Feed the Future Innovation Lab
for Collaborative Research on
Sustainable Intensification
P.V. Vara Prasad
Director, Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab
The Feed the Future (FtF) Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) is a
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded program
that supports research, knowledge sharing, and capacity building programs aimed
at sustainably transforming farming systems of smallholder farmers.
Sustainable intensification (SI) is defined as a process or system where
agricultural yields are increased with minimal adverse environmental impact and
without the conversion of additional non-agricultural land. The combination of the
terms “sustainable” and “intensification” indicates that desirable outcomes around
both more food and improved environmental goods and services can be achieved
by a variety of means.
The vision of SIIL is to become the global leader in interdisciplinary
research, knowledge sharing, and capacity building on SI producing measurable
impacts on reducing global hunger and poverty, and improving the nutrition of
smallholder farmers. Our objectives are to develop research and capacity-building
portfolios in collaboration with US universities, international and national
organizations to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and income that
provides food and nutritional security to smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia
while maintaining a strong focus on integrated farming systems research.
The SIIL will be supported by Geospatial and Farming Systems Research
Consortium and the Appropriate Scale Mechanization Consortium. The primary
focus countries are Senegal, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and
Cambodia. Potential forthcoming funding opportunities for competitive research
awards and collaboration will be presented and discussed.
Short Biography
P.V. Vara Prasad
P.V. Vara Prasad is the Director of Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab and
a Professor of Crop Ecophysiology in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas
State University. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Andhra Pradesh
Agricultural University in India, and Ph.D. from University of Reading in United
Kingdom. His research focuses on understanding responses of crops to changing
environments and developing crop, water and soil management strategies for
efficient use of inputs and improve crop yields. He is passionate about research and
education. He is internationally recognized for his research on environmental stress
physiology. He has published >120 peer-reviewed journal articles and book
chapters. He served as major professor for 12 graduate students and trained 34
international research scholars. He secured >$40 million to support his research
activities over the last 10 years. He is committed to innovative and collaborative
international research that improves livelihoods and provides food security to
smallholder farmers. He has active research and capacity building programs in
several countries in Asia and Africa. He provides editorial services to several
international journals and serves in the editorial board of four international
journals. He has received several noteworthy awards including International
Educator of the Year at Kansas State University and Fellow of American Society
of Agronomy.