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No. 148921 October 2011

At the UNCCD COP10 ministerial high-level session

Independent science panel proposed to deal with desertification

Global partnership is vital in dealing with desertification that degrades more than 12 million hectares of arable land every year affecting some of the poorest and most food-insecure people worldwide. Along this line, the 193-nation party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) gathered for its tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) in Changwon, Republic of Korea on 10-21 October to discuss what can be done to address challenges related to land degradation and drought.

At the high-level segment of the tenth session of the COP on 17-18 October, ministers and other

heads of delegation held three ministerial round tables, where they discussed responses to emerging challenges as they relate to desertification, land degradation and drought.

Director General William Dar served as a panel member at Round Table III on “Harnessing science knowledge for combating desertification, land

degradation and drought: The path to improvement.” During the session, participants discussed the interface between science and policy to enhance the level of scientific process within the UNCCD.

As a follow-up of the conclusions and recommendations from the UNCCD 1st Scientific Conference in 2009, the proposed establishment of a scientific advisory panel on land and soil degradation was raised during the dialogue. In his

Director General William Dar participates in the UNCCD-COP10 ministerial high-level session on science and policy to address land degradation and drought.

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opening comments at the panel discussion, Dr Dar reiterated his call for scientific independence from the political mechanisms of UNCCD.

“We need clear independence and respect for both the scientific and political sides of the UNCCD. Each must have its own unfettered leadership and processes. I believe, for example, that the UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference ought to be conducted apart from the UNCCD COP or CST and without any political protocols. The scientists must be in charge of science,” said Dr Dar.

Science, he added, is essential in identifying the drivers of desertification and in highlighting the most appropriate actions to prevent it. Donors must have a clear idea of how big the problem is and must feel confident that progress in overcoming desertification can be measured through science.

Global partnership between governments, experts, civil society and local populations was emphasized during the Conference to scale-up successful projects of the UNCCD. The need for a transparent and scientific debate about the roots of desertification was also raised. g

Partners and farmers exchange visits in Mopti and Segou

With crop maturity fast approaching in Mopti and

Segou regions of Mali, ICRISAT, the Aga Khan Foundation and the Union des Agriculteurs de Cercle de Tominian showcased some of their research activities in pearl millet and sorghum to farmers and partners on 9 October in Soufouroulaye and on 10 October in Tominian.

Partners and interested farmers from Mopti were invited to a field and exchange visit in the villages of Soufouroulaye, Bounguel and Madiama. Among the visitors were representatives of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture, the Institute d’Economie Rurale (IER), Office du Riz de Mopti, the seed certification service, the West African Seed Alliance (WASA), ICRISAT-Mali and ICRISAT-Niger, representatives of farmer organizations Mooriben and FUMA-Gaskiya in Niger and NGOs EUCORD, Caritas and Catholic Relief Services.

The group visited farmer field school trials on integrated Striga and soil fertility management, sorghum and pearl millet varietal tests, and demonstration plots showing Zai, microdosing and pearl millet-cowpea intercropping. Despite the unfavorable rainfall conditions in September, the trials and demonstrations have shown acceptable levels of yield, in most cases better than in the surrounding farmers’ fields. The visiting farmers and

Farmers and technicians assessing Striga plants harvested at the Striga hand-pulling competition.

partners showed great interest in the crop management practices and varieties shown.

Later, a group of 20 farmers, 5 field agents and the Niger delegation visited Tominian, where they were shown videos on composting and the use of livestock and trees for better crop growth. They also visited Dobwo village, where UACT had organized their first “Striga information and hand-pulling day.” Village communities were taught about Striga and its control, which was followed by a Striga hand-pulling competition. The first prize went to Fidel Diarra, who with his family pulled out a whopping 81 kg of Striga plants, mostly from his own field. In total, over 200 kg of Striga plants were pulled out by 11 groups of people. g

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World Food Day celebration in Kenya showcases HOPE project

The achievements of the HOPE project were showcased at the World Food Day

celebration held in Gertrude Omasaja’s farm in Amaase village, South Teso District, Kenya on 14 October. About 1000 people (mostly farmers), school children, local extension staff and government administrators, seed companies, agro-dealers, local bank representatives, farmer group officials and community-based NGOs participated in the event. ICRISAT was represented by Daniel Otwani of the Alupe Research Centre, Busia.

