Despite the impressive gains in food production, food security, and reduction in rural poverty in South Asia in recent times, problems such as degradation of natural resources, water scarcity, and low productivity persist in the region. The threat of marginalization of agriculture and livelihoods of the poor looms large in South and West Asia, where agriculture is the dominant economic activity. The emerging global challenges, paucity of resources, and the need for greater and quicker impacts now compels organizations to prioritize research. This workshop was organized as part of APAARI, ICRISAT, and ICAR's ongoing effort to establish a demand-driven research agenda based on a participatory approach. The objective was to identify research priorities based on gap analysis by national programs. Representatives of five South and West Asian countries (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Iran), CGIAR institutes, donors, NGOs, farmer associations, agricultural universities, and the private sector presented their research needs and emerging challenges, on the basis of identified critical gaps and alternative approaches for addressing these. This book is a compilation of the country papers presented, and spells out specific priorities at macro-, meso-, and micro-levels under the broad themes of genetic improvement, natural resources management, and socioeconomic and policy research. This proceedings consists of the following papers presented at the workshop: welcome remarks (Dar, W.D.); introduction (Bantilan, MC.S.); research prioritization initiatives by APAARI - genesis for the present exercise (Paroda, R.S.); research need assessment and prioritization of agricultural research for development: India (Mruthyunjaya; Pandey , L.M.; Jha, A.K.); research need assessment and prioritization of agricultural research for development: Sri Lanka (Gunasena, H.P.M.); research need assessment and prioritization of agricultural research for development: Bangladesh (Hossain, M.I.; Bantilan, M.C.S.; Rahman, M.M.; Razzaque, M.A.); gap analysis and agricultural research priorities in Nepal (Maskey, S.L. ; Manandhar, HK.; Gauchan, D.); research need assessment and prioritization of agricultural research for development: the Islamic Republic of Iran (Mohsenin, M.); synthesis (Bantilan, M.C.S.; Mruthyunjaya).