̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Indian Department of Science and Technology

Cambridge and Indian partners launch collaboration to transform India’s "Green Revolution”

ag236 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 09:58:15 +0000

̽��ֱ��adoption of modern methods and new technologies in agriculture that propelled India to self-sufficiency in grain production in the second half of the 20th century is known as the country’s “Green Revolution”. It allowed India to overcome poor agricultural productivity, especially in regions like the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, although it relied on overuse of water, fertilisers and pesticides.

Today, climate change, continuing population growth and the rapid process of urbanisation have put added pressure on India’s ability to feed its population. TIGR2ESS – an acronym for “Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies” – is a £7.8 million programme funded by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to develop more resilient, equal and diverse food systems in India. It aims to define the requirements for a second more sustainable Green Revolution, and to deliver this through a suite of research programmes, training workshops and educational activities

̽��ֱ��TIGR2ESS launch event took place in the context of a three-day workshop that brought together all the UK and India partners to discuss and finalise a plan for the programme’s effective implementation.

TIGR²ESS will support 14 postdoctoral researchers employed at partner research institutions and universities across India, as well as eight post-doctoral research associates from collaborating institutions in the UK

̽��ֱ��programme will create 3-year research opportunities for a total of 22 early-career researchers in the UK and India, and also promote academic exchanges at all levels in laboratories across India and the UK.

One of TIGR²ESS’ objectives is to foster mutually beneficial knowledge exchange and collaborative research through workshops in Cambridge and India. In addition, it will deliver a programme of outreach, education and entrepreneurship. In doing so, TIGR²ESS will help strengthen Indian research capacity in key areas of the food system, and will contribute to the development of smart agriculture in India.

At the heart of the TIGR2ESS proposal are a series of Flagship Projects tackling fundamental research questions, and addressing the associated social issues facing farmers in the context of increasing urbanisation and climate change.

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “TIGR²ESS will inform best practice in crop development and growth. It will allow greater genetic understanding of crop resilience to drought and disease. It will contribute to more effective use of scarce water supplies. It will build capacity and foster education.”

“It will empower women and entrepreneurs, and encourage innovation along the food supply chain. It will create opportunities for early-career researchers, and in doing so will contribute to India’s efforts to ensure it is able to meet the needs of its growing population. I am delighted that Cambridge is a part of this extraordinary initiative.”

Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary of India’s Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology, added: “"India is a diverse country, and negotiating this diversity is the key to developing any interventions. ̽��ֱ��TIGR²ESS programme takes into account this diversity, and that will define its success. We need to take a holistic view at the nexus between agriculture, environment, water, climate, energy and health. Assessing the impact of technology applications or interventions in a larger setting is very important."

Presenting TIGR²ESS, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Professor Howard Griffiths, the programme’s principal investigator, said: “This unprecedented programme of joint activities will enable capacity building both in the UK and India, and shape the policy needed to define a second Green Revolution for India.”

“TIGR²ESS will address the challenges identified by our colleagues in India, and translate research outcomes to build agriculture systems that support sustainable livelihoods, enhancing the well-being and health of rural communities with a particular focus on improving the opportunities for equality, female empowerment and youth employment, and market-led entrepreneurial opportunities.”

Daniel Shah, Director, Research Councils UK (RCUK) India, said “TIGR²ESS is a great example of the UK and the Indian research teams partnering to address issues around food security and agriculture systems. This initiative also aligns with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to double farmers’ income by 2020."

Researchers met in New Delhi today to formalise the launch of a programme that aims to jointly address some of India’s most pressing food security challenges.

This unprecedented programme of joint activities will enable capacity building both in the UK and India, and shape the policy needed to define a second Green Revolution for India.

Prof Howard Griffiths

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Keeping the supply chain flowing

lw355 — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:47:22 +0000

A typical supply chain can be a vast, sprawling network of producers, suppliers, ‘super middlemen’, retailers and consumers that connect, for instance, a piece of mined aluminium with a finished car, or a field of wheat with a loaf of bread on the table.

Dr Jag Srai and the team he heads in the Centre for International Manufacturing like nothing better than a complex, multi-faceted supply chain, because within the connections lies a vital source of competitive advantage. Companies that can more optimally ‘configure’ this complex network have the opportunity not only to improve their business but also to do so sustainably in an otherwise resource-hungry and wasteful world.

“Many supply chains today have developed over time, a consequence of often short-term tactical decisions or ill-considered mergers and acquisitions,” he explains. “There may be large distances between component supply and the end product, delays in sharing information along the chain, or an excessive fragmentation of activities.

