ICAAP (IKP Centre for Advancement in Agriculture Practice) is jointly implemented by IKP Trust and IFMR Trust with registered office at IKP Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shamirpet, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. It has its Corporate office at IFMR Trust, IITM Research Park, Taramani, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. IKP Trust has entered into a strategic agreement with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), one of the CGIAR Center headquartered in Washington DC, for the establishment and development of ICAAP.
The vision of ICAAP is to implement sustainable programs to benefit smallholder farmers to increase farm productivity and income. ICAAP mission is to improve agricultural practices by catalyzing knowledge available worldwide from global research institutions, universities, R&D institutions, academia and channeling such through organizations and agricultural value chain intermediaries that are engaged with smallholder farmers.
To further ICAAP's vision and mission, a knowledge management portal is being developed which serves as the knowledge interface and repository equipped with latest technological and application plug-ins to enhance knowledge backstopping, advisory services, and content management. ICAAP through IFPRI in collaboration with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), has developed an interactive internet-based knowledgemanagementportal:www.advanceagripractice.in Thisportalaimstofacilitateknowledge and experience-sharing among the various stakeholders including men and women farmers, extension agents, agricultural scientists, agro-industries, agri-financing institutions, policy makers, planners and other allied stakeholders in Indian agriculture. The portal is a work in progress, so far the content has exhaustive information base on rice, black gram, green gram, banana, sugarcane, coconut, potato, turmeric, tapioca, mango and animal enterprises including poultry farming, goat farming, cattle farming, rabbit farming and fodder crops. In this effort, the attempt, now is to “market-test” the idea and develop partnerships so that further development is in line with the actual requirements of intended users and the industry. Plans are underway to evolve the portal as a dynamic knowledge platform.
In addition to the platform development, ICAAP will develop collaborative research and agribusiness engagements with key stakeholders including universities and corporate sectors to implement projects that will have direct impact on