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Foreword
from the Director
General
The year 2012 marks a significant milestone in the
institutional life of ICRISAT as we celebrate our
40th anniversary. This publication is therefore a timely
chronicle of the Institute’s work and impacts over our
four decades of service to the poor people of the dryland
tropics.
The book takes up an idea suggested by our Governing
Board to highlight the ‘jewels’ of ICRISAT – the 16
breakthroughs and innovations described in this
publication. These stories revolve around and cut across
our four research programs: resilient dryland systems;
markets, institutions and policies; grain legumes; and
dryland cereals.
ICRISAT’s target area – the dryland tropics – is home to
more than 800 million people. These include the world’s
poorest people, spread across 55 developing countries
in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The dryland tropics are
characterized by erratic rainfall, degraded soils and
biodiversity, water scarcity, droughts, floods, and very
poor physical and social infrastructure. People of the
drylands are perennially plagued by poverty, hunger,
food and nutritional insecurity, and powerlessness.
The confluence of global warming, droughts, floods,
increasing land degradation, rising food prices, soaring
energy demand and population explosion is leading
to a perfect storm that is inflicting untold suffering on
millions of farming communities all over the world.
Being the only global research center with a mandate
focused on serving the dryland tropics, ICRISAT and our
partners seek to help end this chronic plague.
This publication aims primarily to help the reader
understand ICRISAT’s core science and our impact in
overcoming the daunting challenges of the dryland
tropics. Likewise it illustrates the ways in which science
can be mobilized to help achieve six critical development
outcomes needed to bring about inclusive marketoriented
development: food sufficiency, intensification, iversification, resilience, health and nutrition, and the empowerment of women.
Over four decades, ICRISAT’s innovations in these areas have greatly improved rural livelihoods, contributing to the CGIAR’s high return of $17 for each dollar invested. Our strategic public, private and civil society partners worldwide are essential to this impact.
Moving forward on the threshold of our fifth decade, we have fine-tuned our strategic direction to respond to the rapidly changing environment, and in particular to the emergence of a new CGIAR. Toward this end, ICRISAT has embraced inclusive market-oriented development, as a pathway to end poverty, and not just alleviate it.
This development paradigm aims to unlock the untapped potential of the dryland poor, empowering them with more productive and resilient innovations, supportive policies, and diverse, purposeful, and action-oriented partnerships.
Enhancing our impacts and affirming our relevance, ICRISAT is actively advancing research on emerging global issues including climate change and vulnerability, drought and land degradation, biofuels, agricultural diversification, and linking farmers with markets.
Apart from the 16 ‘jewels’ featured in this publication, ICRISAT is surging ahead with our partners to generate and share cutting edge global scientific innovations, to bring about genuine pro-poor growth and inclusive market-oriented development. We would like to thank our donors and partners for their unwavering support in helping us pursue this pathway to lasting prosperity in the dryland tropics of the world.
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Community-based integrated watershed management
A community-based approach to integrated
rural development uses watershed
management as an entry point
Improved access to water means more than just survival
in the dryland tropics. In these poverty hot spots,
agriculture is a major challenge for smallholder farmers,
with a scarce water supply compounded by degraded
natural resources and low crop yields.
Drawing on 35 years of research, ICRISAT and its partners
have developed a model of community-based watershed
management consortia that bring together institutions
from public sector research, civil society and farming
communities to share their knowledge in an equitable
and efficient manner, and implement multidisciplinary
activities at a landscape level.
The innovation
At the heart of this innovation is a participatory model,
involving a consortium of partners from the Government
of India (Central Research Institute for Dryland
Agriculture, part of the Indian Council for Agricultural
Research [ICAR], Government of Andhra Pradesh,
and the National Remote Sensing Centre) civil society
organizations and private companies. The consortium
works with ICRISAT and watershed communities to
manage soil and water resources and establish livelihood
enterprises at the village level. This model was started in
India and scaled out in China, Thailand and Vietnam.
Recognizing and building on social capital in rural
communities has been a key intervention in addressing
rural poverty. Adarsha watershed at Kothapally in Andhra
Pradesh, India is a classic example. Today, Kothapally is a
prosperous village on the path to long-term sustainability
and has become a beacon for science-based rural
development. Two major factors have contributed to
this development: (i) the increased cropping intensity
using high value crops, including vegetables; and (ii)
the increased productivity of rainfed crops as a result of
enhanced water availability.
During the hard drought of 2002, people’s incomes in
Kothapally were buffered by enterprise diversification that was supported by the community-based watershed
interventions. Similarly, between 2000 and 2003 in
Powerguda, another exemplar village in Andhra
Pradesh, investments in new livelihood enterprises, such
as a seed oil mill, tree nurseries, and vermicomposting
increased average incomes by 77%.
Better crop–livestock integration offers a tool for
poverty reduction. Inhabitants of the Lucheba watershed
in Guizhou Province of China have transformed their
economy by improving their roads and water supply.
With technical support from the consortium, the farming
system was intensified and diversified away from rice
and rapeseed, toward livestock and horticultural crops.
Forage production (using wild buckwheat as an alley
crop) has controlled erosion, provided feed for pigs and
increased farm income from sloping lands.
Efficient management of rainwater through in-situ
conservation has improved water availability in the
watersheds. Meanwhile, the establishment of water
harvesting structures has also improved groundwater
levels. In Bundi, Rajasthan, for example, water levels in
the wells were enhanced by an increased groundwater
recharge of 5.7 m, which permitted an expansion in the
irrigated area from 207 to 343 hectares.
Community-based integrated watershed management
has resulted in a two-pronged achievement:
i) protecting the environment; and ii) sustaining
development. The effectiveness of improved watershed
management technologies was evident in all the sites in
India, China, Thailand and Vietnam. This is particularly
significant on sloping topography; for instance, in Tad
Fa, Thailand, interventions such as contour cultivation,
vegetative bunds and fruit trees grown on steep slopes
reduced seasonal runoff to less than half (194 mm) and
soil loss to less than one seventh (4.2 t ha-1) of those seen
under the conventional system.
In addition to experiencing low productivity, a
large majority of the drylands are severely deficient
in micronutrients (zinc, boron and sulphur). The application of fertilizers to correct this deficiency
increased crop yields by up to 70% over farmers’
practices. Similarly, the introduction of integrated
pest management decreased the use of pesticides by
50–60%.
Increased carbon sequestration, amounting to 7.4 t ha-1
in 24 years, was observed with improved management
practices in a long-term watershed experiment at
ICRISAT-Patancheru, India. In partnership with ICAR,
carbon sequestering systems and management practices
were subsequently identified.
Using participatory research techniques, biodiversity
conservation practices were also promoted in the
watersheds. Pronounced agro-biodiversity impacts were
observed in the Kothapally watershed, where farmers
now grow 22 crops in a season, as a result of a shift in
cropping pattern away from cotton (which dropped
from 200 ha in 1998 to 100 ha in 2002) to a maize/
pigeonpea intercrop system (which increased from
40 ha in 1998 to 180 ha in 2002). The rehabilitation of degraded common lands in the Bundi watershed
in Rajasthan through community participation not
only made the village self-sufficient in fodder, but
also generated additional income for the community
through the sale of excess fodder.
Enhancing partnerships and institutional innovations
through the consortium approach has proved to
be a major impetus for harnessing the potential of
watersheds to reduce household poverty. Complex issues
were addressed effectively by the joint efforts of ICRISAT
and its key partners – national agricultural research
systems (NARS), non-governmental organizations, local
government agencies, agricultural universities and other private interest groups – while retaining farm
households as the key decision makers of substantive
change.
The impact
The consortium model has helped to unlock the
potential of rainfed agriculture and ensured improved
productivity through the sustainable intensification
of rainfed systems. Partnerships have improved rural
livelihoods through science-based development and
results have been scaled up, demonstrating the power
of collective action and agricultural innovation.
Intensification of cropping and diversification with
high-value crops then follows. Through enhanced
community participation, even the most vulnerable
groups (generally women and the landless poor) have
been empowered and trained.
The Comprehensive Assessment of the impacts of
watershed programs in India has provided evidence
of their economic viability with a benefit/cost ratio of
2:1 and an internal rate of return of 27%. Watersheds
show a two–three fold increase in productivity, and a
51% increase in cropping intensity, as well as reduced
runoff (45% lower) and soil loss (1.1 t ha-1 lower)
compared to the situation prior to the intervention.
The community-based watershed management process
and consortium model have helped to bring together
relevant government agricultural programs around
watersheds, promoted rainwater harvesting, restored
artificial water bodies, and led to widespread soil testing
for micronutrients.
Ex-ante impact assessment studies for Andhra Pradesh’s
Rural Livelihoods Program in five districts with improved
watershed management revealed impressive returns
of $608 million over 10 years for four major crops
(sorghum, groundnut, pigeonpea and maize).
In Thailand, the model has fostered better working
relations with research and development institutions
and has contributed to stronger policy and planning to
ensure that every farm household has access to a pond.
Similarly, changes in the mindset of policy makers in
Vietnam, China and India have led to the scaling out of
a number of new research for development projects in
many rainfed areas.
ICRISAT and its partners’ active involvement in the
Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management
in Agriculture has ensured a greater emphasis on the
efficient use of water in rainfed agriculture at the global
level, and has changed the lives of at least 20 million
people in Asia.
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Fertilizer
microdosing
Small doses of fertilizer
applied in the right place at
the right time, combined with
an inventory credit system
(warrantage), lead to
large benefits in yields and
incomes in several countries in
sub-Saharan Africa
Land degradation affects more than half of Africa,
leading to estimated losses of $42 billion in income
and 5 million hectares of productive land each year. Crop
yields are low as a result of poor farming techniques,
nutrient deficiency and lack of water, particularly in
sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers are unable to invest in
fertilizer, triggering a cycle of soil nutrient depletion,
low productivity and hunger.
Unable to feed their families, farmers abandon
unproductive land to clear forests and plow new areas. Clearing new lands for farming accounts for an
estimated 70% of the deforestation in sub-Saharan
Africa.
The innovation
Microdosing involves the application of small, affordable
quantities of inorganic fertilizer with the seed at
planting time, or as a top dressing three to four weeks
after emergence. This enhances fertilizer efficiency
compared to spreading fertilizer over the field.
Farmers who use microdosing apply 2–6 gram doses
– about a full bottle cap or a three-finger pinch – of
compound fertilizer (diammonium phosphate (DAP) or
NPK) in the hole where the seed is placed at the time
of planting. This is equivalent to about 20–60 kg of
fertilizer per hectare of land.
This technique uses only about one tenth of the amount
typically used on wheat, and one twentieth of that used
on maize in the USA. Yet in sub-Saharan Africa, crops are
so starved of nutrients such as phosphorous, potassium
and nitrogen that even this micro amount often doubles
crop yields.
Where soil is hard, farmers may dig small holes or
planting basins (known as zaï in West Africa) before the
rains start and fill them with manure, if available. When
the rains begin, they put fertilizer and seeds in the hole
and the soil provides a moist environment encouraging
root growth. Water is captured instead of running off
the hard-crusted soil.
By correcting soil deficiencies for essential nutrients with
tiny doses of fertilizer, root systems develop and capture
more water, increasing yields and ensuring plants are
less prone to drought.
ICRISAT and its partners are testing two market
development strategies to address capital constraints.
Poor farmers often encounter difficulties storing their
grain, transporting it to market and satisfying their
financial needs at harvest time. They are forced to sell
to middlemen immediately post-harvest when supply
is abundant and prices are low. Farmers are caught
in a vicious circle as they are under pressure from
merchants to repay loans taken to eke out a living
during the hardship period between May and July, and
to invest in their farms.
In West Africa, the ‘warrantage’ or inventory credit
approach is a welcome solution to farmers’ capital
constraints. Farmers place part of their harvest in a
local storehouse in return for inventory credit. This
allows them to meet pressing post-harvest expenses
and engage in dry season income generating activities,
such as sheep fattening, vegetable cultivation using
small scale (drip) irrigation, groundnut oil extraction
and small trading. The stored grain may be sold later
in the year at a much higher price, when farmers can
make a good profit.
Moreover, this cooperative approach trains farmers to
work together to protect stored grains from insects
and also helps them to buy fertilizer in bulk and
repackage it in smaller, more affordable units through
local input stores. Hundreds of farmer organizations in
the region now use the warrantage system, which links
them directly not only to markets but also to financial
institutions.
The impact
Fertilizer microdosing can contribute to ending
widespread hunger in drought-prone areas
of Africa. It has reintroduced fertilizer use in
Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. In West
Africa, as a result of previous ICRISAT projects,
some 25,000 smallholder farmers in Mali, Burkina
Faso and Niger have learned the technique and
experienced increases in sorghum and millet yields
of 44 to 120%, along with an increase in their family incomes of 50 to 130%. A regional project
of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
(AGRA) is targeting 360,000 households with the
microdosing technology by the end of 2012.
In Zimbabwe, despite poorer than average rains,
microdosing increased grain yields, enabling
about 170,000 households to increase cereal
production by an estimated 40,000 tons. The
ICRISAT-supported program significantly improved
household food security and saved $7 million
in food imports. Many of these farmers became
interested in investing their own resources in
fertilizer, but access has remained a constraint.
The program has started working with fertilizer
companies to test strategies for resolving this
problem, through improved access to affordable
smaller packs of fertilizer.
Although results have shown consistent yield
increases, farmers have reported that microdosing
is time consuming and laborious and that it is
difficult to ensure each plant gets the right dose
of fertilizer. In an attempt to address these issues,
researchers are looking at packaging the correct
dose of fertilizer as a tablet that aids application,
and this is proving to be popular. In collaboration
with partners in national agricultural research
systems, ICRISAT is also exploring the use of seed
coating and an animal-drawn mechanized planter
as other options to further reduce the quantity
of fertilizer used, as well as to address the labor
constraint.
Lack of access to fertilizer and credit, insufficient
flows of information, inadequate training for
farmers and inappropriate policies have been
identified as major constraints to the widespread
adoption of the technology in sub-Saharan
Africa. Greater adoption of microdosing requires
supportive and complementary institutional
innovations, as well as input and output market
linkages.
Working with the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), local agricultural centers, and
a network of international donors and partners –
including the West and Central African Council for
Agricultural Research and Development, the United
States Agency for International Development
(USAID) and AGRA – ICRISAT hopes to increase
the number of farmers using microdosing and the
warrantage system from 25,000 to 500,000 in the
next few years. This will go a long way toward
alleviating food scarcity and hunger in the semi-arid
tropical regions.
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Village Level Studies
ICRISAT’s contribution to the global
knowledge base on rural households
helps identify constraints and pathways
to agricultural development in the
dryland tropics
Too often, the voices of the poor are muted and
do not resonate in agricultural statistics and
policy decisions because reliable and timely data on
the consequences of change for the rural poor are
not available. Understanding village and household
dynamics, the economic, social, political and institutional
drivers affecting rural household welfare, and the role of
women and men in agriculture is at the core of research
for development.
Despite its importance, there is surprisingly little microlevel
quantitative and qualitative evidence on the longterm
changes affecting the development pathways of
rural agrarian households.
The ICRISAT Village Level Studies were initiated
to enhance the availability of reliable household,
individual and field-specific, high-frequency time-seriesdata in purposively selected villages in the semi-arid
and humid tropics of South Asia. They provide an
understanding of farming systems in rural areas and
identify the socioeconomic constraints faced by farming
communities.
ICRISAT began its Village Level Studies with two villages
in each of three regions in the semi-arid tropics of
peninsular India in 1975. In one village in each region,
panel data collection continued until 1984–1985. In the
early 1980s, Village Level Studies were also undertaken
in six villages in Burkina Faso and four villages in Niger in
West Africa. ICRISAT’s Village Level Studies are one of the
first major panel surveys in the world to use a household
framework in a developing country.
The early 2000s saw the revival of the Village Level
Studies in South Asia, which later expanded from six villages in two states in India, to 42 villages
encompassing five states in semi-arid tropical India,
three states in East India, and 12 districts in Bangladesh,
in partnership with the International Rice Research
Institute, the National Centre for Agricultural Economics
and Policy Research of India and state agricultural
universities.
The innovation
The Village Level Studies data bank is equivalent to
the ‘genebanks’ of biological scientists. It provides
the testing ground for innovations in social science
and new ICRISAT technologies. With its unique highfrequency
longitudinal household panel data, the Village
Level Studies dataset is now an extremely valuable
international public good.
The Village Level Studies provide a ‘communitybased
laboratory’ in which to undertake detailed
research on a variety of topics as the need arises.
They are multidisciplinary in nature, integrating
biological, technical, social and economic approaches.
They produce exceptionally high quality data from
continuous engagement, and facilitate the study
of seasonality and the intensive scrutiny of social
networks. The Village Level Studies dataset helps us
ask what has happened to households and individuals,
in terms of their incomes, consumption patterns and
expenditures, social and institutional structures and
arrangements, human capital, adaptive capacities
and responses to policy change. The studies also
facilitate the measurement of agricultural income
and consumption risks, and therefore permit the
evaluation of production, consumption, investment,
agricultural and social behaviors under risk.
The Village Level Studies capture shocks that affect
household welfare over a long period of time and thus
establish a basis for assessing adjustments to specific
sources of risk. They enable social scientists to trace
seasonal, annual and long-term changes in well-being,
supporting the study of the dynamics of poverty and
wealth acquisition. They also permit the study of
the pathways by which new technologies, markets,
institutions, policies and programs have an impact on
poverty, village economies and societies.
Finally, the Village Level Studies facilitate
understanding development pathways and
transformation process of village economies over time
and across villages.
The impact
Village Level Studies were initially designed to help
ICRISAT set its research priorities by providing insights
into the socioeconomic and agro-biological conditions
of marginal environments. ICRISAT’s Socio-economics
Research Program undertook extensive research on
rural livelihoods in the dryland tropics to understand
poverty, risks and vulnerability, coping mechanisms
and livelihood options. These findings stimulated
policy makers and development practitioners to
formulate programs that were appropriate to the
actual situation.
This single dataset reveals many valuable insights,
and was even described as the ‘goose that lays the
golden eggs’ in one of the World Bank’s World
Development Reports. Village Level Studies are
arguably the single most valuable contribution of the
CGIAR system to understanding the socioeconomic
situation in developing countries and its relationship
to technology adoption, particularly for smallholder
farmers in marginal environments. It has been noted
in the literature that it is difficult to identify any
other development economics dataset that has been
as influential as the Village Level Studies since 1975.
Indeed, much information about the microeconomics
of development in the dryland tropics is derived from
the Village Level Studies core dataset.
An inventory of publications reveals that more than
150 papers and three dozen doctoral dissertations
have been based on the empirical analysis of Village
Level Studies data in the dryland tropics of India
and West Africa. A recent search in Google Scholar
shows that this body of work has generated over
10,000 citations.
These rigorous scientific studies have addressed a
wide range of issues such as household decision
making, coping mechanisms, risk attitudes, technical
efficiencies, nutrition and health, gender, technology
adoption, rural labor and financial markets, poverty
alleviation and common property resources.
Research papers based on the Village Level Studies
have appeared in a wide range of highly reputable international and national journals, highlighting the
broad-based appeal of the dataset to the scientific
community. The Village Level Studies provide the
only dataset in the world that has been analyzed
so extensively by the scientific community and, as
a result, new policies and technologies have been
developed to suit the dryland tropics. It combines
a rich historical database with ICRISAT’s unmatched
expertise in long-term surveys.
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Aflatoxin
testing kit
An inexpensive innovation helps
identify aflatoxin-free grains
to meet international market
standards and ensure higher
returns for farmers, and provide
safer products for consumers
Agricultural products are often invaded by fungi
that can produce poisonous substances called
mycotoxins. Among mycotoxins, aflatoxins produced
by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, occur globally.
Aflatoxin B1 is the most prevalent and toxic form within
this group of closely related compounds.
Groundnuts (peanuts), maize, sorghum, pearl millet,
chilies, pistachios, cassava and other agricultural crops
are regularly contaminated by aflatoxins, affecting
human and livestock health, and reducing the
marketability of food products. Aflatoxin contamination
is invisible and more than 5 billion people in developing
countries are constantly and unknowingly exposed to it
by consuming affected foods.
Consumption of aflatoxins by humans can lead to acute
hepatitis, immune suppression and hepatocellular
carcinoma. Acute aflatoxin intoxication can even
result in death. A person’s chances of contracting liver
cancer are compounded significantly where aflatoxins
and hepatitis B virus occur together, conditions that
affect an estimated 20 million people in India. Children
exposed to aflatoxins suffer from poor growth and
immune suppression, making them susceptible to several
immuno-suppressive disorders.
As a result of these dangers, many countries reject
imports of agricultural products that exceed certain
levels of aflatoxin, costing developing-country farmers
millions of dollars each year in lost sales.
The innovation
The key to defeating this invisible killer lies in efficient
and inexpensive detection. While developed countries
use technologies such as high performance liquid
chromatography (HPLC), high performance thin layer
chromatography, thin layer chromatography and
antibody-based assays to monitor aflatoxins in food
and feed commodities, these are expensive for routine
quantitative estimation. Moreover, they require
laborious, time consuming and extensive sample cleanup
operations, which deter developing countries from using
them. The high cost of aflatoxin estimation has also
constrained the development of new resistant varieties
and integrated crop management technologies.
