Sorghum Diseases in India

Despite all the complexities of the CRSPs, bureaucratic and otherwise, the basics are simple and
straightforward. The CRSP model is based on three fundamental assumptions.
1. There are problems that are common in important ways to agriculture in USA and in the developing
nations.
2. The assumptions are that collaborative research among agricultural scientists in USA and their
counterparts in the developing nations will be highly complementary. This is to say that the results
of such efforts will be useful in accelerating the agricultural development process in the developing
countries through contributing to the upward shifting of farm-level production functions and the
relaxation of other constraints. It is also to say that it will be complementary in the sense of
providing knowledge, information, and technology useful to the solution of productivity and
adjustment constraints faced by U.S. agriculture.
3.- The model assumes that, from the fixed stock of research resources available to agriculture worldwide,
the scientific output will be greater as a result of such collaborative work. A corollary
assumption of the above is that the expanded output will be mutually beneficial to developing and
developed nations.
My second topic is INTSORMIL: what it is and how it functions. INTSORMIL is the CRSP program
for improvement of sorghum and millet production and utilization in countries where these cereals
are important staple foods. The program is funded jointly by the U.S. Agency for International
Development and by five U.S. universities—Purdue, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Mississippi State, and
Kansas State. Research scientists at these universities develop collaborative research projects with
their counterparts in national agricultural research programs. We believe that strong national research
programs [in less developed countries (LDCs) and the USA alike] are the key to long-term improvements
in the productivity, marketing, and utilization of these important staple cereals. We also believe
that national research programs (in the LDCs and the USA) can function effectively only with strong
multidisciplinary teams of well-trained and highly motivated research scientists. Our approach to
helping achieve these objectives is through development of mutually beneficial collaborative research
projects between LDC scientists and U.S. scientists. Collaboration involves exchanges of scientists
germplasm, research technology, and information. Enhanced professional development of all collaborators
(from the LDCs or the USA) in the INTSORMIL program will lead to increased efficiency and
productivity of all of our research programs. The collaborative research projects that result will
enhance the lives and economic well-being of all people who depend on sorghum and millet for
sustenance.
In summary, INTSORMIL is a scientist-to-scientist collaborative research program with the goals to
increase the productivity and output of LDC research programs, as well as enhance our research
efforts at U.S. institutions. Its success depends to a very large extent on the development of close
collegial relationships between scientists and we plan to continue developing these relationships.
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J.D.Axtell
Professor of Agronomy,
Purdue University, West Lafayette,
IN 47906, USA.