Meeting: International Sorghum Workshop, 6-12 Mar. 1977, Hyderabad, INIDRC personnel. Address on the role of national agricultural research projects and of ICRISAT in the improvement of cultivation practices and farming systems of small farmers - discusses the importance of geographical aspects determining attitudes towards the adoption of new hybrids and fertilizers; ICRISAT activities involving hybridization of sorghum; the need for information exchange and agricultural extension

Doggett, H.

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics

International Development Research Centre: IDRC Digital Library

ARCHIVDOGGETno. 21EKeynote address; ICRISATInternational Sorghum Work-shops.- _.0-,'Do6eecTi tio6i4tb9-'4Wt CM%ICRISAT1977 In ernational Sorghum WorkshU1177 . oP)Keynote Address*Hugh DoggettInternational Development Research CentreP.O. Box 30677Nairobi, Kenya14 52 25Pcr4twid-1Ib.Yge2-, indict -.1D-MY I, as a former member of ICRISAT, add my welcome to this workshop,-----in which we hope to thrash out the most effective way of tackling to-gether the problems of creating and teaching a modern agriculture whichwill be profitable and beneficial for the sorghum growers of thedeveloping world.There are two key questions; -- firstly, what is likely to be themost effective way of deveinving this new agriculture, in a form which willbe readily adopted by the farmers? secondly, what are the relative roles ofthe national research programmes and ICRISAT in achieving our common purpose?(a) HOW MAY WE BEST ACHIEVE OUR AIM?There are objective studies becoming available from both IRRI andCIMMYT, which give us some guidance on approaches which have been proved towork. I would draw your attention particularly to Donald L. Winkelmann'spaper to the World Food Conference on "Promoting the adoption of new planttechnology". This ris obtainable from CIMMYT, and gives references to otherpapers. I would also draw your attention to the paperiy_Perrin & Winkelmann,"Impediments to technical progress on small versus large ?farms", and to thepaper by Randolph Barker "Changes in rice production technology in selectedareas of Asia". The latter is available from IRRI.In two of the areas studied, namely, Turkey, and Kenya, it was theimproved cultivar, the HYV, which was rapidly adopted, by 90 to 95% of thefarmers in zones where it performed well. The adoption of better fertilizeruse, higher plant population, and other simple farming practices, followedmore slowly. It was the HYV's which were the essential vehicle that carriedthe better farming practfEis-. Winkelmann emphasises that the HYV was notuniversally useful in either of these countries, the highland maize hybridswere not generally adopted in the lowland areas, and the wheats which didso well in the Mediterranean areas of Turkey were nota success furtherinland, often because of susceptibility to frost and cold. Among Winkelmann'sconclusions are the following;"Farmers quickly take up varieties which suit their purposes;fertilisers" (and in the context of the studies made, this wouldinclude simple farming practices such as plant population density)"are taken up less quickly, and tend to be used in lesser amountsthan recommended". "In the main, the differences in adoption ratesresult from the relative suitability of the technologies. Gettingthe technology right is the critical step in promoting technologicalchange". Our impression from these studies is that the most pervasiveexplanation of why some farmers don't adopt new varieties andfertiliser while others do, is that the expected increase in view forsome farmers is small or nil, while for others it is significant, dueto differences, sometimes subtle, in soils, climate, water availability,and other biological factors. Agricultural technology is more site_sPecific than we were led to believe by some of the early successeswith wheat and rice varieties". I shall return to this last point.In the case of Mexico the HYV's available were inferior to thelocal maize types, and the problem of the adoption of better ferti-liser use, and change of plant PoPulation, again proved to be locationsPecific, and the element of risk was important, the practices whichgave the best results in a bad year were preferred over those whichgave the best results in a good year, because the farmer has no systemof insurance, and abad harvest in a bad Year brings disaster.Following the adoption of improved farming practices as theresult of the availability of a truly adapted HYV, the next step willbe to develop farming systems which make better use of moisture, whichminimise soil loss, and which build fertility. You may have anopportunity to visit the ICRISAT farming Systems programme brieflylater on. Those of us met here must concentrate on the first step, toProduce the rtalli_luitafilejr, and then the second step, to use thatHYV as the carrier for better simple farming practices. Let me end mycomments on this first question with another quotation from DonaldWinkelmann; "Research must be organised so that farmers' circumstancesplay a more essential role in developing and evaluating alternativetechnologies".(b) WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF THE NATIONAL PROGRAMMES AND ICRISAT?Our reply to the first question guides us in answering the second.New technology can be very location-specific, much more farmer parti-cipation is necessary in doing the applied research to develop the newtechnology; and surely, the only people who are going to havesufficiently close relationships with the farmer for extension activities-to be effective are the nationals of his own country. In plain words,it is the national programme which is vitally important; you are thepeople who are going to-iliktify the improved cultivars; you are thepeople who are going to work out the simple fertiliser, weeding, andspacing practices wtich make the HIV even more rewarding. This is notgoing to be done by any IARC, not even by ICRISAT; it is going to bedone by youThe two first IARC'sv IRRI and CIMMYT, both grew out of nationalprogrammes, because it was realised that there is a tremendous need tostrengthen the national programmes in their research. I like the titlewhich has been suggested for a new international forestry centre; a"support centre". This is where we stand; you are the research workerswho are going to achieve the results;ICRISAT is here to offer you support; as God help us, all the supportthat we know how to give. We cannot do this effectively unless we knowwhat