GFAR¿s vision for a multipurpose agriculture that contributes significantly to alleviating
poverty, increasing food security and attaining the sustainable utilization of natural
resources requires the establishment of efficient and effective collaborative efforts
amongst several stakeholder groups. The level of success in achieving this goal will
depend to a large extent on the strength and quality of the partnerships among different
institutions and organisations that need to be created to tackle the many challenges

A now commonly used mechanism for funding agricultural research is the Competitive Grants
Scheme (CGS). This tool, which has become increasingly popular since the early 1990s, has been
used to develop, ensure and sustain scientific capacity and to allocate resources to the most
important scientific (and development) issues. While a number of such CGS have emerged over
the years, the long gestation nature of agricultural and related research makes it difficult to draw