RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

Welcome and Inaugural Address
L . D . Swindale 1
It is my pleasure to welcome y o u a l l to I C R I S A T and to this first session of the International
Pearl M i l l e t W o r k s h o p . This is the d r y and hot season for us here at Hyderabad; the season
between the end of winter and the c o m i n g of rains late in June. A time when we are reminded of
the tropical nature and even sometimes the nearly arid nature of our environments, but when we
also have the hope and promise o f better days ahead once the rains begin to f a l l . Y o u w i l l see
little experimental w o r k in the fields right n o w for obvious reasons, but our pearl millet p r o g r a m
has worked diligently to provide y o u w i t h a series of demonstration plots in order to show y o u
various aspects of o u r w o r k . A l t h o u g h there is little experimental w o r k going on in the field,
there is a great deal g o i n g on in preparing f o r the season. It is indeed a very busy time in
I C R I S A T as it must be in y o u r o w n institutes as well.
I hope y o u w i l l take the opportunities that come to y o u d u r i n g the week to l o o k around
I C R I S A T to familiarize yourself w i t h what we have here, meet your colleagues and talk about
pearl millet and how we may w o r k together on this crop. It is the fifth most important cereal. It is
particularly i m p o r t a n t in A f r i c a , and again most particularly in West A f r i c a . These rather d r y
statements of fact do not indicate its true importance, its critical nature, w h i c h is due to the fact
that it is really the last i m p o r t a n t cereal crop in arable farming. Beyond pearl millet we move
f r o m arable farming into pasture activities and even less intensive forms of agriculture. F o r the
millet is the staple cereal, there is no serious alternative. W h e n the millet fails, nothing else can
be substituted, and that is w h y it is such a critical crop and w h y it is so important that a great deal
of research time should be given to i t . It deserves attention there beyond what the statistics of
millet in the w o r l d or even in the developing w o r l d might indicate.
Furthermore as y o u k n o w , I ' m t a l k i n g largely about the subsistence economy; of people w h o
provide most of their o w n foods. They use t r a d i t i o n a l types of varieties and change is relatively
slow b o t h in the varieties they use and the products they make f r o m them. We are aware of the
importance of producing new and better cultivars w h i c h fit into the traditional way of d o i n g
things and w h i c h can be converted into the traditional food products that are made f r o m pearl
millet. M i l l e t has played a greater role or place in the w o r l d of cereals, for many r u r a l people in
the past in eastern and southern A f r i c a , but it has declined in importance over the last 30-50
years because of a preference for maize. The decline has been compounded by increased
research on maize leading to greater productivity of the crop and by the incentives given to
maize p r o d u c t i o n t h r o u g h government policies. Maize has been g r o w n , as a result, in d r y
conditions to w h i c h it is not adapted and it has failed too often in these conditions. Governments
have come to realize this as well as the people themselves. So it is now necessary to re-establish
the importance of sorghum and millet in these drier areas and to do so we must make the
p r o d u c t i o n of these crops attractive enough so that they can compete w i t h maize, not only in the
worst and most severe droughts but in at least a majority of years. Here is w o r k for the scientists
in millet. B u t in the l o n g r u n , even in A f r i c a , maize is not the problem at all. The p r o b l e m is
wheat, or more correctly, bread. Politicians are going to give the people bread. They have been
saying this f o r a long, l o n g time, and they mean i t . Technocrats may decry this trend, particul
a r l y in t r o p i c a l areas where wheat cannot be g r o w n satisfactorily, but I can assure y o u that the
protestations w i l l be to little avail. They may slow the process d o w n but they w i l l not stop i t . The
people o f the cities want bread, and elected officials w i l l ensure that they get i t . They are already
exposed to bread and they w i l l ask f o r i t , they w i l l insist u p o n i t , and they w i l l get i t . In many
1. D i r e c t o r General, I n t e r n a t i o n a l Crops Research Institute f o r the S e m i - A r i d Tropics ( I C R I S A T ) ,
Patancheru, A . P . 502 324, I n d i a .
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