CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services, today announced the approval of a new, targeted research portfolio to boost poor farmer incomes, food availability and resilience in the face of climate change in developing countries.
“Food demand is set to rise by at least 20 percent globally over the next 15 years, with the steepest increases in Africa, South Asia and East Asia,” said Juergen Voegele, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Agriculture Global Practice and Chair of the CGIAR System Council. “CGIAR and its network of 15 research centers is ideally positioned to deliver the suite of new agricultural technologies that are climate-smart, nutrition-sensitive and pro-poor.”
Upon the recommendation of the System Management Board, the CGIAR System Council carefully reviewed and approved a strong set of 11 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and three research Platforms to start in January 2017, with funding allocations to be determined in November 2016. CGIAR’s Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) assessed the research proposals for relevance and pro-poor impacts in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
To achieve durable impacts, CGIAR depends on national partnerships and critical support from CGIAR Funders and other contributors. The World Bank, which helped found CGIAR in 1971, will remain a strong partner. According to Voegele:“The World Bank is committed to its continued engagement with CGIAR, which is essential for improving the sustainability of global food systems, achieving improved nutritional outcomes, addressing climate change and meeting targets of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.”
Research outputs from CGIAR Research Centers continue to be the chief source of new technologies for poor farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. A recent study found that CGIAR-derived wheat varieties – nearly all traceable to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and its sister-center,International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
– cover more than 100 million of the 220 million hectares planted to the crop worldwide, bringing as much as $3.1 billion each year in economic benefits.
“It is an enormous pleasure to be working closely with the Chair of the CGIAR System Council, Dr Juergen Voegele, in the new CGIAR System,” said Martin Kropff, Interim Chair of the System Management Board and Director General of CIMMYT, a CGIAR Research Center. “As Senior Director, Agriculture Global Practice, at the World Bank, Juergen leverages the World Bank’s convening power and important core financial resources, and will help to ensure that CGIAR remains closely tied to the global architecture for achieving the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.”
The approval of the CGIAR Portfolio coincided with celebrations and conferences to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of CIMMYT, whose high-yielding wheat varieties and cropping practices sparked the Green Revolution that saved boosted food availability and farmer incomes in the second half of the 20th century. Conference participants include CGIAR Funders, partners, research directors, ministers of agriculture from partner countries and hundreds of distinguished scientists and policymakers.
For more information, visit the CIMMYT website.
This news item is part of a Partner Spotlight on CIMMYT (3-7 October) on the occasion of CIMMYT's 50th Anniversary.
Each week, the GFAR Secretariat is turning the spotlight on the work and collective actions of Partners in GFAR who share in our mission to strengthen and transform agri-food research and innovation systems globally. For more information on the Partners in GFAR, and to become a Partner, click here!
Photo Credit: CIMMYT / Peter Lowe