Smallholder farmers to benefit from
second phase of tropical legumes project
The next phase of the Tropical Legumes II project will focus on gender specific aspects of
legume production, marketing and consumption.
With US$ 21 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Tropical Legumes II project will get
a boost in implementing research-for-development initiatives to overcome productivity constraints and
nonavailability and lack of access to quality seed of improved legume varieties, thereby improving the
livelihoods of smallholder farmers and their families in 15 countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
A second phase of an agricultural research for
development project aimed at improving the
livelihoods of poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia has been recently agreed on. This is
one of seven grants which Bill Gates announced on
23 February in Rome at the 35th Session of the
Governing Council of the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD). This
announcement, nearly US$ 200 million in grants,
brings the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s total
commitment to agriculture to more than $2 billion since the program began in 2006.
The three-year, US$ 21 million project known as
Tropical Legumes II (TL II), is part of a ten-year plan
which seeks to improve the livelihoods of 60 million
smallholder farmers and their families in 15
countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It is
also expected to bring about US$ 1.3 billion in
added value to the productivity of the target crops,
namely: chickpea, common bean, cowpea,
groundnut, pigeonpea and soybean.
Ms Dabi, a smallholder farmer in Ethiopia, proudly shows
off her harvest of a new high-yielding variety of chickpea
in her store.
Grain legumes contribute to the livelihoods, health
and nutrition of more than 700 million poor people in
the dryland tropics of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The project will help smallholder farmers overcome
productivity constraints such as drought, pest and
disease problems, and nonavailability and lack of
access to quality seed of improved legume varieties.
With this additional support from the foundation,
ICRISAT and sister Centers, the International Center
for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), together with
several national program, private sector, and NGO
partners will work closely with smallholder farmers
to ensure that seed of improved varieties from the
project reach farmers’ fields.
“If you care about the poorest, you care about
agriculture,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the
foundation. “Investments in agriculture are the best
weapons against hunger and poverty, and they have
made life better for billions of people. The
international agriculture community needs to be
more innovative, coordinated and focused to really
be effective in helping poor farmers grow more. If
we can do that, we can dramatically reduce
suffering, and build self-sufficiency.”
The first phase of the TL II project has already made
valuable impact. More than 60 new varieties of
tropical legumes have been released in several
countries and 93,000 metric tons of seeds of
improved legume varieties produced have reached
240,000 smallholder farmers, who together with
extension workers, have been trained on improved
farming practices.
In particular, the role of women in producing food
and making decisions about family nutrition needs
has been recognized. Likewise, the project has strengthened the capacities of national agricultural
research systems in partner countries.
A beaming farmer in his groundnut field.
The next phase of the project will focus on gender
specific aspects of tropical legume production,
marketing and consumption. Moreover, particular
emphasis will be given to location-specific
monitoring and evaluation, impact assessment, data
management and increased seed production and
delivery. The project will also emphasize sustained
capacity strengthening of national agricultural
research systems in the two regions.
According to Director General William Dar, the
second phase, spread over three years, is a very
important step to share economic and nutritional
benefits to poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and
South Asia.
“By the end of 2014, we
will have reached an
additional 10 million
smallholder farmer
households. This is a very
significant achievement,
and we appreciate the
support of the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation
for our work and that of
our partners,” Dr Dar
stressed.
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Participatory action research on climate change
ICRISAT and ICRAF to develop community-based
climate-smart agriculture in West Africa
Participants at the workshop in Bamako.
Aiming to develop options of
climate-smart agriculture that
could be upscaled for smallholder
farmers, ICRISAT and ICRAF-The
World Agroforestry Centre, signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
to implement the CGIAR Research
Program on Climate Change,
Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
project on “Developing communitybased
climate smart agriculture through
participatory action research in West Africa.” The signing took place during a two-day planning workshop held in Bamako,
Mali on 15-16 February.
In partnership with rural communities and other
stakeholders, the three-year project seeks to test and
validate a climate-smart model for agricultural
development integrating a range of innovative
agricultural risk management strategies. The project
cuts across the four CCAFS research themes, using a
three-pronged approach: (1) stock-taking of ongoing
projects and activities, (2) identification of gaps and
opportunities (SWOT analysis), and (3) community
identification and prioritization of activities to
address these gaps.
A country team discussing its work plan.
