CGIAR Launches Program to Improve Rural Economies and Nutrition through Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals

Hyderabad [1 January 2018]: The CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals Agri-food Systems (CRP GLDC) launched focused on increasing the productivity, profitability, resilience and marketability of critical and nutritious grain legume and cereal crops grown in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia. This second phase CRP combines the lessons learned from three phase 1 CRPs: Dryland Cereals, Grain Legumes, and Dryland Systems. CRP-GLDC is a Research for Development investment of US$413 million over five years (2018-2022).

CRP-GLDC is one of 12 CRPs delivering to the CGIAR’s Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) 2016–2030. By 2030, CGIAR and its partners will aim for 150 million fewer hungry people, 100 million fewer poor people, at least 50% of whom are women, and 190 million ha less degraded land (http://www.cgiar.org/about-us/our-programs/).

The CRP has prioritized integrated research for development on six legume (chickpea, cowpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, lentil, soybean) and three cereal (sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet) crops grown in semi-arid and sub-humid dryland agroecologies.

CRP-GLDC will be managed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), supported by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Bioversity International.  These CGIAR partners will lead key programs of the CRP along with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the French-Agriculture Research for Development (CIRAD), and Institute of Research for Development-France (IRD).

Broad partnerships are essential for CRP-GLDC and include the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) collaborators in West Africa (Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger), East and Southern Africa (Ethiopia, Sudan, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique), and South Asia (India and Myanmar), Sub-Regional Organizations, non-Government Organisations and private companies to increase regional adoption of improved crop varieties and enhance market opportunities for smallholder farmers.

A formal GLDC program launch will take place in early 2018 coordinating partners into specific activity clusters aimed towards meeting program targets by 2022.