ICRISAT Big ideas for partnership portfolio

Science with a human facewww.icrisat.org November 2013

Developing on-farm

practices and technologies

Diversifying farms

Introducing processing

technologies

Breeding higher

performing crop varieties

Driving market

development

Facilitating assistance to market

access

Approach for Adoption

Cross-cutting issues

Participatory approach and partnering – working side by side

Building capacity – at a national and local level

Integrating communications - to build awareness and share knowledge

Monitoring and evaluation – for feedback and adjustment

Policy support – work closely with government to encourage the needed policies

Mainstreaming nutrition

Empowering women – women are consulted, involved and supported to lead

Susta

inable Intensif cati on

Analyzing key problems

and opportunities

Managing soil and water

Inte

grati

ng Social Dimension

Building Agribusinesses

ICRISAT’s holistic approachto agricultural research for development

2 A concept note forEnsuring nutritional security in rural India

Our Commitment

We innovate to help poor communities in Africa and Asia:

₋ Fight hunger and poverty ₋ Reduce malnutrition ₋ Revitalize the environment

We work across the whole value chain and have science-based solutions at all stages.

ICRISAT has specialized knowledge on the drylands, which covers 55 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and are inhabited by 2 billion people, 644 million of whom are poor.

These regions are most vulnerable to climate change with very little rainfall, degraded soils and poor social infrastructure.

We have specialized skills on crops of immense value to the nutrition and economics of the semi-arid tropics – dryland cereals (sorghum and millets) and grain legumes (chickpea, pigeonpea and peanut).

The SolutionsWe don’t bring just one part of the solution. By analyzing key problems and opportunities, we work along the whole value chain:

▪ Sustainable On-farm Intensifcation ₋ Managing soil and water ₋ Breeding higher performing crop

varieties ₋ Diversifying farms ₋ Developing on-farm practices and

technologies ▪ Building Agribusinesses

₋ Introducing processing technologies ₋ Facilitating assistance to market access ₋ Driving market development

What is unique about this approach? ▪ It is multidisciplinary, combining

social understanding with biophysical advances and business.

▪ All solutions are science based and continue to be monitored and evaluated scientifically.

▪ It not only works at the different stages of the value chain but can make the

linkages from farmer to agribusiness to markets.

▪ We take it further than a value chain approach – with an Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD) approach. This requires: ₋ being ‘inclusive’ of the stakeholders

in developing solutions, and ensuring that all stakeholders, including the smallholder farmers and the women, benefit from the development.

₋ being market driven in the developments moving the poor farmers from subsistence to a commercially oriented profitable business.

Our CapabilitiesMultidisciplinary high class sciencefrom natural resource management, genetics, bioinformatics and phenotyping to economics and social sciences.

On the ground in Africa and Asiawith offices in Kenya, Malawi Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and India.

Strong networksas we work in partnership at all levels – local, national, regional and international.

Participatory methodshave been developed and are used as part of our work, involving the farmers through to the government and private industry where change is needed.

Recognized as independentAs an international non-profit organization that has worked in Asia and Africa for over 40 years, our scientific and independent credibility are well founded.

Ensuring nutritional security in rural communities

Young school children in rural India eating millet chappatis with rice and vegetable curry.


Malnutrition has been declared as the greatest single threat to the world’s public health by UN’s Standing Committee on Nutrition.

Smallholder agriculture can play a strong role in reducing malnutrition in resource-poor rural communities, through a broader partnership with the health, nutrition and education sectors.

We recommend integrating nutrition and agriculture developments and working from both the demand and supply side.

We need to mainstream nutrition into agricultural development. We can do this by:A. Growing nutri-resilient crops – crops that are highly nutritious as well as

better able to cope with drought and poor soil.B. Incorporating nutrition needs along the whole agricultural value chain.C. Cross-sectoral partnering forged with agriculture, health and education

sectors.

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The problem and opportunityAccording to the UN World Food Program, more than 900 million people in the world do not get the right or nutritious food to eat.

About 50% of child deaths under the age of five in developing countries are linked to undernutrition.

Malnutrition at an early age may lead to reduced physical and mental development and also limits capacity to learn.

Past agricultural advancement that has focused on the quantity of food are often blamed for malnutrition.

Let’s start in the rural areas – of the 3 billion people that live in rural areas (nearly half of the humanity), about 2.5 billion are involved in agriculture and 1.5 billion (half of the rural area population) are resource-poor smallholder farmers.

The solution A. Grow nutri-resilient crops – crops that are

highly nutritious as well as better able to cope with drought and poor soil. Identifying and focusing on nutri-resilient crops of the future is an important component.

B. Incorporate nutrition needs along the whole agricultural value chain.

▪ Biofortification – breeding micronutrient-rich crop varieties – using a combination of conventional, genomics and molecular breeding.

▪ Seed production and delivery systems for dissemination to improve farmers’ knowledge or access to seeds of improved varieties.

