CIMMYT Annual Report 2012: Agricultural research for development improves food security

Farmers – particularly smallholders – are where it all starts. Based on field-based evidence and on CIMMYT experiences of nearly 50 years, providing small-scale farmers with high-yielding, disease-resistant and climate-ready varieties, promoting effective seed delivery and improving agronomic practices can dramatically benefit individual families, entire countries and the globe as a whole. Through its unique mandate and position, CIMMYT and its partners use our global collections of maize and wheat genetic resources and state-of-the-art genotyping and phenotyping technology – including those typically available only within the multinational private sector – and make the results available to national public sector programs and small- and medium-size companies that serve farmers directly. Expertise and experience in precision, sustainable intensification and innovation system approaches, like those that have characterized the study and promotion of conservation agriculture in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are helping farmers to save resources and face climate change. Such work features prominently in this report. Global action plans such as the CGIAR Research Programs (MAIZE, WHEAT and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, or CCFAS) provide rallying points for shared research by developing and developed countries to raise crop yields under the increasing heat and drought conditions that farmers face. Humanity has the means to eliminate hunger and malnutrition in spite of climate change and rising demand, but we need political will and investment to empower agricultural systems and farmers. The goal is not simply to avoid another food crisis. The goal is to grow enough food sustainably and efficiently to feed the planet. Otherwise the world will continue to lurch from one food crisis to the next. For nearly 50 years CIMMYT has been working to build food security and diminish hunger and poverty. Successes in these efforts would not have been possible without critical funding from our donors, the cooperation of our partners across the world and the contributions and hard work of CIMMYT employees.

28 pages