Presentation by Mruthyunjaya at the APAARI High Level Policy Dialogue, 8 Dec 2015

1. Innovative Funding Mechanisms of
Public Sector: The case of NAIP of
ICAR, India
Mruthyunjaya
Former ND, NAIP, ICAR, India

2. ICAR: National Agricultural Innovation
Project (NAIP)
• ICAR is the premier apex public sector agricultural research
organization in India and it has significantly contributed to
strengthen agricultural research and education in India
• Over the years, it has effectively administered and utilized
EAPs to introduce and consolidate reforms in NARS
• Soon after but much distinct from NATP, NAIP was launched
in June, 2006 with the assistance of USD 250 million credit
from World Bank to contribute to achieve 4% growth rate in
agriculture by pushing the frontiers of science, commerce,
social inclusion and capacity development

3. NAIP: Objective and Components
• PDO was to facilitate accelerated and sustainable
transformation of Indian agriculture so that it can
support poverty alleviation and income
generation through collaborative development
and application of agricultural innovations by the
public organizations in partnership with farmer’s
groups, the private sector and other stakeholders
• Creative Components: BSR (intellectual base for
long term scientific productivity and contribution
to agri. development), PCSR, SRLS, (relevance and
demand orientation) and O&M(system capacity)

4. Strong Features
• In-house project planning and retroactive financing for sound project
preparation
• Consortium of unconventional partners working with strong public sector
with clear IPR, contractual arrangements and benefit sharing
• Small number of bigger projects, NATP 800 projects, NAIP 203 projects
• Nationwide project call and campaign; project preparation and trouble
shooting assistance through Help Desk; rules of the game in place before
call for project concept notes; engaging stakeholders in design,
implementation and evaluation of projects to build ownership,
effectiveness, sustainability
• Competitive funding, multi-layer and transparent review and sanction of
projects

5. Strong Features
• High end science-Basic and Strategic Research
• Research into Action-Value chain and livelihood
security
• Massive capacity development-National and
international in centers of excellence
• Strong Results Framework, M&E system, and E&S
safeguards
• Strong emphasis on policy, visioning, ICT, dialogue,
interaction and communication, governance, direct
flow of funds to spending units, decentralized
procurement, BPD, MIS, project disclosure,
transparency

6. Notable Achievements
• Worked with 203 consortia, 653 consortia partners
covering public sector organizations (60%), private sector
(9%), NGOs (16%), and State/Central/International
Institutes (15%) working in 856 institutions situated all over
India
• Developed and validated 51 diverse value chain models and
36 rural livelihood models in most backward regions, and
developed 272 production and processing technologies
• 80 technologies/products commercialized
• 62 new rural industries piloted
• 5 Producer companies set up
• 149 patent/IPR applications filed

7. Notable Achievements
• Published 635 papers in high impact international journals
• USD 1 lakh sustainability fund created for post project benefit of
the target area
• Convergence with ongoing development projects-9 consortia
mobilized USD 4 lakh
• 931 scientists trained abroad and an equal number trained by
international experts in India
• 10 BPD units set up
• 1.61 lakh farmers involved in consortia activities in components
2&3
• Overall BCR of 1.75
• The economic and financial benefits estimated at USD 430 million
on an initial investment of USD 240 million with an overall IRR of
about 40%

8. Lessons for the future
• AIS model is workable, beneficial to NARS to address
challenges of monsoon, market, mindset and
management
• Well planned, well spaced EAPs though insignificant in
outlay as compared to national outlays but serve as
triggers for toning up national systems to pilot reforms
for reorientation of science, capacity development, and
O&M systems
• Selecting right partners, projects with end-to-end
solutions, clearly defining objectives, results
framework, operating procedures ensures project
success

9. Lessons for the future
• Research consortia of public sector with private sector,
NGOs, breaks silos among partners, promotes
pluralism, synergy, value addition, pooling of efficient
work culture, talents, skills and resources
• Competitive funding promotes creative ideas, quick,
quality revision of proposals/progress reports,
response and continued interest of the partners
• Transparent, strong and responsive governance with
well planned governance structure is important to
guide and control project management, to build
credibility, public trust, and smooth project
management

10. Lessons for Future
• Decentralization of power empowers the
system down the line, ensures accountability, ,
timely action, trains project staff in research
project management and project success
• Flexible/evolving rules and procedures by the
national governments and the World Bank or
any outside funding agency is critical for the
overall success and timely completion of the
project

11. Lessons for future
• Avoid change of key staff, and strengthen procurement,
financial management, M&E systems, E&S safeguards,
process documentation, dissemination and media
management
• Organize frequent learning workshops to share the learning
and take on-course correction where were needed
• Retroactive funding /scoping exercise to explore/establish
sound and clear project fundamentals in terms of project
goals, objectives, components, transparent criteria,
governance structure, operating guidelines, financial and
procurement procedures, post-project sustainability
mechanisms etc.

12. Lessons for future
• Cross-component learning, horizontal expansion
during the project and scaling out later to
enhance the project benefits
• Planning bigger projects with clear focus and
targets is important but to be in phases to gain
experience and confidence
• Tactful involvement of development
departments/agencies including Banking,
insurance, etc., at every stage of project cycle is
the biggest challenge for project implementation,
uptake and sustainability

13. Concluding
• EAPs are necessary for reforms, reorientation and capacity
development of NARS
• ICAR has capitalized the gains from such projects each time
better than previously
• But internalization of the reforms in our regular projects
and system is still slow and fragmented
• Our mindset, rigid and inflexible administration and
financial rules and procedures pose hurdles to such time
and target bound projects
• All NARS to work towards internalization of reforms by
framing flexible rules and procedures to take full advantage
of such uncommon opportunities availed at a huge cost!