The discussions on abiotic stress genomics were initiated at TAC 80 in March 2000 at ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria. Under the agenda item Trends in Science: Implications for CGIAR, TAC discussed the opportunities offered by the new sciences in improving the relevance, quality and impact of research in the CGIAR. In the area of biological sciences, TAC considered that the advances in molecular biology had important long-term implications for CGIAR’s work on genetic enhancement and how that work could be organized in the future. This paper contains three reports: 1. The report by Mike Gale dated August 2002 where he states that it is an appropriate time to tackle abiotic stress head-on, given the motivation already in place, the experience of the ARIs in technology and model systems, the knowledge among the NARS plant breeders on stressed agricultural environments, and the CGIAR Centres’ comparative advantage over mandate crops along with their links to the developing world as well as to industry.2. The report entitled "Status of Breeding for Telerance of Abiotic Stresses and Prospects for Use of Molecular Techniques" by John Bennett dated March 2001. He states that the CGIAR Centers have a comparative advantage in many aspects of abiotic stress research because of their germplasm collections, their new capacity for genetic and molecular dissection of complex traits, and their ability to conduct multidisciplinary plant improvement programs in target environments. The combined resources of the CGIAR for this work are immense but are underutilized. Investment by the CGIAR in the new tools for gene discovery will produce breakthroughs in our understanding of abiotic stress tolerance that will benefit all the mandated crops.3. The report by Hirofumi Uchimiya dated September 2001 entitled "Genetic Engineering for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants"