▪ On-farm crop and livestock diversity. ▪ Crop management interventions to

improve grain micronutrient concentration. ▪ Addressing major food safety issues such as:

₋ incorporate resistance to aflatoxins in groundnut breeding program

₋ introduce on-farm and storage practices that reduce the risk of aflatoxin infections

₋ introduce to farmers, simple cost-effective aflatoxin testing kits.

▪ Post-harvest processing and value addition.

▪ Influencing policy to support nutrition security.

▪ Educating and building demand for nutritious foods.

C. Cross-sectoral partnerships forged with agriculture, health and education sectors.

Engaging the right partners across agriculture, health and education is essential to ensure a sustainable impact on nutrition.

Taking a holistic approach to mainstreaming nutrition will require multiple approaches, ensuring the availability of nutritious food through to the demand for more nutritious food.

ICRISAT can work with the public and private sectors and be the independent catalyst to make this happen.

The approachKey to the success includes the following:

▪ Participatory approach – involving stakeholders and beneficiaries, including women, in the research ensuring they are helping identify the needs and direct the research priorities.

▪ Capacity building – working alongside the national system to build local capacity and ensure that initiatives are sustainable.

▪ Integrating communications – to build awareness and share knowledge along the whole value chain.

▪ Empowering women – past successes in agricultural research for development have shown the critical need to ensure women are involved in programs and empowered to take action. Nutritional programs in particular will require women’s inputs to provide direction as well as empowering them to act on the recommendations. Methods to achieve this will be important to apply at all stages of the value chain.

▪ Monitoring and evaluation – is important at all stages of the work to ensure inputs to continually direct the research and adoption efforts.

InvolvementReduce malnutrition through agricultural research and development to stimulate the whole value chain – from developing, growing, and value addition of nutri-resilient crops; biofortification, breeding and disseminating micronutrient-rich crop varieties; and partnering with stakeholders to mainstream health, agriculture, nutrition education, and women empowerment.

ContactsCLL Gowda, Deputy Director General-Research,E-mail: [email protected]

Joanna Kane-Potaka, Director, Strategic Marketing and Communication, E-mail: [email protected]

Young school children in rural India eating millet chappatis with rice and vegetable curry.


Building livelihood options to empower rural women

Women are far more likely than men to channel their income from agriculture into the nutrition, health and education of their children.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO), tackling gender differences could increase agricultural output by as much as 4% each year, and lift an estimated 100 million people out of poverty.

We can make changes now through livelihood options for rural women.

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Improved child

education

Increase income

Empower them

Create agriculture

and agribusiness

opportunities for women

Build their

capacity

Increase their

livelihood options

Educate them about

nutrition

Next generation benefits

Better family

nutrition


The problem and opportunity � Even the farmers and their families do not have

enough to eat. � If you are worried about having enough to eat,

you are not concerned with nutrition levels. � If you do not know how you will survive

this year, you are not going to invest in the condition of the soil for next year.

� Children are only sent to school if there is enough income that season.

There is a cycle among livelihoods, education and health.

We know that engaging and empowering women is critical in making a positive change within this cycle.

Rural women are the poorest in the world. The number of rural women living in poverty has doubled since the 1970s

Women farmers in developing countries are 20-30% less productive than men.

This is because women do not have the same access to key assets.

In Africa, for instance, women own just 1% of the agricultural land, receive only 7% of available extension services, and are able to access less than 10% of all agricultural credit.

Women are generally responsible for the food and nutrition of the family.

Health is typically treated as a separate issue and is not integrated into agriculture and rural livelihood options.

Women are more vulnerable to discrimination and social mistreatment.

If we can close the gender gap in rural areas we can:

- Produce more food in developing countries by 2.5 to 4%.

- Reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100 to 150 million people.

- Build more businesses.- Have healthier future generations.

So how do we change things?The focus is to implement agricultural and agribusiness solutions for women that lead to better and sustainable livelihoods.

The approach1) Participatory analysis and solution building at

village level- Bring together the women and the broader

community in a village, the players along the whole value chain (e.g. traders and processors) and scientific and business experts.

- Analyse the barriers and opportunities- Provide nutrition and health education- Develop solutions together that are science

based and owned by the community

2) Implement the solutions. This can include:- Training the women- Giving access to needed assets- Creating/strengthening self-help groups- Building knowledge on nutrition and

health. This will include understanding cultural norms and how to manage these, food options and social interventions to overcome malnutrition, and other practices such as water, sanitation and healthcare.

3) Continually monitor the approach, developments and impacts.

Key for this approach:

� It is based on sound diagnostic research and incorporates strong scientific knowledge to develop solutions and continues with scientific backing in implementing and monitoring the solutions.

� It brings together health, education, livelihoods and food security in a new and powerful way.

How you can be involvedSponsor the whole program and be a global leader. Engage with the wider general public by encouraging their involvement to:

- sponsor a village; - sponsor a women’s Self-Help Group; or- sponsor a woman to run a business (through

training and providing assets).

ContactChanda Goodrich, Principal Scientist (Empower Women), E-mail: [email protected]


Global agribusiness incubation model

We see a huge need and value in fostering agribusiness entrepreneurship in developing countries. To take this even further, we see an opportunity to

provide the connections to the global markets, for these entrepreneurs.

