International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in the drylands of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi-arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people, and 644 million of them are well below the poverty line. 

Vision, Mission and Approach
ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. To achieve this, it aims to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. It approaches this through partnership-based international agricultural research for development that embodies Science with a Human Face.

Location
ICRISAT and its partners help empower these poor people to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agriculture. ICRISAT is headquartered in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, in India, with two regional hubs (Nairobi, Kenya and Bamako, Mali) and country offices in Niger, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique.

Crop Trust Support
The Crop Trust provides a long-term grant for the conservation of the international collection of Chickpea, Millets and Sorghum at ICRISAT.

ICRISAT conducts research on five highly nutritious drought-tolerant crops: chickpea, pigeonpea, pearl millet, sorghum and groundnut.

Information from the CGIAR