50th Anniversary of ICRISAT

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was established on 28 March 1972 with the signing of a memorandum between the Government of India and Ford Foundation. ICRISAT aims a prosperous, food-secure and resilient drylands in Asia & Africa and to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the drylands.

The drylands cover about 6.5 million sq. km. in over 55 countries with a population of over 2 billion. ICRISAT’s geographic focus is on the drylands of Africa and Asia and its mandate is research on crops which specifically grow in the drylands such as millets, sorghum, chickpea, pigeonpea, and groundnut. These crops are the most resilient, highly nutritious and climate smart. With the vision of a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics ICRISAT works with millions of smallholder farmers across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT’s mission to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the drylands is facilitated by its work ranging from high-end genomics and molecular breeding to working directly with farmers introducing new varieties, hybrids and farming technologies. ICRISAT works in a holistic manner across the entire value chain with a special emphasis on women and youth. Gender-sensitive agriculture and nutrition-sensitive agriculture are the foundatin of ICRISAT’s work. Its work contributes to Sustainable Development Goals SDG1, SDG2, SDG3, SDG5.b and SDG13.1.

ICRISAT’s core strength of world-class research ranging from genebank, genomics, gene editing, modern crop breeding, natural resource management, seed systems, and climate-smart agriculture to agribusiness models, digital solutions and policy inputs is at the services of smallholder farmers across the dryland regions of the world.