FOSRIN: Food security through ricebean research in India and Nepal

Contents

• Project partners
• Ricebean links
• Other Vigna and Phaseolus networks
• New and underutilised crops
• Grain legumes in general
• Hill agriculture

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Project partners

• CAZS Natural Resources, University of Wales Bangor, UK (CAZS-NR)
• Dept of Agricultural Economics, Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany (CAU)
• Dept of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway (UB)
• Crop Research Component, Gramin Vikas Trust, Dahod, Gujarat, India (GVT)
• Ch. Sarwan Kumar Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India (CSK HPKV )
• Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India (AAU)
• Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Kathmandu, Nepal (NARC)
• Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development, Kaski, Nepal (LI-BIRD)

Sub-contractor

• Dept. of Chemistry, University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway (UMB)

Ricebean (Vigna umbellata) links

• International agroforestry resources from Cornell: useful information on ricebean from Dr Erick Fernandes

Other organisations and networks working on beans (Vigna and Phaseolus)

• CIAT Bean improvement page. Aiming to iIncrease bean productivity through improved cultivars and natural resource management practices in partnership with national programs and regional networks.
• Bean / cowpea collaborative research support program. A US-based research and training program that supports international research partnerships to increase the availability of beans and cowpeas
• Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA). A consortium of African-owned regional bean networks, consisting of National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, CIAT and a number of donor organisations.
• Eastern and Central Africa Bean Research Network (ECABREN). Focuses on market driven research to satisfy increasing end user’s demand in marketable bean varieties.
• Southern Africa Bean Research Network ( SABRN). An African-owned regional bean network, consisting of National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in 10 countries in Southern Africa.
• Bean genes database. A plant genome data base which contains information relevant to Phaseolus and Vigna species
• Phaseolus and Vigna genome mapping from UC Davis
• BeanRef is a collection of external links and references from literature to different aspects of research on beans (Phaseolus and Vigna).
• ECPGR Vigna database. The European Vigna Database was established on the initiative of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR) - Grain Legumes Working Group, maintained by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) in Linz, Austria. The database contains passport data representing the Vigna collections maintained in European genebanks.
• Tropical crops research unit, University of Nottingham, UK. Has particular focus on Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc)
• BAMNET– international Bambara groundnut information system

Other organisations working on underutilised crop species

• Crops for the FutureThe new global body resulting from the merger of the GFU and the ICUC
• International Center for Underutilised Crops (ICUC) A global research, development and training organisation, providing expertise and acts as a knowledge hub for tropical, sub-tropical and temperate plant development. A partner organisation to the CGIAR.
• Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilised Species (GFU) A unit under GFAR created to ease and increase information and knowledge exchange in the field of underutilized and neglected species.
• Asian Centre for Underutilized Crops (ACUC)
• Australian New Crops Although focused entirely on Australia, this contains useful links to newsletters and descriptions of a number of new crops. Does not appear to have been updated since 2004.
• Biodiversity International - neglected and underutilised species. Formerly IPGRI, this section of the website concentrates on underutilised species.
• Centre for Underutilised Crops, University of Southampton, UK. CUC systematically scrutinises, evaluates and identifies priority plants for R&D, and creates a database from which information can be made more widely known.  
• The New Crops Resource online programe at Purdue A long-established site with a wealth of information about new and underutilised crops. Includes a discussion group you can subscribe to
• Agrofolio Another FP6 project focussed on neglected and underutilised species, with particular focus on SE Asia. Partners include Vietnam, China, Thailand and Cambodia.

Grain legumes in general

• The Grain Legumes Integrated Project. A large, multinational, IP funded under FP6 striving to develop new strategies to enhance the use of grain legumes crops in food for human consumption and animal feed in Europe and beyond.
• The Grain Legumes Portal. Links to a number of resources devoted to grain legumes. Has a free newsletter, and you can also pay for membership of the network.
• IITA - International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Cereal and legume systems page. IITA carry out a lot of work on cereals and legumes systems, based in Ibadan, Nigeria
• ICRISAT - International Center for Crops Research in the Semiarid Tropics. ICRISAT include work on chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut in their mandate.
• ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas. ICARDA have the mandate for chickpea and legume breeding within the CG system
• Bioversity International's legume page

Hill agriculture

• Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan (VPKAS), Almora, Uttaranchal, India, is a premier institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, engaged in hill agricultural research for North-Western Himalayan region of India
• The international centre for integrated mountain development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, that carries out research and other activities on the practical problems of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region to promote the development of an economically and environmentally sound mountain ecosystem and improve the living standards of the people of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas.