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2.04    As an admini8trative public enterprise, IHRAN is under the tutelle of the Minietry of Agriculture and Environment_t and ia managed by a Director General ap~~inted by the President upon the recomnendation of the Minister of Agriculture and Environment • INRAN* s operations are supervised by a Board of Goyemors (Conseil d*Administration) chaired by the Rector of the Univer8ity of Niamey and camposed of nine representative8 of MAE, ME SR, MRAE, and Mini8try of Finance, etc. There is currently no Scientific and Technical Committee to assist the Director General with the planning and ii&plementation of the national research program. Each year, research programs are presented for review and discussion to the different ministries or projects concerned with research. The annual budget is submitted for approval to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and ezecuted under the responsibility of the Director General.

2.05    The Institute is composed of a General Directorate, three admini8trative/planning units (Administration and Finance j Studies and Programmingt Teaching and Training), a Research-Eztension Unit, a Documentation Center, a Statistics Unit, and five research departments (Agriculture, Ecology, Rural Economics, Forestry, and Yeterinary and Animal Sciences). These departments are divided into 36 sections corresponding to disciplines or research themes (plant breeding, agronomy, pest and disease control etc.). A national research center (Tarna), a laboratory center (Niamey), five research stations, and several field support points complement the structure of the Institute. Research centers and stations are placed under the authority of the General Directorate and researchers are linked by programs to the different research departments. (cf. INRAN organizational chart, Annez 1).

2.06    In addition, a fuli description of INRAN activities should also include all research trials associateć with each of the major Development Projects in the country. In May 1989, there were 22 agricultural development project8 (Annez 3) under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Enyironment with agricultural or natural resources research camponent8. Many of the professional Staff on the development projects have been ezpatriates on comparatiyely short contracts. The technologies developed have not been widely disseminated and have therefore usually remained restricted to the zonę in which they were developed. Link a ges between the adaptive research units on development projects and INRAN have always been weak.

2.07    Besides INRAN, the Uniyersity of Niamey constitutes the second scientific pole of the national agricultural research system. Most of the research programs are technically and financially supported by bilateral contributions. Research projects recently completed or still underway by the Uniyersity of Niamey include basically studies on soils, soil-vegetation relationships, plant diseases, livestock fertility, rural economy and marketing. Although the Rector of the Uniyersity is the Chairman of the Board of Goyemors of INRAN and uniyersity Staff are key members of INRAN⁹s technical Working Groups, research work programs haye not been inter-linked and research output from the uniyersity has been prinicipally confined to personal publications.

2.08    The Sahelian Center of ICRISAT is based at Sadore in the southwestera coraer of Niger and is concerned with basie and applied research