CGIAR is the only worldwide partnership addressing agricultural research for development, whose work contributes to the global effort to tackle poverty, hunger and major nutrition imbalances, and environmental degradation.
It is carried out by 15 Centers, that are members of the CGIAR Consortium, in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector.
The 15 Research Centers generate and disseminate knowledge, technologies, and policies for agricultural development through the CGIAR Research Programs. The CGIAR Fund provides reliable and predictable multi-year funding to enable research planning over the long term, resource allocation based on agreed priorities, and the timely and predictable disbursement of funds. The multi-donor trust fund finances research carried out by the Centers through the CGIAR Research Programs.
We have almost 10,000 scientists and staff in 96 countries, unparalleled research infrastructure and dynamic networks across the globe. Our collections of genetic resources are the most comprehensive in the world.
What we do
We collaborate with research and development partners to solve development problems. To fulfill our mission we:
- Identify significant global development problems that science can help solve
- Collect and organize knowledge related to these development problems
- Develop research programs to fill the knowledge gaps to solve these development problems
- Catalyze and lead putting research into practice, and policies and institutions into place, to solve these development problems
- Lead monitoring and evaluation, share the lessons we learn and best practices we discover;
- Conserve, evaluate and share genetic diversity
- Strengthen skills and knowledge in agricultural research for development around the world
Making a difference
We act in the interests of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. Our track record spans four decades of research.
Our research accounted for US$673 million or just over 10 percent of the US$5.1 billion spent on agricultural research for development in 2010. The economic benefits run to billions of dollars. In Asia, the overall benefits of CGIAR research are estimated at US$10.8 billion a year for rice, US$2.5 billion for wheat and US$0.8 billion for maize.
It has often been cited that one dollar invested in CGIAR research results in about nine dollars in increased productivity in developing countries.
Sweeping reforms for the 21st century
Political, financial, technological and environmental changes reverberating around the globe mean that there are many opportunities to rejuvenate the shaky global food system. Developments in agricultural and environmental science, progress in government policies, and advances in our understanding of gender dynamics and nutrition open new avenues for producing more food and for making entrenched hunger and poverty history.
The sweeping reforms that brought in the CGIAR Consortium in 2010 mean we are primed to take advantage of these opportunities. We are eagerly tackling the ever more complex challenges in agricultural development. We are convinced that the science we do can make even more of a difference. To fulfill our goals we aim to secure US$1 billion in annual investments to fund the current CGIAR Research Programs.
CGIAR has embraced a new approach that brings together its strengths around the world and spurs new thinking about agricultural research for development, including innovative ways to pursue scientific work and the funding it requires. CGIAR is bringing donors together for better results and enabling scientists to focus more on the research through which they develop and deliver big ideas for big impact. As a result, CGIAR is more efficient and effective, and better positioned than ever before to meet the development challenges of the 21st century.
We are no longer the ‘Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research’. In 2008 we underwent a major transformation, to reflect this and yet retain our roots we are now known simply as CGIAR.
Members:
Resources
Displaying 11161 - 11165 of 12598Empowerment of farmer organizations: case study of Farmer Managed Irrigated Agriculture Project, Sindh
This paper reviews the conditions and progress towards empowerment of farmer organizations under the Farmer-Managed Irrigated Agriculture Project in the Sindh Province of Pakistan. It discusses the conditions necessary to achieve the goal of an empowered and vitalized farmer organization, the issue of legal status, skill-building activities to build the capacity of the members to manage their own affairs, and institutional issues.
Ecuador goes bananas: incremental technological change and forest loss
What policy lessons derive from the half-century of banana expansion in the coastal region? For that whole period bananas had a catalytic role in promoting coastal deforestation. At first, this was mostly through direct banana frontier expansion. Later the gradual settlement effects proved key. Modest credit subsidies, the large-scale construction and improvement of roads and ports, and a devalued exchange rate were probably the most important policies that contributed to the expansion of banana production, though they varied in importance during the different periods.
Economic analysis of cross-breeding programmes in sub-Saharan Africa: A conceptual framework and Kenyan case study
A conceptual framework for evaluating cross-breeding programmes in sub-Saharan Africa is developed based on a Kenyan case study. It depicts livestock production as a system where farm animals, plants, land and water are interlinked in particular ways and are also interlinked with the environment. Depending on the level of intensification and `modernisation', two livestock systems are defined. The first is the traditional livestock production system in which farm animals, plants, land and water are interlinked in a sustainable way with each component complementing the other.
Earthworms communities in native savannas and man-made pastures of the Eastern plains of Colombia
This was especially due to the presence of a large glossoscolecid anecic species, Martiodrilus carimaguensis Jim\233nez and Moreno, which has been greatly favored by conversion of savanna to pasture. Endogeic species were dominant in the natural savanna whereas the anecic species accounted for the 88% of total earthworm biomass in the pasture. Total earthworm density and biomass were significantly different in the two systems studied (t-test).