Formation | 1971 |
---|---|
Type | Partnership of funders and international agricultural research centers; Intergovernmental Organization |
Purpose | To reduce poverty and hunger, improve human health and nutrition, and enhance ecosystem resilience through high-quality international agricultural research, partnership and leadership. |
Location |
|
Key people | Juergen Voegele, Chair CGIAR System Council; Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Chair CGIAR System Board |
Website | cgiar |
Formerly called | Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research |
CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security. [1] CGIAR research aims to reduce rural poverty, increase food security, improve human health and nutrition, and sustainable management of natural resources. [2] [3]
CGIAR research is carried out at 15 centers that collaborate with partners from national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations, and the private sector. [4] [5] These research centers are around the globe, with most in the Global South and Vavilov Centers of agricultural crop genetic diversity. [6] CGIAR has an annual research portfolio of just over US$900 million with more than 9,000 staff working in 89 countries. [7]
Funding is provided by national governments, multilateral funding and development agencies and leading private foundations. Representatives of CGIAR Funders and developing countries meet as the CGIAR System Council to keep under review the strategy, mission, impact and continued relevancy of the CGIAR System in a rapidly changing landscape of agricultural research for development. [8]
CGIAR works to help meet the global targets laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals with an emphasis on five areas of impact:
CGIAR's vision is: A world with sustainable and resilient food, land, and water systems that deliver diverse, healthy, safe, sufficient, and affordable diets, and ensure improved livelihoods and greater social equality, within planetary and regional environmental boundaries. [9]
CGIAR's mission is to deliver science and innovation that advance transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. [10]
The concept of a unified and integrated "One CGIAR" was approved by the CGIAR System Council (November 2019) to adapt to rapidly changing global conditions, while also making the CGIAR system more relevant and effective. The fragmented nature of CGIAR's governance and institutions had limited the System's ability to both respond to increasingly interconnected challenges and to consistently deliver best practice and effectively scaled, research solutions needed to maximise impact. One CGIAR includes a unified governance and management through a reconstituted System Management Board and a new Executive Management Team. [11] [12]
CGIAR's Research Portfolio consists of Initiatives are major, prioritized areas of investment that bring capacity from within and beyond CGIAR to bear on well-defined, major challenges. Thirty-two Initiatives meet a common set of requirements, articulated in System Council documentation and evaluable through the Independent Science for Development Council quality of research for development criteria.
The Research Portfolio is organized by the three Action Areas detailed in the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy: Systems Transformation, Resilient Agrifood Systems, and Genetic Innovation. Each Initiative is placed under a primary Action Area, yet most Initiatives involve collaboration across more than one Action Area. [10]
CGIAR arose in response to the widespread concern in the mid-20th century that rapid increases in human populations would soon lead to widespread famine. Starting in 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican government laid the seeds for the Green Revolution when they established the Office of Special Studies, which resulted in the establishment of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1960 and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in 1963 with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation. These centers work toward developing high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties that dramatically increased production of these staple cereals, and turned India, for example, from a country regularly facing starvation in the 1960s to a net exporter of cereals by the late-1970s. [13]
But it was clear that the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations alone could not fund all the agricultural research and development efforts needed to feed the world's population. [14]
In 1969, the Pearson Commission on International Development urged the international community to undertake "intensive international effort" to support "research specializing in food supplies and tropical agriculture". [15]
In 1970, the Rockefeller Foundation proposed a worldwide network of agricultural research centers under a permanent secretariat. [14] This was further supported and developed by the World Bank, FAO and UNDP. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) was established on May 19, 1971, to coordinate international agricultural research efforts aimed at reducing poverty and achieving food security in developing countries. [16]
Australian economist Sir John Crawford was appointed as the inaugural chair of the Technical Advisory Committee. [17]
CGIAR originally supported four centers: CIMMYT, IRRI, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The initial focus on the staple cereals—rice, wheat and maize—widened during the 1970s to include cassava, chickpea, sorghum, potato, millets and other food crops, and encompassed livestock, farming systems, the conservation of genetic resources, plant nutrition, water management, policy research, and services to national agricultural research centers in developing countries. [18]