“Within little more than a generation, the traditional model of a vertically integrated firm, which has most of its component and final product in-house, has become fragmented. Today, for manufacturing a typical consumer electronics product, dozens of firms in as many countries might be involved in its manufacture, with activities dispersed among narrowly focused companies distributed across developed and emerging economies.”

Srai’s team has been mapping these global networks across multiple sectors, developing novel tools for their visualisation and for identifying opportunities to reconfigure them to meet demand more effectively.

Of particular focus has been a comparison of the food and pharmaceutical process industries, and the assembly power houses of aeronautical and automotive industries, in both the UK and India.

“Manufacturing is a top priority in both countries,” explains Professor Sir Mike Gregory, former Head of the Institute for Manufacturing, where the Centre is based. “In the UK, the government has placed manufacturing at the heart of plans for economic recovery. And in India, the government launched the ‘Make in India’ initiative in 2014 with the aim of transforming the country into a major global manufacturing hub and generating millions of new jobs.”

̽��ֱ��project is funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Indian Department of Science and Technology. It began a year ago but follows a previous study in which the team created a set of representations of the UK food supply chain for dairy, fruit and vegetables, and staple foods. It was painstakingly collated from industrial reports, literature reviews and first-hand case studies, as well as interviews with key industrial players.

̽��ֱ��resulting map provides a fascinating insight into the dynamics of networks that many consumers are unaware of – such as the one that links a cow on a dairy farm to a pint of milk on a UK doorstep (a seven-step process, as it turns out).

Crucially, it also identifies how new trends are being driven by an increasing demand from consumers to know where their food is coming from and for cheaper, own-brand labels. “Organisations that are able to align these complex networks with their own strategic aims have an opportunity to set themselves apart from their competitors,” explains Srai.

One of the researchers’ main interests is how maps such as this can be used to foster a more sustainable approach to manufacturing, as Dr Mukesh Kumar explains: “Food security, for instance, is a global challenge as populations continue to grow, yet 30–40% of food in the UK is currently wasted, mostly at the retail and consumer end of the chain.”

Working with their collaborators in India, the team has now generated comparable maps of the Indian food supply chain. ̽��ֱ��comparison could help each to explore the key differences and identify how multinationals from one country looking to do business in the other might need to adapt a supply chain to work best.

“ ̽��ֱ��UK food retail chain is dominated by a few large, organised retailers who control 73% of UK grocery sales, and as a result exert considerable influence over upstream partners in the chain, whereas in India this type of organised retail accounts for only 12% of sales,” Kumar explains.

“But the largest difference is where the wastage happens. In India, most wastage occurs at the early stages of the supply chain, with tonnes of fruit and vegetables perishing due to poor handling and storage facilities and lack of cold chain infrastructure.”

According to estimates by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, each year about 40% of India’s fresh fruit and vegetables rot before reaching consumers’ plates, as does an amount of wheat almost equal to Australia’s total annual production.

“Supply chains that link the UK and India incur waste up- and downstream. ̽��ֱ��figures are quite scary – you sometimes wonder how anything ends up on a plate!” observes Srai.

He highlights how crucial it has been to work closely with Indian researchers, industry and policy makers, helped by funding through the UK India Education and Research Initiative: “We have chosen partners in India who complement our skills. It’s like a supply chain in action! It has seen a continuous stream of collaborations emerging out of this, none of which would have been possible without this project.”

For instance, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar and the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow have been looking at how simulation and modelling of operations could be used to flag up sustainability challenges.

“Our Centre’s research on ‘network mapping’ tools and close links to industry have meant that we have provided methods and industry contacts to our partners, while leveraging their specialist skills in the specific areas that we require. We have also taken the combined output to inform our wider work in the ̽��ֱ��’s Strategic Research Initiative on Global Food Security,” says Srai.

“Technology, supply chains and the way markets and regions develop become interesting change agents. I believe that our research network will be able to anticipate these changes,” he adds. “It’s only by understanding a company’s overall global supply network – a ‘whole system’ approach – that it’s possible to appreciate the opportunities and the benefits that can emerge for doing things better, wherever you are in the world.”

Inset image: Distribution centre (Nick Saltmarsh).

In this age of rapid and escalating change, what can businesses do to flourish? Take a look at their supply chains, say researchers in the Centre for International Manufacturing, based on their research in the UK and India.

Supply chains that link the UK and India incur waste up- and downstream – you sometimes wonder how anything ends up on a plate!

Jag Srai

Neil Palmer (CIAT)

Increasing the efficiency of food supply chains can decrease wastage

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-ShareAlike