This document provides an overview of ICRISAT, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on crops that are important for nutrition and economics in dryland regions of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, including sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, chickpea, and pigeonpea. The research is organized into various regional and global programs focused on crop improvement, integrated crop management, and other areas. ICRISAT works with partners to scale innovations that benefit smallholder farmers through approaches like soil mapping, linking producers to markets, and facilitating agribusiness. The goal is to develop resilient and inclusive agrifood systems

1. A prosperous
and food secure
drylands

2. ICRISAT Vision, Mission & Values

3. Mandate
• ICRISAT works in the dryland tropics
of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
• Our research activities are focused on
crops of immense value to the
nutrition and economics of the semi-
arid tropics
• Dryland cereals – Sorghum, Pearl Millet,
Finger Millet
• Grain legumes – Chickpea, Pigeonpea,
Groundnut

4. Research Programs
Research Program
West & Central Africa
Research Program
East & Southern
Africa
Research Program
Asia
Research Program
Genetic Gains
Research Program
Innovation Systems for the
Drylands
Ramadjita Tabo - RPD Moses Siambi - RPD Suhas Wani – RPD Rajeev Varshney - RPD Anthony Whitbread - RPD
Mali
Ramadjita Tabo
Kenya
Moses Siambi
Crop improvement
Pooran Gaur
Genebank
Hari Upadhyaya
Agribusiness & Innovation
Platform
Kiran Sharma
Niger
Malik Ba
Malawi
Patrick Okori
Integrated Crop
Management
Mamta Sharma
Pre-breeding
Shivali Sharma
Markets, Institutions,
Nutrition & Diversity
New recruit
Nigeria
Hakeem Ajeigbe
Ethiopia
KPC Rao
Policy and Impact
KV Raju
Cell, Molecular Biology
& Genetic Engineering
Pooja Bhatnagar
Systems Analysis for Climate
Smart Agriculture
Vincent Vadez
Zimbabwe
Kizito Mazvimavi
ICRISAT Development
Center
Suhas Wani
Genomics & Trait
Discovery
Rajeev Gupta
Monitoring, Evaluation,
Impact & Learning
Kizito Mazvimavi
Plant Quarantine
Rajan Sharma
Forward Breeding
Eng Hwa Ng
Digital Agriculture & Youth
Ram Dhulipala
Farm & Engineering
Suresh Pillay
Seed Systems
Emmanuel Monyo
Research conducted in ESA & WCA will align with
the key areas of Crop Improvement, Integrated
Crop Management, Systems Analysis and Policy &
impact

5. Cross-cutting issues
Mainstreaming nutrition
Empowering women
Attracting youth to agriculture
Approach for Adoption
Participatory approach and partnering
Building capacity
Integrating communications
Monitoring and evaluation
Policy support
Integrated Market Oriented Development (IMOD)
Developing
on-farm
practices
and
technologie
s
Analyzing
key problems
and
opportunities Managing
soil and
water
Crop
Improvement
& seed
Access
Diversifyin
g
Farms
Introducing
processing
Facilitating
market
access
Driving market
development Crop
improvement
Inputs and farmer services Post-harvest handling and marketsResearch and development
Discovery
Agronomic
research
Farm
management
Seed &
other input
systems
Knowledge
exchange
Aggregation,
quality
and storage
End-user
demand
Processing
Value Chain Approach Guides our Country/State Strategies

6. Soil Mapping as an entry point under Bhoochetana:
Scaling out to millions of farmers and hectares
Village
1999
District
2006
State
2009
Nation
2015
• All 37 functional wells
• Water availability year
• round
Partnering with
corporates in various
districts across
different states in India.
Benefitting over 5
millions of farmers
across Karnataka
Genesis:
Kothapally
village,
Telangana
ICRISAT is working
closely with the
Government of
India to scale up its
learnings
and water

7. Demand Driven Innovation: Pigeonpea in ESA
• Indian grain demand driving trader participation
• 25-40% higher local producer prices in ESA following
producer-wholesaler linkages
• 15 large-scale dhal processing plants set up in Malawi,
Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique
• Production and dissemination of 4250 tons of quality seed
covering about 0.5 million ha in the last 8 years
• 80% rise in farmers’ incomes in Kenya, Malawi,
Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda
• 40% productivity gains from greater access to superior
seed; in Malawi productivity was 1309 kg/ha
Farmers harvest bumper yields of pigeonpea in Tanzania.
Photo: Philemon Mushi, SARI, Tanzania

8. 12.3
0.5
Livestock
per capita
Vikraman et al., in prep
Demand Driven Innovation: Trait Prioritization
“GRAIN type” Sorghum bread
“STOVER type” Livestock feed
Dual purpose sorghum;
stover/grain demand

9. Farmers fields
Global Research Program
Genetic Gains
Global Research Program
Innovation System for the
Drylands
Regional Research Programs
Asia, ESA, WCA
Crop Improvement Crop Management
Breeding Population
Selfing and selection
Advanced
breeding lines
Parental
lines
Varieties Hybrids
NARS/ Pvt Sector
Genebank
Pre-breeding
Genomics & Trait
discovery
Forward Breeding
Marker
Cell, Molecular Biology &
Genetic Engineering
Seed Systems Agribusiness and
Innovation Platform
Systems analysis for
Climate Smart Agriculture
Phenotyping
Diversity
Trait specific
lines
Strategies
Lessons
Mapping homologous
environments to target
varieties / quantity of
seed
MIND analysis to
maximize outcomes
Sequencing and Informatics Services
Integrated Research Programs: e.g. Forward Breeding

10. Facilitating Agri-Business
Smart Foods campaign – millets
 Highly nutritious
 Environmentally friendly
 Climate smart – resilient under extreme weather
conditions
 Significant yield gap
 Good opportunities to diversify both diets and on-farm
 Untapped demand and uses
Agri-Business incubation
 74 agribusiness start-ups incubated
 Facilitated USD 13.2 M as investment to start-ups
 Facilitated commercialization of 331 agro-technologies
for ICAR institutions; 1218 ventures provided
incubation support in these institutions
Digital Agriculture
 Partnerships with T-Hub, Microsoft, TCS
 ICT accelerator built on campus
 First intake of 10 start-ups in Nov 2016
T-Hub Hyderabad

11. Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC) CRP
To concurrently achieve the end-of-program outcomes of:
1. Expanded, resilient and inclusive production, value addition, trading and consumption
of grain legumes and dryland cereals in target countries [integrative solutions];
2. Improved capacity and inclusivity of agrifood system stakeholders to collaboratively
develop innovations that respond to the needs of women, men and youth in GLDC-
based livelihoods and value chains [systemic change].
Box 7: Organizing concepts for GLDC CRP
The overarching logic is that improved capacity of the agrifood systems of key cereal and
legume crops will enable coherent production, market and policy innovations that deliver
resilience, inclusion, poverty reduction, nutritional security and economic growth.
The organizing principle is that targeted agrifood systems cover the full continuum from
subsistence agriculture through to commercial agriculture.
The rationale for CRP coverage of prioritized crops is that they share the same institutional
constraints in the search for functional agrifood systems that deliver both resilience in food
security and opportunities for market-oriented development for smallholder farmers
An overriding hypothesis is the contention that poor women, men and young farmers in
target regions can produce, consume and, critically, benefit from selling their cereal and
legume commodities into increasingly functional, diverse and emerging agricultural value
chains.
The overarching research imperative is to establish whether demand-driven innovations can
be leveraged in creating new and inclusive agrifood system services and policies.

12. Thank You