Farming systems research: 1975 program and 1974 highlights

The International Crops Research 1 Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is being established on a 1394 hectare site provided by the Government of India. This site is located 26-km west of Hyderabad on the Hyderabad-Bombay national highway. The average rainfall at Hyderabad and Sangareddy is 764-mm and 836-mm, respectively. Since ICRISAT is about half way between these two locations we can assume the average rainfall at ICRISAT to be about 800-mm. Eighty-six percent of the total occurs during June through October. The average rainfall in June, July, August, September and October is 115.5, 171.5, 156.0, 181.0 and 67.0 mm, respectively. The period from October through May is very dry.The western half of the site has black clay soil and the eastern half has red sandy loam soil (see Fig. 1). These soils are typical of much of the semi-arid tropics on which sorghum, millets, pigeonpea, groundnuts and chickpea are grown.This is an informal report for the benefit of visitors, trainees and colleagues and not a formal publication of the Institute. We acknowledge with thanks the excellent support of the Farming Systems Research Program by Messrs. E.W. Nunn, D.S. Bisht, B.K. Sharma and D.N. Sharma of the Division of Farm Development $ Operation.