The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) based in Hyderabad, India, is using biotechnological tools to improve the performance of orphan and poor man's crops like groundnut, pearl millet, chickpea, and pigeonpea. Dr. Farid Waliyar, head of the biotechnology program at ICRISAT, told South Asia journalists attending a media workshop that transgenic work is being done only for major and widely distributed stresses, and when no sources of resistance are available in cultivated germplasm.

Waliyar enumerated ICRISAT's biotech research projects, among them being enhanced drought tolerance of mandated crops; improved crop resistance to pests (shoot fly, stem borer, Striga in cereals; pod borers in legumes); increased crop resistance to viral, bacterial, and fungal plant pathogens; better food, feed, and fodder quality plus efficient hybrid seed production systems; and more efficient conservation and utilization of germplasm resources.

Dr. Kiran Sharma, head of the transformation laboratory, reported that the first ICRISAT transgenics are now in contained field trials. These are groundnut transgenics with resistance to the Indian peanut clump virus, and pigeonpea transgenics for legume pod borer.