News Releases 2008
1. Science innovations help dryland farmers deal with food and financial crisis (24 December 2008)
2. ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubator awarded as best in Asia-Pacific (17 December 2008)
3. ICRISAT creates impacts in Africa (26 November 2008)
4. ICRISAT initiates agreements with new partners on food processing research (20 November 2008)
5. The American Society of Agronomy honors ICRISAT scientist (13 November 2008)
6. Combating Desertification is Key to Tackling Global Food Crisis (3 November 2008)
7. ICRISAT advocates rescue plan for dryland farmers (24 October 2008)
8. ICRISAT to re-establish center in Nigeria (25 September 2008)
9. Australian Foreign Minister visits ICRISAT headquarters (10 September 2008)
10. International Public Goods developed by ICRISAT improve agricultural productivity (4 September 2008)
11. ICRISAT pigeonpea climbs the mountains of Uttarakhand (29 August 2008)
12. Bias against drylands will affect food security (22 August 2008)
13. ICRISAT and DBT to establish new facility for agri- biotechnology research (14 August 2008)
14. Community watersheds combat drought (7 August 2008)
15. Crop breeders on verge of beating Africa’s most noxious weed use cutting edge science technique
(7 August 2008)
16. ICRISAT now a top ranking global research institution (31 July 2008)
17. ICRISAT scientist elected President of the International Congress of Entomology (29 July 2008)
18. ICRISAT earns its second ‘Outstanding’ rating (24 July 2008)
19. World's first CMS pigeonpea hybrid commercialized (15 July 2008)
20. Land degradation threatens dryland populations (16 June 2008)
21. Science leads to adaptation with climate change (5 June 2008)
22. Scientific Innovations will Trigger Green Revolution in Africa (2 June 2008)
23. Cutting edge science helps the poor overcome soaring food prices (27 May 2008)
24. Sweet Sorghum: A New Smart Biofuel Crop that Ensures Food Security (12 May 2008)
25. ICRISAT launches Center of Excellence in Genomics and Bio-Food Knowledge Center (20 March 2008)
26. ICRISAT’s germplasm to strengthen the collection at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (25 February 2008)
27. Development of smart crops for biofuels ensures food and environmental security (15 February 2008)
28. ICRISAT signs MOU with Crop and Food Research, New Zealand (30 January 2008)
29. ICRISAT signs MOU with Philippine science journalists association (16 January 2008)
1)Science innovations help dryland farmers deal with food and financial crisis
The global food crisis followed by the current financial crisis has inflicted further hardships to poor farmers of the semi-arid tropics of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. However, scientific innovations developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are empowering these farmers to cope with the crisis.
According to the Director General of ICRISAT, Dr William Dar, the global financial crisis coming closely on the heels of the global food crisis has hit dryland farmers hard. “These poor dryland farmers have very little margin for risks, and when two shocks come one behind the other, their ability to recover is quite diminished,” Dr Dar said.
“ICRISAT’s scientific innovations strengthen farmers to deal with situations such as this,” Dr Dar said. “Even when events happen that are far beyond the control of the dryland farmer, ICRISAT’s interventions give him the resistance to tide over the crisis with less damage.”
Although food prices have fallen from their peaks in early 2008, they are still higher than what the prices were before they soared in 2007. This can affect poor dryland farmers, who are usually net food buyers. Due to the financial crisis, there is also a shortfall in credit available to farmers and prices of inputs are also high. This could have an adverse impact on poor farmers, both in terms of reduced investments in agriculture and lesser food for their families.
In addition to contributing to the national food basket, agriculture in the semi-arid regions of developing countries supports the livelihoods of a large segment of these countries’ population. In India, for instance, two-thirds of cultivated lands are semi-arid. Hence, an adverse impact on dryland farming can result in decreased livelihood options for a substantial percentage of the population.
Drought tolerant crops
The crops that ICRISAT works on, namely pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut have greater tolerance to drought and can grow in semi-arid conditions. ICRISAT’s research focuses on improving the productivity of these crops, developing early maturing varieties and hybrids, and developing drought and disease tolerance.
