India

The Indian Government recognises agricultural development as a key mechanism of inclusive growth. The goals of agricultural development in India are: growth in productivity and incomes while maintaining food security; sharing growth, with an equity focus on small and marginal farmers, women, and populations in eastern India and other rainfed areas; and maintaining sustainability of agriculture by concentrating on environmental concerns. Overall, agricultural R&D remains a high priority in India, with a strong focus on poverty reduction.

Australia and India share many of the same agricultural and natural resource management problems, as well as key commodity crops like wheat, resulting in researchable issues of mutual relevance to both countries. ACIAR has supported a program of collaborative agricultural research with India since 1983. Most ACIAR programs in India consist of bilateral projects, in which Australian research organisations collaborate with one or more Indian research institutions such as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), state agricultural universities, independent research organisations and NGOs. Multilateral programs are delivered in conjunction with the five IARCs that are active in India.

Australia is actively refocusing its development assistance program in India towards increased support for technical exchange in renewable energy, energy efficiency and water resource management, drawing on Australia’s experience and scientific expertise.

Australian programs are well aligned with the national objectives of the Indian Government. Areas of possible focus for AusAID include:

• scaling out research results from West Bengal and Jharkhand projects
• conservation agriculture
• promotion of resilience around climate change.

The ICAR–ACIAR partnership held a formal in-country consultation in India during 10–18 February 2011 to consider and define future directions for ACIAR involvement in India.

As a result, ACIAR’s medium-term strategy for 2011–16 is centred on joint partnerships with increasing co-investment by ICAR and other partners. The large and well-developed national agricultural research system led by ICAR is a cornerstone of ACIAR’s program. The program emphasises collaboration in four areas, or clusters, of Australian and Indian expertise, and in themes in which both India and Australia have strong common interests and in which there is potential for positive impacts at both field and national levels.

The current strategy has the following guiding principles:

• maintaining the current four research clusters of the India–ACIAR program (see below)
• seeking synergies across multiple disciplines from projects in the clusters
• grounding and aligning the program with the strengths of the Indian system, and utilising a long-term approach to guide agricultural research
• undertaking a gradual shift in emphasis to the eastern states where poverty persists.

Key areas of continuing focus include:

• research to improve agricultural water management, particularly in rainfed areas
• sustainable intensification of zero-tillage cropping systems that incorporate pulses
• faster breeding of crops to target, in the case of wheat, product quality aligned with emerging demands for better quality chapattis, bread and biscuits from India’s 200-million-strong middle class
• assisting policy development in relation to agricultural adjustment, water management and climate change.

The 10-year outlook is to maintain and enhance the cluster engagements currently underway. These underpinning priorities will guide adjustments as the program evolves.
Co-funding of research will remain the norm, with a continued emphasis on capacity building within the partnership. Triangular partnerships with other South Asian nations will be considered—notably Nepal, for which many of the Indian research results are relevant. The medium-term priorities are grouped within four clusters.

Water management cluster

The water management cluster in India is focused on improved water management in the less favourable rainfed areas, in recognition of the fact that these areas were largely bypassed by the green revolution and are relatively poor. Focus areas are:

• planning of small water storage structures in rainfed areas
• demand management, organisation of water users, and technical solutions for improved use of water in small storages in rainfed areas
• consolidated and coordinated presentation of policy recommendations from the projects to policymakers
• exploration on extending the results to eastern India
• implementation and scaling up of the results of the projects through multidisciplinary teams.

Cropping systems cluster

Food security and poverty reduction, coupled with a threatened resource base for food production (water, soils), remain as common resource and crop management problems for India and Australia.

Focus areas are:

• sustainable intensification with diversification of farming systems
• orientation of the approach of farming systems to site-specific crop management for system productivity, water-use efficiency and nutrient-use efficiency
• year-round zero-tillage in rice- and wheat-based systems with integrated tillage–water–nutrient management practices and carbon sequestration
• technologies favouring precision agriculture
• developing and testing of appropriate delivery models in resource-poor and remote areas.

Wheat improvement cluster

The Indo-Australian program on marker-assisted wheat breeding (IAP-MAWB, or IAP) is a co-funded program working on problems of mutual interest. Marker-assisted selection is the hub or delivery mechanism, and the output is better and faster developed wheat germplasm for farmers, with focuses that include:

• tolerance to wheat rust through newly developed genetic markers
• water-use efficiency through root architecture and crop establishment
• tolerance to waterlogging and micronutrient stresses associated with sodic soils
• end-use processing quality, especially for better quality chapattis, bread and biscuits
• wheats with long coleoptiles suitable for zero-tillage.

Agriculture policy cluster

Past ACIAR research to examine the facilitation of efficient agricultural markets in India assessed competition and regulatory reform requirements and policy options for a new framework. The project components include emerging trends in food value chains, application of policy and infrastructure development.

Various options suggested by the recent consultations include:

• a regulation framework to include a transparent review process
• government focus on facilitating efficient input and output markets, with necessary targeted assistance and safeguards for vulnerable groups
• regular monitoring of the overall performance of the farm sector
• application of competition law to food chains
• management of the buffer stock by the Food Corporation of India
• a transition program from currently provided input subsidies to new farm programs, which focus on more-appropriate measures of productivity and on market failures in the agricultural sector.