ICRISAT Annual Report 2011

The year 2011 started on a highly positive note with the conduct of our global research meeting of scientists and senior staff members at the headquarters, capitalizing on our new Strategic Plan to 2020 and aiming to renew and reinvigorate ICRISAT in a major way. During the meeting, we all committed to stronger teamwork primarily towards the development of our three-year Medium-Term Plan. Change offers new and exciting opportunities for us all. We are making signifi cant progress in internalizing our new Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD) framework, a powerful unifying concept of our strategic plan, as we continue to strive towards our vision of a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. We celebrate our 40th anniversary in 2012, and as we look at our achievements so far, it is clear that the year 2011 has witnessed highly signifi cant successes. ICRISAT has been entrusted leadership of two CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) – Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals – and is actively involved in major research-for-development programs across the semi-arid tropics. The ICRISAT-led HOPE project in India and in sub-Saharan countries of Africa has made great strides in helping smallholder farmers increase the yields of two dryland cereal crops – sorghum and millets. Our research under the Tropical Legumes I and II programs have complementary benefi ts as the learnings and successes of TLI (legume genomics) are passed on to TLII (legume improvement) to be promoted among and extended to the ultimate benefi ciaries, the farmers of the semi-arid tropics. Our landmark science achievement for 2011 is of course the cracking of the pigeonpea genome sequence by an ICRISAT-led global research partnership. The Bhoochetana (revival of the land) project in India, implemented in the state of Karnataka, has gained so much recognition that the state government of Andhra Pradesh has once again sought our partnership in applying the same brush of success in this state, and there are indications that other states will follow. We likewise proudly report our increasingly successful women empowerment initiatives in several countries in sub- Saharan Africa..