Advanced technology to deal with farmers’ needs
To hasten the speed of crop improvement and overcome limitations inherent to conventional crop breeding, ICRISAT harnesses crop biotechnology. Using molecular marker assisted selection and breeding, ICRISAT developed a pearl millet hybrid – HHB 67 Improved – that is resistant to downy mildew disease. Using the same technology, ICRISAT scientists in Nairobi identified and transferred genes that confer Striga resistance to sorghum. Striga is among the deadliest weeds in Africa.
When the genes for resistance is not available within the same plant, then ICRISAT scientists have successfully identified and introduced genes from different organisms. Through this transgenic research, ICRISAT has developed groundnut resistant to the Indian peanut clump virus and the rosette disease, and chickpea and pigeonpea resistant to the pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera).
Providing options to farmers
Through community watershed management, ICRISAT provides options to the dryland farmer. Through this approach, ICRISAT and partners provide technological options through natural resource management, soil and water conservation, improved cropping patterns, better crops and diversified livelihoods.
ICRISAT’s model on integrated community watershed management is being replicated in India, China, Thailand and Vietnam. The model is also being adapted for a few pilot studies in eastern and southern Africa.
Diversifying the bread basket
For the farmers living in the Sahel at the edge of the Sahara desert, it is important to diversify the bread basket, to increase the income from multiple sources. Through its African Market Garden and Sahelian Eco-Farm, ICRISAT promotes crop diversification through the cultivation of vegetable and fruit trees along with food crops. These are then irrigated with low-pressure drip irrigation systems.
More bang for the buck
The fertilizer microdosing technique introduced by ICRISAT in different parts of sub-Saharan Africa allows poor farmers to apply small, affordable and effective amounts of fertilizer for improved soil health and crop production. Farmers who use microdosing apply 6 gram doses of fertilizer - about a full bottle cap or a three-finger pinch - in the hole where the plant is placed at the time of planting. Crops in some parts of Africa are so starved of nutrients such as phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen that addition of even this micro amount often doubles crop yields.
The poor farmers of the drylands have no control over global developments. At most of the times they do not understand the cause and effect of these changes. When ICRISAT’s scientific innovations helps them overcome their day-to-day problems, their resilience to global challenges gets strengthened.
2)ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubator awarded as best in Asia-Pacific
The Agri-Business Incubator at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ABI-ICRISAT) won the prestigious AABI (Asian Association of Business Incubation) Award for the year 2008. The award was presented by Mr Saffar Annuar, President of AABI at the 13th General Assembly held in Seoul, Korea, recently.
The Asian Association of Business Incubation promotes business incubation activities by facilitating information exchanges among incubators, incubator clients and related organizations in Asia Pacific. It is composed of organizations operating incubation programs in the Asia-Pacific region. There are more than 1,000 incubators in this region.
According to Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, this is a significant achievement for the second time for ABI-ICRISAT. ABI had received the national award for Best Business Incubator for 2005 from the Government of India in May 2006.
“This is a recognition of our initiatives in public-private partnership and highlight ICRISAT’s unique model of incubation in agri-business. ABI-ICRISAT is an innovative institutional mechanism to facilitate technology commercialization and reach out to farmers through agri-business ventures,” Dr Dar said.
“Through ABI-ICRISAT, we could make a difference to the livelihood of nearly 30,000 farmers through various products and services to over 60 incubated ventures. Currently, we are replicating similar agri-business incubator initiatives in partnership with domestic and international agricultural research institutes,” Dr Dar added.
ABI-ICRISAT was established with support from the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, in the year 2003.
ABI-ICRISAT promotes technology commercialization through public-private partnership under the Agri-Science Park at ICRISAT. It provides opportunity for entrepreneurs to incubate agricultural technologies so that they become effective agri-business ventures. ABI-ICRISAT also provides a range of services that include agricultural technologies, business consultancy, facilitation of funding, and provision of infrastructure and facilities at ICRISAT, Patancheru. Entrepreneurs also get the opportunity to tap the expertise of ICRISAT's scientists.
ABI-ICRISAT has pioneered the commercialization of the sweet sorghum-based ethanol venture. It has also successfully commercialized ICRISAT’s groundnut ICGV 91114 and chickpea variety JG 11 in Andhra Pradesh, India, together with Aakruthi Agricultural Associates of India. It has also incubated 35 ventures and generated direct employment for over 550 and mobilized US$8 million for the companies that it has incubated.
