icrisat@50: engagement with development of agriculture in drylands

ICRISAT News: Anyone familiar with the combination of ‘biological material’ (high yielding varieties and hybrids), ‘water’ (assured irrigation), and ‘chemical inputs’ (fertilizers and plant protection chemicals) as the key to success in irrigated agriculture will be gullible to use the same principles for improving farming in the dryland ecosystems. The solutions to improving livelihoods in drylands, however, are far more complex and multifaceted. It is not enough to look for crops and varieties that survive, and then thrive in the little moisture possible with the intermittent rains and go on to produce a decent yield in the poor soils that are constantly degrading. Post-production value addition and accessing markets are equally important for better price realization by the farmers. While ‘wealth creation’ is the goal in irrigated farming, recovering ‘the cost and a little more’ is often an achievement in dryland farming.

Here are some of the serious concerns of the dryland systems

Drylands cover about 41% of Earth’s land surface and are inhabited by more than 2 billion people (about one-third of world population). Dryland populations on average lag far behind the rest of the world on human well-being and development indicators. The current socioeconomic condition of dryland peoples, about 90% of whom are in developing countries, lags significantly behind that of people in other areas. Existing water shortages in drylands are projected to increase over time due to population increase, land cover change, and global climate change. Transformation of rangelands and other silvi-pastoral systems to cultivated croplands is leading to significant, persistent decrease in overall dryland plant productivity. Among dryland subtypes, ecosystems and populations of semiarid areas are the most vulnerable to loss of ecosystem services. It is thought that some 10–20% of the world’s drylands suffer from one or more forms of land degradation. Desertification, which by definition occurs only in drylands, causes adverse impacts on non-dryland ecosystems. (https://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.291.aspx.pdf).

Considering the enormity of geography, population and the challenges in dryland agriculture it was found that there is a strong need for a competent, specialist and dedicated institution to bring about positive changes. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was hence established by a consortium formed by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundation with the support of the Indian Government, as a global research institute in 1972). ICRISAT is the only International Agricultural Research Center with headquarters in India. ICRISAT, a premier non-profit and non-political research institute for dryland farming, works across the whole value chain and has specialized knowledge on the drylands, 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).

See https://www.icrisat.org/icrisat50-engagement-with-development-of-agriculture-in-drylands/