By 1983, there were 13 research centers around the world under its umbrella. [19]
By the 1990s the number of centers supported by CGIAR had grown to 18. Mergers between the two livestock centers the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA)) and the absorption of work on bananas and plantains into the program of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI; now Bioversity International) reduced the number to 16. Later another center (ISNAR) was absorbed[ clarification needed ], reducing the total number of supported centers to 15. [20] [21]
The reduction in the number of supported centers was not enough to address problems facing the group. These included the logistics of funders and the group alike in dealing with a large number of centers. This led to the creation of three classes of centers, divided into high, medium, and low impact delivery.[ citation needed ]
At the same time, a number of aid recipient countries like China, India, and Malaysia created their own development agencies and developed cadres of agricultural scientists. Private donors and industries also contributed, while research institutions in the rich world turned their attention to problems of the poor. CGIAR, however, failed to embrace these changes in any effective way.[ citation needed ]
Seeking to increase its efficiency and build on its previous successes, CGIAR embarked on a program of reform in 2001. Key among the changes implemented was the adoption of Challenge Programs as a means of harnessing the strengths of the diverse centers to address major global or regional issues. Three Challenge Programs were established within the supported research centers and a fourth to FARA, a research forum in Africa:
In 2008, CGIAR embarked on a change process to improve the engagement between all stakeholders in international agricultural research for development—donors, researchers and beneficiaries—and to refocus the efforts of the centers on major global development challenges. [25] [26] A key objective was to integrate the work of the centers and their partners, avoiding fragmentation and duplication of effort.
CGIAR components during this time included the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, the CGIAR Fund, [27] the CGIAR Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) [28] and partners. Research was guided by the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework. [29] The CGIAR Consortium united the centers supported by CGIAR; it coordinated limited research activities of about 15 research projects (see list below) among the centers and provided donors with a single contact point to centers. The CGIAR Fund aimed to harmonize the efforts of donors to contribute to agricultural research for development, increased the funding available by reducing or eliminating duplication of effort among the centers and promoted greater financial stability. The CGIAR ISPC, appointed by the CGIAR Fund Council, provided advice to the funders of CGIAR, particularly in ensuring that CGIAR's research programs are aligned with the Strategy and Results Framework. It provided a bridge between the funders and the CGIAR Consortium. The hope was that the Strategy and Results Framework would provide the strategic direction for the centers and CGIAR Research Programs, ensuring that they focus on delivering measurable results that contribute to achieving CGIAR objectives. However the research programs were designed prior to the Framework being ready, so now some refitting had to take place to get the programs inline with it. [30]
The CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers was established in April 2010 to coordinate and support the work of the 15 international agricultural research centers supported by CGIAR. [31] It played a central role in formulating the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) [32] that guided the work of CGIAR-supported centers on CGIAR funded research and developing CGIAR Research Programs under the SRF. The work of the CGIAR Consortium was governed by the Consortium Board, a 10-member panel that had fiduciary responsibility for CGIAR Research Programs, including monitoring and evaluation and reporting progress to donors. [33] CGIAR Research Programs were approved and funded by the CGIAR Fund [34] on a contractual basis through performance agreements. [35]
Agri-Food Systems CGIAR Research Programs were multi-center, multi-partner initiatives built on three core principles: impact on CGIAR's four system-level objectives; making the most of the centers' strengths; and strong and effective partnerships.
The following research programs comprised the CGIAR Research Portfolio of 2017-2021 (lead centers shown in brackets):
Global Integrating Programs
Cross-cutting Global Integrating Programs framed to work closely with the Agri-Food Systems Programs within relevant agro-ecological systems. Four programs formed part of the 2017-2021 Portfolio.
Former programs
A new strategy and results framework was approved in 2015 and the portfolio of research programs revised. The systems programs dryland systems, aquatic agricultural systems, and Humidtropics ceased to be standalone programs, even though they were seen as what was new to the reformed CGIAR, but were not given a real chance to take off and prosper, mainly due to funding reductions, but also because of a refocus on commodity value chains. These commodity programs were renamed to, for example, RTB Systems Program or Rice Systems Program. Some work of the earlier systems programs were incorporated, but most was lost.
CGIAR supported four research platforms from 2017 to 2021:
The impacts of CGIAR research have been extensively assessed. [62] Investments in CGIAR research generate returns of 10 times the amount invested. [18]
Much of the impact of the CGIAR centers has come from crop genetic improvement. This includes the high-yielding wheat and rice varieties that were the foundation of the Green Revolution. An assessment of the impact of crop breeding efforts at CGIAR centers between 1965 and 1998 showed CGIAR involvement in 65 percent of the area planted to 10 crops addressed by CGIAR, specifically wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, millet, barley, lentils, beans, cassava, and potatoes. Of this, 60 percent was sown with varieties with CGIAR ancestry (more than 90 percent in the case of lentils, beans, and cassava), and half of those varieties came from crosses made at a CGIAR center. [63] [64] The monetary value of CGIAR's investment in crop improvement is considerable, running into the billions of dollars. [65]
The centers have also contributed to such fields as improving the nutritional value of staple crops; pest and disease control through breeding resistant varieties; integrated pest management and biological control (e.g., control of the cassava mealybug in sub-Saharan Africa through release of a predatory wasp); improvements in livestock and fish production systems; genetic resources characterization and conservation; improved natural resource management; and contributions to improved policies in numerous areas, including forestry, fertilizer, milk marketing, and genetic resources conservation and use. [62]
Further impacts of CGIAR include:
Inactive CGIAR Centers | Headquarters | Change |
---|---|---|
International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) | Nairobi, Kenya | 1994: merged with ILCA to become ILRI |
International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 1994: merged with ILRAD to become ILRI |
International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) | Montpellier, France | 1994: became a programme of Bioversity International |
International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) | The Hague, Netherlands | 2004: dissolved, main programmes moved to IFPRI |
The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields. These changes in agriculture began in developed countries in the early 20th century and spread globally until the late 1980s. In the late 1960s, farmers began incorporating new technologies such as high-yielding varieties of cereals, particularly dwarf wheat and rice, and the widespread use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and controlled irrigation.
The only mandated international agricultural research organization is the CGIAR The CGIAR Fund supports 15 international agricultural research centers such as the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Center for International Forestry Research that form the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers and are located in various countries worldwide, The centers carry out research on various agricultural commodities, livestock, fish, water, forestry, policy and management.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center is a non-profit research-for-development organization that develops improved varieties of wheat and maize with the aim of contributing to food security, and innovates agricultural practices to help boost production, prevent crop disease and improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods. CIMMYT is one of the 15 CGIAR centers. CIMMYT is known for hosting the world's largest maize and wheat genebank at its headquarters in Mexico.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its work in developing rice varieties that contributed to the Green Revolution in the 1960s which preempted the famine in Asia.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center that provides research-based policy solutions to reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition throughout the developing world in environmentally sustainable ways. For nearly 50 years, IFPRI has worked with policymakers, academics, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, development practitioners, and others to carry out research, capacity strengthening, and policy communications on food systems, economic development, and poverty reduction.
Quality Protein Maize (QPM) is a family of maize varieties. QPM grain contains nearly twice as much lysine and tryptophan, amino acids that are essential for humans and monogastric animals but are limiting amino acids in grains. QPM is a product of conventional plant breeding and an example of biofortification.
The Crop Trust, officially known as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, is an international nonprofit organization with a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. Its mission is to conserve and make available the world's crop diversity for food security.
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), a member of CGIAR, supported by the CGIAR Fund, is a non-profit agricultural research institute that aims to improve the livelihoods of the resource-poor across the world's dry areas.
Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization that delivers scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural biodiversity to attain global food- and nutrition security, working with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation. In 2019, Bioversity International joined with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture to "deliver research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people's lives". Both institutions are members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.
The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is an Australian Government statutory agency that forms part of the overseas aid program in the Foreign Affairs and Trade Portfolio, reporting to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. ACIAR was established under the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Act 1982, as amended, to identify agricultural problems in developing problems and brokers Australian agricultural scientists to find solutions.
Plant breeding in Nepal is the art and science of improving the heredity of plants for benefit of humanity in Nepal. The major crops of Nepal include rice, wheat, maize, oil seeds and grain legumes.
