The impact assessment analysis in Chapter 7 will refer to these two waves of short duration improved chickpea releases in India as research products or outputs when it demonstrates the impact pathway which tracks the outputs, outcomes and impacts of short duration chickpeas in Andhra Pradesh.
3.4 Research costs
The research cost of short duration chickpea research at ICRISAT and its partner institutions in NARS were estimated from annual budgets and scientists years (PY) allocated to chickpea short duration research. Historical budget records disaggregated by research program for research conducted at ICRISAT are not available and research investments particularly for chickpea are difficult to reconstruct during the earlier years. Personal communication with ICRISAT Finance Director indicated that as per standard accounting practices, detailed information on programmatic budgets is maintained only for 8 years. Thus, for the purpose of this study, expenditure for short duration chickpea research was estimated with guidance from scientists who were part of ICRISAT’s chickpea crop improvement research team during those years, and administrative officers who had some historical recollection of annual budgets. The breakdown of research costs was made on the basis of person years of scientists and staff of the chickpea research team, standard annual salaries, and the proportion of each scientist’s time on development of short duration chickpeas. Operating costs were estimated from estimated total operating costs for the Grain Legumes Program, which focused on three major research activities during that period. Similar imputations were also made for the NARS counterpart funds.
Two budget scenarios (low and high) are discussed. The range of budget allocations reflects the variation in estimates made by different staff members. The lower budget scenario is also a way to simulate the effect of marginal budget reductions on the net benefits flowing from the research. The steps described in the summary description of research process guided the elicitation of the research cost template.
It should be noted that even before the short duration chickpea research started, essential milestones have already been achieved at ICRISAT on which the above research built on.
These include:
First systematic international effort to gather chickpea genetic resources of the world was made when ICRISAT was established where the regional and national programmes assembled a large number of chickpea lines (1972);
ICRISAT established research collaboration with ICARDA for chickpea crop improvement (1977);
The International Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) designated ICRISAT as the major repository for chickpea germplasm (1978)
37
Genetic Resources Unit was established and ICRISAT is in collaboration with national scientists in India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Greece, Burma, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Bangladesh have added several accessions to gene bank (1979)
Past research investments involving the above establishments provided the foundation for chickpea crop improvement at ICRISAT. Nevertheless, these are considered as sunk cost with respect to the chickpea short duration chickpea research.
Research and development cost: research start to releases
Research and development costs in the development of short duration chickpeas were attributed to the investments by both ICRISAT and NARS partners involved in the developmental process since 1978. The careful calculations of staff-wise research costs including operating and overheads expenditure for ICRISAT was summarized in detailed in Table 3.9 from 1980-2013. Similarly, NARS partners from four research locations actively participated in the research process (Jabalpur, Nandhyal, Dharwad and Rahuri) towards the development of short-duration cultivars. The corresponding cost estimates across four locations were presented with detailed break-up in Table 3.10 between 1980 and 2013. The total costs involved for development of short-duration cultivars from all the stakeholders (ICRISAT and NARS) including research and dissemination costs are furnished in Table 3.11 over the years. The costs incurred at different time periods were adjusted using appropriate deflator and converted them in to real prices. Overall, the total estimated costs for developing this technology was 8.5 million US dollars. Around 6.8 m US $ (80 per cent) alone incurred by ICRISAT while the NARS partners shared the remaining 20% research costs.
Table 3.9 Basis for ICRISAT’s annual research costs (US$)
Staff member % time allocated
for short-duration 1 Principal scientist (Breeding)
4 National scientists (Breeding) 1 National scientist (Pathology) 6 Research Associates
Grand Total 56278 127027 232755 338442
Source: ICRISAT Chickpea crop improvement program scientists, personal communication
Table 3.10 Basis for NARS annual research costs (Rs.)
Staff member % time allocated
for short-duration
Total per NARS location 22,000 61,000 1,32,000 3,88,000
Grand Total* 88,000 2,44,000 5,28,000 15,52,000
* Mainly four NARS research locations were involved in the development process Source: NARS scientists, personal communication
39 Table 3.11 Summary of total research expenditure for development of chickpea short-duration improved cultivars (US $)
Year Research activity
Research costs Extension
costs
Total costs
ICRISAT NARS Nominal Deflator Deflator Real
US $ Rs Exchange
rate
US $ US $ US $ base=2005 base=2013 US $
1978
Development-Breeding and accessions evaluation for short-duration and Fusarium wilt resistance; sown at wilt sickplots at Patancheru; further purification
Development continues towards identificaiton of next batch of releases JG 11 and KAK 2
Evaluation of lines at ICRISAT Research station; ICCV-10 released in Andhra Pradesh
127027 244,000 18 13,601 - 140,628 96.60 0.81 174,689
1991 127027 244,000 24 9,971 - 136,998 96.30 0.80 170,722
1992 127027 244,000 31 7,961 - 134,988 97.80 0.81 165,637
1993 ICCV-2 released in Andhra Pradesh; Resistant lines identified and
made avaiable to NARS partners for their breeding program 127027 244,000 31 7,781 5,000 139,808 98.34 0.82 170,597 1994
Station trials at NARS locations and seed multiplication 127027 244,000 31 7,771 5,000 139,798 98.58 0.82 170,181
1995 127027 244,000 33 7,294 5,000 139,321 107.75 0.90 155,167
1996
AICRP multi-locational trials conducted at All-India
127027 244,000 36 6,873 5,000 138,900 104.41 0.87 159,643
1997 127027 244,000 37 6,566 5,000 138,593 97.89 0.82 169,897
1998 127027 244,000 42 5,800 5,000 137,827 93.08 0.78 177,684
1999 JG11 and KAK2 released 127027 244,000 43 5,631 5,000 137,658 91.06 0.76 181,413
2000 Seed multiplication and extension 232755 528000 46 11,559 10,000 254,314 89.33 0.74 341,621
2001 ICCC-37 released 232755 528000 48 11,072 10,000 253,827 84.83 0.71 359,055
2007 Seed multiplication and extension; Tropical Legumes-II project
supported FPVS and seed multplication 232755 528000 40 13,121 150,000 395,876 108.58 0.90 437,501
2008
TL-II project seed multiplication and distribution in Andhra Pradesh
232755 528000 46 11,501 150,000 394,256 117.09 0.98 404,046
4 Impact Assessment – Methodology and Data Requirements
This section describes the methodology used for welfare estimate calculations and its various sensitivity scenarios. The minimum data requirements for quantifying the impact of any technology also highlighted and discussed in detailed.