International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

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International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 3: Science and Technology- Developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Recently, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was awarded the Africa Food Prize 2021 for improving food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
- US $1,00,000 prize was given to ICRISAT under the Africa Food Prize 2021.
ICRISAT got the award for the Tropical Legumes Project that has improved food security across 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tropical Legume Project was taken by ICRISAT led a collaboration of partners between 2007 and 2019 in Africa for improving the food security among the deprived section of the population.
As a part of the Tropical Legumes Project, in India, the national program on developing improved varieties of chickpea resulted in area enhancement up to 68%.
The project developed 266 improved legume varieties and almost half a million tons of seed for a range of legume crops, like cowpeas, pigeon peas, chickpea, groundnut, soybean, etc.
Importance: These improved varieties of legumes have helped smallholder farmers in both Africa and Asia become more resilient to climate change, as well as pest and disease outbreaks.
- Many scientists trained under the project are already working in national research institutes across the African continent.

Background: It was founded in 1972 by a consortium of organizations convened by the Ford and the Rockefeller Foundations.
- Its charter was signed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
About: ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in the drylands of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
- Headquarter: Hyderabad, Telangana in India.
Key role: ICRISAT and its partners help empower these poor people to overcome poverty, hunger, and a degraded environment through better agriculture.
Key Mission: ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. To achieve this, its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics.
Research Activity: ICRISAT conducts research on five highly nutritious drought-tolerant crops: chickpea, pigeonpea, pearl millet, sorghum, and groundnut.
- It conducts partnership-based international agricultural research for development that embodies Science with a Human Face.
India and ICRISAT: Since its inception, India has granted special status to ICRISAT as a UN Organization operating in the Indian Territory.
- This makes ICRISAT eligible for special immunities and tax privileges.