Reading out the keynote message on behalf of FAO Director General Jacques Diouf, chief guest Canon Zacheus Masake, Director of the NGO Western Region Christian Community Services (WRCCS) emphasized the role of rural households in producing

Okhale1 and P224 (planted in rows, as opposed to the local traditional method of random planting) and food preparations from finger millet. Exodus Farm Inputs, an agro-dealership displayed small seed packs of U-15 and Okhale1 and other agro-inputs for viewing and promotion. The seed was produced by select farmers working with the HOPE project under the supervision of local extension, KARI and ICRISAT staff to promote its demand and to initiate informal seed supply of improved varieties.

A woman farmer showing finger millet seed packs that she bought.

An agro-dealer showing seed packs and other inputs to participants.

food for consumption in rural and urban areas. He urged for stronger and closer partnership between farmers, industry and credit institutions on one hand, and research, extension and NGOs on the other hand in order to empower rural households to produce surplus food and increase food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

On display at the celebration were demonstration plots of improved finger millet varieties U-15,

Participants were also taught the need to use improved finger millet varieties, microdosing, Striga and blast disease control methods and suitable post-harvest handling techniques to boost productivity and grain quality. Nearly 62% of the finger millet seed packs displayed by the agro-dealer comprised of variety U-15, followed by Okhale 1 (10%) which were sold to farmers, clearly indicating where the market preference lies.

Pascilisia Wanyonyi, a finger millet farmer in the HOPE project was presented with an FAO-Government of Kenya certificate as the best finger millet farmer for her efforts in improving food security in the district. g

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ICRISAT Niamey holds workshop on remote sensing and GIS skills

A three-day in-depth course on the use of fine resolution remote sensing technologies for

agriculture and natural resources management for agronomists, geneticists, economists, farm managers, GIS specialists and graduate students based in ICRISAT-Niamey was held on 11-13 October.

Rodolfo Martinez Morales, Crop Diversification Scientist, ICRISAT-Niamey, gave the participants a historical overview of technology development beginning with the analysis of LANDSAT satellite imagery to highest definition IKONOS, Quickbird and GEOEYE1 satellites. Topics also included the basics of image processing algorithms and how advanced statistical and mathematical theory is applied to the development of the latest remote sensing software to produce more accurate vegetation and land-use maps.

The workshop is the first in a series that will continue on 8-10 November and 6-8 December to further analyze these maps in relation with other

environmental data such as climate, geology, topography and soils using GIS software. Emphasis will be placed on hydrological analysis to determine important watersheds along the Niger river basin, feasibility studies for land-use rezoning, and use of spatial interpolation techniques to create digital maps of climate and soil data using GPS technologies. g

Wheat biofortification planning meeting held

ICRISAT and HarvestPlus organized a one-day meeting on 15 October to discuss wheat

biofortification research directions and plans for the 2011-12 crop season in India. The meeting was attended by 15 participants from ICRISAT, HarvestPlus, NARS and the private sector.

Wolfgang Pfeiffer, Deputy Director, HarvestPlus Development and Delivery Program led the discussion with an overview of the wheat

biofortification research. This was followed by individual center presentations.

Though results from 2009-2010 evaluations showed that none of the wheat lines had high zinc (Zn) and high yields across locations, a few of the new lines from the 2010-2011 evaluations did show high yields and high levels of Zn compared to the controls. Work plans of the participating centers – the Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), Karnal; Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana; Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi; and MAHYCO and Nuziveedu seed companies – were approved. Also discussed was the planting plan for BHU, which will host the Annual HarvestPlus Wheat Group meeting in February 2012. HarvestPlus will look favorably to setting up X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF) units at these three centers to strengthen biofortification wheat breeding research. The participating centers will contribute their high-zinc lines to DWR to constitute a joint multilocation trial to validate earlier results. While at ICRISAT, Wolfgang Pfeiffer took time to visit pearl millet biofortification research, especially the hybrid trials being conducted to identify high-yielding and high-iron hybrids. g

Participants of the workshop at ICRISAT Niamey.

