ICRISAT HAppenings

22 June 2012

No. 1524

Dr Dar (4th from left) during a courtesy meeting with Nigerian Agriculture Minister Dr Adesina (5th from left).

Also seen in the picture are (L to R) Dr Ajeigbe, Dr Waliyar, Prof Abubakar, Prof Mokwunye, Minister of State Agriculture Alh Bukar Tijani and Prof Obilana.

Partnership for progress

ICRISAT and Nigeria strengthen ties towards sustainable agricultural development Agriculture is vital to the Nigerian economy as it provides employment for almost 70% of its population. Sorghum, pearl millet and groundnut have become major sources of livelihood for smallholder farmers and significantly contribute to the country’s food security.

A

ddressing critical agricultural development challenges through partnership was the focus of Director General William Dar’s recent courtesy meeting with Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Abuja, Nigeria on 20 June.

On top of the agenda was strengthening ICRISAT’s research-for-development (R4D) activities in Nigeria.

Dr Adesina, a former staff of ICRISAT, stated that agricultural development is now the government’s highest priority. He added that they are banking on Nigeria’s collaboration with ICRISAT to help attain food self-sufficiency, and to transform agriculture into a business-oriented sector through sorghum, millet and groundnut value chains.

Dr Adesina reported that Nigeria is the number one producer of food sorghum in the world, but hopes to to page 2 ...4

ICRISAT and Nigeria strengthen ties....from page 1 produce an additional 2 million metric tons by 2015.

In the sorghum value chain, he reiterated Nigeria’s need for assistance from ICRISAT in the areas of breeding, seed system development, and mobilization of improved technologies. He further noted that Nigeria used to be the number one exporter of groundnut in the 1960s and was famous for its groundnut pyramids in the northern part of the country. The Ministry, he said, hopes to collaborate with ICRISAT in bringing the groundnut pyramid back, citing as an example ICRISAT’s impact in Malawi on groundnut production and exports.

In response, Dr Dar reaffirmed ICRISAT’s commitment to help develop Nigeria’s agriculture through R4D projects embracing the inclusive market-oriented development (IMOD) approach. He shared ICRISAT’s achievements in India in terms of generating and scaling up agricultural innovations such as community-based integrated soil and water management. The meeting identified groundnut and sorghum value chains as areas where ICRISAT can have an immediate impact in Nigeria.

On the other hand, Honorable Minister of State Agriculture, Alh Bukar Tijjani, pointed on the

Dr Dar speaking during the meeting.

success of the PROMISSO project in promoting three of ICRISAT’s mandate crops – sorghum, millet and groundnut – which are major food and cash crops of more than 50% (80 million) Nigerians.

During the meeting, Dr Dar submitted a concept note on “Rebuilding the groundnut pyramids: boosting farmers’ income through new groundnut varieties, cropping systems and processing technologies in Nigeria” to Dr Adesina.

Dr Dar was accompanied by Dr Farid Waliyar (Regional Director, West and Central Africa), Dr Uzo Mokwunye (former ICRISAT Board Chair) and Dr Hakeem Ajeigbe (Nigeria Country Representative). Also in attendance during the meeting were Prof BY Abubakar, Executive Secretary of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN); Team Leader of the Nigeria sorghum transformation value chain, Prof Baba Obilana (also a former ICRISAT sorghum breeder), several directors in the Ministry and members of the sorghum transformation value chain.

Dr Dar presenting the ICRISAT-Nigeria flyer to Prof Abubakar (2nd from right), with Dr Waliyar (extreme right) and Dr Mokwunye (extreme left).

2

ICRISAT Happenings 22 June 2012/1524

Dr Dar and his team also visited ARCN where they were received by Executive Secretary Abubakar, the Director of Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), and other Directors in ARCN. Discussions focused on strengthening ICRISAT’s collaborative agricultural R4D activities with Nigerian research institutes. g

ICRISAT-HOPE helps defy drought and sustain sorghum yields

I

nterventions of the ICRISAT-HOPE Dryland Cereals project are defying drought and sustaining sorghum crop yield in Maharashtra state of India. Both the Marathwada and Western Maharashtra regions of the state, known as the sorghum bowl of India, reeled under extreme drought in the 2011-12 post rainy season.

