ICRISAT Happenings (16 May 2014)

ICRISAT

Happenings

16 May 2014 No. 1623

In-house Newsletter

Photo: ICRISAT

NAIP farmer beneficiaries shared their success stories with fellow farmers to promote new technologies and agri-ventures during the start of the Krishi Parivartan Yatra at ICRISAT.

Farmers on a journey to share new agri-ventures to boost Indian agriculture

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train journey to promote cross learning among farmers across India was kick-started by ICRISAT with its hosting of the first of five Agro-tech and business opportunities expos to take place in five cities traversing through Hyderabad, Nagpur, Bhopal, Mathura and New Delhi.

Krishi Parivartan Yatra (meaning, a journey of agricultural transformation) took 50 farmers and entrepreneurs who are beneficiaries of the World Bank-funded National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), on a five-city tour to share new technologies and agri-ventures with fellow farmers.

The first expo held at ICRISAT on 11 May showcased the best of innovations and enterprises developed

through NAIP. Parallel sessions and discussions were held, where NAIP farmer beneficiaries shared their success stories with about 200 farmers and entrepreneurs and promoted the tremendous potential of agribusiness in boosting the transformation of Indian agriculture. The train journey was then flagged from the ICRISAT headquarters in Hyderabad for the five-city tour. “Innovation in agriculture is widely considered as the key to achieve food security. To actualize this vast untapped potential of Indian agriculture, this Krishi Parivartan Yatra is being organized to bring to the fore, the unlimited opportunities that agriculture and agribusiness offer,� said Dr D Rama Rao, National Director, NAIP at the inaugural session of the Yatra.

Farmers on a journey to share new agri-ventures...from page 1 “We believe smallholder farming in the drylands can be prosperous. And that is why we are engaged in promoting entrepreneurship and agribusiness among the rural communities” said Ms Joanna Kane-Potaka, Strategic Marketing and Communication Director, representing ICRISAT Director General Dr William Dar.

Photo: ICRISAT

“ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Mr SM Karuppanchetty delivering his address in the presence of other dignitaries.

Incubation (ABI) Program NAIP-ICAR has embarked on this unique initiative to has supported more than 200 agribusiness ventures and benefited over 500,000 farmers in Andhra Pradesh promote awareness on the potential opportunities in agri-business, nurture agri-innovators for future and neighboring states. We have identified and generations, and promote the various business supported some very good innovative products and technologies and taken them to the market. The Krishi incubation services offered by NAIP’s Business Planning and Development (BPD) units. The BPDs Parivartan Yatra supports our goal to bring together which primarily act as agriculture incubation centers the best of agri-ventures and enterprises to improve help start-ups or entrepreneurs foraying into the livelihoods of smallholder farmers,” said Mr SM agribusiness to flourish by providing comprehensive Karuppanchetty, Chief Operating Officer, ICRISAT-ABI. business solutions.

The train journey, along with the just concluded Over the last five years, 22 agribusiness incubators Agri-Biz Idol Camps held in various cities on 5-9 May to reach out to the youth and start-up entrepreneurs, (BPDs) have been set up throughout India in agricultural universities and research institutes by will culminate in the Agri-Innovation Conclave on NAIP-ICAR with support and mentoring by ICRISAT18-19 May in New Delhi. The conclave aims to bring ABI. The success has led to ICRISAT and ICAR sharing together agribusiness experts, professionals, and their expertise across the continents to Africa, to other stakeholders from across the country, on a coordinate the setting up of food business incubators common platform to share NAIP’s success and and food technology laboratories in 10 African conceive path breaking ideas for strengthening the countries. g future of agribusiness in India.

Photo: R Showkat, ICRISAT

Ms J Kane-Potaka and Dr DR Rao of NAIP flagging off the Krishi Parivartan Yatra at the ICRISAT headquarters.

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Photo: ICRISAT

There was an active participation from women farmers at the event.

Hybrid pigeonpea technology gives bumper yield to farmers

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armers cultivating ICRISAT’s pigeonpea hybrids reported significant increases in yields, with the medium duration hybrids grown by farmers in five states in India giving 30-35% higher yields compared to local varieties. This was despite facing challenges such as resource scarcity, climate change and degradation of soil fertility in the five states.

These were shared during the Review Meeting on Hybrid Pigeonpea Seed Production, which brought together 50 smallholder farmers and seed producers at the ICRISAT headquarters on 14 May, to formulate a road map on the expansion of pigeonpea hybrid production in India.

During the meeting, Dr Rajeev Varshney, ICRISAT Research Program Director - Grain Legumes, recognized the role of the private sector in promoting hybrids to smallholder farming communities. He added that the purity kit developed by the Centre of Excellence in Genomics, and made available by ICRISAT in public domain will be very useful to maintain genetic purity of pigeonpea hybrids.