In his opening remarks during the workshop,
Dr Antoine Kalinganire (Coordinator, ICRAF Sahel
Node) recalled the African Ministerial climate-smart
agriculture conference held in Bamako in September 2011. The meeting communiqué, he said,
emphasized the need to integrate solutions to
climate change, food security and poverty
challenges and the importance of climate-smart
agriculture in building resilient landscapes and
communities.
Dr Robert Zougmoré (CCAFS Program Leader, West
Africa), meanwhile, presented the CCAFS program
and the participatory approach. The project, he said,
will build on and link-up with existing CCAFS
activities in each country. These include household-,
village- and organizational-level baseline studies,
and projects like the seasonal climate forecasting
implemented by AGRHYMET and ANAMS (Agence
national de la météorologie du Senegal), including
participatory monitoring and evaluation.
The workshop provided an opportunity for sharing
and learning from past and ongoing experiences in
the pilot countries. Each multidisciplinary country
team came up with a work plan that will be refined
and validated during a national workshop involving
all stakeholders.
The workshop was attended by 20 delegates from
the NARS (IER, Mali; INERA, Burkina Faso; and
CSIR, Ghana), NGOs (Langmaal Centre for Rural
Development Initiatives, Ghana; Association
Malienne D’Eveil au Développement Durable, Mali;
TreeAid, Burkina Faso), IUCN-PACO, ANAMS
(Senegal), CIAT, CCAFS/ICRISAT, ICRAF and
AGRHYMET.
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Scientist shares challenges and opportunities in
pigeonpea breeding
Dr Isabel Vales elucidating on the challenges in pigeonpea breeding.
As part of the Institute’s seminar series to
promote knowledge sharing and
capacity building, Dr Isabel Vales, ICRISAT
Principal Scientist, gave a comprehensive
presentation on the topic “Pigeonpea
Breeding: Challenges and Opportunities” on
23 February at Patancheru.
The world average yield of pigeonpea has
been hovering around 700 kg per ha for the past 35-40 years. According to Dr Valez,
cytoplasmic nuclear male sterility (CMS)-based
pigeonpea hybrids offer great promise to significantly
improve yield by up to 2-4 tons per ha. Higher
yields combined with resistance/tolerance to
important diseases such as sterility mosaic and
Fusarium wilt make CMS hybrids highly beneficial to
farmers. This technology could bring even higher
benefits when combined with small dal machines
that would add value to the crop and enhance
market opportunities, consistent with ICRISAT’s
Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD)
approach.
In order to ensure the success of the CMS hybrids, it
is essential to have pure parental lines, to involve
both public and private sectors, and to enhance
training, monitoring and promotion efforts.
Knowledge from recent successes in genome
sequencing has to be harnessed, along with
coordinated efforts from multiple disciplines and
partners to increase pigeonpea productivity.
The seminar has been recorded, and will be
available at all ICRISAT locations for viewing by
interested scientists.
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Madurai malli (jasmine) to enter global market through
incubation
TNAU Vice-Chancellor P Murugesa Bhoopathi (3rd from
left), Madurai District Collector U Sagayam and SM
Karuppanchetty of ABI-ICRISAT releasing the strategic
plan for jasmine growers.
The famous ‘Madurai malli’ (jasmine) will soon be
promoted as a global commodity jointly by the
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and
ICRISAT.
A comprehensive field study in Madurai District of
Tamil Nadu done by TNAU and the Agri-Business
Incubation (ABI) Program of ICRISAT has put forward a set of recommendations to promote Madurai malli
in both the domestic and international markets.
Primarily, the plan calls for the development of an
incubator for Madurai malli similar to the Timbali
incubator for gerbera in South Africa.
SM Karuppanchetty, COO, ABI-ICRISAT, presented
his team’s survey findings to Madurai District
Collector U Sagayam and others at the Madurai
Jasmine Stakeholder’s meeting held at the
Agricultural College and Research Institute.
According to him, the area under jasmine
production in Madurai district is 1,220 hectares
yielding nearly 10,000 tons per year. If Madurai
malli has to catch up in the global market, the skills
of garland makers have to be enhanced, he added.
“This study will aid government authorities in
developing policies and providing a strategic
framework for the establishment of a Madurai Malli
Incubator (MMI) and Madurai Malli Development
Council (MMDC) to promote entrepreneurs in the
jasmine industry,” the survey report said.
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NFSM monitoring team evaluates DAC-ICRISAT
projects on pulses
The NFSM projects’ monitoring team with ICRISAT staff.
