Resilient Crops for Water Limited Environments: Proceedings of a Workshop Held at Cuernavaca Mexico 24 ? 28 May 2004

In May of 2004, more than 150 scientists from around the world?mostly from Asia and Africa?met inCuernavaca, Mexico to present and discuss their research on one of the world?s most intractable agriculturalproblems: drought tolerance in crop plants. The meeting, entitled the ?Resilient Crops for Water-LimitedEnvironments Program Workshop,? was supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and the International Maizeand Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).A truly global critical mass of expertise participated in the workshop, originating from more than 20 countriesand three of the world?s international agricultural research centers; CIMMYT, IRRI, and WARDA. Of particularinterest were maize, rice, and wheat, which account for more than half of the calories consumed by people in thedeveloping world, and are the basis for their food security and livelihoods. Scientists comprehensivelyaddressed the physiology, biochemistry, and genetics of plant response to water stress. In addition, they lookedat drought tolerance from the ground-level perspective of incorporating farmer participation into varietaldevelopment, to the heights of molecular genetics/genomics/bioinformatics, and even how plant generegulation pathways interact and respond to water deficits in a growing developing crop plant. Indeed ourinformation and hence knowledge base in this subject is growing at a rapid rate.Specific goals of the workshop were information sharing among Rockefeller Foundation grantees from Africaand Asia; updating participants on knowledge generation, breeding technologies and capacity building, andseed delivery systems; and finally planning of collaborative research among the participants. These objectiveswere achieved beyond the expectations of the organizers and all are to be congratulated for their outstandingprogress since our previous workshop held May 2002 at IRRI, Philippines.The ultimate aim of this program?s outputs is to stabilize food crop production through genetic improvement ofcereals, primarily maize and rice, for drought tolerance, thereby decreasing the shock of drought on thelivelihoods of poor farm households in Africa and Asia. This program?s vision of success?the creation anddelivery of new drought tolerant crop varieties to farmers?in turn is closely tied to parallel efforts to stem thedecline of soil fertility in much of the developing world, and build up input and output markets in rural areas.Taken together, these broad initiatives offer a strong and viable approach to lifting millions from crushingpoverty through creation of more sustainable rural and agricultural development.These proceedings contain, in condensed form, hundreds of thousands of research hours dedicated todeveloping crops that can help farmers withstand the destabilizing impact of drought in some of the most needyfarm communities of Africa and Asia. Although we have not yet reached our full potential in this effort,exceptional progress is clearly being made, indeed it seems to be accelerating, and the pipeline of research andcollaboration is just beginning to deliver new varieties to the people who need them most. Specific examples ofnew varieties actually being delivered and utilized on large areas were reported from both southern Africa andeastern India, providing realistic ?proof of concept? and motivating all concerned to redouble their efforts. Theconference participants are to be commended for their exceptional work and information sharing at theworkshop, as is the CIMMYT organizing committee, for the superb preparations and support for the meetingand this publication

'Resilient Crops for Water Limited Environments: Proceedings of a Workshop Held at Cuernavaca Mexico 24 ? 28 May 2004', International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), 2012