Writing good research proposal

Good: Commendable, right, proper,
excellent; it should be well
targeted.
Time frame: As suggested/ approved by the
donor / funding agency.

Presenter:
S. M. Virmani
(Retd.) ICRISAT Scientist
Training:
Ecologist, Soil Scientist – Agronomist
Agricultural Climatologist, Edaphologist
Work Experience:
Sustainable / Conservation Agriculture in the Semi-Arid Tropics
Dryland Agriculture
Transfer of Technology/ HRD

1. What is a good research proposal: key words
2. Your presenter
3. Target/ purpose of a good research proposal
First: Decide the research domain
Second: Target the proposal to the selected audience/s
Third: The nature and kind of the research proposals
Fourth: The Hypothesis
4. An Example: Identifying the research problem
A) The Research issue
B) The Hypothesis
C) The Presentation of an example research proposal.
5. Summary
6. Final words

First: Decide the application domain of your research,
it could be;
• Yourself/ or your group, to record the progress to be made
over a period of time;
• Your institute, or your peers the progress to be made with a
given set of resources;
• Donor groups who will fund your research;
• Decision-makers at the state, regional or national level; or
• Stakeholders - who will eventually use the results of your
research.

Second: Target your research proposal to a given set of
audience/s
Third: The nature and kinds of the research proposals:
a) Exploratory*;
b) Suggestive*;
c) Preliminary*;
d) Definitive – but raises questions for future
research; or
e) It descries a set of principles, theories; or laws
ready for application in a given agroecological
setting
* work in progress
Fourth: The proposal must be based on a set of
hypothesis.
Your research when funded must approve or
disapprove the hypothesis.

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L) an oilseed crop is grown in
peninsular India and southern India. The Directorate of
Oilseeds Research (DOR), an institute of the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, observed that:
1) the yield (productivity) of the crop at farm level is
stagnant (last 30 years) ; declining trend (1994-2004)
2) the area under the crop is declining; and
3) therefore, the production of safflower in India
is decreasing for the past several years.

• Why the production of safflower is reducing year on year ?
• Preliminary farm surveys showed that there
is no major change in the practices of growing the crop;
• The quality of seed used for sowing was normal;
• There was no significant change in biotic stresses.

The decline in production may be caused by
climate change that is taking place
in the regions where safflower
is traditionally grown.

a) To learn & quantify climate-change that has occurred
in safflower growing regions over the past decade or two;
b) To inform the safflower researchers of the impending
production issues;
c) To convince the decision-makers at the institute level/ donors
to facilitate interdisciplinary research in the area of
climate change by more allocation of funds and by encouraging
human resource development; and
d) To suggest the course of future research for sustaining
safflower production in the times ahead.

Climate Change: Impact on SafflowerImpact of Climate Change on SafflowerImpact of Climate Change on Safflower
12
Climate Change:
Impacts on Safflower Productivity and Production
Safflower Research and Development in the World:
Status and Strategies
12

13
Key words are,

14
 production and productivity are intimately related,
because
 our climate is changing due to global changes in
atmospheric composition; land, water and biota are
undergoing a transformation due to anthropogenic
actions.
 therefore research must be undertaken to quantify
climate change x safflower productivity interactions in
order to sustain safflower production.
Climate Change x Safflower

15
 It is thermo-sensitive.
 It is primarily grown in rainfed agriculture.
 Its rooting depends on, dense layers in soil profile and its
depth.
 Its productivity depends on abiotic stresses, particularly at
sowing and soil moisture deficit at flowering and maturity
stages.
Safflower is a crop highly sensitive to weather.

16
Basic, strategic and frontier science research must
be initiated so as to counter mal-effects of climate
change.
Conclusions of our paper are:

17
Our paper is divided in six parts : we describe

1818
Safflower growing Countries
Source: After http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safflower
Mexico
Canada
USA
Australia
China
India

1919
Growth stages of Safflower
Source: Kaffka and Kearney 1998

Climate Change: Impact on SafflowerImpact of Climate Change on Safflower
2020
Weather at Solapur, Maharashtra, India
Mean of 20 years (1991-2010)
Data Source: AICRP Agrometeorology, Solapur, India

21
Variation and Shift of Rainfall
at Solapur, Maharashtra, India
Source: AICRP Agrometeorology, CRIDA, Hyderabad

2222
Annual variation of temperature at Solapur, India

2323
Drop : 8.3 > 6.6 hours
Solar dimming at Akola, Maharashtra
Drop : 20.0 > 17.7 MJ/m2/day)Drop : 8.3 > 6.6 hours

2424
Weather at Bakersfield, California, USA
Mean of 20 years (1991-2010)
Data source: http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/north_america.htm

2525
Annual minimum temperature increase and precipitation decrease
at Bakersfield, California, USA
Source: http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/north_america.htm

2626
Weather at Hermosillo, Mexico
Mean of 20 years (1991-2010)
Data source: http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/north_america.htm

2727
Annual temperature increase and precipitation decrease
at Hermosillo, Mexico
Source: http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/north_america.htm

2828
Biotic stress
Soil related abiotic stress
Soil quality degradation
Other threats

2929

3030
2°C rise in temperature: Thermal stress tolerant cultivars
Agro-ecological zones - Crop shift
Rise in Relative Humidity: Germplasm screening for tolerance to
crop pests and diseases
Shift in withdrawal of New seed treatments to ensure good
monsoon: crop stand
Lowering of solar radiation: Cultivars that give higher yield under
decreased radiation.
Approaches
Continued..

3131
Seed treatment
High density planting
Conservation Agriculture
Breeding short duration varieties
Approaches

3232
Continued..
A comprehensive strategy (adaptation and
mitigation) for addressing climate change
impacts in the safflower growing areas
should be developed and implemented.

3333
Continued..
 Delineation of safflower specific agro-ecological zones.
 Crop shift to new areas in the changing climatic conditions.
 The agro-ecological condition of some of the areas in
Jammu and Kashmir is similar to those observed in Mexico
and the USA. Studies to explore the production of
safflower (varieties of temperate region) in these regions
may be initiated in cooperation with CRIDA and CAZRI.

34
 The oil content and ratio of fatty acids viz., linoleic and oleic
are likely to change with higher ambient temperatures.
 Saline soil areas where climate is suitable for safflower have
to be explored.
 Studies on response of safflower to changing climatic
conditions in comparison to other post-rainy season dryland
crops needs attention.
 Pubic private partnership mode of research may be adopted
so that the oil industry based on safflower is fully geared to
use the new seeds more efficiently.
34

A good research proposal must not be
repetitive, it must add new information
when concluded;
it must define the domain of application;
and it must be well
targeted to the audience in focus.

Writing good research proposal

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