It is a non-profit, non-political public international research organisation that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia & sub-Saharan Africa.
It helps farmers by providing improved crop varieties and hybrids and also helps smallholder farmers in the drylands fight climate change.
It conducts research on five highly nutritious drought-tolerant crops: chickpea, pigeonpea, pearl millet, sorghum, and groundnut.
It has been awarded 2021 Africa Food Prize for the Tropical Legumes Project that has improved food security across 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa