The work of an international agricultural research institute becomes meaningful only when the results can be effectively conveyed to their ultimate user — the farmer — through the scientists and extension agencies of the many nations served by that institute. It seemed appropriate to us that a symposium inaugurating the new facilities of ICRISAT Center  should focus on the development and transfer of technology for rainfed agriculture — a vital but hitherto largely neglected area of agricultural production that ICRISAT has a mandate to improve