The national level monitoring team of the
DAC-ICRISAT collaborative projects on pulses
under the National Food Security Mission
(NFSM)-Pulses Program visited Patancheru on 29
February – 1 March to review the progress in
ICRISAT’s chickpea and pigeonpea research and
development initiatives.The monitoring team was
composed of Dr Anupam Barik (Additional
Commissioner, Crops), Dr RK Gupta (National
Consultant, NFSM), Dr K Manoharan (Director,
Directorate of Oil Seed Development), and Dr
Narender Kumar (Joint Director, NFSM).
Six projects on chickpea and pigeonpea were
evaluated in the review meeting. Progress reports
were presented by the following ICRISAT Principal
Investigators: HC Sharma (Pod borer resistance),
KB Saxena (Hybrid pigeonpea), I Vales (Pigeonpeawater
logging), S Pande (Chickpea in RRFL), and
Dr PM Gaur (Extra-large seeded kabuli chickpea
and heat tolerance in chickpea).
The team also visited project-related activities in the
field and greenhouse, and acknowledged the
Institute’s high-quality science investigations on Helicoverpa management, chickpea diseases,
tolerance for water logging in pigeonpea, and heat
tolerance in chickpea.
Drs Barik and Gupta highly appreciated the progress
made by ICRISAT scientists and partners in the
NFSM-funded projects. They encouraged ICRISAT to
develop project proposals for funding under the
DAC-NFSM’s estimated budget of `300 crores
(about US$ 60 million) for pulses in the Government
of India’s 12th five-year plan.
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Students, academic management team visit
ICRISAT-Niamey
The Niamey University academic management
team during their visit.
The Ministry of Secondary and Higher Education
and Scientific Research of Niger organized a trip
for a group of 30 school students from Lycée Issa
Korombé, Lycée Kassai and Lycée Mariama, to
ICRISAT-Niamey on 16 February. The group was led
by Mr Guero from the UNESCO Office. The students
were welcomed by ICRISAT’s Country Representative
Mahamadou Gandah, and were taken on a tour of the
nursery, African Garden Market, genebank and library.
Meanwhile, the new Niamey University Academic
Management Team composed of Dr Barazé Moussa
(Vice Rector), Dr Diallo Bouli (President of Scientific
Council) and Dr Bakasso Yacouba (Vice Dean) visited
ICRISAT-Niamey on 21 February. The visit aimed to
revitalize the research cooperation between the university
and ICRISAT, particularly in the area of training.
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New tools create a community of mungbean breeders
Participants of the international mungbean workshop
held at Patancheru.
Facebook can link friends, but new
online collaborative tools developed as
part of a joint ICRISAT-AVRDC project
can also link crop breeding programs
across the world, avoiding duplicated
efforts and speeding up global progress.
A three-day workshop on 27-29 February
showcased online tools to speed up
progress in collaborative international
breeding of mungbean. It involved
participants from AVRDC-The World
Vegetable Center and ICRISAT as well as
national partners from Thailand, the
Philippines and India.
With a global area of over 6 million ha,
mungbean is one of the most important legume crops in Asia. Fast and drought-hardy, it is
widely used for dahl, sprouted as a vegetable or
processed into noodles and snack foods.
The workshop was the final activity of a joint project
“Bioinformatics for Breeding: Data Management”
between ICRISAT and AVRDC. The project has
organized breeding data for mungbean and
sorghum, allowing it to be shared online.
Dr Trushar Shah from ICRISAT’s Bioinformatics
group who led the project said that the workshop
provided a strong foundation for future work that
will strengthen the work of all partners involved.
Building on tools from the Integrated Breeding
Program of the Generation Challenge Program, all
AVRDC mungbean pedigree information and
characterization data can now be shared online.
National mungbean breeders were enthusiastic to
join the program. As they have become more sophisticated, there is a greater need for international
coordination to improve efficiency. Past
collaborative breeding programs among 29 national
and international partners produced the world’s
most successful mungbean varieties, and Dr Ram
Nair, AVRDC mungbean breeder said that these new
online tools lifted such international collaboration to
a new level.
AVRDC Regional Director for South Asia, Dr
Warwick Easdown said that collaborative breeding
work will continue to be a central part of
international cooperation that also involves
improving seed systems for mungbean, agronomy,
mechanization and value adding. This active
community of interest is vital to the future of one of
the world’s most important legumes.
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