ICRISAT Happenings

No. 14693 June 2011

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Pursuing purposeful partnerships

ICRISAT shares PPP model in Zurich workshopPublic-private partnerships (PPPs) are a progressive way of widening stakeholder access to innovations, enhancing product development and linking farmers to markets. By coming together, the private and public sectors are better synergized to address contemporary challenges related to poverty and food security in the developing world.

Aiming to further strengthen ICRISAT’s public-private partnerships (PPP) to stimulate

agricultural investment and innovation, DG William Dar joined a two-day high-level workshop on Public-private partnerships for agricultural innovation: removing the barriers held in Oerlikon, Zurich, Switzerland on 31 May – 1 June.

Sponsored by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in association with the Consortium of International Agricultural

Research Centers and the Global Access to Technology for Development (GATD), the workshop brought together global experts and stakeholders to discuss options for the creation and launch of a PPP innovation platform. The said platform includes several fundamental elements to generate more productive and innovative PPPs such as linking and networking prospective partners; identifying innovative solutions that will support Intellectual Property Rights, enabling resource poor farmers to access proprietary technology and overcoming

(From left to right) Lloyd Le Page, CEO of the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers; Marco Ferroni, Executive Director of Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture; and DG William Dar during the PPP workshop in Zurich, Switzerland.

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misconceptions about public goods, IP and technology ownership; and providing financial incentives for public and private partners.Attended by CGIAR representatives, private agribusiness/seed and agriculture and food companies, apex bodies, NARS, international donors, and non-profit finance organizations, workshop deliberations revolved around current perspectives and challenges in PPP, identifying and removing barriers by generating solutions and options, and mapping out a PPP innovation platform.There was a consensus during the workshop to pursue the creation of a public-private partnership facility for smallholder agriculture using a value chain approach tied up with funding mechanism. It was also agreed that an inventory of existing successful PPPs must be done for upscaling the more successful ones. Syngenta Foundation and IDRC will move this process forward.During the discussions, Dr Dar shared ICRISAT’s lessons and experiences in three successful cases of PPP: the Hybrid Parents Research Consortium (HPRC); the Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP); and the Platform for Translational Research on Transgenic Crops (PTTC). As the precursor of the Institute’s PPP initiatives and the first of its kind in the entire CGIAR system,

HPRC’s contribution in enabling small-scale farmers gain access to high-yielding hybrid cultivars was highly recognized and appreciated by the workshop participants. The Sorghum and Pearl Millet HPRC was formed in 2000, with the goal to increase the scope of accessibility to better hybrids by the poor farmer through effective public-private partnerships. With HPRC, ICRISAT conducts basic research on germplasm diversification and enhancement. Diverse hybrid parents are then shared with partners, including private-sector seed companies, who select useful parental lines, test hybrid combinations and choose promising hybrids for niche markets. Seed companies then mass produce seed of promising hybrids, market seed of hybrids using the vast network of dealers in rural areas, and thereby enable small-scale farmers get access to high-yielding hybrid cultivars.

In 2004, the HPRC consortia arrangement was modified to consist of three crops: sorghum, pearl millet and pigeonpea. Under this arrangement, each private sector member provides a small grant each year for sorghum, pearl millet and pigeonpea for a five-year period. Currently, half of India’s 8.5 m ha of sorghum is planted to hybrids, with 30 of the more than 50 commercial hybrids based on ICRISAT-bred lines. About 60% of 10 m ha of pearl millet is planted to hybrids, with 60 out of 85 commercial hybrids based on ICRISAT-bred lines. g

Embracing cultural changeICRISAT staff participates in mentoring program

Six pairs of Mentors and Mentees from ICRISAT-Patancheru participated in the Mentoring

Program held on 26-27 May at IRRI, Los Banõs, Laguna, Philippines.The overall goal of the program was for senior staff members (Mentors) to share their experience and knowledge with their junior counterparts (Mentees), nurturing the latter to grow within the organization. The program aimed to increase organizational effectiveness by developing skilled staff; establish a mentoring culture that values diversity; and help mentees gain access to role models, tap into networks, increase their visibility and enhance communication and contributions across status, culture and gender.The mentoring program pairs included Belum VS Reddy – A Ashok Kumar; HD Upadhyaya – Shivali Sharma; P Parthasarathy Rao – G Basavaraj; Moses Siambi – Christin Schipmann; Uttam Kumar Deb – D Kumaracharyulu; and Hector V Hernandez – K Mohan Sharma.

