Second External Program Review of ICRISAT, 1985

Report of the 1985 TAC External Program Review (EPR) of ICRISAT, conducted concurrently with the EMR. Includes a summary of the discussion of the EPR and EMR in the CGIAR meeting of October-November 1984, letters of transmittal from review panel chair Carl Thomsen to TAC Chairman Guy Camus, and from Camus to CGIAR Chairman S. Shahid Husain, as well as the comments of TAC and ICRISAT's Governing Board. The report reviews the evolution and present interpretation of ICRISAT's mandate in terms of the commodities and regions covered and its target beneficiaries. ICRISAT's work on sorghum, pearl millet, pulses, groundnuts, farming systems, and economics programs is evaluated in terms of objectives, priorities, organization, achievements, and impacts. The effectiveness of capacity building of national programs received considerable attention. The panel recommended that ICRISAT explore ways of increasing the input of NARS into its research planning. The report addressed issues of ICRISAT's relations with IITA concerning the proper demarcation of tropical regions between subhumid and semiarid, and with ICARDA concerning a division of regional responsibility for chickpea. Discussed at TAC 35 in October-November 1984 and at the CGIAR's June 1985 meeting. Comments in the CGIAR centered on the relative share of Africa in ICRISAT's program, and whether there was a need for producing finished varieties in Asia