ICRISAT Happenings (25 July 2014)

ICRISAT

Happenings

25 July 2014 No. 1633

In-house Newsletter

Photos: PS Rao, ICRISAT Photo: IFAS, UFL

(L-R) Dr Dar with Dr Jack Payne and Dr Mary Holz-Clause, University of Connecticut.

One Agriculture-One Science

A new partnership to revitalize global agricultural education

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n international partnership across India, Africa and the USA has formed the ‘One AgricultureOne Science: A Global Education Consortium’ initiative aimed at revitalizing global agricultural education, capacity building and technology transfer.

This has been made possible with the collaboration of ICRISAT and top universities from these continents.

The initiative was launched at an expert consultation workshop jointly organized by ICRISAT, the University of Florida (UF), Michigan State University and Iowa State University, at the UF, Gainesville, Florida, USA on 17-18 July.

“One Agriculture-One Science is a common platform to comprehensively address gaps in agricultural education with the latest advancements in technology and knowledge flow strategies,”

said Dr William D Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, at the launch.

“The task of revitalizing global agricultural education requires all of us to work together in developing an educational and capacity building road map focused on how we can better contribute to global food and nutritional security through a global education consortium for development,” Dr Dar continued.

‘One Agriculture-One Science’ is a consortium of agricultural education institutes, research organizations and other related agencies. It will bring various disciplines in agricultural education such as crop, livestock, fisheries, natural resource management, etc. under one roof. The consortium will focus on addressing changes and adaptations required for agricultural education to meet to page 2 ...4

One Agriculture-One Science... from page 1 development goals, particularly the attainment of food and nutritional security and sustainable agricultural production in developing countries.

The consortium will provide a common platform to address pressing global food security, accessibility and affordability challenges through partnerships and knowledge networks. Participating institutions will offer short courses, student scholarship programs and collaborative research opportunities to address these challenges.

Experts from land grant state universities in the USA, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the African Green Revolution Alliance (AGRA), the Regional University Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM, a consortium of 42 universities across 19 countries in Africa), US Department of Agriculture, US Agency for International Development, and CGIAR centers attended the launch.

“As a land grant university engaged worldwide, we at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) know that our relationships with our international partners are reciprocal, that sometimes we experience reverse technology transfer,” said Dr Jack Payne, Senior Vice-President, UF, Gainesville.

“Beyond UF-IFAS Global, we have ambitious plans for addressing perhaps the grandest challenge of our time: How to feed a projected 9.2 billion people by 2050 and do it in a safe, secure, nutritious and sustainable way and that our collaborations yield more discovery and contribute to the global mission,” emphasized Dr Payne.

“The One Agriculture-One Science partnership will see the formation of a consortium of international educators including select universities in the USA, international and regional organizations, and universities in interested regions, especially from the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa),” said Dr K Ramesh Reddy, Graduate Research Professor and Chair of Soil and Water Science Department, UF-IFAS. “The initiative is a strategic coalition of partners anchored on innovative knowledge networks, public-private partnerships, and novel educational approaches to revitalize global agricultural education to better contribute to food and nutritional security,” stressed Dr Dileepkumar Guntuku, Global Leader, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation, ICRISAT. A dedicated website for this initiative was also launched http://www.oneagriculture.org/ g

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

“A land without trees is like a people without hope.” - Ancient Niger proverb

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he Dan Saga, Maradi region located in southcentral Niger Republic, where Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is practiced has not only seen a remarkable rise in its green cover (over 200 million new trees established on 5 million ha of degraded land), but also improvements in agricultural and environmental conditions.

Photo: ICRISAT

A young farmer practicing Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration 2 ICRISAT HAPPENINGS 25 JULY 2014 1633

Three farmers from this region travelled to Sadoré village to share their experiences during the Farmerto-Farmer learning meet on community-based FMNR hosted by the ICRISAT Sahelian Center Sadoré during 8-9 July. Dr Patrice Savadogo led the meet.

The objective of the meet was to raise awareness on the benefits of trees and encourage farmers to take up FMNR in order to counteract environmental degradation and promote livelihood diversification.

Apart from the physical practice of restoring and managing trees on degraded land, FMNR also involves raising awareness and behavioral change.

This farmer-to-farmer exchange focused on the knowledge of FMNR, the main advantages of this approach and the typical constraints.

The farmers were positive about the initiative and agreed to form a local learning alliance for FMNR. The initiative was taken up under the CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems. g

Participatory video extension – Peer learning made more effective

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he participatory video extension approach extends the peer learning approach among farmers while overcoming the barriers of space and time. The best management practices and knowledge of farmers can be captured as small video capsules and used to train fellow farmers in other locations.

Experience demonstrates the importance and usefulness of educating farmers by transferring scientific knowledge in digitized form and taking it to the farmers through participatory video extension approaches. “Visualization is more effective than listening,” said Khadheer, a Village Network Associate (VNA) from Thimmapur village, Mahabubnagar district, Telangana, India.

Photo: ICRISAT

At the training program.

To encourage and train the local community to produce their own videos ICRISAT in collaboration with Digital Green organised a two-day training program on 16-17 July at Addakal village, Mahabubnagar district.

phones are used. Once a week village residents who have been trained as video mediators facilitate the screenings to engage groups of farmers with the videos and with one another in an interactive learning process.

