Supporting Agricultural R4D in the Semi-Arid Tropics

1. Supporting Agricultural R4D
in the Semi-Arid Tropics
Dr William D Dar
Director General
ICRISAT
Ms Joanna Kane-Potaka
Director, Strategic
Marketing and
Communications, ICRISAT

2. Outline of Presentation
• Challenges in Agriculture in SAT
• CGIAR Research Programs
• Adaptation to Climate Change
• Major Impact of ICRISAT’s Research
• Key Stakeholders
• Conclusion

3. The Biggest Challenge
The Looming Perfect Storm

4. The Challenges
• Food insecurity and
chronic malnutrition,
• Land degradation,
poor soil fertility,
pests & diseases
• Frequent drought &
high temperatures
• Socio-political
instability
• Lack of appropriate
infrastructure
The Looming Perfect Storm

5. Vision
A prosperous, food-secure and resilient
dryland tropics
Mission
To reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental
degradation in the dryland tropics

6. ICRISAT Locations
in the Semi-arid Tropics
55 countries
6.5 million sq km
2.5 billion people
Headquarters
Patancheru,
Telangana,
India
ESA Regional Hub
Nairobi, Kenya
WCA Regional Hub
Bamako, Mali

7. Links with CRPs
ICRISAT-led CRPs

8. CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes
Chickpea Common Bean Cowpea Faba Bean Groundnut Lentil Pigeonpea Soybean
Ground-nut
Leveraging legumes to combat
poverty, hunger, malnutrition
and environmental degradation.

9. Nutrient-efficient, resilient and sustainable
legumes for prosperity in the drylands
High in protein and
nutrients. 2-4 times
higher proteins than
cereals. Provides a
third of proteins needs
of human
Proteins in Chickpea and groundnut

10. CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Cereals
A global alliance for
improving food security,
nutrition and economic
growth for the world’s
most vulnerable poor.
Barley Finger millet Pearl millet Sorghum

12. IMOD: A new approach
Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD)
Harness
Markets
Manage
Risks

13. The CCAFS Framework
Adapting Agriculture to
Climate Variability and Change
Technologies, practices, partnerships and
policies for:
1. Adaptation to Progressive Climate Change
2. Adaptation through Managing Climate Risk
3. Pro-poor Climate Change Mitigation
Improved
Environmenta
l Health
Improved
Rural
Livelihoods Improve
d Food
Security
enhanced adaptive capacity
in agricultural, natural
resource management, and
food systems
4. Integration for Decision Making
•Linking Knowledge with Action
•Assembling Data and Tools for Analysis and
Planning
•Refining Frameworks for Policy Analysis

14. Effect of climate change on
dryland crops
Crop
Percent (%) change in grain yield
+ temp. + CO2* Net
change
Sorghum -(27 to 55%) +(0 to 10%) -(22 to 50%)
P. millet -(38 to 56%) +(0 to 10%) -(33 to 51%)
Groundnut -(38 to 44%) +(10 to 20%) -(23 to 29%)
Pigeonpea -(23 to 26%) +(10 to 20%) -(8 to 11%)
Chickpea -(22 to 24%) +(10 to 20%) -(7 to 9%)

15. Potential change
in cereal yields (%)
Yield reductions up to 50% in many African countries,
up to 30% in Central and South Asia (CGIAR 2010)
10 – 5
5 – 2.5
2.5 – 0
0 – -2.5
-2.5 – -5
-5 – -10
-10 – -20
No data
Climate change
and crop yields by 2080s

16. Climate change adaptation
in the drylands

17. ICRISAT’s climate change-ready crops
Drought-escaping groundnut
cultivar ICGV 91114
Super early
ICC 96029
75-80 days
Extra-early
ICCV 2
85-90 days
Early maturing
KAK 2
90-95 days
Super-early chickpea
Terminal drought-tolerant
stay-green sorghum
Pearl millet flowering
at >40+°C
Super-early pigeonpea

18. Major Impacts of
ICRISAT’s research

19. The Jewels of ICRISAT
1. Community-based integrated watershed
management
2. Fertilizer microdosing
3. Village Level Studies
4. Aflatoxin testing kit
5. Drought-tolerant groundnut
6. Early maturing chickpea
7. Hybrid pigeonpea
8. Pigeonpea in eastern and southern Africa
9. Pigeonpea genome
10. Guinea-race sorghum hybrids
11. Extra-early pearl millet hybrid
12. Sweet sorghum
13. Genetic resources for food security
14. Hybrid Parents Research Consortium
15. Open access repository
16. Seed systems in sub-Saharan Africa
Baseline results show ROI
of $71 per dollar invested

20. ICRISAT Major Impacts
• More than 255 improved crop varieties/hybrids derived from
ICRISAT breeding research-for-development have been
released by 39 developing countries for cultivation by
farmers since 2000
• Microdosing and conservation agriculture have reached
more than 300,000 small-scale farming households in
Zimbabwe, increasing maize yields by 87% and sorghum &
millet yields by 160% while mitigating drought losses and
reducing soil erosion, saving US$7 million in grain imports
annually.
• Fusarium wilt-resistant, seasonally-adapted varieties of
pigeonpea adopted on 45% of the crop’s area (double from
five years ago) in northern Tanzania have tripled yields and
created a thriving export market
20

21. • Improved groundnut varieties and food safety in Malawi
resulted in increased human consumption from 11,000 tons
in 1990 to 68,000 tons by 2013. Per capita consumption rose
from 1.5 kg in 1990 to 4.7 kg in 2013.
• Germplasm-sharing and capacity-building assistance from
ICRISAT to Ethiopia-EIAR has contributed to major chickpea
production gains in the East Shewa Zone of Oromia and
Amhara regions, benefiting nearly one million farm
households.
• The watershed management project in Lucheba, China, has
increased labor income by 81.8% through diversification in
favor of high value vegetable crops.
• India’s first millet hybrid derived from marker-assisted
selection for downy mildew resistance by ICRISAT is now
grown on over 500,000 ha in Haryana and Rajasthan.
21
ICRISAT Major Impacts

22. Integrated watershed management

23. Bhoochetana: A Scaling-up Model
with GoK

24. Micro-enterprises
Empowering the rural poor

25. Increasing women incomes
• New machinery saving
time for women
processors
• Processors linked to
grain producers and
traders
• Increasing access to
credit by processors

26. Meet Edina Kape, a groundnut
woman farmer from Malawi

27. Capacity building & awareness
Training and Scientific Visits
Location Male Female Total
Patancheru 745 230 975
Niger 277 1356 1633
Mali 1389 1472 2861
Nigeria 629 204 833
Nairobi 616 399 1015
GRAND TOTAL 3656 3661 7317
Individual Learner-participants Trained in All ICRISAT
Locations (by Category)
Location Interns Scholars Fellows Total
Patancheru 89 77 51 217
WCA 31 36 0 67
ESA 10 5 0 15
Grand Total 130 118 51 299
Individual Learner-participants Trained in All ICRISAT
Locations (by Gender)
Location Male Female Total
Patancheru 108 109 217
WCA 49 18 67
ESA 8 7 15
Grand Total 165 134 299

28. Partnerships
• ICRISAT’s approach is to work through partnerships for
– Research
– Adoption
• 130 Partners in 2013
– NARS Institutions
– Universities
– NGOs
– Private Companies
– IARCs
– Farmers Associations and Women’s Organizations

29. Together,
we can lead
dryland
farmers to
resiliency and
prosperity!
ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium