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

In each project, the activities were completed and results documented, or we have been able
to attract additional funding to support continued research efforts.
New mainstream special projects starting since last MTP submission - Major new
special projects (over $500,000 total budget) approved in 2008/2009, and that support our
strategic efforts include the following.
We have strengthened our efforts in Project 1 to investigate changes at the household level
through two projects, one funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on “Tracking
Change in Rural Poverty in Household and Village Economies in South Asia”, and a second
project supporting the study of adaptation strategies to climate change at the household level
in South Asia funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Our genetic resources efforts in SSA under Projects 2 and 3 have been enhanced by two new
special projects: a GTZ-funded project to enhance community management of crop diversity of
pearl millet in West Africa; and an ACIAR-funded project to develop MAS-bred sorghum
varieties using existing staygreen QTLs and by assessing sorghum germplasm for traits related
to a better adaptation to the post rainy season environment, initiatives that can have potential
spill-over effects to Project 3 and 4.
Through a joint project with the Indian Department of Biotechnology, we are establishing a
platform for the translational research on transgenic crops, principally under Project 2, but
with significant impacts on our efforts to develop and deliver transgenic crops under Projects
3 to 6.
Our crop improvement research under Projects 3 to 6 continues to increase its special project
support through several projects, including one addressing one of the major biotic constraints
of legume production by a new project from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture focused on
exploiting host plant resistance to pod borers in chickpea and pigeonpea. The release in 2008
of the first hybrid production system in pigeonpea is being scaled up by an Indian Ministry of
Agriculture project to develop improved parental lines for pigeonpea hybrids. Another Ministry
of Agriculture of India project focuses on the improvement of chickpea production in rainfed
rice fallow land. An IFAD project helps us to continue our efforts to improve legume production
by poor farmers in rainfed areas of Asia.
Our research in the use of sweet sorghum as a multi-purpose crop for food, feed, fodder and
fuel in Project 5 is enhanced by three projects: one from the EU with CIRAD as the Lead
Institute, a second from India under the National Agricultural Initiative Program, and a third
from IFAD.
In Project 6, an ACIAR project to improve post-rainy season sorghum to meet the growing
demand for grain and fodder in India has been initiated with partners in the Indian national
program and Australian universities.
We continue to scale-up and out our community-based watersheds research in Project 9
through newly supported projects from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture on macromanagement
of community watershed systems. Two projects from the Sir Dorabji Trust in
India are now supporting our work in increasing agricultural productivity of farming systems in
central India and to improve livelihoods in two States of India through community watersheds.
Slower than Expected Progress in Previous MTP
The expected funding of the major activities (e.g., Phase II of the Desert Margins Program)
proposed in MTP Project 8 “Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Management of Water, Land,
Livestock and Forest Resources, particularly at the Desert Margins of the Sahel and the
drylands of ESA” has not been received, nor is forecast to be received in 2009. In addition, the
ICRISAT MTP 2010-12 5