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The three-day Global Dryland Congress 2026, themed 'Transforming Dryland Agriculture with South-South Cooperation', is being held at the National Agricultural Science Complex, New Delhi, from 10-12 September 2026.
It is organised jointly by ICAR and ICRISAT and doubles as a celebration of 50 years of the ICAR-ICRISAT partnership.
Over 800 scientists, policymakers, farmer representatives and development partners from Asia, Africa and the Americas will deliberate on six themes.
The final day commemorates the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation, with sessions on South-South and Triangular Cooperation convened jointly with CGIAR.
Proceedings culminate in the adoption of the Delhi Declaration on Dryland (3D), plus new partnerships, MoUs and awards in dryland science.
CGIAR research centre for the semi-arid tropics; works on dryland crops such as sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut. Set up under a Memorandum of Agreement between the Government of India and CGIAR on 28 March 1972.
Apex body coordinating agricultural research and education in India, covering crops, horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences. Registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 on 16 July 1929, following the Royal Commission on Agriculture; then called the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research. Functions as an autonomous body under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
Global partnership on food-security research, founded in 1971; currently a network of 15 research centres, of which ICRISAT is one. Co-convening the South-South and Triangular Cooperation sessions at the Congress.
Drylands are regions where water lost to evaporation and transpiration far exceeds rainfall, making semi-arid farming vulnerable to erratic monsoons, land degradation and water scarcity. South-South Cooperation is the exchange of technology, finance and expertise between developing countries; Triangular Cooperation adds a developed-country or multilateral funder.
Simple Analogy: Neighbours with the same problem swapping solutions, rather than importing them from far away.
Observed on 12 September, the Congress's final day. It marks the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (BAPA) by 138 UN member states in 1978. The observance was first proclaimed by the UN General Assembly through resolution 58/220 of 19 December 2003, and moved to 12 September in 2011.
The global treaty on land degradation that underpins dryland policy. Adopted in Paris on 17 June 1994, in force since December 1996, with 197 Parties and a secretariat at Bonn, Germany. It is one of the three Rio Conventions alongside the UNFCCC and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
India hosted UNCCD COP14 at Greater Noida in September 2019, which adopted the Delhi Declaration committing parties to make land degradation neutrality by 2030 a national target; India raised its own restoration pledge to 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. The 2026 Congress's 'Delhi Declaration on Dryland (3D)' is a separate outcome document from a scientific congress, not a UNCCD instrument.
The department of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare through which ICAR is funded and administered; the DARE Secretary is ex-officio Director General of ICAR.
GS Paper 3 > Agriculture > Agricultural Research; GS Paper 2 > International Groupings
General Awareness > International Organisations and Current Events
Tropical regions with low, highly variable rainfall and a long dry season; ICRISAT's mandate region.
Exchange of expertise and resources among developing countries, with a third developed-country or multilateral partner in the triangular form.
A state where healthy, productive land resources remain stable or increase; SDG target 15.3, to be met by 2030.