Sixteenth Annual Report 2005-2006 M S Swaminathan Research Foundation Centre for Research on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development Chennai, India M S Swaminathan Research Foundation Centre for Research on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development Third Cross Road, Institutional Area Taramani, Chennai 600 113 India Telephone : +91 (44) 22541229 +91 (44) 22541698 Fax : +91 (44) 22541319 Email : [email protected]; [email protected] Visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.mssrf.org Printed at : AMM Screens Citation : Sixteenth Annual Report: 2005-2006 M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai 600 113 Contents Chairman’s Introduction ................................................................................................. 004 Programme Area 100 Coastal Systems Research ............................................................................................. 021 Programme Area 200 Biotechnology ................................................................................................................ 040 Programme Area 300 Biodiversity .................................................................................................................... 060 Programme Area 400 Ecotechnology ............................................................................................................... 074 Programme Area 500 Food Security ................................................................................................................. 099 Programme Area 600 Education, Communication, Training and Capacity Building ........................................... 110 Programme Area 700 Special Projects .............................................................................................................. 136 Publications .................................................................................................................... 150 About the Foundation .................................................................................................... 160 The Foundation Staff ...................................................................................................... 165 List of Donors ................................................................................................................. 176 Sources of Project Support ............................................................................................. 179 List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................ 183 ANNUAL REPORT 2005-2006 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Chairman’s Introduction The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation of household economic circumstances, they started its work 16 years ago in the thematic remain under-nourished. The feminization areas of coastal systems, biotechnology, of poverty and hunger as well as diseases biodiversity, ecotechnology, food security and like HIV/AIDS are facts of life and should information, education and communication. be confronted with an appropriate The approach was based on strategic and response. participatory research, capacity building, If technology has been a major factor so far networking and partnership building, based in the rich-poor and north-south economic on the principles of social inclusion in access divides, we should now enlist technology to technologies which help to enhance income as an ally in the movement for gender and and environment. Research and outreach social equity. Appropriate technologies strategies were devised to bridge the rich-poor which can help to reduce drudgery and add and gender divides in the areas of information, economic value to the time and labour of knowledge and skill empowerment. the poor need to be identified, tested and popularized. While the redistribution of Details of the work done during the agricultural land, livestock and other productive assets year of 2005-06 (ie, 1 June, 2005 to 31 May 2006) comes under the political domain, asset are given in this Report. Hence, only a few building in the form of market-driven skills highlights of the progress made during the year is within the competence of technically in shaping MSSRF’s future directions are oriented NGOs. The aims should be to mentioned in this introduction. bridge the gap between scientific know-how Strategic Planning and field level do-how, and bring about a paradigm shift from unskilled to skilled The work carried out by MSSRF’s scientists work in the case of assetless poor. and scholars during 1990-2006 has validated the following assumptions, which led to the When cooperation fails, the only hope of rural India for economic and social progress choice of programme priorities in 1989-90. vanishes. Hence, the organization of SHGs The poor are poor as they have no physical or other groups for technological assets such as land and, livestock, empowerment and skill building should be fishponds, and often, education. They hence based on the principle of social inclusion remain, as unskilled labour and women and a “win-win” situation for all, labour invariably do not get even the irrespective of religion, caste, class or prescribed minimum wage. By compulsion gender. 4 CHAIRMAN’S INTRODUCTION ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Even in institutions devoted primarily to the job-led economic growth. This resulted in cause of technology incubation and ecotechnologies, based on five E’s (Ecology, dissemination, there is need for a research Economics, Equity, Employment and Energy) back-up, both in social and bio-physical leading to the establishment of the JRD Tata sciences. To quote the Royal Commission Ecotechnology Centre with the generous on Agriculture (1925), “However efficient support of Tata Trusts. The emphasis on food the organization which is built up for and nutrition security and gender agricultural demonstration and extension mainstreaming led to the establishment of the may be, unless that organization is based B V Rao Centre for Sustainable Food Security, on the solid foundation provided by the Uttara Devi Centre for Gender and research, it is merely a house built on sand”. Development, and later the Ford Chair on It was therefore decided in 1990, that MSSRF Women and Food Security and the MSSRF- should concentrate on strategic and WFP Technical Resource Centre on Food anticipatory research in relation to its Security. The B R Barwale Chair in the area of programme in coastal areas, and biodiversity provided an opportunity to work participatory research in relation to its work on the rights of farmers and primary conservers with tribal and rural families in the engaged in the conservation of plant genetic conservation and sustainable and equitable resources. The principles of social inclusion use of biodiversity. in access to technologies, both in gender and economic terms, as well as the conservation ‘Science for an Inclusive Society’ thus became and enhancement of nature and natural the motto of MSSRF. Obviously, the concept of resources became sacred to MSSRF’s approach society should begin with children and women, to harnessing science and technology for and hence MSSRF integrated early childhood fostering agrarian and rural prosperity. care and education services and the gender perspective in its programmes from its early Among technologies, it was decided on the beginning at a rented house in Kotturpuram. basis of inter-disciplinary dialogues to accord Economic replicability, environmental priority to Biotechnology, Information sustainability and social and gender equity Communication Technologies (ICT), Space became the three pillars of MSSRF’s Technologies (Remote Sensing, GIS), Nuclear programmes. Thus began the pro-nature, pro- Technologies (mutants of groundnut and poor, pro-women and pro-sustainable pulses) and Ecotechnologies (i.e. appropriate livelihoods paradigm of technology blend of traditional wisdom and ecological development and dissemination. Since prudence with frontier technologies). inadequate purchasing power is the most Technology blending is the pathway to important cause of under- and mal-nutrition integrate the classic and contemporary in at the household level, the emphasis was on scientific strategies. A great challenge in rural 5 ANNUAL REPORT 2005-2006 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ India is the development of management tools, India-Canada Environment Facility and other which can help to confer the power and donor agencies have been in general economy of scale to farm families with small complimentary, but have invariably land holdings and to landless labour families. emphasized the need for greater inter- This led to institutional devices like the Bio- programme cooperation within MSSRF. Also, village, Village Knowledge Centres (VKC), the original idea of MSSRF developing into an Sustainable Self-Help Groups (SSHG) and NGO’s NGO, i.e. a resource centre for NGOs Community Food and Water Security systems who are dedicated to the cause of serving designed to convert concepts into field level society, but are weak in science, is yet to fructify. accomplishments. Rural Knowledge Measurement tools to quantify the impact of Connectivity was considered an essential pre- the work done on the economic and nutritional requisite for rural upliftment. This led to the well being of rural families are yet to be establishment of the Jamsetji Tata National formalized. An in-house strategic planning Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity and the exercise, titled,