Biotechnology
Global Development Alliance Improves Productivity and Sustainability of Cereal Systems in South Asia
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The Cereals Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) will assist farmers like Abdul Khaliq, a wheat farmer from Mahool Baloch village, Pakistan. Credit: Kaukab Jhumra Smith
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In late 2008, USAID entered into a Global Development Alliance with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support the Cereals Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). CSISA aims to decrease hunger and malnutrition and increase the incomes of small-scale farm families in South Asia by accelerating the development and deployment of new crop technologies, enabling policies and sustainable natural resource management practices.
The Alliance seeks to help six million farmers in South Asia to achieve significant yield increases on more than 7 million hectares over the next ten years. Other goals include increasing nitrogen and water use efficiency by 30% compared to present levels and producing at least five million tons additional grain annually, adding economic value of over $1.5 billion per year. Additional and more efficient production should lead to more affordable prices for staple cereals, which will benefit hundreds of millions of rural and urban landless poor.
The initiative will be led by four Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Centers working with local partners in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Several new private sector partnerships within this initiative will contribute to the development and delivery of technologies, information and management practices for South Asian farmers. CSISA will receive more than $10 million over the first three years of support from USAID with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation providing an additional $19.59 million over three years. USAID manages the Alliance and will work to expand the donor base.
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