Mr Aziz, a former employee of ICRISAT, has been growing pigeonpea hybrids for the last two years in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh. He related that while his neighbor’s pigeonpea crop, which was of the local variety, was completely infested by wilt, his field planted to pigeonpea hybrid did not show any incidence of wilt.

Mr Kadam, a farmer from Amravati district of Maharashtra, said that he was extremely happy with the returns he got from hybrid seed production and that the profit he gained had encouraged more farmers from his village to switch to pigeonpea hybrids.

Dr Dhanalakshmi, Program Coordinator, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (agricultural extension center), Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, emphasized that to enhance

Photo: PS Rao, ICRISAT

Dr R Varshney flanked by Drs Dhanalakshmi and Sameer Kumar, speaking at the review meeting.

productivity, which is very low in this state, hybrids are the best choice.

Mr Ravinder Raj, District Manager, Andhra Pradesh State Seed Corporation, congratulated ICRISAT scientists for developing the pigeonpea hybrid technology and agreed to extend all possible support in promoting the hybrids in Andhra Pradesh.

Dr Bijendra Pal, Deputy Director, Bio-Seed Research India, announced the launch of ICPH 2671 hybrid seeds for commercial marketing. This private company will market hybrid seeds sufficient for 20,000 ha (about 49,000 acres).

Dr Hari Baptiwale, Deputy Director, Agricultural Technology Management Agency, was impressed with the performance of ICPH 2740 in the farmers’ fields and said that the company would now introduce the hybrid in about 1,000 ha (2,400 acres) in different blocks of Amravati, Maharashtra.

Dr CV Sameer Kumar, ICRISAT Pigeonpea Breeder, explained about the performance of ICPH 2740, anticipating an expansion in cropped area by 300,000 ha in 2016. He, along with Ch Ravinder Reddy, C Sudhakar, MV Nagesh Kumar and Mr R V Kumar, presented and discussed the pigeonpea hybrid (ICPH 2740 and ICPH 2671) seed production technology, to promote large-scale production among farmers in the five states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Photo: PS Rao, ICRISAT

Participants of the meeting.

The activity was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes. g

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DG speaks on better and effective pest management

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We must examine how science can be used to raise agricultural productivity without the associated ecological costs. One of the practical means of increasing crop production is to minimize pest-associated losses, currently estimated at 14% of the total agricultural production, and valued at US$243 billion annually.

There are additional costs in the form of pesticides applied for pest control, currently valued at US$10 billion annually,” said Dr William D. Dar, ICRISAT Director General.

Photo: ICRISAT

Dr Dar with past and present officials of PMCP at its 45 anniversary and annual scientific conference.

He was speaking at the 45th anniversary and annual scientific conference of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines with the theme “Harnessing plant science, biotechnology, and organic approaches for better and effective pest management.” The conference was held on 6-9 May at Cebu City, Philippines.

To avoid the ill-effects of pesticides like pest resistance, adverse effects on beneficial organisms, pesticide residues in food and food products, and

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environmental pollution, Dr Dar suggested: “Natural enemies, bio-pesticides, natural plant products, and pest-resistant varieties offer potentially safe methods of managing insect pests. Unlike synthetic pesticides, some of these technologies have the advantage of replicating themselves or their effect in the field, and thus, have a cumulative effect on pest populations.”

He added that cultural control can also be used by adjusting sowing time, planting density, nutrient management, field sanitation, intercropping, and crop rotations. g

Passing the Torch: New Country Representative for Zimbabwe

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t a simple ceremony held on 5 May, Dr Andre van Rooyen handed over the leadership baton for ICRISAT Zimbabwe to Dr Kizito Mazvimavi. Present at the ceremony were Dr Moses Siambi, Director, ICRISAT Eastern and Southern Africa, and all the staff members of the Bulawayo, Zimbabwe team.

Dr van Rooyen welcomed Dr Mazvimavi back home and pledged his continued support to ICRISAT and this location in particular. “It is an honor for me to handover a location like this – one that is stable, sound, and with a group of people who are dedicated and committed to getting the job done,” Dr van Rooyen said.

Dr Siambi discussed the challenges of running an organization during Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.

“What Andre has done in the last three years is greatly appreciated. It was a difficult time and it needed great wisdom to move us through,” he said.

In his first address to staff as country representative, Dr Mazvimavi said that he was humbled to return to his home with this new responsibility.

Photo: S Sridharan, ICRISAT

Dr Moses Siambi delivering his address during the handing over ceremony at ICRISAT Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.

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“I pay special homage to my predecessor who has committed himself to helping me. I plan to continue from where we have been. I will maintain the standards that Andre has left for us,” Dr Mazvimavi said. g

Chickpea genomics project review and planning meeting

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rogress and achievements were assessed and future directions were mapped out at the fifth review and planning meeting of the project “Genomic Approaches for Stress Tolerant Chickpea.”

