The Centre of Excellence for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture (ISSCA) serves as a strategic hub for advancing agricultural development through collaboration, innovation, and technology exchange across the Global South.
Hosted by ICRISAT, with over 50 years of scientific leadership in dryland agriculture and a strong presence across Asia and Africa, the Centre enables a more structured, strategic, and high-impact model of South-South cooperation.
As the nodal agency, ICRISAT via ISSCA facilitates the systematic transfer of agricultural technologies and scalable solutions that address food security, climate resilience, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental health in diverse agroecological contexts.
We foster a vibrant ecosystem of collaboration among governments, research institutions, and development agencies in the Global South. The Centre enables policy dialogue, joint research, and technology matchmaking, anchored in India’s leadership in South-South agricultural cooperation.
We identify and transfer proven, context-specific innovations—from seed technologies to digital tools—developed by ICRISAT, CGIAR centers, NARS partners, the private sector, and other R&D leaders. Our initial focus is on translating India’s successes to Africa, ASEAN, MENA, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Through in-country and regional workshops, immersive training programs, field demonstrations, and executive exchanges, the Center equips policymakers, researchers, agri-entrepreneurs, and extension professionals to scale agricultural innovations in their own regions.
All activities are guided by a robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) framework, aligned with One CGIAR’s five global impact areas: nutrition, poverty, gender equality, climate, and environment. We aim for measurable, sustained change at scale.
Whether it's improving soil health in the Sahel, scaling digital advisory tools in Southeast Asia, or promoting biofortified crops in Latin America, the ISSCA is catalyzing agricultural transformation through South-South solidarity.
We invite partners to join us in co-creating and scaling solutions that matter—solutions rooted in science, shaped by local realities, and designed to leave no one behind.
