India

Research Priorities

Water management

Better water management is one of the highest priorities for improving livelihoods in the more marginal rainfed areas of central India. Water harvesting, as part of a broader watershed development agenda to increase water availability, is a key policy initiative of the Indian Government in these areas.

The program comprises closely linked projects to enable a more holistic approach to water resource management.

Cropping systems

The cropping systems research priority adds impact to improved wheat germplasm in two ways. Research is conducted on improved management of rice–wheat cropping systems to increase cereal and oilseed crop yields and improve the efficiencies of water, nutrient and other input use. This research also increases the resilience of cropping systems to climate and other risks, thus stabilising farmers’ incomes.

Wheat improvement

A set of projects revolves around the development of improved wheat varieties able to cope with biophysical soil constraints such as waterlogging, soil sodicity/salinity and other biotic constraints. A subset of these wheat breeding projects constitute the IAP-MAWB, following the 2007 agreement to strengthen the focus on the application of marker-assisted selection as a tool to achieve greater efficiencies in wheat breeding.

Agricultural policy

Creating the most appropriate domestic policy environment for reform in the agricultural sector has the potential to deliver major positive impacts. Australia has significant expertise in policy analysis, particularly in assisting India with the implications of its transition from a highly regulated economy to a more-open market economy. The current ACIAR partnership is addressing scope for phased deregulation and market reform options. As India moves towards domestic reform, its capacity to engage in more-open domestic and international markets is expected to increase, with consequent productivity and income opportunities for Indian farmers. In the broader environmental context, agricultural offsets are emerging as a key element of potential future greenhouse gas abatement policy in many countries. In India and Australia there is an increasing interest in policy and program mixes targeted at exploitation of cost-effective abatement schemes as new opportunities for farmers.