This non-profit organisation aims to develop sustainable ecological farming in Africa and India. ICRISAT's mission is "to help empower 600 million poor people to overcome hunger, poverty and a degraded environment in the dry tropics through better agriculture".

ICRISAT's BioPower initiative aims to ensure that bioenergy research benefits the poor. Its activities include analysing bioenergy trends and understanding their repercussions for the poor, and enabling governments to formulate pro-bioenergy policies that benefit poor people.

The centre - which is based at the University of East Anglia and comprises nine UK research institutions - brings together scientists, economists, engineers and social scientists, who together are working to develop sustainable responses to climate change through interdisciplinary research and dialogue on both a national and international level.