The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, a nonprofit, agricultural research institution, has been awarded this year’s Africa Food Prize for their contribution to improving food security in 13 African countries.
While accepting the award, Jacqueline Hughes, the institution’s director general, said ICRISAT has worked with over 25 million farmers in Africa and Asia through the Tropical Legumes Project — a $67 million project funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that works with smallholder farmers, governments, and partners to develop improved seed varieties in the legumes family.
According to Hughes, the Tropical Legumes Project aims to contribute to the resilience of dryland systems and smallholder farmers. Olusegun Obasanjo, the chair of the Africa Food Prize Committee and former president of Nigeria, said the project has resulted in a 32% increase in income for smallholder farmers, while 7% of households involved have been lifted out of poverty and another 14% out of food insecurity.
Climate change
In 2007, it came to the attention of ICRISAT, along with its partners and donors, that farmers had, for decades, been planting traditional varieties of seeds that could not cope with the challenges of climate change like drought and rising temperatures.
National government programs also lacked the capacity to make use of the genetic resources available to develop high-yield varieties for farmers as the low-yielding varieties could not battle pests and diseases and could not attract market demand — leading to an endless cycle of farmers growing them solely for home consumption.
To help them out of this cycle, the ICRISAT-led team enlisted scientists and researchers to develop varieties that were high-yielding, resistant to pests and diseases, as well as drought-tolerant.
“The improved varieties were also expected to meet market demands so that farmers could sell them and transition into agribusiness,” Chris Ojiewo, the principal scientist and coordinator of the Tropical Legumes Project at ICRISAT said.
