Icrisat, Asian Development Bank launch agri initiative

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the city-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) have launched an initiative to strengthen partnerships for more effective planning, research and development of agriculture in South Asia.

Fred Roche, ADB director for agriculture in South Asia, has underscored the importance of building up such partnerships to enhance the growth and development of agriculture in the region.

William Dar, director-general of Icrisat, said that the initiative would strengthen the existing partnerships and alliances, and make them more effective for the growth and development of agriculture in South Asia.

"The global millennium development goals (MDGs) provide a shared vision of a much improved world by 2015; where extreme poverty is cut in half, child mortality is greatly reduced, gender disparities in primary and secondary education are eliminated; women are more empowered; and health and environment indicators improve," Dar said, adding that "this is possible only within a global partnership for development."

The ADB-Icrisat initiative aims at finding institutional innovation processes that effectively link research with the national and the regional development process.

This will involve developing an agricultural research agenda that is demand-driven and also seeks to find solutions for problems.

Through partnerships, the gaps in the process of stimulating development through agricultural growth can be identified and steps taken to plug them.