This project brings together Australian and Indian partners contributing distinct but complementary multidisciplinary strengths in physiology, molecular biology and breeding.

Photo: ICRISAT

Dr Rajeev Varshney, ICRISAT Research Program Participants of the review and planning meeting at NIPGR. Director – Grain Legumes and Project Coordinator, acknowledged the impressive progress Australia, especially ACPFG, for all their support and of the different project activities by all partner hard work,” Dr Varshney added. organizations in India, congratulating the participants He also discussed ICRISAT’s recently launched “3000 for their excellent work.

Chickpea Genome Sequencing Initiative,” an initiative In India, the project is funded by the Department of to sequence the global chickpea collection to identify Science and Technology (DST) under the framework superior alleles and use them in breeding program of Australia-India Strategic Research Fund. for chickpea improvement.

Coordinated by ICRISAT, other partner organizations The review and planning meeting was held at NIPGR, in India include the National Institute of Plant New Delhi on 6 May. Other participants of the meeting Genome Research (NIPGR), Indian Agricultural included: Drs Abhishek Rathore, Manish Roorkiwal, Research Institute (IARI), and Krishidhan Seeds Pvt Mahendar Thudi, Gaurav Agarwal, Aamir W Khan and Ltd. In Australia, it is being coordinated by the Deepa Jagannathan of ICRISAT; Dr Ch Bharadwaj, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics Mr Shailesh Tripathi, Dr Sumit Singh and Ms Tripti (ACPFG), and has eight partner organizations.

Singhal of IARI; and Drs Mukesh Jain, Sabhyata Bhatia, “We are thankful to DST, Government of India for Rohini Garg and Vikash K Singh of NIPGR. funding this project thus giving us an opportunity to work with NIPGR and IARI on these exciting activities. This project is being undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes. g We thank all project partners from India and

ICRISAT poster receives award at 7th Annual Asia Pacific Scientific Summit of Illumina The poster titled ‘Pattern and trends in genome sequence diversity in selected set of elite cultivars of chickpea (Cicer arietinum)’ by Ms Anu Chitikineni, Manager, Center of Excellence in Genomics, received the poster prize at the 7th Annual Asia Pacific Scientific Summit of Illumina.

The poster presented the work on sequencing and analysis of 140 chickpea cultivars that includes 82 varieties released in India.

Photo: ICRISAT Scientists from Ms Anu Chitikineni with the ICRISAT (Drs PM Gaur, award-winning poster.

M Roorkiwal, Dadu Doddamani and RK Varshney), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (Drs NP Singh, SK Chaturvedi, SK Datta) and Beijing Genomics Institute - Shenzhen (Drs Jianbo Jina, Gengyun Zhang, Jun Wang) also authored the poster. The work presented in the poster includes patterns and trends in the diversity at whole genome sequence levels in the selected set of 140 chickpea cultivars.

The Asia Pacific Scientific Summit is an annual event of Illumina, one of the biggest firms in the area of next generation sequencing, in which Illumina and its partners showcase new technologies and platforms for enhancing the speed and throughput of sequence data and their use in human health and agriculture. g ICRISAT HAPPENINGS 16 MAY 2014 1623 5

Family farming and agricultural research for food security

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lliances between family farming and agricultural science research can transform world food systems in sustainable ways, and have a major impact on world food security.

In a conference organized by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, scientists from around the world gathered to discuss the contribution that agricultural research can make to family farming. The conference also discussed how research and higher education can become more effective in understanding and supporting these transformations.

Photo: ICRISAT

Delegates of the AGRINATURA conference during a storytelling session in Vienna.

Dr Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, ICRISAT Zimbabwe, participated in the conference as a storyteller during one of the innovative sessions. Dr Homann-Kee Tui described her experiences from the MOREP project in Mozambique that uses innovation platforms to make smallholder farming more resilient and profitable.

Representatives from farmer organizations, civil societies, private sector, national and international research organizations, and regional and global networks participated in the conference held on 5-8 May.

The conference was dynamic and innovative, making use of a mix of speeches, presentations and workshops, open space arrangements, storytelling in large and small groups, graphic design and live performance about transformative change. These techniques aimed to get people to discuss various success stories and analyze the underlying causes for the success.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has designated the year 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), aiming to raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farming by focusing world attention on its significant role particularly in poverty reduction and food and nutritional security. g

Field visit and stakeholder meeting in Burkina Faso

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CRISAT and the Institut de l’environnement et de recherches agricoles (INERA) in Burkina Faso organized a field visit and stakeholder meeting in the village of Tougou at about 25 km from Ouahigouya in Burkina Faso.

