India

Achievements

Key indicators and performance for 2009-2010

Indicator: Linkages to international bioinformatics initiatives implemented as part of the joint Indo–Australian collaborative program on marker-assisted breeding in wheat

Performance: Personnel from the Indo–Australian program have been integrated into the initiative for international collaboration for molecular plant breeding hosted by the Generation Challenge Program of the CGIAR system. The Indian bioinformatics specialist for the program has also received data manager’s training in Spain.

Indicator: Introgression of genes conferring ‘stay-green’ characteristics into elite sorghum germplasm implemented

Performance: ‘Stay-green’, identified in a low-yielding sorghum type called ‘pineapple top’, has been genetically mapped and moved into ICRISAT’s best sorghums, using DNA markers that will increasingly be deployed internationally in breeding for the stay-green trait.

Indicator: Use of improved technologies demonstrated for crop establishment and production in the rice–wheat and rice-based farming systems of north-western and eastern India

Performance: A project has screened rice varieties and assessed direct-seeding methods for rice (showing improved yield for direct-seeded rice (DSR) compared with transplanted rice) as well as evaluated efficacy of herbicides for DSR in rice–wheat systems in India’s north-west (Punjab) and east (Bihar).

Indicator: Activities addressing climate change management and climate adaptation integrated into the water productivity program in Andhra Pradesh

Performance: Indian and Australian scientists held a workshop to plan climate change adaptation research activities, which they integrated with the activities of other projects in the water management cluster in Andhra Pradesh.

Indicator: Enhanced understanding achieved of policy and institutional arrangements, community-based water harvesting and impacts of watershed development on equity of water use in central India

Performance: In Andhra Pradesh, central India, the cluster of ACIAR projects has developed a better understanding of policy and institutional arrangements for watershed development.

The projects made excellent collaborative progress and are on track.

Indicator: Identified competition policy options to facilitate regulatory and market reform in the agricultural sector addressed through communication of analytical studies

Performance: A major study on facilitating efficient agricultural markets in India advanced in 2009–10 through an effective collaboration between Australian and Indian institutions. An important high-level food security workshop involving both Australian and Indian policy analysts and advisers was completed in November 2009, and addressed the role of the market and state in achieving food security, and the scope for regulatory and competition policy reform.

Achievements from the 2009-10 Annual Report

This first project, developed using the new Indo–Australian program on marker-assisted wheat breeding modality, concerned increasing the water-use efficiency and yield of wheat in the rainfed and minimally irrigated regions of Australia and India. New breeding lines with deeper root systems that better exploit moisture stored in the soil, and with desirable characteristics to enhance crop establishment were developed. A diverse team of physiologists, agronomists and breeders in southern and northern Australia has been assembled to collaborate with a team of leading breeders in India to undertake the program. The teams have become integrated around a core germplasm collection, common target traits (roots and establishment), common controlled environment and field measurements, and joint data analyses.

Another project seeks to enhance farm profitability in north-western India by improving grain quality of wheat. The project deems it important to develop a production and marketing culture that recognises quality attributes and determines how these can be achieved and rewarded. After 2 years of field experiments, the team has identified practices that farmers can adopt as part of an integrated system for enhancing both wheat quality and yield. The project has determined best practice techniques for chapatti-quality flour: early November sowing, variety choice, zero tillage, micronutrition (particularly zinc and sulfur), and strategic nitrogen fertiliser that is integrated with irrigation management.

A third project addresses improvement of wheat to combat waterlogging, salinity and element toxicities. Both Indian and Australian partners have successfully conducted field and controlled environment trials, exchanged and developed new germplasm, developed soil characterisation protocols, characterised germplasm to establish tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses, and identified further adaptive traits relevant to key interacting constraints in target environments. A second research strategy of this project is the comparison and development of new germplasm with a genetics-based approach using two methods—single seed descent and doubled haploid production. This approach is well on track, with populations now selected for the diverse environments in India and Australia.