support you need. That is why we have asked you to come here forthis workshop, and why we burdened you with a long questionnaire. Ibelieve that you are in the position stated by a famour British PrimeMinister, "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." Gentlemen,we have invited you here to find out what tools you need, and toencourage you all we can in the task you are determined to do.THE ICRISAT PROGRAMMEWhen planning the ICRISAT sorghum programme, my colleagues andI, many of whom had worked for a considerable time in the developingworld, tried to devise a programme which would have given us the kind ofsupport which we would like to have had when we'were working in exactlyyour kind of situation.The first need was for the widest possible range of usefulvariability. Ideally, that variability needed to be constantly re-generating and improving: we therefore developed the procedures for re-current selection in random mating populations. This methodology iscapable of using many more parents from the germplasm collection than aretraditional practices, although we also continued to use traditional pro-cedures. Clearly, an expanding and well managed germplasm collection isthe basic requirement for all this work.The variability also needed to contain stability of yield acrosslocations, which is associated with stability of yield across seasons:in view of the importance to the farmer of risk, it was essential to breedfor this, and so we developed multilocation breeding. Although no sorghumbreeders had attempted this previously, there are such big differepceswithin sorghum in yield stability across locations that we know we shallmake important advances using this methodology. You will note that weinsisted on including low fertility locations: HYV's must be good underfarmers' conditions, though responsive to inputs. We realise that youwill be developing a better level of local adaptation in the material asyour programmesdevelop.We knew that we must include resistances to the yield reducers;the pests, the diseases, and the witchweeds (striga). We realised theimportance of grain quality especially mould and weathering resistances,and improved cooking and eating quality. We saw that plant phy-siological studies might help in breeding for drought endurance, and inidentifying more efficient plants, that would give more grain and utiliseplant nutrients more effectively. Some of the new microbiologicalstudies are of great interest here. We then looked at some of the moredistant possibilities; the potential value of relatively untested planttypes, such as grain-grass sorghums, the possible value of tetraploidyin making available to us germplasm from the successful tetraploid wildsorghums.Together we developed this programme, and we then invited agroup of consultants, scientists of wide knowledge and high reputation,to look at what we were doing, so that we were sure that we have atechnically sound programme. We then continued to develop and expand ourcapability until we were ready for the next step: to invite you in asconsultants to work out together how our programme can be reshaped togive you the support that you need. Hence this workshop, which could alsobe called a consultancy.I shall leave Dr. Davies, leader of the ICRISAT Cereals group,and his colleagues, to expound their programmes to you. I would ask youto note the underlying themes; the germplasm collection which makesavailable thousands of tried and tested cultivars, developed underadversitY. The utilisation of that variability through both compositepopulations, and simple populations from crosses between few parents; thetesting of the material across a wide range of locations, to identifyconsistency of performance; the provision to you of nurseries of valuablecultivars with resistances to pests, diseases, to striga, to grain mould,with better quality characters, with better physiological characters, andbetter micro-biological characters. The aim of ICRISAT is to makeavailable to you a wealth of practically useful variability within whichyou can identify what you need in your programe to serve your farmersand your people.The second great need of those who work in isolated places isfor information. What are the other people doing? How are they doing it?Who are they? I believe that a periodic workshop of this kind can do muchto help, especially because we come to know our fellow workers. However,an information service screening the literature is very essential, andyou will be glad to have learnt that such a service is being developed,supported by IDRC. I believe that by making available a wealth of material,and of information on what other scientists are doing, we shall be under-girding you/with the kind of support which will be valuable. We are goingto need from you a lot of help in filling in your more detailed re-quirements.5The third area of support is that of training: in so manycountries it is not shortage of money, but shortage of trained staffwhich makes difficult the rapid development of that truly indigenousresearch and extension service which alone can meet the country'sneeds. We shall never have the capacity to offer all the training and trainingcourses which we would like to make available. Nevertheless, we dohope to be able to train many trainers, and we are surely needing todiscuss with you the kind of training and the training prioritieswhich you see as being most necessary for the successful developmentof your programes.Finally, I would draw your attention to the other breedingprogrammes at ICRISAT, the Millet, the Pigeon Pea, the Chick Pea andthe Groundnuts. To the Cropping Systems and Farming Systems research;and to the work of the Economists. I would personally also like topay a tribute to the Farm Management, the Library and LaboratoryServices, the Workshops, Plant Protection, Stores, Travel, Visitorservice and Administration groups, who have made it possible for thescientists to develop and present the programmes which you will beseeing this week.Gentlemen, we must always have clearly in mind the small farmerwhom we are endeavouring to serve; we must always remember that oursuccess depends upon offering him improved cultivars and technologywhich involve the best available combination of minimum risk andmaximum profitability.

Keynote address : ICRISAT International Sorghum Workshop

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Keynote address : ICRISAT International Sorghum Workshop

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