The Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC) delegation, led by Director General Dr. Gete Zeleke, undertook a knowledge-exchange and learning visit to ICRISAT, India (New Delhi–Jhansi–Hyderabad), from 24–28 August 2026. The visit provided an opportunity to learn from ICRISAT’s experience in applying an integrated landscape management approach to research and development, while exploring new avenues for practical collaboration.
The journey began in New Delhi with a welcome and preparatory meeting, setting the stage for the field learning and exchanges. From there, the team travelled to Jhansi in central India, where the landscape itself became the classroom.
The field visit offered not only a valuable opportunity for experience sharing, but also a memorable encounter with the warm hospitality and welcoming spirit of the local communities. Despite the rainy weather, the determination and enthusiasm of community members and local partners to engage with the visiting team stood out throughout the visit. Their openness, commitment, and willingness to share their experiences added an important human dimension to the technical learning from the landscape.
At the heart of what the team observed was ICRISAT’s end-to-end innovative landscape management approach, supported by Land Resource Inventory (LRI) as an important basis for understanding landscape resources, their potential and constraints, and guiding appropriate interventions. The approach looks beyond individual interventions and connects the different parts of the development process under the philosophy “from seed to market.” Water, land, agriculture, livelihoods and markets are considered as parts of one interconnected system.
Particularly visible is the way watershed management, surface water storage, groundwater recharge, soil saturation, and agricultural production are interconnected. Storage ponds are not viewed simply as physical structures; they are monitored and planned as part of a wider effort to improve water availability and respond to changing demand. Hydrological monitoring and data-driven approaches provide an important foundation for understanding water availability and informing decisions on where, when, and how water can be stored and used.
The same principle extends to agricultural production. Water availability is connected with integrated agroforestry systems, livestock and efficient crop production. Field-level soil-moisture monitoring helps inform decisions on water use and crop management, demonstrating how research and data can be translated into practical solutions on the ground.
Beyond the technical interventions, the landscape approach also recognizes that sustainable development is ultimately about people. The strong participation of communities during the field visit reinforced this connection: the effectiveness of landscape interventions depends not only on infrastructure and technology, but also on local ownership, commitment and collective action.
The experience also provided an opportunity to reflect on what makes such approaches work. Dr. Ramesh Singh, Global Research Program Director – Resilient Farming Systems at ICRISAT, highlighted competency in generating empirical evidence, dedication to addressing challenges, and transparency with communities and responsible government bodies as key principles of effective leadership and important contributors to success.
The visit also provided a fitting opportunity to acknowledge the capacity, professionalism, and commitment of ICRISAT staff working across these initiatives. Their dedication, together with the enthusiasm and engagement of local communities, was clearly evident throughout the field visits.
The exchange continued with visits to ICRISAT offices, training facilities, and research fields, providing further opportunities for learning and institutional knowledge sharing. The next stage took the WLRC team to Hyderabad, ICRISAT’s headquarters, where the team visited key facilities and project sites and further explored ICRISAT’s research and development experience.
Alongside the field learning, the exchange created space for the two organizations to look ahead. Through joint reflection and discussions on potential areas of collaboration, WLRC and ICRISAT have reached a shared understanding on the need for a practical and results-focused MoU/MoA, one that translates common interests into concrete activities in research, innovation, knowledge exchange and capacity development.
As the exchange continues from New Delhi to Jhansi and onward to Hyderabad, it was becoming more than a visit to project sites. It gave an opportunity to connect research with practice, water with livelihoods, data with decisions, and institutional strengths with shared action, laying a strong foundation for deeper WLRC-ICRISAT collaboration on integrated landscape management, sustainable water and land to improve livelihoods.