In the face of such challenges, ICRISAT scientists devised
a simple and affordable test kit using polyclonal and
monoclonal antibodies developed in-house. The test
uses a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
(cELISA) to rapidly detect the presence of aflatoxins.
The results obtained are comparable to the highly
sensitive HPLC technology. The kit has drastically reduced
the cost of testing crops and can be used with minimal
laboratory facilities. A further important advantage of
this technology is that most of the required chemicals
are locally available in developing countries.
The impact
The cELISA test has provided a unique opportunity
for ICRISAT and its partners to conduct field studies to
select breeding lines, develop pre- and post-harvest
management technologies and discover dietary sources
of aflatoxins. This has stimulated interventions that
enhance food safety, human health, trade and ultimately
farmers’ incomes.
Responding to the increasing demand for cost-effective
testing facilities, ICRISAT helped set up aflatoxin
monitoring laboratories in India, Kenya, Malawi, Mali
and Mozambique, where the cELISA technology is
used. Local personnel were trained to manage the
facilities. The diagnostic reagents are widely distributed
to partners in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These
laboratories contribute to quality certification of
farmers’ produce and enhance the competitiveness of
their produce in domestic and international markets.
The kits are now being used in around 20 laboratories
across the world. In India, several commercial food and
feed companies have used the kit with great success.
Malawi saw its status as a major groundnut exporter
eroded by aflatoxin outbreaks in the 1970s. Over the
past five years, the National Smallholder Farmers’
Association of Malawi (NASFAM) has successfully used
the new technology, in conjunction with HPLC, as part
of a broader effort to regain its once-lucrative European
export market.
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Drought-tolerant
groundnut
An ICRISAT groundnut variety resists drought and
diseases, has good fodder quality and replaces varieties
grown for more than 60 years, bringing hope to millions
of poor farmers
 Anantapur is a drought-prone district in the rain
shadow area of Andhra Pradesh, India. Although it
is subject to frequent droughts and crop failures, over
70% of the cultivated area in the district (0.8–1.0 million
hectares) is sown to groundnut each year. Smallholdings
of less than 3 hectares occupy 60% of the district, which is
the largest groundnut growing area in the world.
Soils in the district are predominantly light textured,
gravelly, shallow alfisols with depths varying between
30 and 60 cm. They hold 40 to 70 mm of plant-available
water in the soil profile and are low in nutrients. Annual
rainfall is low (522 mm compared to the state average
of 926 mm) with prolonged dry spells of 45–50 days. The
area has an annual average of only 36 rainy days during
the rainy season, which are highly variable and erratic in
distribution.
In the 1960s, cereal crops such as sorghum and finger
millet dominated agriculture in Anantapur District
(occupying 50% of the area), and groundnut was a
relatively minor crop (grown on 20% of the area). Low
rainfall, prolonged dry spells and frequent crop failures
reversed this cropping pattern. Today, over 70% of the
cultivated area is sown to groundnut because of its ability
to survive long dry spells and for its cash value. Further,
it is a valuable source of fodder for livestock during dry
years or crop failures.
Although the state has released many improved
groundnut varieties over the last 20 years, old varieties
such as TMV 2 (grown on 80% of the area, released in
1940), JL 24 (15–20% of the area, released in 1978) and
Pollachi Red (a landrace) have continued to dominate.
New varieties fell short of farmers’ expectations. Their
seeds were not available, processors were reluctant to
adapt their machinery to new varieties and consequently
there was price discrimination.
The innovation
Groundnut variety ICGV 91114 came as a breath of fresh
air. Bred and developed at ICRISAT headquarters in India,
it was derived following the bulk pedigree method from
a cross of ICGV 86055 x ICGV 86533. The new variety has a number of desirable features
including:
- high yields
- early maturity, in 90–95
days in the rainy season
- tolerance to mid-season and
end-of-season droughts
- shelling turnover of 75%
on average
- oil content of 48% and
protein content of 27%
- good digestibility and
palatability of haulms (dry
fodder).
ICGV 91114 was approved for release in the state by
the Andhra Pradesh State Seed Sub-Committee in 2006
and was notified in The Gazette of India in July 2007. It
was subsequently released as Devi (alluding to a Hindu
goddess) in Orissa. In Anantapur District, where ICGV
91114 is now replacing TMV 2, ICRISAT’s collaborator,
Accion Fraterna, has named it Anantha Jyothi (meaning
Eternal Light in Telugu).
The impact
Farmers prefer early-maturing groundnut varieties with
high pod and haulm yields, high shelling turnover, good
seed size, and resistance to drought and diseases. ICGV
91114 meets all these preferences and is the most popular
dual-purpose groundnut cultivated in India today.
An impact assessment study in the district revealed that the
adoption of ICGV 91114 had a pod yield advantage of 23%,
with 30% reduction in yield variability and 36% higher
net income compared to TMV 2. It was estimated that the
annual value of benefits in the district would surpass $500
million, assuming 35% adoption, by 2020–2021.
Despite severe drought conditions in the past 4–5 years
affecting seed production and adoption, ICGV 91114
occupied 25,000 ha of the 800,000 ha under groundnut
in the district in 2010. The possible economic benefits
of wider adoption demonstrate the impact of breeding
groundnut for drought tolerance.
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Early maturing
chickpea
Early maturing chickpea,
with improved fusarium wilt
resistance, high yield potential
and good seed quality, has
greatly increased crop area and
productivity in short-season
environments by avoiding
terminal drought and heat stress
Chickpea is currently grown in more than 50 countries
under a wide range of environmental conditions
and cropping systems. Chickpea phenology (time to
flowering, podding and maturity) is an important
component of crop adaptation. Crop maturity in
chickpea ranges from 80 to 180 days depending on
genotype, soil moisture, time of sowing, latitude and altitude. In two thirds of chickpea growing
areas, however, the growing season is short (90–120
days) because of the risk of extreme drought or high
temperatures at the end of the season (the pod filling
stage of the crop).
South and Southeast Asia account for about 84% of
the global chickpea area. The crop is mainly rainfed,
and is grown in the post-rainy season on receding soil
moisture. It often experiences terminal drought and heat
stress. Early phenology is also important in the autumnsown
rainfed crop in Mediterranean-type environments
such as Australia, and in the summer-grown crop in
temperate environments such as Canada, which aim
to escape end of season frost. Furthermore, early
phenology is needed to promote chickpea in rice fallows,
and under late-sown conditions in South Asia.
The innovation
Bi-parental and multi-parental crosses have been used
to develop early-maturing chickpea varieties. One of
the parents is generally a well-adapted cultivar and the
other an early-maturing genotype.
Time to flowering (number of days from sowing to
appearance of the first flower) can be recorded with
high precision and is a good indicator of subsequent
phenological traits (time to podding and maturity).
The wide variability in time to flowering in chickpea
germplasm provides opportunities to develop cultivars
with desirable maturity durations. Selection for time
to flowering is effective even in early segregating
generations as it is controlled by only a few major genes.
Two different types of chickpea – kabuli and desi –
are recognized by markets and consumers, and serve
different culinary purposes. ICRISAT’s first extra-short duration kabuli cultivar, ICCV 2, matures in only 85–90
days and demonstrates fusarium wilt resistance and
heat tolerance. It was developed from a multiple cross
that involved five parents and was the first cultivar to
show that kabuli chickpea could be grown in tropical
environments. It was released as Swetha in India, Wad
Hamid in Sudan and Yezin 3 in Myanmar.
Subsequently, several early-maturing, high-yielding
cultivars have been developed, including two new kabuli
types and four desi types. Breeding lines have been
developed that mature earlier than either of the parents
by combining earliness genes from the two parents.
For example, the super-early cultivar ICCV 96029, which
flowers in about 24 days at Patancheru, India, was
developed from a cross between two early lines, which
both flower in 30 to 32 days.
Super-early lines have potential to further expand the
cultivation of chickpea in areas and cropping systems
where the cropping window is narrow, as well as
in specific situations where early podding is highly
desirable, such as crops where green immature grains
are used as vegetable.
The impact
Adoption of early-maturing chickpea cultivars has led
to an increase in area and productivity in short-season
environments such as Myanmar and Andhra Pradesh,
India. Four early-maturing chickpea cultivars (two each
of the kabuli and desi types), selected from breeding
material supplied by ICRISAT, were released in Myanmar
in 2000–2004 and rapidly adopted by farmers.
By 2005, these cultivars covered 82% of the total
chickpea area in Myanmar. Yezin 3 (ICCV 2) was the most
popular cultivar (occupying 55% of the area), followed
by Yezin 4 (ICCV 88202, covering 22% of the area). The
adoption of improved cultivars and crop production
practices has led to a remarkable increase in yields and
production. Over the past decade (2000–2009), there
has been a 2.2-fold increase in both area (129,000 to
282,000 ha) and productivity (651 to 1411 kg ha-1), and a
4.7-fold increase in production (84,000 to 398,000 tons).
The adoption of early-maturing chickpea cultivars has
also brought a chickpea revolution in Andhra Pradesh
State in India. Chickpea production has increased 9-fold (95,000 to 884,000 tons) over the past 10 years (2000–
2009). This is a result of a 5-fold increase in area (102,000
to 602,000 ha) combined with a 2.4-fold increase in yield
levels (583 to 1,407 kg ha-1).
Over 80% of the chickpea area in Andhra Pradesh is now
cultivated with the short-duration improved cultivars
JG 11 and KAK 2, which were developed through a
partnership between ICRISAT and the Indian national
agricultural research system. Andhra Pradesh was once
considered to be a low yielding state for chickpea
because of its warm, short-season environment, but it
now has the highest yield levels in India.
Cultivation of chickpea has been transformed from a
subsistence to a market-oriented activity in Andhra
Pradesh, providing an excellent example of inclusive
market-oriented development.
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Hybrid
pigeonpea
Cytoplasmic-nuclear malesterility-
based pigeonpea hybrids
yield up to 40% more than
conventional cultivars
Over the past 50 years, pigeonpea productivity has
remained low (750 kg ha-1) despite the release of
several new varieties. At the same time, global production
(3.5 million tons) has fallen short of ever-rising demand.
To achieve a breakthrough in yield, ICRISAT – working
in partnership with the Indian Council for Agricultural
Research (ICAR), state agricultural universities, governmentowned
seed corporations and private seed companies –
established an innovative breeding technology to develop
commercial pigeonpea hybrids, the first such attempt in
any food legume.