However, the use of improved cultivars, crop and drought management practices, and input and output market linkages under the HOPE project in the last three years helped more than 25,000 sorghum farmers get an average 40% higher grain yields and 20% higher fodder yields compared to the use of local varieties.

Project interventions also helped farmers overcome high climatic variability during the three years of project implementation. Additionally, higher market price (over USD 0.60 kg-1) in 2012 greatly boosted farmers’ incomes from sorghum.

The BMGF-funded HOPE Dryland Cereals project (sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet) is implemented in 11 countries including India. ICRISAT is the lead center, with the Marathwada Agricultural University (MAU), Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV) and Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR) as partners for sorghum in India. The project completed three years of implementation and the 3rd annual progress review and workplan development meeting was organized at the College of Agriculture, Pune in Maharashtra on 14-15 June.

Participants of the project meeting.

HOPE Dryland Cereals project meeting at Pune.

In his opening address, Vice Chancellor of MPKV Dr TA More commended the dedicated efforts by ICRISAT and partner institution scientists working under the project, particularly in transferring technologies and making a difference in the lives of more than 25000 farmers in the last 3 years. Eva Weltzien from HOPE management observed that the good work done in India should be well documented and published for the benefit of all stakeholders, while George Okwach, HOPE project manager appreciated the overall progress of the HOPE project in South Asia (SA).

SR Gadakh from MPKV presented highlights of the benefits to smallholder sorghum farmers, SP Mehtre on sorghum research progress, Pokharkar on targeting, Sachin More on marketing, and Gadakh and Mehtre on delivery for adoption.

The workplan for the fourth year was developed and presented by ICRISAT’s Nagaraj, Belum, Partha and Ashok, and was approved after thorough discussions. For the first time, farmers were made a part of the work planning meeting.

Lewis Mughogho and Brhane Gebrekidan, HOPE Project Advisory Board (PAB) members congratulated the sorghum team in SA for the great achievements in developing technologies which can be shared with teams in sub-Saharan Africa. g

ICRISAT Happenings 22 June 2012/1524

3

ICRISAT participates in high-level international organizing committee meeting in Brazil

Participants of the high-level international organizing committee meeting in Brazil.

D

espite repeated occurrences of drought throughout human history and the large- scale impacts on various socio-economic sectors, no concerted efforts have been made to initiate a dialogue on the formulation and adoption of national drought policies. With the leadership of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in collaboration with various UN agencies, international and regional organizations, and key national agencies, a Highlevel Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) has been planned on March 2013 in Geneva. As an initial step, a preparatory High-level International Organizing Committee (HIOC) meeting was organized at Brasilia, Brazil on 11-12 June.

Dr Naveen P Singh of the Research Program on Markets, Institution & Policies, represented ICRISAT to

the HIOC and shared the Institute’s various drought mitigation programs/plans in the drylands, as well as constraints and bottlenecks in the implementation of such programs. He was also involved in developing the structure of the proposed HMNDP wherein intricacies of drought and its linkages with science and policy will be deliberated. The overarching theme of HMNDP, to be conducted in two segments, shall be “reducing societal vulnerability – helping society (communities and sectors) to cope with drought through National Drought Policy.”

The HMNDP outcome is envisioned to enable governments to adopt policies that engender cooperation and coordination at all levels of governments in order to increase their capacity to cope with extended periods of water scarcity in the event of a drought to create more drought resilient societies. g

ICRISAT-assisted e-Courses now available online e-Courses for the BVSc and AH degree programs developed by the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TNVASU), Chennai were released recently at a function organized by ICAR at TNAU, Coimbatore. The e-Courses are now available at www.elearnvet.net. The offline version in the form of DVDs was also released.

