1ICRISAT Happenings July 2016 1731

NewsletterHappenings 01 July 2016

No. 1731

ICRISAT

Feature Stories

Making the most of improved, accessible climate information

In a first of its kind in Mali, the Joint Agro-Meteorological Services Incubator (JAMSI) has been launched to build the

capacity of the Mali National Weather Agency (Mali Meteo) to deliver improved climate services to farmers.

The objectives of this initiative are to:

▪ Improve Mali Meteo’s historical climate (rainfall and temperature) data through development of gridded data sets created by combining quality-controlled station data with satellite retrievals and other proxies;

▪ Improve seasonal prediction as well as physical understanding of current trends related to the sub-seasonal distribution of rainfall;

▪ Build the capacity of Mali Meteo to provide high quality climate services and explore options for leveraging its capabilities to provide climate information to the public and private sectors in Mali.

The availability of climate data will be improved by combining quality controlled data from the national observation network, which is very sparse over many parts of the country, with satellite estimates for rainfall and elevation maps, and reanalysis products for temperature.

As part of the JAMSI launch, six automatic weather stations were offered to Mali Meteo. “Implementation of the incubator activities will strengthen the capabilities of Mali Meteo, in the analysis and interpretation of weather forecasts at different levels, in relation to historical climate data, to provide climate services to help growers in their decision making. Establishment of a joint agro meteorological services incubator, will enable us to provide different users with reliable weather and climate

information,” said Mr Djibrillah A Maïga, Director General, Mali Meteo. He thanked ICRISAT and other partners for the automatic weather stations and computers, saying that they will support the modernization of meteorological data collection in Mali.

JAMSI is a unique partnership between a national weather and hydrology agency and a CGIAR center. For Dr Mathieu Ouédraogo, representing the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Africa, “JAMSI is a great opportunity to capacitate the emerging national climate services, which closely reflects the philosophy of ‘Capacitating African Smallholders with Climate Advisories and Insurance Development (CASCAID)’ project and that of the overall theme of CCAFS on climate management. It will not only strengthen Mali Meteo’s network of terrestrial observations, but also catalyze synergies between public sector, private operators and non-governmental organizations who provide value added services towards intensified and sustainable agriculture.”

According to Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Regional Director, West and Central Africa, ICRISAT, public and private agro-meteorological services are an important component in the provision of advisory support services to smallholders and agricultural enterprises. “For a long time we have witnessed the capacity and know-how of farmers. When supported with scientific innovations, favorable policies and strong partnerships, it can enhance their productivity and revenues while improving the resilience of their lands and livelihoods.”

JAMSI was launched on 10 June as part of the CASCAID project. g

Project: Capacitating African Smallholders with Climate Advisories and Insurance Development (CASCAID)Investor: CCAFSPartners: University of Ghana, International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Manobi, Washington State University, Agrhymet Regional Centre, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), University of Reading, UK, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), national meterological services and ICRISAT.CGIAR Research Program: CCAFS

Photo: Oumar Diop, AMAP.

Participants are introduced to automatic weather station.

2 ICRISAT Happenings July 2016 1731

Public private partnership yields major benefits to farmers

The benefits to the farming community of partnerships between public research institutes and private

companies have been demonstrated in East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India, where machine transplantation has reduced the cost of cultivation by half, as well as increased yields by around 750 kg per ha.

Developing farmer field laboratory and sites of learning to pilot new technologies, ICRISAT has introduced machine transplanting on a pilot basis under the Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode in 16 ha under the Rythu Kosam program. ICRISAT and the pilot site farmers entered into a PPP agreement with KUBOTA India, a Japanese farm machinery company.

Several awareness programmes were conducted in the pilot village of Lingumparthy in Yeleswaram mandal, regarding the benefits from cost reduction and increased yields the farmers would obtain by adopting machine transplanting. These programmes were conducted by Dr Rajesh Nune, Visiting Scientist, ICRISAT, Mr Bharat Chandra, Scientific Officer, ICRISAT and Ms T Sangeeta, Research Technician, ICRISAT Development Centre, along with Nature Volunteer Organization, a local NGO.

Nearly 120 farmers showed interest in being part of the pilot initiative. Data such as preferred seed variety, date of

sowing, proposed area of machine transplantation, etc., was collected from the interested farmers. KUBOTA procured seeds of the farmer preferred varieties, raised the nursery of different varieties of paddy at the Maruteru Research Station (West Godavari), transported the saplings to the farmers’ fields and transplanted them using the machine, in the first week of August 2015.

The cost incurred by the farmer for this was ` 7,500 (US$ 112) per ha, which was half of what a farmer usually spends, ` 15,000 (US$ 223), for the above work. Another issue addressed through this intervention is the labour shortage, which is a major problem in this village.

Through crop cutting experiments in machine transplanted fields and control fields, it was demonstrated that on an average, the machine transplanted fields showed increased yield of around 3-5 bags (approximately 750 kg per ha) compared to the control fields.

In rabi (post rainy) 2015-16, farmers from Siripuram village, located adjacent to Lingumparthy village, have also come forward and joined the PPP mode. The area under machine transplantation has now expanded to 80 ha.