The Mentoring Program helped the participants better understand different cultural styles and values that drive behavior, as well as the importance of change – that “one cannot solve one’s current problem with the same mindset that created the problem in the first place.” A contract was drawn between the Mentors and Mentees to formalize their relationship, along with an ongoing development plan and a Mentee maintaining a journal. g

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Breaking the poverty cycle in the drylandsTropical legumes improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Greater production and productivity of tropical legumes is improving the lives of people in the

drylands. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)-funded project on Tropical Legumes, improved crop cultivars and management are enhancing food and nutrition security and farmers’ income leading to improved livelihood in drought-prone areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

During the first three years of this initiative popularly called Tropical Legumes (TL-II) project, participating NARS released as many as 40 varieties of legumes, and produced over 93,000 metric tons of improved legume variety seeds. An estimated 9.6 million households have benefited from the project through access to seed of improved varieties under the fast-track participatory varietal selection and accelerated seed production and distribution system. More than 51,000 extension staff and farmers have been reached through formal training programs, farmer field schools, field days and seed fairs.

TL-II is a multi-institute project involving the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and ICRISAT. It is also a multi-country initiative involving national agricultural research systems (NARS) in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe in ESA; Mali, Niger and Nigeria in WCA; and India. Moreover, it includes advanced research institutions (ARIs), private sector companies, civil society organizations (CSOs) and farming communities. TL-II also collaborates with other donor-funded

projects on legumes in all participating regions/countries for optimum synergy and complementation.

On 16-18 May, representatives from partner institutes, national programs, and other donor-funded projects met for the WCA Regional Planning Meeting held at IITA Campus, Ibadan, Nigeria. During the meeting, the progress of Phase 1 activities was reviewed and the plan for Phase 2 was drawn up. National partners from Mali, Niger and Nigeria also presented their respective draft country strategy for legumes.

The ESA Regional Meeting, meanwhile, was held at Lilongwe, Malawi on 22-25 May. The meeting was inaugurated by Ms Margaret Loka Mauwa, Hon. Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Malawi. Aside from ICRISAT, IITA and CIAT scientists, national partners from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe joined the meeting, as well as representatives of other partners, namely Soil Health/AGRA, PASS/AGRA, GCP, N2Africa, SIMLESA, P4P/WFP and FAO.

David Bergvinson, Senior Program Officer, BMGF, addressed the participants of the meeting via teleconference. ICRISAT was represented by Drs Dave Hoisington, CLL Gowda, Cynthia Bantilan, Tsedeke Abate, SN Nigam, BR Ntare, J Ndjeunga, Hakim Abejige at the WCA meeting; and Tsedeke Abate, SN Silim, ES Monyo, Moses Siambi, Alastair Orr, Dave Harris, N Gangarao, Franklin Simtowe, Kai Maush, and Isabel Vales at the ESA meeting. g


Smallholder vegetable farmers reap ‘net’ profits

Jinder Singh of Sanhuma village in Punjab, north India, knows a

winner when he sees one. He has grown plenty, having won 61 university produce competitions for 16 different crops. He farms less than a hectare of these rich alluvial plains, and leases a similar area. Growing vegetables and a wide range of other crops for over two decades, he began net house farming in 2007 soon after it was introduced.

There are now over 900 net houses in Punjab growing high value vegetables such as capsicum, cucumber, tomato, spinach, okra and coriander. When managed well to control insect and disease problems, farmers estimate that a net house covering only 250 m2 can return eight times the value of the same area of open field.

This potential, however, is often not realized.

Poor soil and crop management leads to pest and disease outbreaks and severe windstorms have damaged many lightly constructed net houses in recent years. With support from the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center began working with the Punjab Agricultural University in 2008 to design and promote a more sturdy design. A research prototype was built in ICRISAT- Patancheru and 15 were established on Punjab farms. A package of management practices including varietal selection, crop rotation, soil health management and healthy seedling production was developed to maximize returns.

Mr Singh saw the potential. In spite of having two of the old design, he still adopted AVRDC’s new design. He is very committed and produces bigger and better quality vegetables in the net house. And by marketing the produce himself, he also fetches a higher price.

Mr Singh is also saving on water by using drip irrigation within the net house that further helps reduce incursions by pests that float in with flood irrigation. It also lowers the humidity which would otherwise promote late blight in tomatoes.

In comparison to the lush crops in the net house, capsicum and tomato in the open field show stunting and damaged fruit from insect and diseases and greater water stress.

The net house development project is now in a major scaling up phase, and Mr Singh’s success has not gone unnoticed. His neighbor is busy building two of the new design net houses with the hope of reproducing the profitability of Mr Singh’s crops, and perhaps even their prize winning quality.