“The videos are tailored to meet locally relevant agricultural needs, and are always produced in the local language,” said Ms BS Vijayalalitha, Program Manager - Training, Digital Green.

“This training program will be very helpful in disseminating agriculture and related information to the farmers in SHG meetings in their villages,” said Ms Vimalamma, VNA from Janampet village.

Innovative ICT tools such as battery operated picoprojectors or projectors integrated with mobile

Twenty-five participants from 20 villages attended the training program. g

Proven ways to bridge the gap between lab and farm

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hen taking technologies from lab to farm it is critical to pay attention to the way we take the message to the farmers, what means we adopt to enhance awareness, demonstrate the techologies under their conditions, ensure availability of the necessary inputs at right time and above all, demonstrate the economic viability of the technologies, said Dr Suhas P Wani, Director, ICRISAT Development Center.

providing integrated solutions to the farmers is the key for ensuring benefits to smallholder farmers,” said Dr Wani.

He was delivering the Dr Ashok S Juwarkar Memorial Lecture at the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, India on 14 July.

This point was illustrated by detailing the results of the Bhoochetana initiative in Karnataka which has reached more than four million smallholder farming families in four years. Farmers under this initiative are experiencing 20-66% increased crop yields. g

“The need for adopting a holistic approach by dissolving sectoral and disciplinary boundaries and

Farewell

Currently, crop yields are far lower (two to five fold) than the achievable potential yields and this knowledge gap needs to be bridged by using innovative solutions in terms of institutions and polices to benefit the farmers.

Mr S Satyanarayana, Scientific Associate, Research Program - Grain Legumes, is retiring on 31 July, after serving the Institute for over 28 years.

On his retirement, Team ICRISAT wishes him a very happy retired life.

DG William Dar wishes all staff members and their families a very happy Eid-ul-Fitr!

ICRISAT HAPPENINGS 25 JULY 2014 1633 3

ICRISAT at global events

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enomics applications in crop improvement and nitrogen fixation in grain legume crops were the main areas of focus at the joint conference of the 6th International Food Legumes Research Conference (IFLRC VI) and 7th International Conference on Legume Genetics and Genomics (ICLGG VII).

Dr CLL Gowda, Deputy Director General-Research, ICRISAT, in his lead presentation on ‘Impact oriented legume seed systems in developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia’ highlighted the importance of strengthening the seed systems of legume crops. He identified the major bottlenecks in legumes seeds systems and stressed on the need for

fine-tuning successful models to suit local conditions.

Dr Rajeev Varshney, Research Program Director, Grain Legumes, ICRISAT, was the keynote speaker. He presented the work of ICRISAT and partners on ‘The 1000 Pulse Genome Sequencing Initiative: Connecting Genes to Traits’ emphasizing the importance of genomics tools and integrated breeding for improving the genetic gain in chickpea and pigeonpea. ICRISAT was represented by a team of scientists at the joint conference hosted by the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada from July 7-11. The ICLGG VIII conference in 2016 will be held in Jining, China, and IFLRC VII will be hosted at Rabat, Morocco. g

Visitors log

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World Bank delegation that included senior government officials from Nepal, visited ICRISAT-India and Addakal experimental hub located in, Mahabubnagar district, Telangana, India from 9-11 July. The main objective was to help the team understand how weather, disaster and climate related information and services are being developed and delivered to stakeholders in India, particularly in agricultural sector. g

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Photo: ICRISAT

o support the implementation of its rural development strategy, a Delegation of the European Commission visited the ICRISAT Sahelian Center, Sadoré, Niger on 8 July. They also interacted with members of the local women’s association.

Photo: ICRISAT

The team of visitors included Ms Beatrice Bussi, the team leader, three program officers Ms Nicoletta Avella, Mr Abass Mallam, and Mr Moussa Bouda and their administrative officer Ms Mara Salamatou. g

ICRISAT-India (Headquarters) Patancheru 502 324 Telangana, India Tel +91 40 30713071

ICRISAT-Liaison Office CG Centers Block NASC Complex Dev Prakash Shastri Marg New Delhi 110 012, India Tel +91 11 32472306 to 08

ICRISAT-Kenya (Regional hub ESA) PO Box 39063, Nairobi, Kenya Tel +254 20 7224550

ICRISAT-Mali (Regional hub WCA) BP 320 Bamako, Mali Tel +223 20 709200

ICRISAT-Nigeria PMB 3491, Sabo Bakin Zuwo Road Tarauni, Kano, Nigeria Tel: + 234 7034889836

ICRISAT-Niger BP 12404 Niamey, Niger (Via Paris) Tel +227 20722529

ICRISAT-Ethiopia C/o ILRI Campus, PO Box 5689 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251-11 617 2541

ICRISAT-Malawi Chitedze Agricultural Research Station PO Box 1096 Lilongwe, Malawi Tel +265 1 707297, 071, 067, 057

ICRISAT-Zimbabwe Matopos Research Station PO Box 776 Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Tel +263 383 311 to 15

ICRISAT-Mozambique c/o IIAM, Av. das FPLM No 2698 Caixa Postal 1906 Maputo, Mozambique Tel +258 21 461657

ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium

ICRISAT’s scientific information: http://EXPLOREit.icrisat.org

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