Another project under the major India–Australia research umbrella is seeking molecular markers to broaden the genetic base of stem rust resistance genes effective against Ug99, a strain of rust that has the potential to wipe out wheat crops around the world. Encouraging progress is being made using a robust molecular marker for the stem rust resistance gene Sr22, known to be effective against the Ug99 strain and derived lineages as well as Indian and Australian isolates. The marker has proven to be highly diagnostic for the presence or absence of Sr22 resistance. Following validation of the utility of the marker, the information required for its utilisation in marker-assisted wheat breeding has been disseminated to participating scientists/institutions in the India–Australia wheat improvement program.

Sorghum grown in India in the dry season (Rabi) relies on residual soil moisture, and the crop is commonly exposed to terminal drought stress. But there is a ready market for its high-quality grain and stover (used as fodder on dairy farms). Steps to improve productivity while maintaining quality offer an attractive opportunity for sorghum farmers to improve their incomes. Genetically improving the plant’s efficiency to use stored soil moisture provides a prime target to maximise grain/stover production and quality of Rabi sorghum. A project to achieve this through the application of DNAbased technologies is achieving promising results for introgression of ‘stay-green’ into sorghum lines, enhancing both the quality and quantity of grain/stover of post-rainy sorghum. Trials at both ICRISAT and partner locations have registered an excellent expression of the stay-green phenotype, and the results enable a clear discrimination of the stay-green introgression lines.

During 2009–10 excellent progress was made against all the objectives in the project ‘Zerotillage rice establishment and crop–weed dynamics in rice–wheat cropping systems of India and Australia’. The project seeks to identify and develop suitable establishment systems for direct-seeded rice (DSR) as an alternative to the traditional hand-transplant system. Several field research sites were established across states of Haryana, Punjab and Bihar, and 581 farmer sites demonstrating DSR technology were also established. Work is now focusing on which methodologies are best for direct seeding—optimal sowing times and seeding rates, the best rice varieties to plant, identifying the invasive weed species and determining how to manage them, and optimising nitrogen fertiliser management.

On the East India Plateau rainfall is in excess of 1,200 mm a year, but 80% of this falls in the monsoon months between June and September. Despite the high rainfall, water shortages are a problem, with high run-off levels and little, if any, water harvesting practised. Cropping intensity is low, with one crop only per year, timed to maximise available water. A project is seeking to lift regional productivity by introducing watershed management, including water harvesting, along with better cropping and agronomic practices. The project team is employing participatory action research to develop principles and improved practices for watershed development. Villagers participate in a learning cycle (plan, do, observe, reflect), which guides the overall project and most activities. For instance, in the Purulia district a program is destined to reach 5,000 families in 2010. The team has found that an adult-learning approach rather than demonstrations of technological packages facilitates complex change, fosters independence and minimises NGO dependency. Resource-poor families are being helped to envisage improved livelihoods through agriculture, plan new farming systems including a range of crop options, and develop locally relevant practices that make better use of their resources. This program takes radically new ideas arising from the project to large numbers of people using the resources normally available to an NGO.

Watershed development programs in rainfed dryland agriculture in India have been introduced to ensure the sustainability of the surface water and groundwater resources and to improve the livelihoods of farmers. These programs have been applied at the micro-catchment or village level (up to 500 ha) but a question remains on the level of return in relation to investment at meso-basin levels (around 5,000 ha). Water retention or groundwater pumping in one locality may negatively affect access to water or water management, generally at a larger scale, but this may be difficult to detect at the micro level. A project has taken the first steps to provide an integrated evaluation model including hydrologic, agronomic, environmental, economic and social equity issues. It is designed to have a number of stand-alone input models and to deal with scale from the household to the village and through to the broader watershed scale. This model will guide future research and be iteratively revised as the team’s understanding of the multifaceted, interactive processes evolves, and data collection and analysis continue.