This can be achieved by:

Setting up agribusiness incubators in developing countries

Linking these agribusiness incubators to provide access to the knowledge, technology, connections and markets in other countries.

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Problems and opportunities

There is a need to further develop the agricultural value chains in developing countries, to improve food and livelihood security and economic growth.

This will also open opportunities for entrepreneurs to take their products and technologies to the market globally.

Small entrepreneurs in developing countries struggle with less access to the needed resources, assets, technologies, expertise and market information and access.

Agribusiness entrepreneurship opens opportunities for new businesses as well as for smallholder farmers to build closer business link with the market and be a stronger player in the value chain.

The solutionICRISAT has already a proven model for agribusiness incubators through the experience of setting up 22 agribusiness incubators in India, 11 in Africa and others in Nepal, Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

These are self-sustaining incubators set up through private-public partnerships.

To scale up this model it is recommended to:

Set up agribusiness incubators in developing countries

This will include significant expansion of the number of incubators to reach a critical mass in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The incubators will be set up through private-public partnerships with ICRISAT hand holding the process of setting up and operating in a network to form a Global Agri-Business Incubators Network.

The incubators nurture and mentor entrepreneurs, providing technical, business and market information, as well as knowledge on the access to credit and partners.

Link these agribusiness incubators to provide access to the knowledge, connections and markets in other countries.

Linking the incubators across regions and countries will allow knowledge and technology sharing. This will be the channel for small agribusiness entrepreneurs to grow and tap other markets.

This is a technology transfer model that allows two-way flow of knowledge and technologies, for faster scaling up and building more profitable businesses.

Expected outcomes• Better entrepreneurship, enhanced technology

transfer and development of better market-relevant agro-technologies for entrepreneurs in developing nations.

• Enabling farmers to become a part of the value chain and enhance their livelihood means.

• There will be a special focus on including women farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs.

• Opening up of new avenues of partnership with various public and private sector development agencies/organizations.

InvolvementBe a partner in setting up agribusiness incubators.

Be a partner in expanding/strengthening this Global Agri-Business Incubator Network, and contribute in the scaling-up efforts to enhance productivity of the agriculture sector.

ContactKiran K Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Agribusiness and Innovation Platform; E-mail: [email protected]


A center of excellence in nutrition and food safety The safety, quality and nutritional value of the food we eat is of fundamental

importance to our health and well-being. Lack of the right amount of the vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients and safe food, affects physical and mental growth and results in an overall negative impact on the society and economy. Private food testing laboratories typically lack the flexibility to explore and innovate new technologies and do not provide services to assist small to medium enterprises. National research laboratories focus mainly on fundamental research and do not address the agribusiness needs.Export markets are often not accessible to small agribusinesses due to the lack of affordable food testing services necessary to comply with statutory requirements of importing countries.

A Center of Excellence in Nutrition and Food Safety is identified as a critical need and opportunity – with the primary objective of developing high-throughput, innovative and low cost testing protocols for achieving nutritional security and food safety.

The Center of Excellence in Nutrition and Food SafetyThe Centere of Excellence shall catalyze the availability of nutritious and safe foods through advancements in four key areas:

1. Nutrition

▪ Development of high-throughput, innovative and low cost testing protocols- Rapid screening protocols for nutrients, plant metabolites and bioactives shall be

developed and validated- Rapid methods to assess in vitro bioavailability of micronutrients and phytochemicals will

be developed in order to validate the bioavailability of micronutrients. - The rapid testing protocols shall be applied to assess and improve the nutritional status of typical

diets and food preparations of the poor

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▪ Development of new innovative processing technologies and functional food products- Develop innovative storage, cooking and

processing technologies to deliver nutritionally enhanced diets and food products.

- This will include the development of affordable therapeutic infant, maternal and geriatric food formulations with enhanced nutritional traits, addressing hidden hunger and malnutrition, suitable for the poorer communities.

- Development of functional food products that can address different lifestyle diseases namely diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

- Health claims of food products shall be scientifically validated.

2. Food safety

▪ Affordable and food safety testing provided- High-throughput, innovative and low-

cost testing protocols will be developed and validated for screening of microbial contaminants, mycotoxins, chemical constituents (heavy metals, pesticide residues etc.) and allergens.

- These tests will be set up so they facilitate the compliance to domestic and international regulations.

- They will also ensure food safety, especially in the diets of the poor and malnourished.

- They will work with regulatory authorities to be a proficiency testing provider in countries where there are currently no proficiency testing provider for food testing laboratories, e.g. in India.

3. Policy support

▪ Guide governments and other agencies on national and local schemes that target the poor in regards to the food nutrition and safety. Assist with formulating guidelines and regulations to ensure nutritional security and food safety.

▪ Serve as a national referral laboratory in the areas of nutrition and food safety.

4. Promotion and capacity building

▪ Undertake advocacy with industry, farmers and government in support of highly nutritious and safe foods that target the poor.

▪ Provide open sharing of knowledge and technical information.

▪ Recommend appropriate food recipes, storage and cooking methods to enhance nutritional value and safety.

