Award details

Transforming India's Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies

Reference	BB/P027970/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Howard Griffiths
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Alison Bentley, Dr Robert Doubleday, Professor Shailaja Fennell, Dr Sigrid Heuer, Professor Julian Hibberd, Professor Martin Jones, Professor Tracy Lawson, Professor Nishikant Mishra, Dr Cameron Petrie, Professor Nitya Rao, Professor Sumantra Ray, Dr Lydia Smith, Dr Jagjit Srai, Professor Cristobal Uauy, Professor Bhaskar Vira, Dr Gitanjali Yadav
Institution	University of Cambridge
Department	Plant Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	7,035,022
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/10/2017
End date	31/03/2022
Duration	54 months

Abstract

unavailable

Summary

TIGR2ESS: Transforming India's Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies The record grain outputs of India's Green Revolution in the 1970's established India as one of the world's largest agricultural producers, transforming the country from a starving nation to a food exporter, creating jobs and boosting the economy. However, behind this extraordinary achievement were varying levels of success across different Indian regions, and overuse of water, fertilisers, pesticides and other chemicals on an unsustainable scale. In terms of agricultural productivity, the technologies of the Green Revolution plateaued in the 1980s, yet the continued adherence to a strategy of intensive agriculture has led to increasing pressure on water and nutrient resources. The proposed project (TIGR2ESS) will develop and strengthen alliances across a carefully selected network of UK and Indian experts in crop science, hydrology, social science and policy, allowing two-way knowledge exchange partnership to define the requirements for a second Green Revolution in India, set the necessary policy agenda, and define a collaborative research programme focused on sustainable crop production and sustainable resource use (with a focus on water use from farmer to consumer in a changing monsoon climate). Working together will enable us to contextualise the challenge in terms of the widespread changes taking place in Indian society today, including: urbanisation, drawing many away from rural work, particularly men; and technological developments transforming the employment opportunities within food sector away from primary production. Choices about modern agricultural practices in India must reflect societal needs, and our understanding of these needs will help us orientate the subsequent research programme and its translation towards an outcome that is both technically and socially acceptable - and possible - for today's India. The target for this programme is India, but relevance is in other developing countries, which in moving beyond the first Green Revolution of the 1960's, face unprecedented change due to societal and environmental pressures. The TIGR2ESS consortium will combine two innovative approaches to tackle these issues in India: Firstly, a series of Flagship Research projects will address fundamental research issues, and integrate their delivery and impact via a translational programme of outreach, education and entrepreneurial stimuli; secondly, a series of capacity building academic exchanges will support leading researchers from India and UK to frame collaborative research questions, and allow extensive training of more junior researchers to deliver these advances. At the heart of the TIGR2ESS proposal, the Flagship Projects will tackle fundamental research questions, with the first providing an overarching analysis to define the requirements for a 'second' Green Revolution in India. Secondly, a programme of research capacity exchanges will allow over 40 senior and young researchers to work in India or the UK, providing training and skills enhancement opportunities in research areas across the programme. Additional field-based community surveys and workshops will promote rural community engagement and empowerment. Overall, the programme will address the associated demographic and equality issues facing farmers in the context of increasing urbanisation. Two core Flagship Projects will use fundamental scientific approaches to address key issues in Crop Sciences (broadening the production potential of dietary staples and providing lessons for orphan crops) and Sustainable Resources (with a focus on water sources and sustainable use, from farmer to consumer, in a changing monsoon climate). The final Flagship project will translate these findings in order to promote equal opportunities, stimulate entrepreneurship and develop educational programmes for nutrition across rural communities.

Impact Summary

1. The growing population of India, in both rural and urban communities, whose health and wellbeing will be improved by ensuring a reliable food and water supply, distributed equitably and future-proofed to meet rising demand under changing societal and environmental conditions. This will be achieved through the project's direct benefit on the groups below: 2. Indian farmers and farming communities: who will be reached through the project's translation and education programme, using the extensive networks in place through our Indian collaborating Institutes, Universities and Third Sector Organisations including demonstration farms. The work aims particularly to empower female farmers, and drive equal opportunities to take up the new practices that are defined through the project's scientific research component to deliver resilient food production systems that generate wealth for the agricultural community; 3. Policy-makers in India: by strengthening existing collaborations, the project will ensure policy-makers are equipped with the knowledge to instigate effective policy for change for the sustainable use of water, and resilience in supply chains for food producers and consumers. Our partnership involves support from the Indian Government Ministry, and we will use the expertise and extensive network of Cambridge's Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) to reach relevant policy-makers for interactive workshops and discussions; 4. Young researchers in India: the project will employ 14 postdoctoral positions and support exchanges for a further 20 PDRA/PhD based in Indian Universities and research institutes to visit the UK, helping to grow the next generation of researchers needed for Food Security in India. Through the exchange programmes, PDRAs will receive wide-ranging training in modern techniques, as well as professional skills including grant-writing, and presentation and dissemination of results, and interact closely with researchers on an international scale. Enhanced career trajectory and empowerment of female researchers is anticipated. We will provide information and mentoring to ensure uptake of postdoctoral schemes, including regular progress reviews and career development plans. 5. Young researchers in the UK: the project will support 8.5 postdoctoral positions based in UK Universities and research institutes, and we will ensure benefits as for point 4 above. 6. The wider research communities in the participating Universities and research institutes: through involvement in project, participants have access to their collaborators' wider research networks and groups, for example the University of Cambridge's Global Food Security Strategic Research Initiative. By participation of PDRAs and senior academics in research exchanges and workshops, new perspectives will be brought together across India and the UK, sparking discussion and new ideas, and building vital interdisciplinary research capacity for the future in the UK and India for both independent and collaborative work; 7. The international fundamental and applied research communities: collaborators will publish results in high-impact journals in a timely fashion, with open access where possible, and present research results at international meetings and institutions in order to widely disseminate information for others to benefit from and build on; 8. Agro-industry and local SMEs promoted by the programme will receive information to underpin rational approaches to increase crop productivity and this will stimulate entrepreneurship for the creation of wealth and jobs in India. Across our collaboration we have vibrant contacts with relevant industries both in the UK and India; 9. The general public across the world: research on the future of our food supply is of great public interest, and thus the project will have wide educational value and represents an opportunity to draw more young people into scientific careers.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	RC GCRF
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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