Under the Rythu Kosam program, KUBOTA India will set up a “Custom Hiring Centre” in the pilot village, where

farmers will have access to all farm equipment of the company and can hire them for their fields on a first-come-first-serve basis. Additional farmer support will also be made available at the centre. g

Project: Transforming Agriculture and Allied Sectors through the Primary Sector Mission – Rythu KosamInvestor: Government of Andhra PradeshPartners: Government of Andhra Pradesh, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Dr YSR Horticultural University, Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, private industries such as KUBOTA India, Mahindra and Mahindra, John Deere, Science for Society, Jain Irrigation, etc. national and international agricultural research institutes and ICRISAT.

The transplanting machine in action.

Photo: Rajesh Nune, ICRISAT

3ICRISAT Happenings July 2016 1731

To build capacities of partners in managing the knowledge generated in the course of agriculture

research, a training program was organized for the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) recently.

The participants were trained on open access, managing a digital library, working with online bibliographic databases, on-line journals e-books, e-library platforms and digitization.

The 5-day capacity building program was organized by ICRISAT’s Strategic Marketing and Communication department, during 19-25 June at ICRISAT-India. A total of 12 participants including policy makers took part in the training. g

Three new seminars in the Take 2 series.

No Policy is an Island: Finance and Food Security in India

Ms Deepa Jaganathan Research Scholar – Genetic Gains Program, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India

Innovation systems research: where we came from and where we could go

Participants at the knowledge management training program.

Photo: PS Rao, ICRISAT

Past Training

Knowledge management in agriculture

Dr Andre Butler Research Fellow – Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Dr Andy HallProject leader – Food Systems Innovation, Agriculture Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial and Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia

Fine mapping of QTL-hotspot for drought tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Science with a human face

ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR System OrganizationAbout ICRISAT: www.icrisat.orgICRISAT’s scientific information: EXPLOREit.icrisat.org DG’s Journal: dgblog.icrisat.org

ICRISAT appreciates the support of CGIAR donors to help overcome poverty, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the harshest dryland regions of the world. See http://www.icrisat.org/icrisat-donors.htm for full list of donors.

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Sad newsWe are deeply saddened by the passing away of Mr V Nageswara Rao, Lead Scientific Officer, Innovations Systems for the Drylands. He passed away suddenly in his sleep on 29 June. He was on an official travel to attend an international workshop in Myanmar, where he had provided ICRISAT’s inputs into the climate and agro-advisory development initiatives underway in Myanmar.

Mr Rao had a BSc (Ag) from Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (1979) and Master of Science (Software Systems) from the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS), Pilani, (1998). He joined ICRISAT in 1983, working in a number of technical support functions in soils, agronomy and progressing to the rank of Lead Scientific Officer. For much of his career, however, Nageswara worked well above his rank and was considered a highly knowledgeable agronomist and crop modeler. He was deeply committed to alleviating the plight of smallholder farmers in the semi-arid tropics particularly with climate information to manage risk. It was not uncommon for farmers to call him for his advice on season forecasts and crop management.

He was one of the pioneers of systems analysis and modelling at ICRISAT. He was fundamental in establishing an understanding and appreciation of the value of models as part of managing the complex cropping systems in the semi-arid tropics. He was well connected and known by the international modelling fraternity, with particularly strong connections to Australia and the Netherlands. In fact, he had been studying for his PhD at the University of Tasmania and Wageningen in the Netherlands and was on the verge of submitting his thesis and had already published several papers in high ranking journals that would form his PhD thesis.

Mr Rao is survived by his wife, son, daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. We pray the Almighty to give his bereaved family the strength and courage to face this tragedy.

Nageswara joined ICRISAT in 1983, in my second year at ICRISAT as a Research Scholar. I’m not sure we met then, but we certainly did in 1995 when I returned to ICRISAT as part of a collaborative project between ICRISAT and CSIRO. Nageswara became a key team member of the team formed to support systems modelling at ICRISAT and he has been a valued colleague and friend ever since. In an impact evaluation publication on the modelling project, written in 2005, I reported “Mr V. Nageswara Rao… has maintained his interest in combining systems simulation with on-farm research, with more recent efforts concentrated on exploring, with farmers and local NARES researchers in the Anantapur region, the potential application of seasonal climate forecasting. Through interviews with farmers and researchers, it is clear he has achieved significant results from this effort. Without doubt, Mr Rao represents a strong advocate for the research approach and impacts which can be achieved from participatory research and systems simulation. When I returned to ICRISAT in 2015 as DDG-R, I was warmly welcomed by Nageswara and it has been one of my real pleasures here to reconnect and support his pursuit of a PhD aligned with his impactful research undertaken at Anantapur. Nageswara is one of agricultural research’s real nice guys, deeply concerned about science quality and achieving impacts for smallholder farmers, and willing to achieve these impacts by supporting others. ICRISAT will sorely miss his contribution. I will miss him greatly. Rest in peace, mate.

Dr Peter Carberry, DDG-R, ICRISAT

We are deeply saddened by the passing away of Mr V Anjaiah, Technical Officer, Asia-ICM-IPM unit. He passed away in the early hours of 26 June.

Mr Anjaiah joined ICRISAT on 15 August 1979 as Field Assistant in Groundnut Pathology. He served the Institute for over 36 years.

We pray the Almighty to give his bereaved family the strength and courage to face this tragedy.