▪ Capacity Building ▪ Conduct trainings to enhance knowledge

of nutrition and food safety and innovative cooking and storage methods.

▪ Capacity building of technical staff involved in the area of nutritional product development, implementation of food safety regulations and food testing laboratories.

▪ There will also be capacity building of field staff involved in community-based nutritional health/food safety improvement programs.

Facilitating establishment of a Center of Excellence in Nutrition and Food Safety in other countriesSet up and support can be provided by ICRISAT and its Agribusiness and Innovation Platform which has experience in working on value addition, food processing, food safety and capacity building:

~ Establishing 22 agribusiness incubators in India and more in Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Africa.

~ Setting up 5 food safety laboratories in Africa.~ Training and consultancies for food processing

and agribusiness.~ Researching across the whole value chain

incorporating the social and physiological disciplines.

Outcomes and benefits ▪ Lead to more nutritious and safer diets of the

poor, contributing to overcoming malnutrition and serious lifestyle diseases.

▪ Address lifestyle diseases through interventions at the dietary level and advocacy.

▪ Facilitate networking between farmers, researchers, and industry for efficient knowledge transfer in the area of nutrition and food safety.

▪ Facilitate new food processing and agribusiness industries domestically and for export through product development and food safety efforts.

InvolvementSupport the establishment of a Center of Excellence in a country or region, building a sustainable business model.

ContactKiran K Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Agribusiness and Innovation Platform; E-mail: [email protected]


Grain legumes research for the future ▪ 600 million of the world’s most vulnerable people depend on legumes for food

and fodder ▪ 200 million hectares of grain legumes are grown globally ▪ US$24 billion in market value at the farm gate per annum in the developing

countries

Grain legumes are protein rich foods that balance cereal-based diets and are the least resource demanding option to improve the nutrition of poor people.

Grain legumes supply up to 60% of daily protein intake for the poor in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and 13% for hundreds of millions of poor in South Asia.

Farmers both consume and sell grain legumes, benefiting from food and income gains.

Grain legumes can take their nitrogen from the air in place of fertilizer, contributing enormously to sustainable intensification and raising food production.

With grain legumes’ large production and market, we are aiming for an integrated approach to research for development (R4D) to ensure that current and future generations of smallholder farmers and poor consumers will benefit.

We need to invest heavily in basic and strategic research, and involve innovative research to chart new areas to enhance the genetic gain from crop improvement.

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The problem and opportunityProduction of grain legumes is being displaced by cereals, leading to higher legume prices and negative nutritional impacts

Inadequate seed production systems and the lack of access to seed by distant smallholder producers are particular bottlenecks to the adoption of improved varieties.

In some regions the per capita demand for legumes is decreasing. As countries develop and become wealthier, legumes confront competition from other foods.

Grain legumes are also susceptible to climate change – both drought and heat can severely limit their

productivity. Developing new resilient varieties is urgently needed.

Overall demand for all grain legumes in low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDC) is expected to double from the current 30 million tons to 62 million tons in 2050.

We need to elevate and strengthen our research for development efforts to increase the productivity and production particularly of chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut in the rainfed areas of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Our grain legumes R4D approach1) We will use modern approaches to enhance

genetic gain to improve productivity of grain legumes:- genome sequencing- generating large-scale genotypic

information by developing/ accessing analysis and decision support tools in modern breeding approaches.

- phenotyping for drought adaptation traits, and high-throughput phenotyping for diseases.

2) We will develop insect smart crop production systems, particularly for pigeonpea and chickpea, through the use of:

- transgenic approaches of insect resistance, and

- introgressing insect resistance from wild species using genomics-based approaches.

3) We will harness the potential of doubled-haploid (DH) and heterosis approaches in grain legumes – promising tools to develop new high-yielding crop varieties of crops such as chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut.

These pro-poor technologies make possible the selection of individuals with desirable gene combinations and to propagate them as clones, beneficial in developing countries, where farmers would be able to save hybrid seed for the following crop.

InvolvementPartner with us in advancing the development of high-throughput platform and deployment of modern breeding approaches in crop improvement programs.

ContactRajeev K Varshney, Director, Research Program on Grain Legumes, ICRISAT.Email: [email protected]


Dryland cereals for the future ▪ Grown by 33 million smallholder households in the drylands of Africa and Asia ▪ Sorghum is dietary staple of 500 million people, millets of 90 million people in

the drier areas of Africa and Asia. ▪ Grown in rural and marginal, often harsh environments with limited market

opportunities.

Dryland cereals like sorghum and millet are drought tolerant, often the only food and fodder crops for smallholders in the dryland regions.

Highly nutritious, dryland cereals crops contribute to reduction in malnutrition.

They are easy to produce and has high multiple uses (food, fodder, biofuel, beverage) – offering many livelihood opportunities for farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs.

Growth in demand for dryland cereals will be driven not only by population growth but by new markets, such as increased demands by middle-to-upper classes for health food, weaning foods for infant, and especially as livestock feed and fodder.

