Last December, the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) invited representatives from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) to discuss about the current provisional collaboration and to exchange views on future directions (See previous news).

Based upon this, JIRCAS and ICAR concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), dated 9th February 2018, for comprehensive research collaboration. JIRCAS has accordingly commenced the collaboration on soil salinity mitigation and crop improvement for salinity tolerance with CSSRI and IARI, which are both under ICAR, respectively.