 "Farmers, Farmer, agriculture, Paddy")
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a premier global institute dedicated to research in dryland agriculture, has partnered with think-tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), India’s Ministry of Agriculture, and others to launch a new centre of excellence aimed at strengthening agricultural cooperation among Global South countries.
The ICRISAT Centre for Excellence for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture (ISSCA) will facilitate partnerships between countries facing similar agricultural and climate challenges. It will act as a strategic hub for technology transfer, capacity building and innovation exchange in dryland and climate-vulnerable regions.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are among the partner organisations involved in the centre.
ICRISAT has already identified more than 100 technological solutions spanning crop improvement, natural resource management, horticulture, digital agriculture and mechanisation, which will be made available through the platform.
“We are collecting all those solutions which are tested in some places and those will be opened for others to use,” ICRISAT Director General Himanshu Pathak said, adding that solutions will be mapped for specific countries, locations and farm households.
The launch coincided with a memorandum of understanding between ICRISAT and DAKSHIN, a Government of India initiative for capacity-building partnerships in South-South cooperation.
