environmentally and economically useful plants and to transfer the results to national research centers and communities in the Islamic world and elsewhere," he said. Emphasizing that 97.5 percent of the world's water resources is comprised of salt water and that the remaining 2.5 percent of fresh water is badly overused, Ismail said it was imperative to find a way to relieve the pressure the world puts on fresh water. He added that the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ñ the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman -- are particularly in need of fresh water alternatives, as they are susceptible to land degradation and desertification. In the GCC and the rest of the developing world, fresh water resources have typically been overexploited.

This realization led to the need for an institute like ICBA, which could research and develop methods to use alternative water sources to advance agricultural growth. The research conducted by the ICBA scientists will be used to develop sustainable management systems to "irrigate food and forage crops and ornamental plants with saline water and to provide a resource of salt-tolerant plants for socio-economic development in arid and semi-arid areas and salt-affected areas of the Islamic World and elsewhere," according to the ICBA mandate. Ismail said that the center looks at various countries or areas and creates tailor-made systems specifically for them.

The construction of the ICBA facility was made possible by a $4 million grant from the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Bank also donated $18 million for future operation and management. The 100-hectare site was a gift in-kind from the Municipality of Dubai. The center operates as a nonprofit organization and relies on grants, donations and partnerships for its operation.

The ICBA campus includes outdoor and indoor facilities designed to conduct numerous field experiments, store genetic plant resources and house a high-tech center for communication exchange. Some of the ICBAís facilities include a computer controlled, salinity-adjusting irrigation system, cold storage areas that store genetic plant material, a thoroughly modern office and laboratory building and green and shade houses. Of the ICBA's 100 hectares, 35 are used for irrigated agriculture. The other 65 hectares are not utilized and are kept as a natural reserve area.

Ismail outlined the four main program areas of the ICBA: Genetic Resources, Plant Production and Management Systems, Information Management and Networking?and Training & Extension. The center's genetic resources work centers around its cold storage facility. The ICBA collects salt tolerant plant species from arid areas around the world, particularly from the Gulf countries. The cold storage areas contain over 6000 plant species as seed materials, which eventually get planted and tested.? The center's work in plant production and management systems aims to identify appropriate irrigation systems. It also tests and evaluates field, forage, vegetable, tree and ornamental crops, which have been collected and stored in the gene bank, under various levels of salinity.

On a drive around the center, Dakheel showed the Earthtimes the wide varieties of vegetation and irrigations systems in progress around the 35 hectares.? Many of the crops appeared green and vital, like a healthy plot of grass which only took less than a year to grow. However, Dakheel pointed out cautiously it is sustainable and optimum success that will matter, not merely immediate results. "The challenge is to produce a production system, not just to achieve production," he said. "The big challenge is to achieve long term sustainability."

To advance its work around the Middle East region, the Islamic world, and the rest of the developing world, the ICBA has also turned its attention to the gathering of information and to training programs. Collecting data from the center's research programs and from collaborative research, the center is creating an information center on biosaline agriculture, which will be accessible to scientists around the world. The center also conducts numerous workshops, training sessions and conferences that deal exclusively with biosaline agriculture and engage participants from around the world.

The "biggest little center" seems to hold a great deal of responsibility for the future. With its important work in such a vulnerable geographic region, the work of the ICBA may be the only facility to provide solutions to a future of potential grave water problems. Dakheel put it bluntly: "If this [irrigation] system does not work, nothing will work."