Unlike other pulses, pigeonpea is a partially out-crossing
species. ICRISAT scientists exploited this feature to make
crosses with wild relatives and develop a cytoplasmicnuclear
male-sterility (CMS) system, a prerequisite for
hybrid breeding technology.
The innovation
The world’s first pigeonpea hybrid, ICPH 8, based on the
genetic-male sterility (GMS) system, was jointly released in
1991 by ICRISAT and ICAR. This was a milestone in the history
of food legume breeding. Subsequently, five further GMSbased
hybrids were released by various state agricultural
universities and ICAR institutions.
Although they showed high yields, these GMS-based
hybrids did not reach farmers’ fields because of the high
costs of seed production. The constraints inherent in the
seed multiplication of their female parents were a major
bottleneck in large-scale hybrid seed production.
The GMS experience led scientists to develop hybrids based
on the cytoplasmic-nuclear male-sterility (CMS) system – the
most widely accepted system for producing commercial
hybrids in a number of field crops. The first breakthrough
in this technology was achieved when a CMS system was
developed by crossing Cajanus cajanifolius (a wild species) and
a cultivated pigeonpea line. This CMS system is stable across
diverse environments and has excellent fertility restorers.
The CMS system has three lines: the male-sterile A line, the
maintainer B line, and the restorer R line. The A line contains
the cytoplasm of the wild relative and the nuclear genome of
the cultivated pigeonpea, and is male sterile. The B line has
both the cytoplasm and nuclear genome of the cultivated
pigeonpea, and is male fertile. Crosses between the A and B
lines provide seed of the A line. Crosses between the A and R
lines lead to the production of hybrid seed.
Once a stable CMS system had been developed, several experimental
hybrids were produced and evaluated at ICRISAT
and ICAR centers. The hybrids were generally characterized by
increased plant vigor, better drought tolerance, disease resistance
and better adaptability to varied agro-ecologies. The
CMS-based experimental hybrids showed 50–150% standard
heterosis (superiority over the popular varieties) for yield.
In multi-location trials, several hybrids demonstrated significantly
higher yields than the local varieties. For example,
in trials conducted between 2005 and 2008, the mediumduration
hybrid ICPH 2671 showed 36% higher yields
(2.7 t ha-1) than the local variety Maruti.
A second medium-duration hybrid, ICPH 2740, demonstrated
38% higher yields (2.8 t ha-1) than the local variety Asha.
A short-duration hybrid, ICPH 2433, has also shown promise,
yielding 32% more (2.2 t ha-1) than the local variety
UPAS 120. In more than 2,000 on-farm trials conducted in
five states of India, these hybrids produced an average 30%
yield advantage over the best available local variety.
The impact
Climate change will adversely affect productivity of
crops as well as livestock, undermining the long-term
sustainability of already fragile dryland environments.
Under these conditions, pigeonpea hybrids may prove
highly advantageous because they grow fast, have greater
root and shoot biomass and higher resilience to drought,
salinity and diseases than control varieties.
In a joint initiative between ICRISAT and the private
sector, the Hybrid Parents Research Consortia (HPRC) were
established to increase smallholder farmers’ access to
hybrid seed. In 2007, Pravardhan Seeds (P) Ltd, a member
of the HPRC, selected ICPH 2671 for commercialization
and named it Pushkal (meaning bountiful in Sanskrit). In
December 2010, ICPH 2671 was officially released by the
state of Madhya Pradesh.
A second hybrid, ICPH 2740, is poised for release by the
states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. These hybrids
consistently showed more than 30% yield advantage
over standard cultivars in farmers’ fields in single and
intercropped systems.
The hybrid seed production technology has been finalized
and a target set for expanding CMS-based hybrid
pigeonpea cultivation to over 100,000 ha by 2014. As part
of this initiative, two hybrids (ICPH 2671 and ICPH 2740)
will be promoted in partnership with public and private
sector seed organizations, and the National Food Security
Mission of the Government of India.
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Pigeonpea
in eastern and southern Africa
ICRISAT varieties resist wilt, have high yields and large seeds, and
are widely grown in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and
Uganda, increasing farmers’ incomes by up to 80%
Until recently, farmers in Africa were unable to
fully exploit pigeonpea’s potential because
local varieties were low-yielding, late-maturing
and susceptible to pests and diseases. Small-seeded
varieties failed to meet market requirements; market
linkages were underdeveloped; and farmers could
not access seed of improved varieties because of poor
input and technology delivery systems.
These factors effectively deprived farmers in Africa of
the benefits of a sizable export market. India alone
imports over 254,000 tons of pigeonpea per year,
but Africa supplied less than 5% of this demand.
Similar high-value niche markets exist in Europe
and the Americas. Meanwhile, domestic demand for pigeonpea has grown substantially over the last few
years, increasing wholesale prices.
The innovation
ICRISAT and national program partners have been
working together to develop suitable varieties and
institutional innovations to help dryland farmers in
eastern and southern Africa benefit from pigeonpea.
This began with the development of high-yielding,
slightly early-maturing, cream-colored, large-seeded
and fusarium wilt-resistant varieties for cultivation
by smallholder farmers. To address constraints in
output marketing and utilization, ICRISAT developed
partnerships with private and public sector institutions.
The adoption of improved pigeonpea varieties has
catalyzed a process of livelihood transformation
for many dryland smallholder farmers in Kenya,
Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. The
increasing availability of improved varieties, along
with institutional innovations, has enabled farmers
to reduce the cost of product marketing, spurring
commercialization of the crop.
Recognizing the huge demand for improved seeds,
local agro-dealers (called Agrovets) contract farmers
to multiply high quality seeds, with the support of
the local extension system for training and farmer
organization. The commercial produce is marketed
through producer marketing groups (PMGs). This
collective action enables smallholder farmers to sell
quality grain at higher prices.
The impact
ICRISAT has a long and fruitful history of collaboration
for breeding with the Ilonga Research Station in Kilosa
and the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) in
Arusha, which covers the northern zone of Tanzania.
Improved varieties like ICEAPs 00040 and 00053 are
becoming very popular. In Babati district – famous
for high quality pigeonpea production – adoption of
improved pigeonpea varieties has reached 60%, and
pigeonpea alone contributes more than 50% of the cash
incomes of smallholder farmers.
Arumeru, Babati, Karatu and Kondoa districts in
Tanzania are all known for their production of bold
cream-colored pigeonpeas. Fifteen years ago, very little
pigeonpea was grown in Arumeru District, but as a
result of the collaboration between SARI and ICRISAT,
pigeonpea is now cultivated throughout the district.
ICRISAT-developed varieties clearly dominate the fields.
Only 12 years ago consumption of pigeonpea was not
common in Tanzania, but the introduction of palatable
varieties ICEAPs 00040 and 00053 has changed all that.
Pigeonpea consumption has taken off as the bean
crop has largely succumbed to pests and the changing
weather patterns that the hardy pigeonpea takes in its
stride.
In Kenya, an ICRISAT-led consortium ignited the
pigeonpea revolution that brought together partners
including TechnoServe, Catholic Relief Services, Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), and private sector
processors and exporters. Successive projects focused
on legume commercialization stimulated the growth
of local seed production and agro-dealer networks
for distribution and marketing. The PMGs facilitated
community seed production, local distribution and
market access, and helped to increase local producer
prices by 20–25% in Nairobi and Mombasa after linking
producers to wholesalers.
This has led to tangible gains for poor farmers in these
areas where maize has traditionally been the main crop.
Unfortunately, the maize crop fails in three out of five
years, leaving families to rely on pigeonpea – widely
considered a lifesaver and guarantor of livelihoods in
these drought-prone areas.
The most important change came about through the
introduction of medium-duration varieties (ICEAPs
00554 and 00557) that provide two crops a year. The
first improved varieties reached farmers of Emali village
(Makueni District, Kenya) in about 2003 as a result of
field days held at the ICRISAT/KARI research station in Kiboko. This was followed by farmer participatory
varietal evaluations and demonstrations. Enterprising
women farmers took the lead in demonstrating the
pigeonpea technology and proudly call it “our dryland
white coffee”, as well as “our beef”, alluding to its high
protein content.
These farmers have also realized the potential of fresh
vegetable pigeonpea in the domestic market. Pigeonpea
matures when other food reserves are low, making it
a popular crop to stave off hunger. Thanks to this high
local demand, most of the pigeonpea grown is now sold
as green peas at prices almost twice those of the dry
grain and yields of green pod average 5 t ha-1.
The commercialization of pigeonpea is enabling farmers
to buy valuable assets ranging from mobile phones to
productive land and livestock, and is opening viable
pathways to move out of poverty. Farmers have invested
in small ruminants, milking cows and bullocks, helping
them diversify and expand their income sources, reduce
vulnerability and mechanize production. It has increased
school enrolment of children, as families can now
afford to send their children to school. The increased
income also allows families to improve food security and
increase expenditure on other basic needs.
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Pigeonpea
genome
Pigeonpea is the first ‘orphan
crop’, the first ‘non-industrial
crop’ and the second food
legume with a completed
genome sequence
Pigeonpea is an important crop in Asia, Africa, and
Central and South America, grown on nearly 5
million hectares worldwide. It is the world’s sixth most
important food legume crop. Despite its importance for
food security in the world’s poorest regions, it has been
under-researched in the past. Biotic and abiotic stresses
have widened the large gap between its potential
yield (more than 3.5 t ha-1) and those obtained in
farmers’ fields (750 kg ha-1). Rapid advances in genetic
improvement have been constrained by a lack of
genomic resources, such as molecular markers, mapping
populations and genetic maps, coupled with low genetic
diversity in the primary gene pool.
Pigeonpea was neglected until 2005, when intensive
efforts by ICRISAT, the CGIAR Generation Challenge
Programme, the US National Science Foundation,
the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR)
and several other programs led to the development
of significant genomic resources in pigeonpea. More
recently, a global team comprising several organizations
from the USA, Europe and China, and led by ICRISAT,
have sequenced the pigeonpea genome.
The innovation
To accelerate the use of genomics to improve yield
and quality, Illumina – a next generation sequencing
technology – was used to generate the draft genome
assembly of pigeonpea genotype ICPL 87119 (popularly
known as Asha). This technology was used to generate a
237.2 Giga base pair sequence, which along with Sangerbased
Bacterial Artificial Chromosome-end sequences and a genetic map, was assembled into scaffolds
representing about 73% (605.78 Mega base pair) of the
pigeonpea genome.
The pigeonpea genome sequence was published in
Nature Biotechnology. It is expected that the research
will increase the efficiency of pigeonpea improvement
by providing molecular breeding tools and approaches
to assist conventional breeding.
Genome analysis led to the identification of 48,680
pigeonpea genes. A few hundred of these are unique to
the crop and relate to drought tolerance, an important
trait that can be transferred to other legume crops such
as soybean, chickpea and common bean. Furthermore,
comparative analyses revealed that the number of
genes predicted in the pigeonpea genome is higher
than in other sequenced plant genomes, such as those
of cucumber, cacao, grapevine and Lotus japonicus. It is,
however, comparable to soybean, as shown in Figure 1.
In Figure 1, soybean pseudomolecules (equivalent to
chromosomes) are labeled as Gm and are represented
as green boxes. The numbers along each chromosome
box denote the sequence length in megabases.
Pigeonpea pseudomolecules, labeled as CcLG, are
shown with each chromosome as a different color.
Syntenic blocks were identified through reciprocal
best matches between gene models and block
identification using i-Adhore. Each line radiating
from a pigeonpea pseudomolecule represents a
gene match found in a block between soybean and
pigeonpea. Each sub-box within this figure shows the
syntenic relationships between a single pigeonpea
chromosome and the entire soybean genome.
In order to enhance pigeonpea’s molecular marker
repertoire, the genome sequence was explored
to permit the identification and development of
molecular markers. The research identified 309,052
simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 23,410 SSR
primers were designed. Similarly, after aligning the
transcript sequences from 12 genotypes, a total
of 28,104 novel single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs) were identified. In brief, completion of
the pigeonpea genome has made a significant
contribution to the genomic resources available for
pigeonpea.
The impact
The availability of a genome sequence opens up
new avenues for pigeonpea improvement. The
identification of large-scale SSRs and SNPs spanning
the entire genome can help overcome the limitations
of insufficient polymorphic markers for genetic
mapping and trait identification.
The genome sequence will help harness pigeonpea’s
genetic diversity by identifying molecular markers and
genes for targeted traits, and will allow researchers
to develop superior varieties and parental lines of
hybrids. It will also be useful in identifying germplasm
lines or advanced breeding lines with a broader
genetic base for future breeding programs.
Modern genetics and breeding approaches like
genotyping by sequencing, marker-assisted recurrent
selection and genomic selection will improve the
efficiency of pigeonpea breeding. ICRISAT and several
national agricultural research systems institutes are
developing a road map, in consultation with the Indian
Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, ICAR, the
Indian Ministry of Agriculture, and the United States
Agency for International Development, to use genome
sequence information for pigeonpea improvement.
This will not only enhance crop productivity, but also
help develop short-duration lines with photoperiod
insensitivity and thermo-insensitivity genes, so that
pigeonpea can be expanded to new niches and fit well
into new production systems.
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Guinea-race
sorghum
hybrids
Sharing the benefits of hybrid
vigor with West African farmers,
while retaining the adaptation
and quality traits of local
germplasm
Sorghum varieties belonging to the Guinea-race
combine high grain quality with excellent adaptation
for major parts of the Sudanian zone of West and Central
Africa. Despite their exceptional yield stability, however,
yield levels rarely exceed 2 t ha-1 in farmers’ fields.
In 1999, researchers from ICRISAT, the Malian Institut
d’Economie Rurale (IER), and the Institut National de
l’Environment et des Recherches Agricoles (INERA) in
Burkina Faso began to grapple with ways of unlocking
the genetic potential of these sorghums, to enhance the
productivity of this staple crop of West and Central Africa.
The innovation
One of the approaches adopted by researchers was
the development of hybrids based on well-adapted
Guinea-race parents. The benefits of hybrid vigor have
long been reaped in India, where ICRISAT has played a
pivotal role in developing parental lines and sorghum hybrids have been widely adopted. ICRISAT has shown
experimentally the potential benefit of hybrid vigor
under both favorable and drought-prone conditions
in eastern and southern Africa. However, this progress
was made with other sorghum races that lack the
specific adaptive characteristics required for successful
production in the Guinea-race growing belt that
stretches from Senegal across to Nigeria and Cameroon
in West and Central Africa.
The ICRISAT–IER–INERA team thus set out to create the
first hybrid parents based on Guinea-race germplasm
with adaptation to West African conditions. A major
task was to develop the first Guinea-race female parents
based on the cytoplasmic nuclear male-sterility (CMS)
system. The genetic materials used for this task included
local varieties from Mali, inter-racial (Guinea-Caudatum)
breeding lines from the IER program, and Guinea-race
accessions of worldwide origin from the World Sorghum
Collection in the ICRISAT genebank in India.
Within five years the first female parents were obtained
using methods similar to those employed for hybrid
pigeonpea, although the crossing work could begin
immediately with previously available CMS lines such as
CK60A. The first experimental hybrids were produced
in 2004 on new female parents of both inter-racial and
Guinea-race backgrounds. Regional testing of new
sorghum hybrids was conducted in collaboration with
the national research programs in Mali (IER), Nigeria
(Institute for Agricultural Research), Burkina Faso
(INERA), Senegal (Institut Sénégalais de Recherches
Agricoles), and Ghana (Selian Agricultural Research
Institute). The first four sorghum hybrids with Guinearace
parentage were released in Mali in 2008.
The impact
Extensive on-farm testing of the new guinea-race hybrids
was carried out in Mali from 2009 to 2011. This enabled
hybrid yields to be thoroughly compared with a welladapted
control variety, Tieble, under farmer-managed
conditions. The average yield of all eight hybrids showed
28% superiority over Tieble. Two of the released hybrids,
Fadda and Sewa, produced 450 kg ha-1 more on average
than Tieble, which amounted to 46% yield superiority
across all environments.
Furthermore, these hybrid yield superiorities were
expressed across the entire range of productivity
conditions. In the nine least productive trials (with
mean yields of less than 1.5 t ha-1), Fadda and Sewa still
produced 450 kg ha-1 more than Tieble. Likewise, the
hybrids showed yield advantages across the full range of
soil fertility conditions and sowing dates.
These yield advantages are truly exciting as they meet
farmers’ demands for increased productivity, while
maintaining grain quality and retaining (or even
enhancing) yield stability. And this is just the beginning.
The Guinea-race is the most diverse of sorghum races
and ICRISAT has just begun to explore the structure
of this diversity and the patterns of heterosis (hybrid
superiority over the parents).
Initial results show that high heterosis can be obtained
when parents from humid West Africa, East Africa,
southern Africa and even Asia are crossed onto a West
African tester. The accessions that give the highest
heterosis in crosses with a West African tester came from
Cameroon, China and Zimbabwe.
Farmer seed producer organizations are now being
empowered to produce hybrid seed through ’learning
by doing’, with training and technical support from
IER and ICRISAT. Farmers are excited about hybrid seed
production, as it enables them to combine the dual
goals of increasing income through the sale of hybrid
seed, and that of food security with grain produced
by the male parent. Emerging seed companies have
bought and marketed all the hybrid seed that has
been available every year since 2009 when large scale
production began. Malian farmers and researchers are
enthusiastically pursuing sorghum hybrids as a way of
meeting farmers’ and consumers’ needs. Meanwhile
sorghum is changing from a subsistence crop to an
increasingly important source of income for farmers.
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Extra-early
pearl millet
hybrid
Inter-institutional collaboration
integrates conventional,
participatory and marker-assisted
breeding methods to develop
extra-early pearl millet hybrid
HHB 67 Improved, which has
enhanced downy mildew
resistance and yield
Pearl millet hybrids have shown a 25 to 30% grain
yield advantage over open-pollinated varieties,
leading the national agricultural research system and
a large number of private seed companies in India to
develop an interest in breeding and marketing hybrid
cultivars. As a result, hybrid development has been the
major thrust of pearl millet breeding programs in India
over the past 25 years, supported by hybrid parents
breeding research at ICRISAT.
In 1990, CCS Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) released
the hybrid pearl millet HHB 67, the earliest maturing pearl millet
hybrid (62–65 days from sowing to harvest) anywhere to date. This
was rapidly adopted by farmers in northwestern India and was
grown on approximately 774,000 ha in the most drought-prone
areas of southern Haryana and central Rajasthan at the peak of its
adoption in 2002.
Few alternative hybrid cultivars were available for this zone and
single-cross hybrids are known to be vulnerable to downy mildew
(DM) epidemics, with production losses nationally of up to 30%
when an epidemic occurs. ICRISAT therefore initiated a proactive
maintenance breeding effort in 1991 to develop versions of HHB
67 that were more resistant to DM. HHB 67 Improved was the
higher-yielding and more disease resistant result.
The innovation
The hybrid HHB 67 and its more DM resistant replacement HHB
67 Improved, were developed as a result of coordinated interinstitutional
research. Scientists at CCSHAU produced an inbred
restorer line (H 77/833-2) from a local landrace from Siwani
District in India. This was crossed onto cytoplasmic male-sterile
line 843A to produce HHB 67. The hybrid seed parent (843A) and
its maintainer line (843B) were developed at ICRISAT-Patancheru
by selection for residual variability for DM resistance in an A/Bpair
that had been bred in the USA at the Fort Hays Experimental
Station of Kansas State University.
The DM resistance of HHB 67 was expected to be overcome by
the pathogen sooner rather than later, as has always been the
case with popular pearl millet hybrids grown in India. Fortunately,
farmers were able to continue large-scale cultivation of HHB 67
until 2007. By this stage, however, strains of the DM pathogen
capable of overcoming its resistance had become prevalent in
much of Haryana.
Mapping of DM resistance indicated that the resistance originally
present in this hybrid had come – at least in part – from the
restorer line. In 1991 (a year after the release of HHB 67),
a conventional backcross program was initiated at ICRISATPatancheru
with the aim of maintaining the positive attributes of 843A/B (earliness, large grain size, good tillering,
excellent combining ability and dwarf height), while
improving its DM resistance. Using one to two cropping
seasons per year, a dozen more DM-resistant versions of
843A/843B were developed by December 1999.
Further developments came from another interinstitutional
effort involving ICRISAT and advanced
research institutes in the UK, supported by the Plant
Science Research Programme of the UK’s Department
for International Development. Two genomic regions
containing quantitative trait loci (QTL) for DM
resistance were identified in the inbred restorer line
(H 77/833-2), and two different DM resistance QTL were
added to it from a DM-resistant selection in another
elite restorer line (ICMP 451-P6).
Marker-assisted backcrossing was used to pyramid DM
resistance alleles from the two QTLs from ICMP 451-P6
into the genetic background of H 77/833-2. Initiated in
1997 at ICRISAT-Patancheru, this process was completed
in early 2000, resulting in the development of 11
product lines, similar in appearance to H 77/833-2, and
including DM resistant restorer line H 77/833-2-202.
