Patancheru, India
July 31, 2008
Bouncing back from a challenging
period in the nineties, the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT) turned itself around to join the ranks of top
international agricultural research centers today.
Delivering a keynote address on ICRISAT's turnaround at the
Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, India,
recently, the Director General of ICRISAT, Dr William D Dar,
said that the turnaround was made possible by pursuing a
strategy that built synergies across the Institute's core
strengths, especially its human resources. Dr Dar was invited by
the premier business school in India to talk about ICRISAT's
turnaround in the last nine years.
"The aspects of change included making the governance and
organizational structure more effective; fine-tuning the
organizational strategy and institutional culture for success;
strengthening organizational capacity and institutional
innovations; improving financial performance and delivering
impacts," Dr Dar said.
Through this concerted effort, ICRISAT surmounted the challenges
it faced during the mid-1990s, to be rated as an 'Outstanding'
Center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) for two consecutive years - 2006 and 2007.
Prior to this, ICRISAT was also rated as 'Superior' from 2003 to
2005. These top ratings by the CGIAR recognize ICRISAT's good
science, great impacts, institutional health and financial
health. It places ICRISAT's performance on top of the 15
international agricultural research institutes of the CGIAR.
ICRISAT's Governing Board, with a well-diversified membership
and a good mix of regional, gender and multi-disciplinary
skills, significantly strengthened governance at the Institute.
The Board ensured strong and dynamic leadership and an effective
oversight covering strategy, program, resource and risk
management. The Board also established robust financial and
internal control systems and introduced effective delegation of
authority.
Organizationally, programs and projects were unified into
thematic groups driven by a lean organizational structure, Dr
Dar said. The research themes were streamlined into four,
namely:
1) crop improvement;
2) agro-ecosystems development;
3) biotechnology; and
4) institutions, markets, policy and impacts.
Broad responsibilities and
authority were delegated to the Directors of the African
regional hubs. Regional work plans were developed and aligned
with the Institute's medium term plan.
ICRISAT's research strategy
focuses on integrated genetic and natural resource management
(IGNRM), and results are delivered through public-private-farmer
partnerships. The Agri-Science Park (ASP) at ICRISAT was
established to strengthen these partnerships, enhancing the
development, promotion and utilization of ICRISAT's innovations.
ICRISAT has delivered cutting edge research impacts across the
globe, said Dr Dar. A total of 609 improved varieties and
hybrids developed by ICRISAT and partners have been released in
77 countries between 1976 and 2007.
Other innovations include hybrid pearl millet developed through
molecular-marker selection technology, and the world's first
pigeonpea hybrid commercially released in India as Pushkal.
According to Dr Dar, ICRISAT's effective planning and management
has ensured sound financial health for the Institute. Innovative
resource mobilization strategies included tapping
non-traditional sources for special project funding, marketing
the Institute's work, cutting edge products and impacts, and
emphasizing cost optimization.
These measures have resulted in a leap in ICRISAT's financial
health in the last five years, with gross revenue of US$24.2
million in 2003 growing to US$42.1 million in 2007. The
Institute also registered a financial surplus during these five
years. |
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