A total of 37 representatives from nongovernment organizations (NGOs), regional and local government, decentralized technical and extension services, technical support staff, cooperative and communitybased organizations attended the half-day

Photo: P Savadogo, ICRISAT

Participants of the stakeholder meeting in Burkina Faso.

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stakeholder meeting on 28 April. The objective of the meeting was to discuss constraints and opportunities related to agriculture in their villages.

On 29 April, the participants went on a field visit to Filly, a site where the NGO Terre Verte (www. eauterreverdure.org) is experimenting with a novel integrated tree-crop-livestock management called “Sahelian Bocage�.

Earlier in January 2014 during the West and Central Africa regional planning meeting, it was agreed that an action site for joint research efforts among partners would be identified to ensure better results.

The Yatenga province in Burkina Faso, where the CGIAR Research Programs on Dryland Systems and on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security are based, was selected as the action site. g

Capacity building and scholarship opportunities for Philippine partners

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n a recent series of capacity building activities in the Philippines, ICRISAT scientists fulfiled their commitment to help improve the knowledge and skills of agricultural researchers in the country.

A total of 48 participants from various regional offices of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and state universities and colleges attended the ‘Statistics Photo: MG Mula, ICRISAT Training Course on Agricultural MOU signing between ICRISAT and BSU on student/faculty scholarship.

Field Trial Designing and Analysis’ held at and cosponsored by the Benguet State University (BSU) delivered a lecture on ‘BSU-ICRISAT partnership with ICRISAT, funded by the DA-Bureau of towards developing an ICT-oriented agricultural Agricultural Research (BAR). Dr Abishek Rathore, knowledge management platform for educationSenior Scientist (Biometrics) served as the resource research-extension continuum’ highly attended by person, assisted by Ms Roma Das of ICRISAT and faculty and staff of the university.

Mr Alex Arizabal of DA-BAR. Also at BSU, the William D Dar - Ben D Ladilad At the closing of the statistics training, the book (WDD-BDL) Student Scholarship Program was WDD: Hinirang na Anak Ng Inang-Lupa (The Chosen launched – a competitive program wherein scholars Son of the Motherland) dedicated to Director will have the opportunity to spend time with ICRISAT General Dr William D. Dar was launched. The book experts in India on their chosen field or discipline. is a collection of articles by various contributors Commission on Higher Education Regional Director, – past and present officials and staff of BSU, and Ms Luisa S Valencia made a commitment to explore colleagues and friends, as a tribute to Dr Dar. financial support to jumpstart the partnership.

In another event, Dr Dileepkumar Guntuku, Global Leader, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation,

The series of activities was coordinated by Dr Rosana P Mula, Coordinator, Learning Systems Unit, ICRISAT. g

‘Role Clarity’ workshop held The Farm, Engineering and Transport Services (FETS) of ICRISAT organized a half-day workshop on ‘Role Clarity’ for its managers and supervisors on 7 May. Mr S Sharat Kumar, Director, Human Resources and Operations directed the workshop and Mr DS Bisht, Ex-Program Leader - Farm Engineering Services acted as the facilitator.

Photo: ICRISAT

Participants of the workshop.

The workshop helped the participants understand team/institutional goals, individual roles, process of achieving the goals and ways to enhance inter- and intra-team interactions and relationships. g ICRISAT HAPPENINGS 16 MAY 2014 1623 7

Congratulations Dr Suhas P Wani, Assistant Research Program Director - Resilient Dryland Systems, has been appointed as the Director, ICRISAT Development Center (IDC) effective 28 April 2014.

This follows the creation and institutionalization of the IDC as approved by the ICRISAT Governing Board in its meeting on 26 April. The focus of IDC is to undertake large scalingup/out of ICRISAT’s research solutions. The center will now formally position ICRISAT in this field of large scaling-up/out and will be a global initiative, covering all areas where ICRISAT works in Africa and Asia. It will integrate the outputs of strategic research from all of ICRISAT’s research programs and cross cutting areas.

Welcome Dr Aviraj Datta, an Indian national, joined as Visiting Scientist to work on wastewater reuse in watersheds, Research Program – Resilient Dryland Systems at Patancheru, on 12 May. Dr Datta has a PhD in Environmental Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He worked as faculty at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli, before joining ICRISAT. We welcome Dr Datta to Team ICRISAT and wish him all success.

Visitors’ log Dr CLL Gowda presenting the ICRISAT information folder to Mr Sanjay Kothari, Secretary, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Govt of India. Also seen in the picture is Mr S Sharat Kumar. Mr S Kothari on 13 May visited the SAT Venture, the RS Paroda Gene Bank, Centre of Excellence in Genomics, and ICRISAT farms including the watersheds.

Photo: PS Rao, ICRISAT

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