It was one of the first battles between Bangalore and Hyderabad that the city won without Twitter diplomacy.
In early 1971, the international Feasibility Study Team for establishing International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) visited seven locations in Africa and five in India. Bangalore was a front runner as climate and soil conditions were the main factors for locating the research facility.
It rained in Hyderabad
According to ICRISAT lore, it rained in Hyderabad before the team’s visit and that proved to be a clincher for locating the research facility for foodgrains in semi-arid tropics. Another key factor was the geological one. As visitors enter ICRISAT at Patancheru, a road divides the facility with farmlands on either side. “There is black soil on one side and red soil on another. These soil conditions proved to be a clincher as research could be done for increasing productivity in red Alfisols and black Vertisols,” says a former employee of the facility.
Alfisol, Entisol, Vertisol and Aridsol are the four main soil types found in semi-arid tropics proving their importance for a research facility. A lesser known factor were the education facilities in Hyderabad for children of expatriate scientists.
1st MoU in 1972
The first memorandum of understanding was signed between the Government of India and Ford Foundation acting on behalf of a consultative group on March 28, 1972. The institute was to be recognised by the GoI as a philanthropic, non-profit organisation while the Ford Foundation played the role of facilitator setting up the institute before an independent Governing Board took control.
M. S. Swaminathan, one of the architects of green revolution, credits his interaction with scientists Ralph Cummings and Lee House at a farm in Andhra Pradesh Agriculture University (Rajendranagar) in 1966 for the idea of a sorghum research institute.This was within a few years after the signing of agreement for import of wheat and rice from the US at a time when commentators would say India lived a ship to mouth existence.
Once the facility was identified, the villages of Kachireddypalli and Manmool were vacated and the 4,000 residents relocated to Ramachandrapuram. Beginning with 1,374 hectares on a 99-year lease, the institute has helped push research on seeds, plantation techniques and cultivation worldwide. From a nation that waited for arrival of foodgrains from ships, India became self-sufficient in food production within no time.
ICRISAT’s first 8,961 accessions of crop germplasm in 1974 came from the collaborative work that the Rockefeller Foundation was partly doing in Rajendranagar in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
When the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi came for laying the foundation stone of new facilities in 1975, workers discovered a 5-tonne Ganesh idol buried in the ground. Now, the idol finds a pride of place with regular puja near the main building complex. Within the ICRISAT complex is the Manmool Castle, where according to legend inscribed on the wall, there is a buried treasure and gold coins guarded by Djinns. The old religious structures including a Qutb Shahi era mosque and temples are still maintained by the staff.
Importance of millets
As millets get their share of limelight as superfoods, the role of ICRISAT in Hyderabad in raising the yields cannot be ignored.
“Special attention was needed for the semi-arid tropics, where sorghum and millets, along with a range of pulses, are the major components of the cropping pattern and the major staple foods. We were indeed fortunate in finding and obtaining this site near Hyderabad, India, which so nearly met all the essential criteria for the centre’s research headquarters,” said Ralph Cummings, who was part of the feasibility team on the 10th foundation day.
Exactly 40 years later, the international research facility is still doing yeoman service to mankind.
