Flagship Projects

The six Flagship Projects

The TIGR2ESS programme is built around six Flagship Projects.

FP1: Sustainable and Transformative Agrarian and Rural Trajectories (START);
FP2 Crop Sciences: Water use and Photosynthesis;
- FP2a: Improving Water Use and Yield Stability in Millet and Sorghum;
- FP2b Crop Sciences: Enhancing Photosynthesis;
FP3: Heat and Drought Resilience in Wheat;
FP4: Water use and Management in a Changing Monsoon Climate;
FP5: Supply Chains: modelling water use for sustainable livelihoods;
FP6 Impacting Wellbeing in Rural and Urban Communities: Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship leading to improved Human Nutrition;
- FP6a Education Food, Nutrition and Empowerment (EFNE);
- FP6b Education, Employment, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship (4E);
- Cross-cutting FP6 projects are the Mobile Teaching Kitchens and the Innovation Farm model.

Capacity strengthening, outreach and engagement

As well as carrying out research activities, all six Flagship Projects are engaged in an extensive programme of training workshops and educational outreach activities in India, including regional rural surveys, gender empowering activities, extension workshops, on-farm demonstrations and mobile teaching kitchens.

Flagship Project 1

The FP1 team is carrying out extensive field-based research to set the policy agenda for the future of India’s food system. This Project will open a new conversation about the future of agriculture in India. What are the societal choices that will inform the second green revolution? What should be the focus of the new agrarian ecosystem? How might different production systems respond to the different needs and interests, of men and women, across generations? What is the relative importance of improving yields and efficiency?

Flagship Project 2

FP2 is split into two parts. FP2a aims to identify traits in sorghum and millet to improve water efficiency without compromising productivity, whilst FP2b is investigating regulatory gene networks that control carbon accumulation, to improve the photosynthetic efficiency of crops. The FP2 team has established the environmental conditions that influence yield variation and uncovered regulatory gene networks controlling carbon accumulation in the model alga Chlamydomonas and their control of key proteins.

Flagship Project 3

Wheat production in northern India generally occurs as part of a two-cycle wheat-rice rotation. This restricts the length of the wheat growing season and can exacerbate the effects of both early and late season heat and drought stress which limits canopy development, grain-filling and ultimately yield. This Flagship Project aims to identify key genetic and physiological controllers of phenology (periodic processes) and to deploy these via molecular breeding. It will also explore agronomic and precision agriculture interventions that maximise optimal environmental conditions.

Flagship Project 4

Water availability, management and use are crucial factors when it comes to maintaining modern populations in the arid and semi-arid environments that dominate much of India. Today, large parts of India are intensively farmed, and the large-scale mono-cropping of water intensive crops like winter (wheat) and summer (rice) crops is causing extreme water depletion. Archaeology has the potential to make an important contribution to identifying possible solutions to these circumstances as it can provide insight into the before, during and after stages of past food security crises.

Flagship Project 5

FP5 is undertaking multi-layer supply chain analyses to assess the impact of supply networks on water use. A key aim is to support the development of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) – to help farmers gain market advantages, access financial support and negotiate lower costs for inputs. This work is already having direct policy impact. The team is also working on technological interventions to improve water management for high-value crops such as kinnow.

Flagship Project 6

Key determinants of populations health and resilience include heredity, environment, diet, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors. Within this framework, education and, empowerment are important components that can define theories of change to improve lives and livelihoods, leading to better nutrition, health and economic outcomes. Our flagship project explores the relationships between these factors through assessing needs and piloting innovative intervention models.

Templates and Guidance

TIGR2ESS members can log in to view and download template application forms and programme-related guidance.