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Demand for cereals in the target regions is forecast to increase by about 40% by 2020 (over the 2000 baseline). In the face of drought and changing climate, improving the resilience of sorghum and millets to meet this demand is a must.

We are now working on crop improvement products and associated technologies for dryland cereals for over 11.8 million hectares in Africa and Asia directly benefiting 5.8 million smallholder households with a total of 34 million beneficiaries (including value chain operators).

These benefits are not only via improved food security and nutrition, but also through opportunities to increase cash income by way of off-farm sale of food, feed and fodder to meet the demands of the increasing urbanized population.

The problem and opportunityProduction of dryland cereals is constrained by limited farmer access to seed of improved varieties, as well as knowledge about them.

The degraded and low fertility soils often found in dryland environments, as well as drought, are major constraints, and research continues to focus on improving the resiliency of new varieties and hybrids to these harsh environmental realities.

Farmers need to learn about and adopt new management practices, without which improved varieties and hybrids usually have little or no advantage over traditional cultivars.

Grain quality, its storability, and fodder quality are important considerations to farmers, and can limit the adoption and production of new cultivars.

Finally, pests and diseases can severely constrain dryland cereal production.

We will elevate and strengthen our research for development efforts to improve the resilience of sorghum and millets in the face of drought and changing climate.

While genetic tools are now available in breeding, improving cultivars for complex constraints requires a multi-discipline approach at a large scale.

Beyond the physical constraints of their harsh ecologies, dryland cereals also face biotic stresses that are difficult, if possible at all, to be addressed through traditional methods.

Our dryland cereals R4D value chain approach1) We will use modern approaches to design

more resilient dryland cereals like sorghum and millets that require key breeding targets for specific environments. Here, we will need:

▪ phenotyping to dissect the genetics of critical traits

▪ developing/accessing analysis and decision support tools in modern breeding

▪ creating new cultivars that combine improved resilience traits with improved productivity, resistance to biotic stresses, and grain qualities.

2) We will develop develop a platform to create resilience trait – based on different biotechnologies that will create traits not available in existing germplasm.

The idea: Some of the biotic constraints that sorghum and pearl millet face in their ecologies do not have a game-changing solution from their cultivated or wild genepool: they require the creation of that resistance.

InvolvementPartner with us in developing dryland cereals for the future and expanding the scale of our R4D operations through investments in:

- large scale throughput phenotyping- increasing size of network of testing

locations and the quality of data collection - training future breeders- integration and use of full potential of

genomics, physiology, modeling, biometrics and informatics to enhance genetic gain especially for drought tolerance

- a high throughput platform for generating thousands of events and screening facilities

- exploring non-transgenic ways of creating resistances.

ContactStefania Grando, Director, Research Program on Dryland Cereals, ICRISAT.Email: [email protected]


Climate resilient communities for improving rural livelihoods

Smallholder farmers are reliant mainly on rainfed areas.

With climate change – increasing variability in the rainfall intensity and unusual heavy rainfall events followed by long dry spells – there is a need to build the resilience of these rural communities.

There are solutions to reduce the vulnerability of the rural communities to impacts of climate change.

We recommend Location specific customized adaptive strategies developed through

participatory approaches. Establish a climate change information network to empower the rural

communities using innovative knowledge delivery systems in the rural areas. Build the capacity of different stakeholders for developing climate resilient

agriculture and enabling policies and institutions for scaling-up.

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Scientific solutions and proof of conceptSelected villages will be studied and climate adaptive strategies developed, implemented and evaluated. A proof of concept will be established by building climate resilient communities.

The solutions will be context specific including:

▪ Taking into account the local catchment level, including the multi-sectoral activities.

▪ Enhancing crop, soil, water and other inputs use efficiency to increase production and profits.

▪ Diversification of on-farm and other livelihood options.

▪ Other methods for sustainable intensification on-farm.

▪ Harnessing the power of new scientific tools like ICT, GIS, simulation models and remote sensing.

▪ Considering the whole value chain through to processing and markets.

Approach ▪ Participatory development of solutions

that engage and empower the community. ▪ A consortium of different institutions

to harness the power of public-private partnerships.

▪ Involvement of women and youth to build sustainability of the interventions.

▪ Enabling institutions and policy guidelines to support the science-based solutions.

Scaling upThe proof of concept for climate resilient communities will be clearly defined models, sites of learning and have an inventory of tested adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Established information networks in one community will be tapped for information sharing in other communities.

InvolvementSupport development of proof of concept for selected communities.

Assist with the scaling up of a network of climate resilient communities.

Contact Suhas P Wani, Research Program Director (Acting),Resilient Dryland SystemsEmail: [email protected]


“Innovation Hubs” to empower smallholder farmers to improve their livelihoods

Smallholder farmers are very often disadvantaged from the larger development process due to challenges of access – infrastructure, knowledge and market access

– and consequently caught in a vicious cycle of low investment, low risk taking ability, low productivity and poor markets, and therefore low incomes.

The opportunity lies in supporting and empowering the smallholder farmers through Innovation Hubs.This is a combination of

▪ Innovation Platforms which bring together players along the value chain to share issues and opportunities; and

▪ Incubation Hubs that assist and mentor entrepreneurs through new business investments, supporting them during the start-up highest risk phase.

