India

With a largely rural population, agriculture remains to be a primary activity in India. Despite achieving food sufficiency through grains, and being a net exporter of food, the local availability of food is highly variable geographically across the country — responding to institutional factors, demographics, land use, climate change, and environmental degradation. 

Underscored by the climate crisis, India is also facing challenges in dealing with nutrition, land fragmentation, livelihood security, gender, and poverty. More specifically, agriculture in small/marginal farms must contend with the problems of availability and access to production resources, market forces, and technology implementation. The Alliance in India is working on several SDGs to address these issues to transform the agricultural sector and secure the largest source of livelihood in the country.   

Transforming agriculture in India aims to thread the nexus of agricultural biodiversity, genetic innovation, production systems, and nature-based solutions through capacity building and improved market linkages. By harnessing national and local expertise in these areas, along with continued engagement with stakeholders, we capture solutions to diverse challenges and form synergies to build geographically differentiated strategies and contribute to building resilience from the ground up. 

The wide range of disciplines and thematic areas undertaken by the Alliance and its partners contribute to the global work on climate-resilient agriculture and sustainable food systems. In India, this work is operationalized by engaging in the following research areas: 

• Food environment and consumer behaviour 
• Multifunctional landscapes 
• Climate action 
• Agrobiodiversity 
• Digital inclusion 
• Improving Crops 
• Gender and inclusion  

Direct contributions to our research areas in India, these projects and flagship initiatives in the country are creating positive impact in the livelihoods of communities in India.

CGIAR Initiatives in India 

We are supporting the work of the CGIAR India across 11 initiatives: Agroecology, Asian Mega-Deltas, Digital Innovation, Foresight and Metrics, Gender Equality, National Policies and Strategies, Nature-Positive Solutions, NEXUS Gains, Plant Health, Transforming Agri-Food Systems in South Asia, and Sustainable healthy diets. Working in these initiatives leverages our expertise and experience in redesigning farming systems, soil and water management, conserving biodiversity, and maintaining ecosystem services. 

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• Indian Council of Agricultural Research 
• Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare 
• Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Authority 
• National Biodiversity Authority 
• Central Agricultural Universities 
• State Agricultural Universities 
• Non-Governmental Organizations 
• Other CGIAR Centers