Australian minister visits ICRISAT headquarters

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PATANCHERU (Hyderabad), Sept 13: The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, visited the global headquarters of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) at Patancheru, near Hyderabad recently, says a press release.
Mr Stephen Smith was accompanied by Ms Victoria Walker, Counsellor of the Political and Economic section of the Australian High Commission in New Delhi, Dr Christian Roth, Program Officer, ACIAR and Dr Kuhu Chatterjee, ACIAR, who saw the progress made in the collaborative research projects between ICRISAT and Australian organizations. They were also informed about the genotyping services that ICRISAT provides in collaboration with the Diversity Array Technology Pvt. Ltd. of Canberra, and visited the integrated watershed management and crop demonstration plots on campus.
ICRISAT Deputy Director General (Research), Dr David Hoisington, welcomed the Minister on behalf of Director General, Dr William Dar, and stated that ICRISAT's relationship with Australia has been strong and steady since 1975. Some of the projects in collaboration with Australian agricultural research organizations are :
Re-starting groundnut cultivation in Timor Leste, where ICRISAT is an active partner in the "Seeds of Life" project, initiated by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), to re-construct agriculture in Timor Leste (East Timor).