The marker-assisted backcrossing used to breed these
restorer lines not only accelerated the process, it
also enabled precision breeding, using knowledge
of the genomic regions being transferred from the
resistance donor. Testcross trials conducted in the rainy
season of 2000 at ICRISAT-Patancheru, and across six
environments in India in the rainy season of 2001,
identified two new hybrid combinations for further
assessment. These were submitted simultaneously to
state trials in Haryana and national trials of the All-
India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Program
by the team at CCSHAU.
In 30 trials conducted over three years, HHB 67
Improved yielded on average 1,992 kg ha-1 of grain
(10.5% more than HHB 67), 4.5 t ha-1 of stover (9.8%
more than HHB 67), and reached flowering in 42 days
(2 days more than HHB 67). In a greenhouse seedling
screen for DM reaction under high disease pressure,
HHB 67 Improved was free of DM compared to disease
incidence of 97.8% on HHB 67. Based on its superior
performance for DM resistance and yield, HHB 67
Improved was released in 2005 by state and national
authorities in India, and seed started to reach farmers’
fields in Rajasthan and Haryana the next year. HHB 67
Improved was the first marker-assisted field crop bred
in the public domain to reach farmers’ fields in India.
The impact
Hybrid seed production of HHB 67 attained a peak of
2,835 tons of certified seed in 1999, nine years after its
release. Seed production of HHB 67 Improved reached
3,491 tons in 2011, only six years after its release. At
the peak of its adoption in 2002, HHB 67 was grown
on about 774,000 ha. By 2011, HHB 67 Improved had
spread to 875,000 ha, with Rajasthan accounting for
768,000 ha (16% of the state’s total pearl millet area)
and Haryana accounting for 107,000 ha (21% of the
state’s pearl millet area).
The net additional benefits to the farming community
from cultivation of HHB 67 Improved, compared to
the local landrace varieties in Rajasthan and HHB 67
in Haryana, reached $13.5 million in 2011 alone. On
average, producers of HHB 67 Improved seed earned
a net income of $1,460 ha-1, with a total net benefit
of $6.4 million in 2011. Hybrid seed multiplication also
generated 186 person days ha-1 of employment (ten
times more than grain and stover production), resulting
in a total of 900,000 person days of employment. Of
this, 45% comprised women laborers.
HHB 67 Improved has helped stabilize pearl millet
production for farmers who grow short-duration
hybrids under dryland conditions. Its higher yield performance has released land for crop
diversification, including cultivation of cash crops
such as sesame, cluster bean and food legumes.
Furthermore, the short duration varieties of both
of these popular hybrids have facilitated the
cultivation of winter season rotational crops such
as mustard, wheat and chickpea, thus doubling
cropping intensity and substantially increasing farm
household incomes compared to those obtained
previously by growing pearl millet landraces.
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Sweet sorghum
A smart, multipurpose (food, feed, fodder, fiber
and fuel) crop adapted to drought and climate
change provides higher incomes for farmers
In the wake of steeply rising fossil fuel prices, interest
in biofuels has grown worldwide. In addition to
the leading biofuel feedstocks such as sugarcane,
sugarbeet, cassava, rapeseed and maize grain,
alternatives are emerging to help meet mandated
blending requirements. Alternatives are also needed
in the tropics and sub-tropics because some crops, such
as sugarcane, require about a year to grow and need
large quantities of water and fertilizers; sugarbeet
demands a cooler climate, and is water and nutrient
thirsty; and maize requires significant quantities of
water and nutrients.
In recent years, sweet sorghum has gained popularity
as an alternative feedstock for biofuel production.
Juice extracted from its stalks can be used to produce
bioethanol, jaggery and syrup, and the bagasse
(leftover stalks after juice extraction) can be used to
cogenerate power, as animal fodder and as organic
fertilizer after composting. It possesses sugar-rich
stalks, and uses water and nutrients efficiently. It also
produces grain for food. With sweet sorghum, the
food–fuel–feed trade-offs are negligible.
The innovation
Research in genetic enhancement at ICRISAT has shown
that there is good variability for stalk sugar content
and juice volume in sweet sorghum, providing ample
scope to improve genotypes for high sugar/ethanol
yield. Significant genotype-by-environment interactions
meant that cultivars need to be customized for different
agro-ecological zones and seasons. A mix of varieties and
hybrids with differing maturities that adapt well to rainy
and post-rainy seasons, and have resistance to shootfly,
can extend the feedstock supply to the industry.
There is heterosis for total stalk sugars, indicating
that hybrids produce more sugars than varieties.
Being a high biomass crop, sweet sorghum lends itself
to first generation (stalk sugars conversion through
fermentation), as well as second generation (cellulose
conversion) technology-based ethanol production.
Work with partners in India on the sweet sorghum-based
ethanol production value chain has shown that adopting
the right cultivars and crop production technology,
coupled with input and technical backstopping,
enhances on-farm yields. Moreover, when grain and stalks are included, cultivating sweet sorghum is more
economically valuable than grain sorghum or maize.
Between 40 and 50 liters of ethanol can be produced
per ton of sweet sorghum stalk with efficient crushing
technology. Sweet sorghum bagasse with residual leaves
is a valuable feed resource that commands a similar price
as grain sorghum stover. Complete feed blocks based on
bagasse are highly palatable, cost effective, and improve
yields of both milk (cows) and meat (sheep). Syrup from
sweet sorghum juice can also be used as a feedstock
even after nine months in storage (enabling a distillery
to run for longer).
In India, the sweet sorghum value chain for biofuel
production and use as a blend with gasoline yields a
net energy balance of 7.5 and reduces greenhouse gas
emissions by 86% compared to fossil fuels. The sweet
sorghum value chain for ethanol will be sustainable,
provided the distillery is a multi-feedstock unit, the
supply chain is professionally managed, production and
marketing of by-products (bagasse) can be organized,
and the government puts in place a policy framework
with incentives and favorable pricing of ethanol
compared to petrol.
The impact
ICRISAT and its partners in the Philippines have been
instrumental in creating awareness of the potential
value of sweet sorghum, its cultivation, research needs
and use as a feedstock for bio-ethanol production.
Many farmers in Cabiao, Candaba and Ilocos Norte are
cultivating ICRISAT-bred sweet sorghum variety SPV 422
(which farmers refer to as Sweet Philippine Variety) and
are reaping benefits by selling stalks and grain.
On average, farmers harvest 40–55 t ha-1 stalks and
4–5 t ha-1 grain. The ratoon crop (which results from the
rejuvenation of the stubble of a previous crop) offers
40–50% higher yields than the seed crop. Two varieties
(SPV 422 and ICSV 93046) are being released in the
Philippines for commercial cultivation and Bapamin
Enterprises, a farmer cooperative, is marketing
1,000 liters per month of vinegar made from sweet
sorghum. In China, sweet sorghum is also being used
as biofuel feedstock. ICRISAT-bred sweet sorghum
cultivars are increasingly being cultivated as a forage
crop in Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Jordan, Mali,
Mozambique, Nigeria, Syria and Uzbekistan.
Sweet sorghum, the smart crop, provides income for
farmers from the sale of grain and stalks, either to
distilleries or to fodder markets, truly demonstrating
the inclusive market-oriented development
approach.
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Genetic resources for
food security
ICRISAT’s genebank conserves more than
120,000 accessions and supports the global crop
improvement community to develop improved cultivars
The RS Paroda Genebank at ICRISAT’s headquarters
in Patancheru, India, is one of the world’s largest
repositories of genetic resources of its mandate
crops, and at present conserves more than 120,000
accessions from 144 countries. From this facility, ICRISAT
engages in the assembly, conservation, maintenance,
characterization, evaluation, documentation and
distribution of germplasm of its mandate crops –
sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea and
groundnut and their wild relatives; and six small millets –
finger millet, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet,
little millet and proso millet.
These accessions have been assembled through
donations from various institutions and by launching
germplasm collection missions in areas of origin and
diversity jointly with national agricultural research
systems (NARS), universities and international
institutions. The plant genetic resources held by the
genebank contribute enormously to achieving the
Millennium Development Goals of food security, poverty
alleviation, environmental protection and sustainable
development.
All incoming germplasm samples received in India are
examined by the Indian Plant Quarantine Services with
the assistance of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic
Resources, India, to exclude or eradicate exotic pests and
diseases.
ICRISAT has also established three regional genebanks
in Niamey, Niger; Nairobi, Kenya; and Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe. These conserve working collections and
mini core collections of mandate crops to cater to the
research needs of national programs, and also provide
safety duplication of specific subsets of materials,
including national collections from these regions.
The genebank
Assembly is the initial step in ex-situ conservation of
germplasm resources. Since collection and conservation
are expensive, this is undertaken only after a critical
assessment of the need to do so. Only unique landrace
germplasm accessions that are not represented in the
collection are assembled/collected.
The genebanks follow international standards of
conservation. Germplasm accessions are maintained by
monitoring for seed viability and quantity at regular
intervals. Accessions showing critical seed viability
(<85% germination) and seed quantity in the mediumterm
store (<50 g for cereals and <100 g for legumes)
are regenerated as the situation warrants (usually once
every 5–10 years).
Accessions are characterized and evaluated using a
set of internationally accepted descriptors for stable
botanical characters, and a few agronomic and seed
quality traits. Characterization and evaluation data
facilitate the preliminary selection of germplasm by
users, while information on country of origin, location
of collection and other passport data permit the
selection of germplasm based on geographic origin,
and the identification of gaps in the collection for
further exploration.
Documentation is essential for good genebank
management and to allow efficient and effective
use of germplasm. The data are maintained in the
Genebank Information Management System, which
facilitates sharing and easy retrieval of information.
The passport and characterization data are made
globally accessible as international public goods (IPGs)
through the ICRISAT website (www.icrisat.org) and the
CGIAR’s System-Wide Information Network for Genetic
Resources (SINGER). ICRISAT is duplicating collections
and has over 86,000 accessions at the Global Seed Vault
at Svalbard, Norway.
The innovation
Although there was a substantial increase in the number of
accessions in the early 1990s, there was no corresponding
increase in their use by scientists, indicating that the full
potential of the collections was not being realized. The main
deterrents were the large size of the collections, coupled with
breeders’ differing requirements for traits of interest, which
required exhaustive, costly and time-intensive multi-location
evaluations.
The core collections (10% of entire collection) and mini core
collections (10% of the core, or 1% of the entire collection)
represent the genetic diversity of the cultivated species of
ICRISAT’s mandate crops. These collections were developed as a
gateway to enhanced use of the germplasm. These subsets have
now been extensively used by researchers to identify trait-specific
germplasm for breeding programs at ICRISAT, and by partners in
NARS and advanced research institutes (ARIs) globally. Scientists
in many other countries are now developing mini core collections
in various crop species following approaches suggested by
ICRISAT scientists. These mini core collections are IPGs and are the
subject of further investigation in research programs underway
in Canada, China, Germany, India, Kenya and the USA.