With strong government support as a way of increasing the income of smallholder farmers, net house farming will continue to expand. However, it is not a quick fix. A more reliable design and careful management are vital ingredients in making it a more consistently profitable means of safer vegetable production and in earning improved income from small farms.

“Such net houses can help smallholder farmers make a much better living off small areas. Good water supply is essential and ICRISAT’s work in improving watershed management and crop intensification helps to provide the infrastructure for such initiatives to succeed,” says AVRDC Regional Director Dr Warwick Easdown, who is based in ICRISAT-Patancheru. g


Malawi farmers benefit from ICRISAT-NASFAM- McKnight Foundation project

Now in its second phase of implementation, the McKnight Foundation-funded Collaborative

Crops Research Program (CCRP) in ICRISAT-Malawi has made significant impacts on the livelihoods of Malawian farmers, particularly in the District of Mchinji. This was reported by CLL Gowda, Program Director for Grain Legumes, based on his recent visit to the site.

The project, initiated in August 2006, was implemented by ICRISAT and the National Smallholder Farmers Association in Malawi (NASFAM). It successfully developed community seed banks; trained NASFAM field officers, government extension officers, lead farmers and other stakeholders on various aspects of groundnut production; carried out technology demonstrations on the management of aflatoxin and groundnut rosette disease; and involved farmers in participatory variety selection.

According to Chrispin Phiri, a farmer of Mvunguti club, only 5 out of 30 members were beneficiaries of the “seed pass-on” program, but by the end of the third year, all members had access to sufficient seeds to plant one hectare each of groundnut.

The project was also instrumental in establishing another club which provided 33 members access to seeds of improved varieties. Similar successes have been reported in all the 90 clubs participating in the program in Mchinji. These clubs are now able to supply an average of 10 tons of seed of improved groundnut varieties to ICRISAT’s Seed Revolving Fund.

Majority of the farmers in the target area are now raising a minimum of 0.5 ha of groundnut of the improved variety Nsinjiro (ICGV-SM 90704) through the program, compared to 0.1-0.2 ha before the project started. By cultivating improved groundnut varieties, women farmers reported a reduction in malnutrition diseases among their children. They are now also able to meet hospital costs, pay school fees and fulfill other domestic needs.

Stella Fenodi, a farmer, was able to buy several goats as well as five bags of fertilizer for her maize farm through earnings from groundnuts in the last two years; she is now planning to purchase a cow. Farmers expressed appreciation of the project’s “learning by doing” approach as having far-reaching results, encouraging other neighboring non-member farmers to get involved. g

CLL Gowda and farmers around a ventilated stack (Mandela cork) of groundnuts in the field.


New EPaD promises staff excellence and development ThE NEW PERFORMANCE Management Process also known as the Employee Performance and Development or EPaD was launched on 1 June at Patancheru, to fulfill the Institute’s commitment to innovation, performance excellence and employee development. It was attended by 50 staff members.

ICRISAT believes that institutional excellence is possible only when all employees are able to effectively deliver and contribute to the organization’s targeted outcomes, and that a highly competent and dedicated staff is vital in sustaining the Institute’s success and high performance.

An underlying principle of the EPaD process is that every employee is responsible in contributing to the attainment of ICRISAT’s mission, vision and shared values and that human resource development is a mutual concern of the employee, supervisor and ICRISAT management.

Following are some of the feedbacks gathered from the staff during the EPaD launch:

• It is indeed a good initiative to change the current performance appraisal system. This new one is more focused and I like the idea of an employee development plan.

• ICRISAT cares about improving employee evaluation.

• It is comprehensive and encourages frequent interactions with the supervisor.

• It is more systematic and transparent.• I like the development orientation of the process,

especially the core and professional competencies embedded in the new system.

• The two-tier calibration process is a good way to discourage rater subjectivity.

The new EPaD was developed after consultation with scientists and managers across locations and with inputs from members of the Management Group and the Research Committee. For 2011, the IRS, SPS, SMG, PDF and VS staff members will use the new system. EPaD briefings will be organized in all locations by the Human Resources, following the successful orientation meeting. g

hRO Director hector hernandez leads the launch of the EPaD at Patancheru.

