ICRISAT - ICRISAT: Medium Term Plan 2010-12 - 2010-12

Semi-Arid Tropics by markedly increasing the availability of time-series district-, household-,
individual-, and field-level data. It seeks to improve the quantity and quality of time-series
meso- and micro-data so that decision-making is based on evidence on impacts on the poor.
In Asia, the project is driven by three initiatives: the compilation of longitudinal household,
individual, and field data over five years in 42 villages in India and Bangladesh, the assembly
of secondary meso-level agricultural data into integrated data bases for distribution, and the
nurturing of policy and data analysis, and capacity building. In West Africa, the project is
driven by 2 initiatives: the compilation of longitudinal household, individual and field data over
3 years in 20 villages in Niegr and Burkina Faso and the data analysis and capacity building.
This multi-disciplinary study builds on the unique databases already developed and will add
considerable value to them. It will provide a distinctive social science laboratory to address
contemporary issues related to institutional, policy and technological changes and their actual
past and potential scope to benefit the poor. It will also allow for innovative quantitative and
qualitative analysis of rural poverty that offers new insights into producing a forward looking
and policy oriented knowledge base and decision support system.
The project/study has the ability to magnetize the best and brightest in the social sciences
globally to conduct research on the most impoverished regions of the developing world and
establish a longitudinal panel data for the two countries in Asia (India and Bangladesh) and 2
countries in West Africa (Niger and Burkina Faso), will further serve as an exemplar for other
national programs in developing countries. Having the opportunity that the VLS approach
affords to periodically revisit the same households and villages over cropping seasons and
years is an exciting prospect for practitioners and researchers alike. The potential for dynamic
ground truthing is a fertile environment for the generation of ideas.
International Public Goods
Methodologies, tools and other IPGs that have applicability beyond one nations borders.
The projects outputs are often globally derived, building on ICRISAT’s strengths throughout
the SAT and it delivers clear examples of international public goods (IPGs).
These are:
• Village Level Studies (VLS): overall methodology, risk preferences, estimation of time
preference, research and policy findings. The VLS database which has been historically
a vital IPG used by international partners from the broadest spectrum
• Research evaluation and impact assessment (REIA): methodology, training modules
• Future outlooks and development opportunities in SAT agriculture identified through
strategic assessments
• Institutional innovations for reducing risks and transaction costs in input and output
markets
• Ways to linking market and livelihood analysis with priority setting and technology
design
• Decision tools and models for evaluation of options for sustainable intensification and
diversification of SAT agriculture
• Producers and consumers’ preferences for dryland legumes and cereals in intermediate
and end user markets and implications for technology design
• Seed policy options to facilitate policy harmonization, market development and trade to
ensure sustained access to quality seed of improved varieties by farmers
Elaboration of Partners Roles
The national program partners participate in project planning and implementation as well as in
training and capacity building. The evolving network of social scientists adapts methods
developed by ICRISAT while policy makers use alternative development pathways particularly
for pro-poor policies and risk management strategies. Higher degree students will be
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