Los Baños, The Philippines
January 6, 2009
An initiative announced today aims
to help six million South Asian farmers substantially boost crop
yields and their income within 10 years.
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) comes at a
crucial time for key nations in the region—home to 40 percent of
the world’s poor with nearly half a billion people subsisting on
less than US$1 a day—as they struggle to boost grain supplies in
the wake of growing demand and strained natural resources. The
project, which builds on past cereal research achievements in
the public and private sectors, aims to produce an additional
five million tons of grain annually and increase the yearly
incomes of six million poor rural households by at least $350.
The initiative will bring together a range of public- and
private-sector organizations to enable sustainable cereal
production in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. CSISA will
be led by the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) with support from the
Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, $19.59 million over three years, and the
United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), more than $10 million
over the first three years.
Three other international agricultural research centers—the
International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI), the
International Livestock Research
Institute (ILRI), and the
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
(CIMMYT)—will partner with IRRI, national agricultural research
organizations, education and extension systems, non-government
organizations, and private-sector companies to implement CSISA.
CSISA aims to reverse declines in annual cereal yield growth of
recent years, decrease hunger and malnutrition (almost half the
region’s children under five are malnourished), and increase
food and income security in South Asia through the accelerated
development and deployment of new cereal varieties, sustainable
management technologies, and agricultural policies.
Major objectives of CSISA include better crop management and
postharvest technologies and practices; the development and
dissemination of improved rice, wheat and maize varieties; and
the creation of a new generation of agricultural scientists and
professional agronomists. The initiative will focus initially on
eight hubs in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Nepal, which
represent key intensive cereal production systems that play a
major role in feeding close to a quarter of the world’s
population.
According to Achim Dobermann, IRRI deputy director general for
research, the support from the foundation and USAID signals an
increasing recognition worldwide that agricultural research
needs committed, long-term funding. “The food price spikes of
2008 were a stark reminder of what can happen when agricultural
productivity growth—which is reliant on continued research and
development—tapers off and demand begins to overtake supply,”
said Dr. Dobermann. “By contributing critical know-how to major
national initiatives and private-sector investments in new
technologies for improving cereal productivity and farm income
in South Asia, CSISA can take big steps in the eradication of
hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in a region that has grappled
with these afflictions for far too long.”
By drawing on the combined strengths of a wide range of public-
and private-sector partners, CSISA aims to accelerate the
development and delivery of new technologies for
resource-efficient, sustainable management of current and future
cereal cropping systems. The initiative will build on past work
by several initiatives in the region supported by the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research,
including that of the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the
Indo-Gangetic Plains, which has developed and promoted with
farmers and researchers resource-conserving technologies now
used on as many as two million hectares.
CSISA’s 10-year goal is for four million farmers to achieve a
yield increase of at least 0.5 tons per hectare on five million
hectares, and an additional two million farmers to achieve a
yield increase of at least 1.0 ton per hectare on 2.5 million
hectares.
These figures translate into at least five million tons of
additional grain produced annually, with an additional economic
value of at least $1.5 billion per year and substantial other
savings in terms of energy and other production costs. This
project is also expected to augment efforts in other parts of
the world to alleviate poverty and hunger. The lessons learned
will be transferable to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan
Africa through building capacity in people, strengthening
partners working in those regions, and exploring new models and
strategies of agricultural development that may be applicable to
Africa.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is the
world’s leading rice research and training center. Based in the
Philippines, with offices in 13 other countries, IRRI is an
autonomous, nonprofit institution focused on improving the
well-being of present and future generations of rice farmers and
consumers, particularly those with low incomes, while preserving
natural resources. IRRI is one of 15 centers funded through the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR), an association of public and private donor agencies (www.cgiar.org).
The U.S. Agency for International Development administers the
U.S. foreign assistance program providing economic and
humanitarian assistance in more than 120 countries worldwide.
For more information, visit
www.usaid.gov.
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy,
productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on
improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift
themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United
States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with
the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need
to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation
is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr.,
under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren
Buffett. |
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