Evaluation of 171 sets of mini core collections by ICRISAT,
NARS and ARI scientists in 24 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe,
Oceania and the Americas has resulted in the identification of
new sources of tolerance to drought, salinity, heat and water
logging, as well as disease resistance. Sources have also been
identified for improved agronomic traits (early-maturity, high
yield, seed size) and quality (oil, protein, iron, zinc, calcium) in
ICRISAT’s mandate crops.
Molecular characterization of mini core and trait-specific subsets
is unraveling further information on the usefulness of these
germplasm accessions for allele mining and developing highyielding
cultivars with a broad genetic base.
Wild relatives are good sources of resistance to biotic and abiotic
stresses and have been used to improve resistance, but they are
agronomically poor. ICRISAT used wild relatives in chickpea and
groundnut to improve maturity duration, seed size and yield, and
for accessing novel alleles.
The impact
One of ICRISAT’s strategic objectives is to serve as the
world repository for the germplasm of its mandate crops,
including wild relatives. Its genebank has played a key role
in restoring germplasm to national research programs in
several countries to replace their lost collections. With the
erosion of on-farm genetic diversity and relatively reduced
exchange of germplasm among countries, the ICRISAT
genebank has become a major source of genetic diversity
for crop improvement. It has also promoted testing and
release of several of its germplasm accessions directly as
superior cultivars in many countries.
To date, more than 1.4 million samples of nearly
100,600 germplasm accessions have been shared with
collaborators in 145 countries. NARS partners have released
more than 800 varieties in 79 countries utilizing germplasm
and breeding lines from ICRISAT. Morphological mutants
such as dwarfs, and leaf and stem variants identified during
characterization have been extensively used in academic
studies.
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Hybrid Parents
Research Consortium
Public–private partnerships produce scientific
innovations and products for the poor
Crop improvement programs at ICRISAT work with
partners to develop improved cultivars, including
varieties, hybrids and hybrid parents that have potential
for increased yields of grain and/or fodder on farmers’
fields, leading to enhanced crop productivity and
production. These partners include national agricultural
research systems (NARS), advanced research institutes
(ARIs) in developing and developed countries, public and
private sector seed companies and farmers.
ICRISAT’s crop improvement research is supported
by funds from public and philanthropic donors and,
more recently to some extent, from the private sector.
Research products that include breeding material, hybrid
parents, unfinished varieties and trait-based populations
are in the public domain as international public goods
(IPGs), and are accessible to public research institutions
and private seed companies. Between 1976 and 2011,
partners in 79 countries released over 800 cultivars
(varieties and hybrids) using germplasm and breeding
material from ICRISAT.
The innovation
ICRISAT set up the Hybrid Parents Research Consortium
(HPRC) in 2000, as a partnership model for sorghum and
pearl millet hybrid parents’ research. Pigeonpea was
included in the consortium in 2004. This Consortium
explicitly recognizes the value of private sector seed
companies as partners in hybrid cultivar development,
seed production and marketing of hybrid seeds. Private
seed companies contribute small grants annually (for a
crop consortium under a 5-year timeframe) to support
core crop improvement research at ICRISAT. All ICRISATbred
materials remain in the public domain as IPGs and
no seed company has exclusive rights.
The HPRC is currently in its third phase. Mutually agreed
guidelines apply to its operations, including an Advisory
Committee comprising representatives from the private
sector and ICRISAT.
Through the Standard Material Transfer Agreement,
scientists in public research institutions have free access
to the improved breeding materials developed by the
consortia. Breeding materials under development are
initially available only to HPRC members in the private
sector. Non-members have access to parents of released
hybrids (on payment of designated fees) three years
after these have been provided to Consortium members.
There is no lateral transfer of these materials, and
ICRISAT deals with all seed requests.
Private sector seed companies that are members of
the Consortium and all public sector institutions are
invited to participate in field days at ICRISAT to select
the materials of their choice at any stage of their
development from early generation segregating
materials to near-finished hybrid parental lines. From
time to time, these seed companies provide ICRISAT with
feedback on the performance of ICRISAT-developed
materials and on farmers’ needs and preferences.
The impact
A formal survey of the impacts of ICRISAT’s hybrid
parents’ research on hybrid development in the public
and private sector seed companies (based in India) was
undertaken in 2012.
In sorghum, five member companies of the consortium
are based outside India. Six companies are within
India, of which four (67%) directly utilized the parental
lines of ICRISAT germplasm. Of the 14 new hybrids
commercialized by private sector partners, eight (57%)
were developed using ICRISAT-bred materials (A-, B- or
R-lines). ICRISAT contributed 100% of the breeding
materials used by two seed companies to develop
six hybrids; another two companies received a 50%
contribution used to develop four hybrids. The longevity
of the hybrids developed using ICRISAT-bred genetic
materials was 8–20 years in the market, compared with
3–7 years for the hybrids of non-ICRISAT-bred lines,
(except for one hybrid which has been cultivated for the
last 14 years). ICRISAT-bred materials had a high impact
in terms of the number of hybrids developed and their
sustainability in the market.
Twenty-one companies producing pearl millet seed
were surveyed in India. Seven used 100% ICRISAT-bred
parental lines to develop 44 hybrids, while another
six companies used between 17 and 86% of ICRISAT
parental lines to develop 18 hybrids. A total of 103
hybrids were developed between 2000 and 2010 by the
seed companies, of which 62 (60%) used ICRISAT-bred
materials (A-, B- or R-lines). The longevity of the hybrids
developed from ICRISAT-bred genetic materials ranged
from 2–10 years in the market, mostly due to resistance
to downy mildew disease. This compared well to the
hybrids of non-ICRISAT-bred lines, whose longevity
ranged from 2–6 years. One hybrid developed using
ICRISAT-bred parental lines has been in the market for 20
years and another for 26 years. Results indicate that the
hybrids developed using ICRISAT-bred materials had a
high impact in terms of numbers and sustainability.
In pigeonpea, seven seed companies are members of
the consortium, of which one is from outside India.
Between 2009 and 2011, several ICRISAT-bred materials
(A-, B- and R-lines) were supplied to begin the hybrid
breeding program, as well as promising hybrids for
evaluation and promotion. The evaluation of hybrids by
these seed companies provided useful insights, which
led to the release of hybrid ICPH 2671 in December
2010 by the State Variety Release Committee in Madhya
Pradesh. Two promising hybrids (ICPH 2740 and ICPH
3762) have been promoted for further evaluation in
farmers’ fields.
Concerted efforts are underway by seed companies
to produce pigeonpea hybrids. Since hybrid seed
production is dependent on the population of insect
pollinators, ICRISAT has provided information on
specific ecologies suitable for hybrid seed production to the seed companies. Pigeonpea hybrids are now on the
verge of commercialization and soon farmers will reap
the benefits of this technology.
The HPRC has enabled ICRISAT to strengthen linkages
with private sector seed companies within and outside
India, which in turn have benefited tremendously from
the partnership. Farmers too have benefited, through
access to seed of improved hybrids at affordable costs,
and led to enhanced incomes.
This public–private partnership is the first in the CGIAR
to tap private sector funds for public research and
optimize synergies between them to swiftly move
research products to farmers. It was also the precursor
for the Agribusiness Innovation Platform at ICRISAT.
Other CGIAR Centers have since used the HPRC model in
hybrid parents research.
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Open access repository
An interoperable open access institutional repository
for ICRISAT knowledge products
Open access provides free, immediate and
permanent online access to the full text of
peer-reviewed research documents for anyone,
webwide, without any severe restrictions on use. It
has had a great influence on science and scholarship.
Open access to research information related to
agriculture is critical as it has the power to promote
greater distribution of knowledge and enhances the
potential for innovation.
Roughly 25,000 peer-reviewed periodicals are
published around the world. According to CAB
Abstracts, agricultural and related research is
reported in 7,500 periodicals published in many
countries. Other than a few hundred open access
journals, many of these 7,500 are commercial. In
addition to core journals, agricultural research
information is scattered in grey documents such as
research reports, think-tank assessments, theses,
conference proceedings, monographs and field
notes.
Over the last 30 years, escalating journal prices
have deterred academic and research libraries
in developing and developed countries from
subscribing. Traditional, subscription-based journals
limit access to research information by treating
knowledge that is essentially a public good as
a commodity. Yet access to articles published in
journals reporting agricultural research is key for
agricultural researchers.
The toll-access journal system, set up some 350 years
ago, served us well until a few decades ago. Having
evolved, for historical reasons, largely to serve the
needs of North–North knowledge exchange, it
failed to recognize the aspirations of the South.
The value of South-to-North knowledge flow was
well demonstrated when the avian flu and swine
flu epidemics struck, when the speedy exchange of
research results and data was critical.
To overcome these problems and promote the idea of
open access research outputs, ICRISAT set up an open
access repository to make all documented knowledge
generated in the past four decades by its scientists
accessible to all. This enables the free flow of research
information between north and south, east and west,
helping research to progress much more effectively.
The innovation
Open access through an interoperable repository
system is an innovation – a clever use of web and
related technologies to enhance webwide visibility
of local research. The institutional repository is a
simple platform that facilitates local researchers
to archive their research outputs. The repository
platform adheres to internationally agreed standards
for metadata interoperability, enabling individual
institutional repositories easily to form part of a
global network.
ICRISAT’s first interoperable open access institutional
repository was set up in early 2009, using an open
source software called Dspace. Since May 2009,
when an institution-wide open access mandate was
endorsed, the repository’s holding has increased to
3,000 journal articles and institutional publications.
In order to improve the operation of the repository,
in May 2011 ICRISAT’s library made available all the
documents published in its 40 year history in a new,
customized repository (http://oar.icrisat.org) using an
open source software called EPrints.
In July 2012 the new repository held over
5,500 documents published since 1973, authored by
1,289 ICRISAT scientists. They include 3,418 journal
articles, 826 conference papers, 836 monographs,
234 book chapters and 191 theses. These documents
are the result of collaboration between ICRISAT
researchers and scientists in more than 90 countries
and have all been linked using Google Scholar.
Documents can be accessed and located in many
different ways. The results can be filtered by names
of collaborating institutions and countries and, where
available, the funding agency. A digital showcase of
ICRISAT’s research outputs, the repository is freely
accessible to all national agricultural research system
partners and other curious minds.
The impact
The repository metadata are harvested by special Open
Access Initiative (OAI) service providers such as OAIster,
Scientific Commons and BASE, while the contents of
the repository are indexed by search engines including
Google and Google Scholar. The bibliographic data of
the repository contents are also indexed by AGRIS. In July
2012, around 50% of the repository’s users were driven by
Google and 10% by Google Scholar. In all, the repository
has counted more than 75,000 downloads as of June 2012.