ICRISAT played a crucial role in building the capacity of the TNVASU teachers to develop the e-Courses, training 79 content developers (in two 4

ICRISAT Happenings 22 June 2012/1524

batches) for five days in 2008. Through an email, Dr M Thirunavukkarasu, Consortium Principal Investigator at TNVASU, acknowledged the role played by ICRISAT in training the teachers, who were novices otherwise, in the nuances of e-Course development. He particularly thanked Drs V Balaji and B Diwakar for their inputs. In total, ICAR’s National Innovation Project (NAIP) has supported the development of e-Courses for seven degree programs in agriculture, where ICRISAT has also provided trainings. g

ICRISAT-aWhere data management project kicks off

S

cientists from the ICRISAT-HOPE and Tropical Legumes II projects held an ICRISAT-aWhere data management project kick-off meeting in Nairobi on 8 June. This is following an agreement between ICRISAT and aWhere Inc to use the aWhere data management platform for the HOPE and TLII projects (both funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) for collating, analyzing, and sharing data and information with partners, and to allow BMGF Program Officers to monitor the project activities virtually. aWhere is a data management platform that enables agricultural research and extension efforts to be analyzed, and results monitored and measured down to the farm, field, village, or household while simultaneously allowing those results to be available to the public.

The meeting was organized and facilitated by Dileepkumar Guntuku, Global Leader, ICRISAT’s Knowledge Sharing and Innovation. At the meeting, aWhere CEO, John Corbett, gave an overview of the data management platform and how it brings transparency and accountability by connecting project efforts with funding sources. He added that the platform transforms complex data from many sources into actionable insight through comprehensive data collection, data integration, and location intelligence technologies. The platform provides information-rich, interactive applications, visualizations and reports, and requires minimal training to use.

Data management project kick-off meeting in Nairobi.

A total of 36 scientists (17 onsite and 19 virtual) participated in the meeting. Broadcasted through the KSI connect platform, virtual participants were able to watch the entire meeting and also allowed them to interact with onsite participants through the chat window. Participants from HOPE and TLII projects include Said Silim, Ganga Rao, Alastair Orr, George Okwach, Mary Mgonja, Henry Ojulong, and Dave Harris. They were joined by colleagues from ICRISAT WCA and Patancheru, IITA and CIAT through virtual streaming. A design workshop will be held later where all key personnel and objective leaders of the two projects will contribute to the design and requirement gathering. g

Informal recognition for support services staff

ICRISAT support services staff with HRO Director Hector Hernandez

Some 30 staff members from the Transport Services, Food and Housing, Security Services and SMCO were recognized by HRO Director Hector Hernandez on 15 June for exceeding the expectations of the 34 participants and trainers of the recently concluded “Women’s Leadership and Management Workshop” hosted by ICRISAT for the CGIAR, FAO and other partner institutions around the globe. Lots of appreciative comments and observations were communicated by the 31 workshop participants from different centers and the 4 faculty members from the US-based TRG Inc. In turn, management through the HRO Director congratulated the ICRISAT support staff for a job well done. g ICRISAT Happenings 22 June 2012/1524

5

Workshop on voice-KVK and KVK-Net

I

CRISAT’s KSI in collaboration with IITKanpur organized a one-day workshop on 15 June to sensitize Krishi Vigyana Kendra (KVK) scientists of Zone VIII on virtual extension activity using the voice message broadcasting platform ‘vKVK’. vKVK was developed to connect Krishi Vigyan Kendras with the farmers via internet and mobile phones.

A knowledge networking site developed by the IITK for sharing of experiences among scientists of KVKs called ‘KVK-Net’ was also demonstrated. Twenty three scientists from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala participated in the workshop.

The workshop coordinated by Dr N T Yaduraju, Principal Scientist (ICT4D), was inaugurated by

Participants of the workshop at Patancheru.

DDG Dave Hoisington. ICRISAT’s Dr Kiran Yadav and Mr Jeetendra Kumar, along with Dr Shravan Shukla from IIT-Kanpur and Dr CY Manikanhaiya from the Zonal Project Directorate, Kanpur served as resource persons. g

Agropedia-II Bags eWorld Forum Award 2012

T

he NAIP- ICAR funded consortium project “Engaging Farmers, Enriching Knowledge: Agropedia Phase II” bagged the eWorld Forum Award 2012 as the best ICT-enabled agriculture initiative of the year. Dr LB Hugar of the University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), Raichur received the award on behalf of Team Agropedia at a function held in New Delhi on 15 June. The award is given primarily to acknowledge unique and innovative

Dr Hugar (left) receiving the award on behalf of Team Agropedia.

