ICRISAT to execute Gates funded project for legumes in semi arid tropics

Hyderabad, Feb 24 (PTI) The global agricultural research body ICRISAT and two of its sister centres would execute a Bill Gates foundation-funded USD 21 million project for legumes in India, other South Asian and Sub-Saharan African countries. The three-year project, known as Tropical Legumes II (TL II), is part of a 10-year plan which seeks to improve the livelihoods of 60 million smallholder farmers and their families in 15 countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, a statement of the Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) said. This is one of seven grants which Bill Gates had announced in Rome Thursday at a meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The project would be executed by ICRISAT and sister centres, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The project is expected to bring about USD 1.3 billion in added value to the productivity of the target crops, namely: chickpea, common bean, cowpea, groundnut, pigeonpea and soybean, it added. Grain legumes contribute to the livelihoods, health and nutrition of more than 700 million poor people in the dryland tropics of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The first phase of the project has already made valuable impact. More than 60 new varieties of tropical legumes have been released in several countries and 93,000 metric tonnes of seeds of improved legume varieties produced have reached 240,000 smallholder farmers, who together with extension workers, have been trained on improved farming practices, the statement said. The second phase, spread over three years, is a very important step to share economic and nutritional benefits to poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, ICRISAT Director General William Dar was quoted as saying. "By the end of 2014, we will have reached an additional 10 million smallholder farmer households. This is a very significant achievement, and we appreciate the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for our work and that of our partners," Dar said. PTI