CGIAR Ongoing Research | University of Agricultural sciences ,Dharwad (UAS-D),India

Improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through enhanced grain legume production and productivity

Lakshmi Pillai — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:43:59 +0000

The overall goal of the TL II project is to enhance productivity by at least 20% for six legume crops covered by this project (chickpea, common bean, cowpea, groundnut, pigeonpea and soybean) in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA, principally through the availability and adoption of improved crop varieties and associated crop management practices. A partnership involving three CGIAR centers, the scientists of 14 national programs, advanced research institutes, the private sector and other R&D organizations will provide the necessary scientific inputs to achieve the goal. The project is organized into nine objectives; six of them crop-specific (Objectives 2 to 7), two common across the crops(Objectives 1 and 8), and one on management(Objective 9).

Objective 1: To enhance market opportunities, policies and partnerships along the legume value chain to increase income and nutritional security of smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and SA.

Objective 2: To enhance groundnut productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

Objective 3: To enhance cowpea productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA.

Objective 4: To enhance common bean productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA.

Objective 5: To enhance chickpea productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

Objective 6: To enhance pigeonpea productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

Objective 7: To enhance soybean productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA.

Objective 8: To develop sustainable seed production and delivery systems for reaching smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

Objective 9: To manage implementation of the project, including periodic meetings, reporting, data management and dissemination, and developing a revised logframe and milestones based on the Foundations’ Strategy.

Science-led Consortium Approach for Inclusive Market Oriented Development through Suvarna Bhoomi Yojane in Karnataka

Lakshmi Pillai — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:53:32 +0000

The overall goal of this initiative is to improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farm house holds through enabling farmers to shift from low-value subsistence crops to high-value fruit and vegetable crops. A secondary objective is to achieve this using sustainable management practices.

The specific objectives are as follows:

To form a multi-institution consortium comprising ICRISAT, AVDRC, NGOs, private sector industries, University of Horticulture, SAUs, and Department of Horticulture to implement e Suvarna Bhoomi Yojane in 25 selected districts.
To understand input and output market value chains and identify market linkages for high-volume fruits and vegetable crops for farmers under SBY.
To implement a science-based strategy for sustainable production of high-value crops
To build capacity of the consortium partners to manage the SBY project and undertake capacity building of stakeholders in the value chain, especially farmers.
To monitor, evaluate and document progress, impacts and lessons learnt on consortium formation and functionfor strengthening the SBY.

Taking Pigeonpea Hybrids to the Doorsteps of Farmers under National Food Security Mission (NFSM)

Lakshmi Pillai — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 05:12:09 +0000

In India pigeonpea is cultivated in a range of agro-ecological conditions.The varietal requirements are also diverse. For example in north-west plains shortduration (4 months), in central/southern India medium-duration (6 months), and in north-east plains long-duration (9 months) varieties are adapted. For obvious reasons the biotic and abiotic stresses in these regions are also different. Therefore, to harness the maximum gains we need to develop high-yielding hybrids for each major agroecology and it would be possible when in each group we develop quality hybrid parents with high combing ability, disease resistance, and adaptability.In this project, therefore, our effort will be to develop hybrids with significant genetic and cytoplasmic diversity to suit different production niches and cropping systems. This will be achieved in active collaboration with Agricultural Universities located in different parts of the country. We will also join hands with advanced biotechnology laboratories to conduct basic research on specialized issues such mapping of fertility restorer genes, laboratory based grow-out quality tests etc. We would also like to involve public Seed Laboratories to develop seed quality standards for hybrid pigeonpea. The sharing of knowledge and materials with public and private institutions in the country will help in taking this technology to the farmers. To make hybrid seed available to the farmers at reasonable costs we also propose to develop hybrid pigeonpea seed villages in participation with young farmers.

Taking Pigeonpea Hybrids to the Doorsteps of Farmers under National Food Security Mission (NFSM)

Lakshmi Pillai — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:40:27 +0000

In India pigeonpea is cultivated in a range of agro-ecological conditions, accordingly the varietal requirements are also diverse. For example in north-west plains shortduration (4 months), in central/southern India medium-duration (6 months), and in north-east plains long-duration (9 months) varieties are adapted. For obvious reasons the biotic and abiotic stresses in these regions are also different. Therefore, to harness the maximum gains we need to develop high-yielding hybrids for each major agroecology and it would be possible when in each group we develop quality hybrid parents with high combing ability, disease resistance, and adaptability. In this project, therefore, our effort will be to develop hybrids with significant genetic and cytoplasmic diversity to suit different production niches and cropping systems. This will be achieved in active collaboration with Agricultural Universities located in different parts of the country. We will also join hands with advanced biotechnology laboratories to conduct basic research on specialized issues such mapping of fertility restorer genes, laboratory based grow-out quality tests etc. We would also like to involve public Seed Laboratories to develop seed quality standards for hybrid pigeonpea. The sharing of knowledge and materials with public and private institutions in the country will help in taking this technology to the farmers. To make hybrid seed available to the farmers at reasonable costs we also propose to develop hybrid pigeonpea seed villages in participation with young farmers.

Enhancing grain legumes’ productivity, and production and the incomes of poor farmers in drought-prone areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Lakshmi Pillai — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:12:07 +0000

The project aims to increase the productivity (yield per unit area) and production (total availability) of five grain legumes – bean, chickpea, cowpea, groundnut and pigeonpea. These are important sources of protein for more than 2.1 billion people living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The project proposes to develop, test and promote improved crop cultivars (and associated crop management practices) which can enhance legume productivity and production in the drought-prone areas of target regions and countries.

This will involve developing cultivars tolerant to drought and the major pests and diseases using modern plant-breeding techniques such as marker-aided selection (which will be developed under the Tropical Legumes I Project supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). A major thrust will be to develop and operationalize sustainable seed production and delivery systems in project countries, to enhance the access of farmers, especially those who are resource-poor, to improved cultivars.

Social science research will be used to analyze and provide advice concerning the social and cultural environments that influence the sustainable adoption and spread of promising varieties, technologies and innovations, and the scaling-up and scaling-out work done amongst farm communities. Social science inputs will also support research developments in breeding through a feedback process, policy dialogue, and by identifying lessons learnt for technology dissemination. Ensuring capacity building and infrastructure development among national program partners involved in breeding and seed delivery systems will be a major activity, in order to ensure the sustainability of legume breeding efforts in the project countries.