Faced with declining funding from donor countries, the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is turning to non-traditional sources. It is also redefining its research programme, cutting down its thematic areas from 10 to 6 global themes and entering new areas like transgenic research and diversifying into high-value crops like fruits and vegetables.
According to the director-general of ICRISAT, William D Dar, the international funding has dwindled from $23.8 million last year to $22.3 million this year, necessitating the institute towards right-sizing. The research institute has cut staff by 205, the bulk of them being on the support side.
He traced the resource crunch to the post-September 11 slowdown. Keeping in view the future funding possibilities, the changing agricultural research environment and the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research's vision of "a food-secure world for all", ICRISAT has drawn up its own vision and strategy till 2010.
In the past two months, ICRISAT had received funds from several non-traditional sources for specific research projects, he said. "The flow of funds will continue in the coning years,