ABI-ICRISAT has also facilitated the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to establish five Business Processing and Development (BPD) Units across India.
More recently, ABI-ICRISAT has been accredited as an outreach Center for Technopreneur Promotion Program (TePP) by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. TePP is jointly operated by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) of DST to tap the vast innovative potential of the citizens of India. TePP is a mechanism to promote individual innovators to become technology-based entrepreneurs (Technopreneurs).
Similar initiatives have resulted in developing and operating business incubators in collaboration with national agricultural research systems – the Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM) of Mozambique and the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit (AREU) of Mauritius. In India, ABI-ICRISAT has helped initiate an agri-business incubator for the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University at Coimbatore, and partnered with the Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park (STEP), Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, on co-business incubation.
For further information, contact Dr Kiran Sharma at .
3)ICRISAT creates impacts in Africa
Farmers in eastern and southern Africa (ESA) were growing pigeonpea that gave low yields, took very long to mature, were susceptible to wilt and often suffered from terminal drought stress. But this situation was reversed when scientists from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) adapted pigeonpea in ESA, screened for resistance to wilt and incorporated bold white grain preferred by farmers and markets in the medium- and long-duration varieties.
After evaluation, a large number of these varieties were released in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique. In eastern Kenya, over 10,000 hectares of medium-duration varieties resistant to wilt and cropped two times a year are being grown by farmers. Likewise, in northern Tanzania, two long-duration varieties, which are high yielding, having white bold grain and resistant to wilt are being grown in over 50,000 hectares. In Malawi two long-duration varieties have been released and pigeonpea seed is now included in the country's subsidy program.
Interventions specially designed for Africa
According to Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, the Institute's scientific innovations in sub-Saharan Africa are designed considering the difficult conditions faced by dryland farmers of the continent.
"The drylands of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is home to more than 300 million people, the majority of whom have been left at the margins of global development. They continuously struggle to maintain and improve their livelihoods and ensure community survival in hostile natural environments. The contributions they make to the preservation of critical habitats, the maintenance of dryland biodiversity and its resilience, the enrichment of global culture, as well as their quest for progress and a better life deserve the strongest international support," Dr Dar said.
As the only international agriculture research institute working for improved agricultural productivity in the semi-arid tropics, ICRISAT is well placed to provide international public goods support in dryland agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, Dr Dar added. In this regard, ICRISAT has steadily increased its investments and pursued its commitments to SSA, which include strategic partnerships, capacity building and impact-oriented innovations for the continent's poorest of the poor. ICRISAT's interventions are focused on enhancement and management of genetic resources, agricultural diversification, agro-ecosystem sustainability and improving markets, policies and institutions.
Pan-African initiatives
It was not only the breeding and promotion of farmer-preferred varieties of pigeonpea in ESA that endeared ICRISAT to the communities; the Institute has also successfully implemented two interventions in many countries across SSA, which are fertilizer microdosing and the improvement of seed systems.
The fertilizer microdosing technique allows resource poor farmers to apply small, affordable and effective amounts of fertilizer to their impoverished land for improved soil health and crop production. It has the potential to end widespread hunger in drought prone areas of Africa, where soils are depleted and smallholder farmers rarely produce enough to feed even their own families.
Farmers who use microdosing apply 6 gram doses of fertilizer - about a full bottle cap or a three-finger pinch - in the hole where the plant is placed (at the time of planting). That translates to about 67 pounds of fertilizer for every 2.5 acres. The African crops are so starved of nutrients such as phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen that addition of even this micro amount often doubles crop yields.
The other project addresses the availability of quality seeds to farmers at reasonable and affordable cost. ICRISAT teamed up with a number of partners including the private sector to implement initiatives that encompass a number of critical activities such as the maintenance of breeder seeds, the production of foundation seeds and regional harmonization of seed policies. The initial activities started in Malawi, and are currently being scaled-up in several countries in West Africa through the West Africa Seed Alliance (WASA), and in eastern and southern Africa through the Eastern and Southern Africa Seed Alliance (ESASA) initiatives.