The longitudinal Village Level Studies of ICRISAT have for over three decades provided profound insights into the social and economic changes in the village and household economies in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. The Village Dynamics Studies in South Asia, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), has given an impetus to ICRISATs efforts to break the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty through better-informed decisions that will improve the plight of small farmers in the semi-arid and humid tropics. By providing insights and development pathways to identify and understand socio-economic, agro-biological, policy and institutional constraints to agricultural development through improved time series meso and micro data, it will enable decision making based on evidence on impacts on the poor. >>