ICRISAT, DBT to set up new centre of excellence in Genomics

Hyderabad, Dec 14 (UNI) The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) will partner with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, to establish a Centre of Excellence in Genomics (CEG) at ICRISAT with financial support from DBT.

A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed by Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT and Dr M K Bhan, Secretary of DBT, was exchanged yesterday at a function organised at ICRISAT headquarters at Patancheru, about 35 km from here, according to an ICRISAT release today.

The CEG project will result in the establishment of the CEG, which will strengthen the existing molecular breeding facilties at ICRISAT to a new high through cost-effective facililty, which can be used for crop improvement research. The facility, which is expected to be fully operational over the course of 2007, will also be available for researchers from over agricultural research institutes.

The MoA also provides for fellowships and training courses for scientists and students from the Indian institutes, in the US of high-throughput methods in breeding and research, ICRISAT said.

Dr Dar said the partnership with DBT will help to improve agricultural productivity using improved tools cost-effectively.

This will help in alleviating the poverty of small farmers in the dryland areas of India and the rest of the Developing world.

The CEG will also be a model of growth for enhancing South-South coperation as its results will be beneficial to India and other developing countries where ICRISAT works.

The CEG will provide new technological options, build capacity of scientists and also accelerate crop improvement by reducing the time required to develop new varieties by half.

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