Regions:
Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Global, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, US and Canada

Related Key Topics:
Capacity Building, Climate Change, Food Security, Gender, Health and Nutrition, Innovation, Markets, Natural Resource Management, Policy, Productivity

The INTSORMIL CRSP research program supported activities that sought to improve nutrition and increase income in developing countries and the United States. The program focused on enhancing production and use of sorghum, millet and some other grains (finger millet, fonio, and tef). It developed farming practices to improve yields, to reduce crop losses to pests, and to protect natural resources. A significant part of the program developed new markets for these important grains. Access to foreign genetic material has also improved U.S. sorghum and millet production and utilization. For example, development of greenbug-resistant hybrids, based on African germplasm, has resulted in higher yields and lower pesticide costs for U.S. farmers.

The INTSORMIL CRSP portfolio was organized around the following themes: i) Developing institutional and human capital; ii) Conserving biodiversity and natural resources; iii) Developing research systems; iv) Supporting information networking; and v) Promoting demand-driven processes.

During the most recent phase, the INTSORMIL CRSP worked in twenty-one countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Of these, 13 (62 percent) were also priority countries for Feed the Future. It partnered with six U.S. universities: Kansas State University, University of Nebraska, Ohio State University, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, and West Texas A&M University.

INTSORMIL also worked with the following CGIAR centers: the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The INTSORMIL Program is a collaborating entity with the CGIAR’s Research Program (CRP 3.6) on Dryland Cereals.

The Management Entity of the INTSORMIL CRSP was housed at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. INTSORMIL was the second of all the CRSPs to be created and dates back to 1979.