6

ICRISAT Happenings 22 June 2012/1524

initiatives in the use of ICT4D, and is sponsored by e-Gov Magazine in cooperation with the Department of Telecommunications and Electronics and the Department of Information Technology (IT) under the Ministry of Communication and IT, Government of India. Agropedia (Phase-I) also bagged the eWorld Forum Award back in 2009. The first phase of the project was led by ICRISAT. The Agropedia Phase II project launched in April 2011 has recorded excellent progress in such a short time. The lead partner, IIT-Kanpur, conceived and developed vKVK – an innovative platform for sending agro-advisories either as text or voice message in local dialect directly to the farmers’ mobile phones. This technology was pilot tested involving over 20,000 farmers in 30 KVKs across the country during 2011-12. ICRISAT tested the platform successfully involving over 3000 farmers located in four districts in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. ICAR is planning to upscale the project to cover all the 630 KVKs in the 12th Five Year Plan. g

Rainfall and reservoirs at ICRISAT

R

ainy season 2012 which has become crucial for experimental plantings at ICRISAT has started well as major reservoirs (Campus Lake, Lake ICRISAT and Suri Sehghal Lake) receive good inflows, with the Campus Lake even reaching its full capacity.

A view of Campus Lake.

This is very unique in the history of ICRISAT as 163 mm of rainfall was received on the very first day of south west monsoon.

We wish and hope that this year we continue to receive sufficient and well-distributed rainfall. g

New appointments International Special Project Staff (SPS) cadre: SM Karuppanchetty, Chief Operating Officer – Agri Business Incubator Program, AIP, from 1 January.

Dr A Ashok Kumar, Senior Scientist (Sorghum Breeding), Research Program – Dryland Cereals, from 1 June.

Scientific and Managerial Group (SMG) cadre: Dr KH Anantha, Research Program – Resilient Dryland Systems as Scientist - Watersheds from 1 June.

Dr Kaushal K Garg, Research Program – Resilient Dryland Systems as Scientist - Watersheds from 1 June Mr S Aravazhi, as Manager, Agri-Business Incubator Program from 1 May. He is also Acting Chief Operating Officer, Innovation and Partnership Program (IPP), AIP Mr Bijoo Davis, Farm, Engineering and Transport Services (FETS) as Manager (Electrical and Air-conditioning), from 1 June.

Team ICRISAT congratulates them and wishes them all the best. g

Urology camp on 26 June FMU is organizing a Urology Screening Camp on Tuesday 26 June, 1230-1400 hrs at the Field Medical Unit (FMU) to be administered by Dr V Sasanka, MS,M.Ch, Urologist from the STAR Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. Staff members

suffering from recurrent urinary infections, kidney stones and prostate problems can register for a free consultation at extension 2638 by 22 June.

Dr Sasanka will also give a seminar on the topic “Prevention of Urinary Infections & Kidney Stones” on the same day, 1400 hr, at 212 Conference Hall. g

ICRISAT Happenings 22 June 2012/1524

7

AVRDC DG at ICRISAT

A former ICRISAT colleague, Dr Dyno Keatinge (left), Director General of the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), dropped by Patancheru before participating in a McGill conference on human nutrition in Delhi this week. With him in the picture are SMCO Director Rex Navarro and HRO Director Hector Hernandez.

Visitors’ Log 18 June: Four research scholars through LSU. 21 June: Fifty farmers from Yadagiri District, Karnataka; 40 Odisha ‘pani panchayat’ office bearers through the Land Management Training and Research Institute (WALAMTARI); 40 farmers

through the Resilient Dryland System program; and Dr Narendra Kumar and Dr B Kishore, IAS officers.

22 June: Ms Joanna Kane Potaka from the International Water Management Institute and Mr Parkie Mbozi from Zambia.

Thought for the week “If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.”

– Thomas A. Edison