The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has established a “pro-poor biofuels initiative”. The initiative is aimed at ensuring food security, energy, and increased livelihood opportunities for small and marginal farmers in the drylands, while at the same time linking them to the “global biofuels revolution”.

Among ICRISAT’s strategies to achieve the above objectives are “innovative research” projects and the “promotion of public/private sector collaborations” that directly benefit the marginal farmers. Crop research is focused on sweet sorghum, as it is a suitable dryland crop because of its low water requirement and provides the dryland farmers with the basic needs for food (grain), animal fodder (stalks) and energy (burning of stalks). In addition, the sugar extracted from the stalk is a raw material for bioethanol, and can provide additional income when sold to industrial bioethanol processing plants. ICRISAT is active in developing sweet sorghum varieties which (1) have even lower water requirements , (2) are sturdy under stressful cultivation conditions, and (3) have a higher sugar yields in their stalks. It has also linked with industrial collaborators which agree to buy the sugar supplied from the farmers.

ICRISAT is also promoting the cultivation of pongamia and jatropha crops, whose oils can be used for biodiesel production. Collaborations with government and the private sector have been established to rehabilitate degraded lands with jatropha plantations in India. A jatropha nursery has been established in Niamey, Niger, West Africa to grow the best jatropha varieties with “appropriate traits”..