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How this works

combination of approaches that will significantly build the livelihoods of smallholder farmers with a much higher rate of success.

ImplementationThe Innovation Hubs will initially be run as pilots in 25 hubs. Monitoring and evaluation will be carried out throughout gathering lessons learned, and ensuring that critical factors for success are adopted.

Plans are for 100 hubs in year 2 and major scaling up to 1,100 hubs by year 5.

ICRISAT’s role will be to:

- facilitate the setting up of the Innovation Hubs;

- support with the running of these hubs; - ensuring the community is empowered in

the process;- conduct monitoring and evaluation of the

process and its effectiveness; and- undertake research to support business

initiatives and share scientific, market and policy knowledge and expertise.

The Innovation Hubs will be self-sustaining through a combination of community ownership and private sector investments in a market-driven production approach.

InvolvementSupport an Innovation Hub and the research behind it.

Help grow these on a large scale.

ContactCynthia Bantilan, Director, Research Program on Markets, Institutions and Policies Email: [email protected]

INNOVATION HUB

Innovation PlatformsLinking the private sector,

government and communities for identifying business

issues and opportunities

Incubation Hubs

A safety net and support for new business

initiatives

Innovation Platforms bring together private sector, government and the community – each partner playing a complimentary role along the value chain. There is vested or shared vision for partnerships. Facilitating discussions through the innovation platform will assist to:

▪ Link the farmers closer to the markets ▪ Identify market issues and opportunities ▪ Forge multi-disciplinary partnerships ▪ Develop business models/market linkages ▪ Identify evidence-based policy change support

that is needed.

Incubation Hubs complement and integrate with the innovation platforms as they assist with the implementation of business initiatives. They are a safety net at the highest risk, early set up phase of business development. This is important to help farmers manage risks and enable them to invest in new initiatives to grow and advance.

The Incubation hub provides: ▪ Customized market and business knowledge ▪ Assistance with access to inputs like

technologies and credit ▪ Protection/risk management at a viable cost

until scale is achieved ▪ Links to the value chain players ▪ Influencing required policies.

Many of these support activities are provided through the network of the Innovation Platform as well as being customized and accessed through the Incubation Hub added expertise.

This approach brings together two proven initiatives (Innovation Platforms and Incubation Hubs) in a new and complementary way. This is a powerful


Mitigating feed and fodder shortagesthrough development along the whole value chain

Both a problem and business opportunity: farming systems are unable to meet the rising demand for feed and fodder due to the demand-driven livestock

revolution.

For example in India, there is a deficit of 24% dry fodder, 33% green fodder and 37% concentrates and this deficit is further growing owing to the increasing demand for milk and meat products.

A holistic approach is recommended, developing the whole value chain for feed and fodder. This will range from breeding for feed/fodder to processing, storage, policies and market access.

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Solutions that are science basedThe value chain development will include:

▪ Breeding programs that focus on:- dual-purpose cultivars with high fodder

quality- high-tillering, fast growing, multi-

cut forages with high palatability and digestibility

- water and nitrogen-use efficiency- disease and pest resistance - feed resources free from/with low HCN,

lignin, polyphenols, Oxalic acid, Aflatoxin

▪ Best-bet options for quality fodder production and mechanization of production and processing

▪ On-farm efficiencies and intensification ▪ Efficient utilization of common property

resources ▪ Fodder warehouses establishment ▪ Advocating subsidizing/custom hiring of the

machinery for fodder processing and better utilization

▪ Reviewing quality assurance of animal feeds ▪ Encourage and facilitate decentralized small

scale business enterprises around feed and fodder

▪ Strengthening linkages between various actors – NARS-Milk Federations, Governments and NGOs

Background on selected crops, adaptation and feed valueSorghum and Pearl Millet

Sorghum and pearl millet are among the important dual-purpose and forage crops. Sorghum is a prominent forage crop in India occupying 3 m ha area out of total 8 m ha forage area in the country. Therefore there is large private sector interest in forage seed production and distribution. High biomass production, high palatability and digestibility, regeneration ability, drought tolerance (sorghum and millet need less water than maize per unit of biomass produced) and adaptability

to a range of climatic and soil conditions make these crops most suitable for increasing the forage production across the world. Besides, sorghum and pearl millet are tolerant to salinity and heat. While the fresh and dry stover have high digestibility, the sweet sorghum bagasse based feed blocks are found to be at par with commercial feed blocks terms of animal intake and productivity.

Chickpea and Pigeonpea

Chickpea is a cool season crop grown on residual soil moisture and highly responsive to applied inputs. Its fodder is used as high protein fodder mixed with cereal straw and is fed to the cattle/goats as a nutrient-rich supplement augmenting the feed from the main cereal source. Pigeonpea is an important grain legume crop of rainfed agriculture. Owing to its drought tolerance and soil fertility enrichment ability it finds an important place in sustainable cropping system. By virtue of fodder quality attributes such as high nitrogen content and in vitro organic matter digestibility coupled with higher vegetative growth it augments excellently to mitigate fodder shortage in semi-arid tropics.