(L to R) Meike Andersson (HarvestPlus), KN Rai, Wolfgang H Pfeiffer and AS Rao in the ICRISAT Patancheru pearl millet field.

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10th African Crop Science Society ConferenceICRISAT-SLP partners bag award for second best paper

The ICRISAT-Systemwide Livestock Programme (SLP/CGIAR) team represented

by Sabine Homann-Kee Tui (ICRISAT- Bulawayo) and Elizabeth Bandason (Bunda College, Malawi) bagged the second best paper award at the 10th African Crop Science Society Conference held on 10-13 October in Maputo.

The team presented the initial results of the southern Africa regional case study on optimizing the use of crop residue through a comparative farming systems analysis to illustrate the different stages of crop livestock intensification at the project sites in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe and to

investment in agricultural inputs pays off and that government support can kick-start this process.

Livestock production and market development can lead to greater crop-livestock integration, cross-subsidization and sustainable intensification. Development programs should take cognizance of mixed farming systems in the context of local and national drivers, and align interventions with those factors as well as with farmers’ aspirations and resource endowments. g

Farmers’ training on pest and disease management in pigeonpea

determine site-specific entry points for interventions.

They illustrated the special case of mixed crop-livestock systems and crop residue uses in Mzimba district, Northern Malawi. Mixed crop-livestock systems in semi-arid southern Africa are a function of the interplay between agro-ecological conditions, human population densities, and local and national drivers. While the sites in Zimbabwe and Mozambique show a strong growth potential in livestock with scope for improving markets to enhance impact, the Malawian case revealed that

A farmers’ training on integrated pest management (IPM) and integrated disease management (IDM)

was conducted for about 120 participants in Kalahandi and Nauparha districts on 12 and 14

October, respectively under the project “Introduction and expansion of improved pigeonpea production technology in rainfed upland ecosystem of Orissa.”

The training sought to educate farmers and technicians of partner NGOs and the Department of Agriculture on cultural management against pests and diseases affecting pigeonpea. V Rameshwar Rao (IPM) and T Rameshwar (IDM) served as resource persons during the training. Also present were ICRISAT scientists Myer Mula and RV Kumar who are monitoring the improved pigeonpea production technology (IPPT) and farmers’ participatory varietal trials (FPVT) in the project sites. gICRISAT scientists with farmers and technicians monitoring the

IPPT field in Sinapali Nauparha.

Cattle grazing crop residues after harvest in Nkayi district, Zimbabwe.

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31st Session of The Academy of Environmental Biology

Hari Sharma and students garner awards

It was a day of accolades for ICRISAT at the 31st session of the Academy of Environmental Biology

recently. Hari Sharma was conferred the “Gold Medal for Meritorious Services to the Society.” He has served the academy as a counselor and Vice-President of the society and is also Associate Editor of the society’s journal “Eco-physiology and Environmental Health.”

In the best research paper presentation competition for young scientists, in which 15 papers competed (three from ICRISAT), the research on “Induced resistance to insects in groundnut” by Abdul Rashid War, HC Sharma, SP Sharma, Gabriel Paulraj, and Sj Ignacimuthu was given the BRPM Gold Medal Award. In the poster competition, the best medal poster went to “Mechanism and diversity of resistance to shoot fly, Atherigona soccata resistance in sorghum, Sorghum bicolor” by MD Riyazaddin, RS Munghate, BVS Reddy, A Ashok Kumar, PB Kavikishor and HC Sharma. The second prize,

meanwhile, went to the poster on “Host-plant resistance to beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua in chickpea: A component of IPM to reduce pesticide use and environmental pollution” by M Shankar, HC Sharma, SP Sharma and T Ramesh Babu. g

HC Sharma (right ) receiving the award from NS Gajbhiye, Vice-Chancellor, Gaur Central University, Sagar, MP.

