ICRISAT Secures CRISPR-Cas9 Licence to Fast-Track Climate-Resilient Crops for Smallholder Farmers

ICRISAT has obtained a long-term humanitarian licence granting it access to CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology through an agreement with agriscience major Corteva and The Broad Institute, one of the world's leading genomics research bodies. The licence is explicitly humanitarian in character, meaning it is structured to serve smallholder farmers in developing countries rather than commercial seed markets.

Critically, the agreement covers the complete innovation pipeline — from upstream research and product development through to the deployment of finished gene-edited crop varieties. ICRISAT's six mandate crops are all included: sorghum, pearl millet and other millets, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut. These are the backbone crops of rainfed agriculture across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, regions where climate variability is already severe and worsening.

Conventional plant breeding relies on crossing varieties and selecting over multiple generations — a process that can stretch across many years before a commercially viable, farmer-ready variety emerges. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing sidesteps much of this timeline by enabling scientists to make precise, targeted modifications to a plant's own DNA, without introducing genetic material from unrelated species.

For crops like chickpea and pigeonpea — already under pressure from erratic monsoons and rising temperatures — this precision matters enormously. ICRISAT says the technology will be used to develop traits including:

• Drought and heat tolerance
• Resistance to pests and diseases
• Improved nutritional quality
• Other farmer-preferred agronomic traits

The institute added that these gains are expected to support higher agricultural output without requiring an expansion of cultivated land — a key consideration given land and water constraints across Asia and Africa.

ICRISAT Director General Dr Himanshu Pathak framed the agreement as a transformative humanitarian milestone, arguing that it could fundamentally strengthen food security and rural livelihoods across Asia and Africa. He pointed specifically to the combination of Corteva's gene-editing expertise with ICRISAT's breeding programmes and its established networks with national agricultural research systems as the engine that would drive practical crop innovations to the field.

From the industry side, Dr Wendy Srnic, Vice President, Biotechnology at Corteva, said the company was proud to extend access to gene-editing technology to smallholder farmers. She emphasised the focus on crops that can better withstand extreme weather events, pests and diseases — and on helping farming communities build resilience within the broader global food system.

ICRISAT noted that the agreement builds directly on its existing institutional strengths in genomics, phenomics, seed systems and partnerships with national research bodies, accelerating the path from scientific discovery to farmer-ready varieties.

The timing of this agreement is significant. Climate change is intensifying pressure on rainfed agriculture across South Asia, where smallholder farmers growing millets, pulses and groundnut operate with limited irrigation, minimal input buffers and high exposure to weather shocks.

India is a major producer and consumer of all six crops covered by the ICRISAT licence. Millets in particular have regained policy attention following the International Year of Millets in 2023, with the Indian government pushing for higher productivity and nutritional awareness. Faster development of improved, climate-resilient millet and pulse varieties — of the kind this licence could enable — aligns directly with national food security and agricultural sustainability priorities.

ICRISAT's collaboration with national agricultural research systems also means that gene-edited varieties developed under this agreement could flow into India's public seed pipeline, subject to regulatory clearance under the country's evolving genome-editing framework.