India stands at the intersection of agricultural heritage and scientific progress. As climate change threatens food security across the globe, India’s 100 million+ smallholder farmers are both vulnerable and vital to the future of sustainable agriculture. Grow Further sees a timely and strategic opportunity to help scale local innovation for global impact.
India is a growing powerhouse in scientific research and development, and is home to some of the world’s premier agricultural research centers. That’s why we’re excited to be working with the authorities in India and traveling there again to lay the groundwork for our first agricultural innovation R&D projects outside the African continent. “It’s an honor to see so many distinguished scientists throughout India eager to work with us,” noted our founder Peter Kelly.
We recently put out a call for expressions of interest (EOI) from organizations in India with visions for smallholder farming innovations that may be interested in applying for Grow Further grants. Expressions of interest arrived from all parts of India, particularly from Karnataka and other southern states. They came in throughout the day and night, slowing down a bit between midnight and 8 am in India, with about half in the last 72 hours. In all, there were 323 EOIs from an array of research centers (including but not limited to ICAR and CGIAR campuses), universities, and other organizations. The EOIs aimed to improve food security by helping India’s smallholder farmers produce nutritious, high-value crops and livestock in a changing climate.
Many EOIs proposed holistic and interdisciplinary approaches, elevating indigenous technologies like minor millets or emphasizing agroecology. Others proposed cutting-edge science from various fields, including genomics and leveraging the microbiome as well as artificial intelligence.
Many submissions focused on more than one species, or on both crops and livestock, but roughly 80% were primarily about crops and 20% primarily about livestock, poultry, or aquaculture. About 80% were in agronomy, crop science, or horticulture, with the remainder in other fields such as animal science or agricultural engineering.
Projected farmer adoption ranged from single digits to tens of millions. Almost half of submissions applied for the maximum 5-year project duration, and most indicated partnerships that could continue the work beyond the term of the grant.
What moved forward
Each EOI was read by multiple human screeners, all of whom hold PhDs and have years of international agriculture experience. Although we provided a response to all applicants in one week, we carefully considered all EOIs and did not use an automated screening system. Forty-nine EOIs from 45 prospective principal investigators received an invitation to submit a full proposal.
EOIs that moved forward met the criteria outlined in the grant announcement and grant workshop, proposing applied research and development projects with ambitious but credible estimates of potential adoption backed up by the applicant’s track record and partnerships. Almost all were from ICAR, universities, or CGIAR centers.
As with the overall application pool, many of those moving forward involved multiple crops. Among those focusing on a single crop, the most common were rice, maize, and millet, an important crop in India with great potential to contribute to nutrition and thrive in a warming climate. In about half of the proposals moving forward, the proposed core innovation involved breeding and in the other half it involved management.
Next steps
We have requested full proposals from those applicants who are moving forward and aim to announce our first grants in India by the end of this year. We are looking forward to building on our success in Africa, supporting innovation in India, and creating a larger movement around the future of food security. Thank you to all applicants for being a part of our programs as we connect ever more people and ideas to create a food-secure future.
— Grow Further
Photo credit: Women farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India. Adam Cohn/Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).