The onset of the Green Revolution in the late sixties and early seventies brought unprecedented increases in food production in favorable areas of the developing world. However, many regions in less-favored, rainfed areas such as the semi-arid tropics (SAT) have been bypassed. The SAT covers parts of 55 developing countries populated by about 1.4 billion people, of which 560 million (40%) are classified as poor, and 70% of these live in rural areas. The SAT has very short growing seasons, separated by very hot and dry periods. Natural soil fertility is very low and pest and disease pressure are intense. With persistent drought and land degradation as the overarching constraints, SAT farmers face perennial risks in improving their productivity and livelihoods.

On the whole, agriculture in the SAT faces gigantic challenges due to the lack of technological and institutional innovations and the unfinished transformation of subsistence agriculture. Many of the measures associated with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) remain unimplemented. There is now an emerging pessimism among the world community that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may not be achieved by 2015, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Hence, the imperative of improving agricultural productivity using Integrated Genetic and Natural Resource Management (IGNRM) propelled by institutional innovations has become more compelling in the SAT.

ICRISAT seeks to address the foregoing situation by mapping out its vision and strategy to 2015. Being at the apex of global agricultural research for SAT areas in the Alliance of Future Harvest Centers of the CGIAR, ICRISAT refines its vision and strategy in synchrony with the UN International Year of Deserts and Desertification (2006).

Furthermore, it wishes to articulate more clearly its alignment with the MDGs, CGIAR strategic directions, the new CGIAR Systemwide priorities and the emergence of the Future Harvest Alliance as a third pillar of the CGIAR. In doing this, ICRISAT has solicited wide participation of partners and stakeholders. This document converges the vision and strategic thinking of three ICRISAT regions --- West and Central Africa (WCA), Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), Asia and four global research themes --- Institutions, Markets, Policy and Impacts (IMPI), Biotechnology (Biotech), Crop Improvement (CI) and Agroecosystems (AE) as follows:

IGNRM is a powerful integrative strategy of agricultural research that seeks to maximize the synergies among the disciplines of biotechnology, plant breeding, agronomy , agro-ecosystems and social sciences with people empowerment at its core. In pursuing IGNRM as its overall strategy, ICRISAT recognizes the need for greater focus, thematic-regional integration, multi-stakeholdership and multi-level partnerships in mobilizing science and technology for the poor. Through the synergies catalyzed from IGNRM, ICRISAT will be strategically positioned to act regionally and yet produce international public goods (IPGs) with impact .

To pursue the foregoing, ICRISAT's four global research themes and three regional strategies have been integrated to help ICRISAT refocus its efforts to the needs of poor households and development partners in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Asia. Similarly, ICRISAT recognizes that its vision and strategy must be anchored on concrete action. This will be achieved through the adoption of the five new CGIAR Systemwide priorities as the ‘ribs' around which the ‘flesh' of ICRISAT's global research and regional strategies will be attached. Consistent with the position of the Future Harvest Alliance, ICRISAT's vision and strategy straddles the research to development continuum, generating IPGs globally and doing downstream research as a bridge, broker and catalyst to attain more impacts. ICRISAT will provide custodianship to six mandate crops and improve germplasm and provide cutting edge options in diversifying SAT farming systems. These will be done to help national, sub-regional and regional institutions, private sector, civil society, advance research institutions and donors in achieving the MDGs.

During the past several years, the environment in which ICRISAT operates has significantly changed. The MDGs have tremendously broadened the agricultural research agenda from increasing food supply to embrace poverty and hunger reduction, environmental sustainability and social issues such as gender equality, health and nutrition. P ublicly funded agricultural research has declined by more than 50%. At the same time, the private sector has assumed an increasing share of agricultural research and ownership of new technologies. The emergence of global markets, biotechnology and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a strong influence in changing the strategic direction of ICRISAT's research.

These changes are happening at a time when international agricultural research is seeing the emergence of a new set of institutional arrangements where public-private partnerships are mainstreamed towards a new vision of agriculture and rural development. We are witnessing a gradual c onvergence of the public sector's pro-poor development goals and the private sector's commercial interests. Similarly, new patterns of accountability and governance are changing the role of public agricultural research institutions and their relationships with the private sector and civil society. In harmony with this trend, ICRISAT will further intensify linkages with a wide range of strategic partners which include the Future Harvest Alliance, advanced research institutes, regional and sub-regional organizations, NARES, the private sector and civil society organizations. In SSA, our strategy has been synchronized with those of regional and sub-regional organizations, NEPAD, the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) once adopted and SSA Challenge Program. In addition, ICRISAT will integrate its research with other fields of development such as education, human health, nutrition, energy and water quality. ICRISAT will also intensify innovative public-private partnerships through its Agri-Science Park (ASP).

Towards 2015, ICRISAT's strategy for knowledge sharing will be in full gear along with the CGIAR's new priority on facilitating institutional innovations to support sustainable reduction of poverty and hunger. Towards this, the ICRISAT-led Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) will be upscaled with partners to e nable dynamic linkages among diverse, distributed human and information resources in the SAT. Linkages will be established with partners such as the Global Open Food and Agriculture University (GOFAU), advanced learning institutions and national open universities to develop courses in distance mode and other innovative learning opportunities.

Starting in 2006, ICRISAT seeks to effectively allocate $30 million towards the fulfillment of its vision and strategy and may be approaching $50 million by 2015. Since this is a large annual investment, ICRISAT recognizes the importance of rigorous research prioritization. This is clearly indicated in ICRISAT's series of rolling medium term plans (MTPs). The MTP for 2007-2009 has been prepared to pursue this strategic plan.