Biofortification is the idea of breeding crops to increase their nutritional value. This can be done either through conventional selective breeding, or through genetic engineering. Biofortification differs from ordinary fortification because it focuses on making plant foods more nutritious as the plants are growing, rather than having nutrients added to the foods when they are being processed. This is an important improvement on ordinary fortification when it comes to providing nutrients for the rural poor, who rarely have access to commercially fortified foods. As such, biofortification is seen as an upcoming strategy for dealing with deficiencies of micronutrients in low and middle-income countries. In the case of iron, the WHO estimated that biofortification could help cure the 2 billion people suffering from iron deficiency-induced anemia.
Neglected and underutilised crops are domesticated plant species used for food, medicine, trading, or cultural practices within local communities but not widely commodified or studied as part of mainstream agriculture. Such crops may be in declining production. They are considered underutilised in scientific inquiry for their perceived potential to contribute to knowledge regarding nutrition, food security, genetic resistance, or sustainability. Other terms to describe such crops include minor, orphan, underused, local, traditional, alternative, minor, niche, or underdeveloped.
Crop diversity or crop biodiversity is the variety and variability of crops, plants used in agriculture, including their genetic and phenotypic characteristics. It is a subset of a specific element of agricultural biodiversity. Over the past 50 years, there has been a major decline in two components of crop diversity; genetic diversity within each crop and the number of species commonly grown.
The Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, commonly known as the Borlaug Dialogue, is an annual international symposium tackling the topic of global food security organized by The World Food Prize Foundation. Past symposia have focused on the promises and challenges presented by biofuels for global development, the dual challenges of malnutrition and obesity, water insecurity and its impact on development and stability in the Middle East, and the possibility of replicating the Green Revolution.
The Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) focuses on agricultural research and extension in irrigated rice-based ecosystems. In partnership with national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) and the private sector, the IRRC provides a platform for the dissemination and adoption of natural resource management (NRM) technologies in Asian countries. The IRRC is currently active in 11 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. It aims to strengthen NARES-driven interdisciplinary research, link research and extension, facilitate rice farmers' uptake of technological innovations, and enable environmentally sound rice production to expand to feed growing populations.
Kazi M. Badruddoza was a Bangladeshi agronomist who is credited with using Agricultural Genetics and Plant Pathology to extensively increase agricultural production in Bangladesh thus leading the nation toward self-sufficiency in staple cereal crops. He is known as the Father of Modern Agriculture in Bangladesh and the only National Emeritus Scientist of Bangladesh. He was one of the early leaders of the global team of the green revolution for his role in development of high yielding wheat, rice and maize varieties. For his work in Agricultural genetics, Badruddoza was awarded numerous honors, including the Independence Day award, the highest civilian award of Bangladesh. Prior to creation of Bangladesh as an independent state, he was also awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, a state organized civil award, in former West Pakistan, as well as the Tamgha-e-Pakistan. In addition, he is credited with the genetic engineering for the highly nutritious and large variety of guava, the Kazi Guava. In his honor, the genus of fungus, Kaziboletus. in the family Boletaceae, discovered in Bangladesh, was named after him.
Silverio García Lara is a researcher and head of AgroBio Unit and a professor of Nutri-Omics Group with the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies, Campus Monterrey within the National School of Science. Silverio García-Lara obtained his PhD in Experimental Biology from the Autonomous Metropolitan University during which he develop a PhD stay the University of Ottawa in Canada and subsequently Postdoctoral studies at the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement, CIMMYT, Int.
Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram was an Indian-born Mexican scientist and winner of the 2014 World Food Prize. He was awarded this prize for his scientific research in developing 480 wheat varieties that have been released in 51 countries. This innovation has led to an increase in world wheat production – by more than 200 million tons – building upon the successes of the Green Revolution. The Government of India awarded him India's fourth- and third-highest civilian awards Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2022).
Dilbagh Singh Athwal was an Indian-American geneticist, plant breeder and agriculturist, known to have conducted pioneering research in plant breeding. He was a professor and the Head of the Department of Plant Breeding at Punjab Agricultural University and an associate of Norman Borlaug, a renowned biologist and Nobel Laureate, with whom he has collaborated for the introduction of high-yielding dwarf varieties of wheat.
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