GroundnutCultivated in more than 100 countries groundnut is one of the major dual-purpose crops grown for its haulms as well as for pods in dry tropics. The haulms are rich in protein with high in vitro organic matter digestibility. This makes groundnut a preferred dual purpose crop. Further there is a high diversity for traits related to its haulm quality as fodder and with little or no trade-offs between pod yield and haulm yield. Groundnut de-oiled cake (after extraction of oil) is a prized concentrate feed for all classes of livestock. Its low fiber and high protein contents make it an even more valuable ingredient for poultry rations.

InvolvementInvest in the feed and fodder value chain.

ContactA Ashok Kumar, Senior Scientist (Sorghum Breeding), E-mail: [email protected]


Sustainable business models for delivering ICT agro-advisories

The latest ICT will be used to bring affordable and appropriate precision knowledge solutions and inputs to smallholder farmers.

Customized agro-advisory services will be provided. This will be done by:

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Bringing together

private and public enterprises

Developing new sustainable business models

Connecting the ICT

platforms and the content


This will lead to:

Better on farm decision making with timely and appropriate advice and farm inputs (such as credit, seeds, pesticides and fertilizers)

Better access to markets and market opportunities

Better management of risks (e.g. of climate, onfarm challenges and market changes)

The problems that need addressingPublicly funded agricultural extension systems played a critical role during the green revolution leading to sweeping efforts to transform farming methods. However these systems are currently inadequate in terms of infrastructure and human resources.

The need for such advisory services is still strong as there are 500 million smallholder farms worldwide and these farms produce about 80% of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These farmers are typically among the poorest people

and struggle with unproductive soils, poor access to water, drought, little ability to invest, high risks and more.

The advancement in ICT provides an opportunity to provide agro-advisory services required and bridge the technology divide for smallholder farmers.

ICT solutions are currently being implemented in developing countries. However, there has been a failure of financially sustainable business models.

The ApproachSetting up for sustainability is key for this initiative. The approach will include:

Select crops and value chains to target Identify and engage with private and public

partnerships

The private sector players will be recruited on membership basis and the platform will provide them a healthy competitive environment to directly connect with the end users.

Develop the business model Connecting the ICT platforms that feed the

web and mobile devices with the content relevant to farmers. ₋ Develop the integrated ICT platform ₋ Channel the information and

knowledge through the ICT platform Promote the agro services with the

smallholder farmers through the private and public partnerships.

The technology platforms and content developmentExisting proven platforms will be built into one access point.

These platforms have been pilot tested by ICRISAT in 3 experimental hubs.

The platform supports tablet, smart phone and computers.

The modules consist of a variety of information and input delivery services. such as:

Soil health Crop knowledge base Improved farm management videos

Farmer-field-crop record database Experts database Buy and sell virtual transaction platform Credit and insurance options:

Features include:

- Report generation such as market intelligence and intelligent decision support system for improving productivity and profitability.

- Delivery through voice messages in 16 categories including: weather . market . crop information . government schemes . nutrition . health

- Local language capabilities

InvolvementBe an investor and catalyst to developing the business model that can be implemented globally.

Or support implementation in specific regions with customized agro-services.

ContactG Dileepkumar, Global Leader, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation E-mail: [email protected]


A proven model for Sustainable Management of Natural Resourcesfor food security and improved livelihoodsBe water neutralRejuvenate the landSustainable intensification of agricultureInclusive of the smallholder farmer

This proven Bhoochetana* model, applied in India, is now being taken to Africa.

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The achievements

Major boost in soil fertility and capacity to resist drought – through micronutrient

fertilizers (Zinc, Boron and Sulphur (Gypsum) and organic compost

Enough water, despite poor rains – with the use of agroforestry, dams, gullies and micro-irrigation to conserve rainwater – make sustainable groundwater use and prevent soil runoff

Introduction of improved crop varieties suited to the environment, coping with climate change and the markets.

The results in Karnataka state, India in the first 3 years:20-66% yield increase5% rise in food production across the state$1 invested = $3-14 return3 million farmers over 3.7 million ha, made up to $500 net gain per ha in one season

The approachWhat made this successful, included:

▪ On-farm practices- Participatory soil health assessments- Balanced fertilizer recommendations- Diversifying crop farms to include livestock

for additional income and manure ▪ Capacity building

- Capacity building of all partners including farmer field schools

- Over 10,000 farmer facilitators trained to give farmer-to-farmer demonstrations and advice

▪ Partnering- Strong support achieved from the

government and farmer groups, and partnering with local community groups

- Empowerment of women in the community- Communication campaigns to build

enthusiasm- Regular monitoring and evaluation

New work is being done now on processing technology, marketing and the use of ICT

Involvement

Apply this proven model to specific sites or have it upscaled across a state or region.

ContactSuhas P Wani, Acting Research Program Director – Resilient Dryland Systems & Principal Scientist (Watersheds); Email: [email protected]

*Bhoochetana means “rejuvenating the soil”. It was used to name a project led by ICRISAT’s Research Program on Resilient Dryland Systems


Traveling “Village Knowledge Fairs” for upscaling proven technologies

We have over 40 years of scientific solutions developed and tested with farmers, national systems and agribusinesses.

