A year of many big impacts and landmark varietal releases

Surmounting all odds in 2020, ICRISAT with its ‘business as usual’ attitude was able to lend its name to many first-of-their-kind varietal releases of its crops across nations in Asia and Africa, and register big impacts in improving dryland agri-food systems. Advanced technologies and resources related to crop breeding, digital agriculture and genomics were shared as international public goods and the research studies emerging from the institute contributed to knowledge sharing worldwide.

While working towards fulfilling its vision and mission in improving livelihoods, nutrition and climate resilience in the drylands of Asia and Africa, ICRISAT has directly and indirectly contributed to many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the big contribution through its projects was primarily towards SDG 2 (No hunger), SDG 13 (Climate action) and SDG 1 (No poverty).

For ease of comprehending the vast and multi-faceted research of ICRISAT, the research highlights are divided in three sections – Asia, Africa and Global. Each section comes with a ready reckoner for those who prefer to skim through information and for the deep divers there is detailed information on each of the pointers in the ensuing pages. The yearlong work of the ICRSAT-led CRP-Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals has been crisply summarized in the report with links leading to the details. The corporate section gives you a peek into the work of the support functions reflecting the diversity and multi-cultural aspect of ICRISAT’s work.