CFC-FAO-ICRISAT biofuel project meeting heldThE FIRST ANNuAL REvIEW MEETING of the CFC-FAO-funded project on Enhanced livelihood opportunities of smallholders in Asia: Linking smallholder sweet sorghum farmers with the bioethanol industry was held in Manila, Philippines on 24-25 May, facilitated by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

Among those who participated in the meeting were ICRISAT scientists and partners from China, India and the Philippines. Chairing the inaugural session, Jocelyn Eusebio, Director, Crops Research Division, PCARRD, emphasized the need for farmers, industry and policymakers to work in tandem to develop a sustainable sweet sorghum for ethanol value chain. Acknowledging the challenging nature of the project, FAO representative Astrid Agostini hoped

that lessons from the project would help in shaping biofuel policies and value chain.Ashok Kumar, ICRISAT Senior Sorghum Breeder, presented a summary of the project results from China and India during year 1. The technical session on program reports saw presentations by SS Ambekar, (MAU), Ch Ravinder Reddy (ICRISAT), Zou Jiangin (SRI, China) and Alfred Hui (ethanol distillery owner, China). Parthasarathy Rao and Basavaraj (ICRISAT) made presentations on the project program in India and China, featuring industry experiences, baseline and socioeconomic characterization of target areas, gender issues and biofuel policies in both countries. Day 2 involved developing workplans for year 2. The plenary session saw a thorough discussion of the workplan, its finetuning and its approval at the Steering Committee meeting. g


Welcome!Alina Paul Bossuet and Jérôme Bossuet joined ICRISAT-Patancheru on 1 June as Marketing Communication and Multi-media Specialists. Alina and Jérôme will be jointly sharing this position.

Alina, born in Kolkatta, India, is a British national. She has

an Honors Degree in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford. She has extensive experience and expertise in on-line, print and broadcast media outreach; website designing and content development; preparing brochures, media materials, newsletters, videos, photography; and PR strategy, campaigns and social media. She managed award-winning PR campaigns and as an independent Public Relations Consultant she prepared photo-essays and radio projects for the BBC World Service and BBC News Online, Geographical Magazine,

and New Internationalist. She worked with the BBC, The Times, Independent, Observer and Herald, NDTV, Metro TV and Reuters Alertnet for her online media outreach projects.

Jérôme, a French national, has a Masters of Sciences (life sciences, economics,

engineering, social and human sciences) degree from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon. He has been an independent consultant in international development program evaluation and fundraising. He has extensive experience and expertise in international development program management and coordination, project monitoring and evaluation, rural development through participatory approach, capacity building, and networking and liaison with donors, government, private and non-profit sectors.

L Suri Naidu, an Indian national, joined ICRISAT on 30 May as Special Project Scientist to work on Groundwater Hydrology and Remote Sensing/GIS for IWMI based at ICRISAT-Patancheru.

Naidu has a Masters Degree in Hydrology from Andhra University, India. Before joining ICRISAT, he worked as Project Assistant at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, India on the study of surface and groundwater measurement, recharge estimation, pollution, etc, for assessment and management.

We welcome Alina, Jérôme and Naidu to Team ICRISAT and wish them all success. g

Adieu to V Balaji v BALAJI, who joined ICRISAT in May 2001, left his post as Program Leader, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation on 31 May.

Expressing his contentment during his term at ICRISAT, he said in a message, “It is with deepest regret that I am leaving ICRISAT. I consider

the time I spent at ICRISAT to be the most memorable part of my career. When I joined ICRISAT in 2001, the turnaround was just

beginning. By 2011, ICRISAT has emerged as one of the largest centers in the Consortium, and has the biggest budget ever in its long history. Such a remarkable transformation has been brought about by a determined Director General (DG) who leads a dedicated set of staff constituting Team ICRISAT. I am glad I had an opportunity to be a part of ICRISAT when this impressive and far-reaching change took place. My family and I are grateful to the DG and to Team ICRISAT for their trust, advice and support on all occasions. I keenly look forward to continued association with colleagues here through new collaboration. I wish the DG and the Institute continued success.” g

v Panduranga Rao, who worked as Lead Scientific Officer, Dryland Cereals - Pathology, retired after serving ICRISAT for over 35 years. He joined ICRISAT in 1976 as a Technical Assistant in Cereals Pathology and worked his way up dealing with all major diseases of pearl millet and sorghum. Rao has

authored/coauthored more than 100 articles published in national and international journals.

Team ICRISAT wishes Boubou and Panduranga Rao a very happy retired life. g

Happy Retirement!

Boubou Sankare, Head of PPS at ICRISAT Bamako, retired on 31 May after serving the Institute for over 20 years. In a brief message, he thanked ICRISAT for giving him the opportunity to improve his skills and expertise.

Thought for the weekI leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.

- Abraham Lincoln

Scientific Officers during the farewell of Panduranga Rao.

Found in CLL Gowda’s front garden at the ICRISAT Campus.

‘Eggs’treme plant!

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