We want to make a quantum leap in impact on moving people out of poverty by significantly upscaling these solutions.

To do this we can create traveling knowledge fairs

aimed at producers and consumers

traveling to villages annually

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Village Knowledge FairsThese fairs are part of campaigns that are based on:

▪ Targeted marketing campaigns aimed at both producers and consumers.

▪ Linking with state government, farmer associations, community groups, finance agencies and private industry.

▪ Identifying the technologies most relevant for each state/region that are proven, available and ready to be upscaled.

▪ Identifying and involving the necessary support for technologies. This may include seed supplies, smaller packaging, microfinancing etc.

▪ Developing a marketing plan for each state/region. This can include a traveling roadshow for farmers (targeting women as well as men), via:- farmer to farmer video messages- conducting training courses based on

farmer-to-farmer and business-to-business- using mass media for further

communicating the messages.

What will be offered ▪ Solutions to increase farm productivity, such as:

- High-performing crop varieties- Soil and water management practices- On-farm management practices

▪ Agribusiness developments, such as:- Processing options- Linkages to market information

▪ Information and demonstrations on nutrition and products

▪ Advice to help villages set up their own mini incubator platforms that facilitate sharing of knowledge.

Management of the campaignA brand will be built for the fairs.

The village knowledge fairs will become regular events building interest and awareness.

Monitoring and evaluation will be undertaken to track the effectiveness of the campaigns and feedback for continual development.

InvolvementTake joint ownership of this initiative with ICRISAT and be an integral part of the branding of the fairs.

Support can also be garnered through:

- Village-level farmer fairs- Capacity building of farmer facilitators- Village level nutrition awareness- Setting up of local farming and agribusiness

incubators

ContactJoanna Kane-Potaka, Director, Strategic Marketing and Communication, E-mail: [email protected]


New approaches to identify business and development opportunitiesFor almost 40 years ICRISAT has had investigators that live in villages in India

collecting in-depth data on the village dynamics, issues and actions. This has been supported by a team of economists, other social scientists and business modelers. This unique data set and strong team can be leveraged to identify agribusiness and development opportunities.

What can be achievedBy tapping into the village dynamics data, we can: ▪ Facilitate new business opportunities for the private sector to capitalize on,

that cater to the needs of the farmers and rural communities. This will include strengthening the capacity of the private sector in using this

village dynamics data and knowledge bank to identify needs and business opportunities.

▪ Facilitate development initiatives particularly where public-private-community partnerships are needed and develop the implementation modalities.

This will include strengthening the public sector capacity in the use of social science data and insights from the villages for evidence-based decision making and formulating pro-poor policies.

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The Village Dynamics dataThis dataset is the longest ever time series panel data with nearly 40 years of data collected by full time investigators who live in the villages. It has the most in-depth understanding of any village level dynamics. It also includes the first and only ever collated meso-level data in India. It also has household and district level insights. The data covers:

DemographicsCrop production (inputs and outputs)Livestock production (inputs and outputs)Asset ownershipConsumption expenditureEmployment and wagesLand and soilMarket pricesTransaction

RainfallGender disaggregationNutrition aspectsGender empowerment factorsAnd more…

Identifying business and development opportunities

Deep insights of farmers’ needs and problems

which can be solved through public/private partnerships

Knowledge Bank and clearing house on village agriculture and emerging business opportunities, set up as an on-line portal

Deep insights of private sector interests & needs

for information, knowledge and data for the development of business proposals

The data warehouse, popularly known as the Village Dynamics Studies Knowledge Bank, is an online repository of panel data with user friendly data retrieval system and online analytical processing (OLAP) features. It is the first of its kind in the world for management of rural household survey data, providing online access to panel data and analytical reports. It gives the users a number of options like downloading Raw Data, Summary Reports and User Defined Reports.

The Knowledge Bank integrated long-term Village Level Studies panel dataset collected by ICRISAT for the period 1975 to 2008 and data collected jointly by ICRISAT and partners from 42 villages across India and Bangladesh for the period 2009 to 2011.

InvolvementSelect a region to implement or incorporate this approach into all the locations of interest. South Asia (India and Bangladesh) will be the initial target region. Lessons from South Asia can then be articulated for other parts of Asia and Africa.

ContactCynthia Bantilan, Director, Research Program on Markets, Institutions and PoliciesEmail: [email protected]

ApproachThe approach to identify and facilitate business and development initiatives is as follows:

Catalyst for stakeholder partnering and support

Organize dialogues to increase interaction between agricultural researchers, government

officials and private companies to increase awareness about new opportunities and

actions required to realize identified opportunities

Capacity buildingof the private sector companies and public

sector organizations through face-to-face and online training programs for:

- the use of village dynamic data for the development of innovative business propositions- database management and Knowledge Bank for

understanding key performance indicators and evidence-based decision making.

Art & Photos

ICRISAT Big ideas for partnership portfolio