HYDERABAD: The International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here has mapped out a new vision and strategy to 2015 for the improved well-being of the poor of the semi-arid tropics (SAT) in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The new vision and strategy is aligned to the new system wide priorities of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the network of 15 international agricultural research institutes. It takes into account the emergence of the Future Harvest Alliance as the third pillar of the CGIAR to enhance effectiveness and efficiency through collective action. It also aims at achieving the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, with its primary objective of halving the number of poor and hungry by 2015.

According to William Dar, Director-General of ICRISAT, the new vision and strategy fine-tunes the research-for-development strengths of the institute within the framework of the changing global scenario in the coming decade.

"With ICRISAT being at the apex of global agricultural research for SAT, we are sensitive to the need for delivering high-impact research products that will improve livelihoods by increasing agricultural productivity," he added.

ICRISAT's governing board approved the vision and strategy document recently, and the institute's management has started work on implementing its objectives.

The mission is to "reduce poverty, enhance food and nutritional security and protect the environment of SAT by helping empower the poor through science with a human face."

The new vision and strategy is anchored on concrete action built around five new CGIAR system-wide research priorities.

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