In the context of India’s preparation for Climate-Smart Agriculture, consider the following statements:

1. The ‘Climate-Smart Village approach in India is a part of a project led by the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), an international research programme.
2. The project of CCAFS is carried out under Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) headquartered in France.
3. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India is one of the CGIAR’s research centers.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct

• The Climate-Smart Villages initiative is under the auspices of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS). In 2011, CCAFS initiated the pilot program for Climate-Smart Villages in African countries, including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda, as well as in South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Nepal.

  

Statement 2 is correct

• The project of CCAFS is carried out under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), headquartered in Montpellier, France. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), established in 1971, is a strategic partnership of diverse donors that support 15 international Centres, working in collaboration with many hundreds of government and civil society organisations as well as private businesses around the world.
• CGIAR donors include both developing and industrialized countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations. The Vision of CGIAR is to reduce poverty and hunger, improve human health and nutrition, and enhance ecosystem resilience through high-quality international agricultural research, partnership and leadership.

Statement 3 is correct

• The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world.
• Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi-arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people, and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these poor people to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agriculture.
• ICRISAT is headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, with two regional hubs and six country offices in sub-Saharan Africa.
• It is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3; Difficulty Level: Hard