%A B V S Reddy %A S Ramesh %A C L L Gowda %V 46 %L icrisat1207 %J International Sorghum and Millets Newsletter %P 6-10 %D 2005 %T Forging research and development partnerships with private sector at ICRISAT-sorghum as a case study %X The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), established in 1972 with its headquarters at Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India, is a non-profit, non-political, international research organization for science-based agricultural development. It belongs to the Alliance of Future Harvest Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). ICRISAT conducts research on its mandate crops – sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut – which support the livelihoods of the poorest of the poor in the Semi-Arid Tropics (SAT). The mission of ICRISAT is to help empower 600 million poor people to overcome hunger, poverty and a degraded environment in the dry tropics through better agriculture. ICRISAT pursues an integrated genetic and natural resource management (IGNRM) strategy to improve the livelihoods of the poor in the semi-arid crop-livestock-tree production systems. The strategic focus in the SAT is to attain impact while maintaining a global level of scientific excellence in agricultural research.