Safety wardens gather for first quarterly meetingThe Environment, Health and Safety Committee’s (EHSC) first quarterly meeting held on 14 October at

Patancheru provided an opportunity for the Committee and the 25 safety wardens to discuss safety concerns of the Institute and come up with recommendations.

The Committee headed by HRO Director Hector Hernandez moderated a lively discussion, during which safety wardens highlighted their concerns in their designated areas of inspection, such as transportation, waterlogging, and pest infestation. The Committee suggested that these issues be brought to the notice of heads of departments concerned for further investigation. It was also proposed that subsequent meetings be divided into clusters to ensure a more active participation by the attendees. g

HRO Director Hector Hernandez (center) with EHSC members during the meeting.

New Publication

Use of high science tools in integrated watershed management: Proceedings of the National Symposium (Order code CPE 169)

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Delegates of International Zinc Symposium visit PatancheruEighty delegates attending the Third International Zinc Symposium in Hyderabad visited Patancheru on 14 October. CLL Gowda, Program Director for Grain Legumes, welcomed the delegation on behalf of the Director General and the ICRISAT management. The delegation was taken through a video presentation, field tour, and poster presentation of ICRISAT programs.

The visitors showed keen interest in the entrepreneurship and business models of the

USAID Feed the Future meetings in Addis Ababa

USAID conducted two further consultations on 14-15 October and 17-18 October with CG Centers to implement their Feed the Future research strategy in two target areas: the Ethiopian highlands; and, maize-mixed systems in Eastern and Southern Africa with an emphasis on Tanzania. ICRISAT was represented at the meetings by Peter Ninnes, Said Silim, Alastair Orr and Andre van Rooyen.

Following the meetings, and the earlier one for West and Central Africa held at ICRISAT in Mali, concept notes will be developed with the aim to present overall research plans in workshops to be held in Tamale (northern Ghana), Addis Ababa, and Dar es salaam, in January/February next year. The research programs will be implemented soon after these workshops. A total of $9M per year, with an expected timeframe of 5 years, has been set aside for the three focal regions/systems.

USAID has emphasized that the research strategy, developed by its Office of Agricultural Research and Policy, will be complementary to mission efforts in target countries under the Feed the Future initiative. Already, ICRISAT has participated in a country-level program in Zambia, under the leadership of Moses Siambi and it looks forward to further efforts in the regions to work with USAID. g

International zinc symposium delegates interacting with ICRISAT scientists at Patancheru.

Agribusiness Innovation Platform (AIP) and the Platform for Translational Research for Transgenic Crops (PTTC), watershed and nutrient management research, especially those pertaining to high Fe and

high Zn groundnut, pearl millet and sorghum; pigeonpea hybrids; sweet sorghum; and early-maturing bold-seeded chickpea. g

NT Yaduraju nominated to IGNOU’s School Board of AgricultureThe Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has nominated NT Yaduraju, Principal Scientist, KSI, as a member of the School Board of Agriculture, New Delhi, for a two-year term. The School Board is a statutory body responsible for organizing developmental and research work in schools, approving the syllabus of educational programs, and reviewing the methodologies adopted for the preparation of school educational programs.g

Visitors’ log

Thought for the weekNever doubt a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead

17 October: Ten trainees from the National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM); also, 35 microbiology students from Somaiya College, Mumbai.

19 October: Sixty-eight BSc final year students from the College of Agriculture, Shimoga, and nine students from Obul Reddy Public School, Jubilee Hills.

20 October: Dr Michael Halewood, Head, Policy Research and Support Unit, Bioversity International, Rome; and Grade-1 students from the International School of Hyderabad visited ICRISAT.

21 October: Fifty SHG leaders of Patancheru’s Corporator and his associates visited ICRISAT.

Director General William Dar wishes everyone a very happy Deepawali!

First lady representative joins the Staff CouncilThe Staff Council has invited Audrey Jayaraj, Senior Administrative Associate, Information Systems Unit (ISU), to join its current roster of members. The addition is in line with the Institute’s Gender and Diversity Staff Policy of providing equal opportunities among staff. Audrey will be the first lady representative on the council, and will serve until 31 January 2013. g