Every month, the repository serves no fewer than
3,500 unique visitors from many countries. Excluding
India, the top 10 countries to use it are the USA,
France, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Germany, Iran, United
Kingdom, Japan, the Philippines and Kenya. The
repository has become a particularly valuable
resource for global agricultural researchers who are
working on chickpea, pigeonpea, sorghum, millets
and groundnut.
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Seed systems
in sub-Saharan
Africa
Facilitating access by poor
farmers to seeds of ICRISAT’s
improved varieties in sub-
Saharan Africa
As commercial agriculture grows in importance, seed
systems need to deliver high-quality seed of a range
of crops and varieties that suit both the consumption
needs of the rural population and market demands
of agro-processors. With increasing commercialization
of African agriculture, the balance between these
two needs is expected to shift toward the demands of
market-responsive processors and distributors.
Numerous constraints limit the performance of seed
systems in sub-Saharan Africa including limited access
to seed of new varieties; limited supplies of breeder, foundation and certified seed of farmer and marketpreferred
varieties; non-functional national variety
release committees; and the lack of enabling policy and
institutional environments. This has resulted in ad-hoc
public sector interventions that frequently impede
efforts to develop a sustainable agricultural input supply
system.
The innovation
ICRISAT is working with its partners to support the
development of open seed markets and local seed
companies that can supply quality seed of improved
varieties at affordable prices. The entrepreneurial spirit
that is alive in sub-Saharan Africa can be harnessed to
achieve this.
Since 2001, ICRISAT has arranged contract farming
for seed production through a seed revolving fund
supported by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID). To ensure quality, long-term
training in seed production has been linked to seed
revolving fund activities, through organizations such as
the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi
(NASFAM) and the Agricultural Seed Agency in Tanzania.
In eastern and southern Africa (ESA), six private seed
companies (two in Malawi and four in Tanzania) have
ventured into commercial seed production of legumes,
targeting smallholder farmers with small (1–2 kg) seed
packs.
In West and Central Africa, ICRISAT is supporting the
development of local seed companies under the West
Africa Seed Alliance. This aims to increase smallholder
yields and incomes through the competitive and reliable
provision of high quality affordable seed to smallholder farmers. Working in partnership with the Citizen’s
Network for Foreign Affairs, the project focuses on the
development of an agro-dealer network for input supply
and output marketing. The Seed Science Center at Iowa
State University is also collaborating in the project, with
an emphasis on seed trade harmonization.
The impact
Currently the combined efforts of ICRISAT and national
agricultural research systems provide 27 tons of the
five popular released varieties in Malawi each season
(about 5 tons of each). Until 2009 Pendo was the only
popular variety in Tanzania and breeder seed production
of this variety was spread across three major research
stations and one farmer training center. Achievement
of the target of at least 1 ton production per center has
guaranteed 5 tons of Pendo breeder seed per year.
The ICRISAT seed revolving fund (SRF) for ESA, which
has been in operation for the past 12 years, has met
foundation and breeder seed requirements, producing
approximately 185 tons of foundation seed and 12 tons
of breeder seed per season. With additional funding
from Irish Aid in 2009, the SRF increased its production
to make seed available to the Government of Malawi’s
Farm Input Subsidy Program through a number of seed
companies. Since 2005, using a contract system with
large and smallholder farmer groups and collaborating
partners, the ICRISAT SRF has produced about 707 tons
of foundation seeds and 1,382 tons of certified seeds of
five improved groundnut varieties released in Malawi.
Within the same period, the fund also produced 197 tons
of foundation seeds and 12 tons of seeds of four
pigeonpea varieties released in Malawi.
In Tanzania, certified seed is produced by over 100
farmer groups, resulting in the production of 376 tons
of certified groundnut seed since the project began. In
Malawi, the system includes farmer clubs, farmer field
schools and farmer marketing groups linked to NASFAM.
Similarly, more than 2,808 tons of certified groundnut
seeds have been produced in Malawi involving more
than 450 farmers linked to the non-governmental
organization CARE, 233 farmers linked to NASFAM, and 73 farmers linked to the Millennium Villages Project,
during the past 4 years of Tropical Legumes II project
partnerships.
To ensure the efficient delivery of seed at low and
affordable cost to end-users in West Africa, research
institutions were tasked with producing breeder and
foundation seed as part of the Groundnut Seed Project
funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (2003–
2007). This resulted in the production of more than
33 tons of breeder seed and 107 tons of foundation
seed. In addition, community-based organizations
produced more than 130 tons of certified seed and over
1,000 tons of Quality Declared Seed.
Through the project, 124 farmers’ associations and
98 small farmers were trained in seed production
technologies and small scale seed business skills, and
were empowered in certified seed production and
delivery schemes. When the project ended in 2007, some
farmers’ organizations, such as the women’s association
in Wakoro, Mali, voluntarily continued the scheme.
Similarly in Niger, five women’s associations in Hankoura
and two women’s associations in Faska were empowered
in seed production and marketing of small seed packs.
Many countries show encouraging levels of adoption of
improved varieties. In Mali, as a result of improved seed
availability and accessibility for farmers, about 27% of
the total area is planted with improved varieties. The
adoption rate of improved varieties is estimated at 57%
of the total area in Malawi, 35% in Tanzania, 59% in
selected districts of Uganda, 57% in Zambia, and 22%
of the total groundnut area in Nigeria. The reductions
in unit costs of improved varieties range from 21% in
Malawi to 44% in Uganda, compared to local varieties.
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Our partners
Accion Fraterna, Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India
Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University (ANGRAU),
Hyderabad, India
Adriana Seed Company, Londrina, PR Londrina, Brazil
Advanced Research Institutes (ARIs) in participating
countries
Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Gulbarga
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Andhra Pradesh State Seeds Development Corporation Ltd
(APSSDC)
BAIF Development Research Foundation (formerly
Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation)
Beijing Genome Institute (BGI), Shenzhen, China
Beijing Genome Institute (BGI), USA
Bhopal Yuva Paryavaran & Sikshan Sansthan (BYPASS)
Biogene Agritech, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Bioseeds Research India Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, Andhra
Pradesh
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere (CARE)
Conseil Ouest Africain pour la Recherche et le
Développement Agricole/West and Central African
Council for Agricultural Research and Development
(CORAF/WECARD)
Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA),
India
CGIAR Consortium
CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme (GCP)
Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University
(CCSHAU), Hisar, Haryana, India
Department of Agriculture, Andhra Pradesh, India
Department of Agriculture, India
Department of Agriculture, Thailand
Department of Agricultural Research, Myanmar
Department of Land Development (DoLD), Thailand
Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV), Akola
Embrapa - Brazilian Agricultural Research Cooperation
(Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO)
Global Crops Diversity Trust, Rome
IER – The Malian Institut d’Economie Rurale
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR), India
International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry
Areas (ICARDA)
International Cooperation Centre for Agronomic Research
for Development (CIRAD), France
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Institute for Agricultural Research, Nigeria
Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research,
Aberystwyth
Institut National de l’Environment et des Recherches
Agricoles (INERA), Burkina Faso
Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles, Senegal
Irish Aid
John Innes Centre, Norwich
Maharashtra Krishi Vidyapeeth (MKV), Parbhani
Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation (MSSC)
Millennium Villages Project
Monsanto Company
Myanmar Agriculture Service (MAS)
National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of
participating countries
National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), India
National Center for Genome Resources, Santa Fe, New
Mexico, USA
National Food Security Mission, India
National Seeds Corporation (NSC), India
National Smallholder Farmer Association of Malawi
(NASFAM)
National University of Ireland, Galway
Nimbkar Seeds Pvt Ltd, Phaltan, Maharashtra
Non-government organizations (NGOs), local agricultural
centers and farmer organizations in participating
countries and regions
Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), Ghana
SM Sehgal Foundation, Hyderabad
State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), India
State Farms Corporation of India Ltd (SFCI)
University of California, Davis
University of Copenhagen
University of Georgia
University of North Carolina
University of Wales, Bangor, UK
United States Agency for International Development
(USAID)
Vibha Agrotech Ltd, Madhapur, HyderabadVietnam
Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS)
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The contributors
A Ashok Kumar, Senior Scientist (Sorghum Breeding)
Belum VS Reddy, Principal Scientist (Breeding)
Bonny Ntare, Assistant Director, WCA, and Principal Scientist (Breeding, Grain Legumes)
CLL Gowda, Research Program Director (Grain Legumes)
C Thomas Hash, Principal Scientist (Breeding)
Emmanuel Monyo, Principal Scientist (Breeding, Grain Legumes)
Eva Weltzien, Principal Scientist (Sorghum Breeding & Genetic Resources, Dryland Cereals)
Farid Waliyar, Director, ICRISAT-WCA
Fred Rattunde, Principal Scientist (Sorghum Breeding & Genetic Resources, Dryland Cereals)
Hari Sudini, Scientist (Groundnut Pathology)
Hari Upadhyaya, Assistant Research Program Director (Grain Legumes) & Principal Scientist and Head, Gene Bank
Jupiter Ndjeunga, Principal Scientist (Markets, Institutions and Policies)
KB Saxena, Principal Scientist (Pigeonpea Breeding)
Kizito Mazvimavi, Head, Impact Assessment Office
KN Rai, Principal Scientist (Millet Breeding) and Director, HarvestPlus-India Biofortification
Mahamadou Gandah, Project Coordinator, AGRA Microdosing Project and Country Representative, ICRISAT-Niger
Maria Isabel Vales, Principal Scientist (Pigeonpea Breeding)
Mary Mgonja, Principal Scientist (Breeding, Dryland Cereals)
M Cynthia Bantilan, Research Program Director (Markets, Institutions and Policies)
M Madhan, Manager, Library and Information Services
Moses Siambi, Principal Scientist (Agronomy) and Country Representative, ICRISAT-Malawi
NVPR Ganga Rao, Scientist (Breeding, Grain Legumes)
Peter Craufurd, Research Program Director (Resilient Dryland Systems)
P Janila, Scientist (Groundnut Breeding)
Pooran Gaur, Principal Scientist (Breeding)
P Srinivasa Rao, Scientist (Sorghum Breeding)
Rajeev Varshney, Principal Scientist (Applied Genomics Laboratory) & Leader, Sub-Program 2,
Generation Challenge Program
RK Saxena, Visiting Scientist (Genomics)
Said Silim, Director, ICRISAT-ESA
SK Gupta, Senior Scientist (Pearl Millet Breeding)
Shyam Nigam, Principal Scientist (Breeding)
Suhas Wani, Principal Scientist (Watersheds)
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A member of the CGIAR
Consortium