ICRISAT: Hyderabad, India (13 June 2016) —More than 180,000 households were reached with new technologies that increased the production of sorghum and millets by up to 150%, at the end of a six-year project to boost food security in the dryland areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The final report for theHOPE project was recently completed  – the initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,was carried out by 50 partners led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from 2009-2015.

The project spanned 11 countries with a focus on developing improved varieties and crop management practices that would help smallholder farmers increase productivity under harsh, dry production environments in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Some of the major milestones include:

• - 49 cultivars released by the project countries (25 sorghum; 13 pearl millet; and 11 finger millet)
• - 183,421 farm households reached with new production technologies
• - 8,579 tons of seed produced under the program (6,251 tons of sorghum; 2,084 tons of pearl millet; and 244 tons of finger millet)
• - 178,447 mini-packs of seed distributed initially at no cost, but at the beginning of the second year a partial cost recovery approach was implemented. The packs were sold to farmers primarily through field days, seed-producing farmers and local agro-dealers
• - 50 researchers received advanced degree training with HOPE support (15 PhD and 35 MSc degrees completed)
• - 3,280 National Agricultural Research Systems(NARS) scientists took part in HOPE-sponsored short courses

See more: http://www.icrisat.org/success-in-increasing-production-of-sorghumand-millets-by-up-to-150/

Figure: Pearl millet farmer in India (ICRISAT photo)