Meeting present and potential partners in Bihar forn exploring future scaleup opportunities. Meeting was organised at ICAR RCER.

1. Dr. RK Malik
Dr. Andrew McDonald
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Bihar Partners Meeting
Patna
July 6, 2012

2. Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia
Project Goal: To increase food and income security at scale in South
Asia through sustainable intensification of cereal-based systems.
Metrics of success: crop productivity increases, income generation;
improved nutritional outcomes are second-order objectives.
Four countries: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan
Two donors: USAID, BMFG
Duration: Phase I: 2009-12; Phase II (pending): 2012-15
The Challenge: catalyzing durable change with
millions of small and medium-scale farmers

3. Poverty, prices, food insecurity in South Asia
Persistent rural & urban poverty and vulnerability
People in living on $0.75-$1/day
Latin Other
America 6.3
&
Caribbean Sub-
18.9 Saharan
East Asia Africa
& Pacific 87.0
109.3
South
Asia
263.6
Dots = 50,000 people living on less than $1 day
Persistent volatility & uncertainty
• Volatile food and energy prices
• Natural disasters of varying
magnitudes
World food and energy prices

4. How do technologies move?
And are they the ‘right’ ones?
sResearcher
developed
technologies
Farmer adoption
The status quo isn’t good enough….

5. CSISA: A ‘big tent’ initiative
Integrating disciplines and organizations
• Development and dissemination of sustainable, productive, and
economical agricultural technologies
• Future-oriented process-based research (e.g. net GHGs, NUE, WUE,
models simulations)
• Development of high-yielding and stress-tolerant cereal varieties
(wheat, rice, and maize)
• Strategic partnerships (public + private sectors) to increase the scale
and longevity of interventions
• Strengthen market linkages and business development
(technologies alone are not sufficient)
• Capacity building through training and scholarship
• Policy analysis and evidence-based advocacy

6. What’s new in Phase II?
• Shift in geographic focus to Eastern India and Bangladesh
• More $ resources to support key activities in Bihar, including flexible
funds to be managed jointly with NARES through state-level ‘Advisory
and Investment Committees’. These funds will support innovation and
new thinking, and close gaps where other investments are lacking.
• Explicit focus on forming and supporting strategic partnerships

7. Drivers of change in S. Asia Agriculture
• Cereal demand projected to: double by 2025, quadruple by 2050?
• Land, water, energy, labor scarcity
• Increasing production costs
• Resource loss and degradation (land, water, soil)
• Risks and uncertainty
o High temperatures, drought, inundation
o Less predictable climate systems

8. Production-ecologies are distinct
in cases over small distances
Drought , overuse of groundwater, acid soils
Seasonal inundation, flash flooding
Temperature / drought stress, arsenic
Limited-source surface irrigation
Floods, cyclones, and tidal surges,
salinity across the coastal belt

9. Evolved operational model in
CSISA Phase II guided by:
 Technology development as
beginning, not an ends
 Support to change agents to
go to scale

10. CSISA-supported technical innovations
CSISA technical Water Labor Soil Climate Yield Profitability
productivity scarcity degradation resilience
priorities
Conservation *** ** *** *** * ***
agriculture (CA)
Site-specific nutrient ** ** ** ***
management
Scale-appropriate *** ** ** ** ***
mechanization
Laser land leveling *** * * ***
Elite germplasm ** ** *** **
System intensification * ** *** ***
(more crops/yr)
Post-harvest storage ***
Improved livestock ** *** ***
feeding

11. Addressing non-technological barriers
that impede innovation
Needs-based irrigation with AWD can
reduced irrigation water use for rice.
BUT…
Business model for pump rental must
favor conservation. (in BD they don’t)

12. Remembering the simple things
Good agronomy pays large dividends
More precise approaches needn’t be sophisticated to be successful
Uniform placement of fertilizers:
10 -15% yield gain

13. How do farmers make decisions?
Fundamental research gaps on conception of risk, behavioral science, etc.
Literacy / numeracy
What information is valued, actionable, and profitable?
When must it be provided?
Matching the tactic and tool
to the audience…….

14. CSISA axioms for success
• Farmers manage systems, not
single commodities
• There is no universal template for
agricultural development
(Bangladesh is a long way from Punjab)
• Blending scientific rigor with
participatory, demand-lead approaches is a must
(neither approach is transformative in isolation)
)

15. Release of elite seeds
?
Wide-spread cultivation of elite seeds

16. Theory of change
After establishing goals, how do we achieve them?
Steps to Create a Theory of Change (adapted from www.theoryofchange.org)
1. Identify a long-term goal.
2. Conduct ‘backwards mapping’ to identify the preconditions
necessary to achieve that goal.
3. Identify the interventions required to create these preconditions.
4. Develop indicators for each precondition that will be used to
assess the performance of the interventions.
5. Write a narrative that integrates the various moving parts in your
theory.
**If a plausible theory of change for specific goals cannot be identified and
executed within the timeframe of the project, those goals should be dropped or
given low priority.

17. Defining impact pathways: a key element
for project planning

18. Transforming agriculture in Bihar is an enormous
challenge, will potentially huge rewards
CSISA will not succeed acting alone (full stop)
But partnerships have to be based on:
• Clear value proposition to motivate the participation of
all partners
• Joint ownership and commitment to success
• Timelines for action
• Coordination of activities along common impact pathways…..

19. Thank You
MANY ROADBLOCKS…. BUT PLENTY OF INGENUITY.