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.
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Resources
Displaying 26 - 30 of 12598What do we know about the future of maize value chains in a changing climate and agri-food system?
Key messages
• Population growth, changing diets, and a rapidly growing feed sector are contributing to a sharp increase in global maize demand which is expected to double by 2050 relative to 2010.
• Average global maize yield is projected to decrease by 11% under a global warming scenario of 2.0 °C (2060-2084) relative to the 1986–2005 period (in the absence of technological change, adaptation, or market adjustments).
Land suitability analysis for cereal-forage legume mixed cropping system
Ethiopia's highland mixed crop-livestock farming system is one of the country's primary agricultural systems, where crop and livestock production is integrated. However, Ethiopia's mixed farming system, which is dominated by resource-poor smallholder farmers, is frequently confronted with feed shortages and land degradation in the form of soil erosion and nutrient depletion, resulting in low agricultural production. Assuring sustainable agricultural output (both from crop and livestock sub-sector) in the mixed crop-livestock system is becoming a key challenge.
Predicting the distribution of plant species from southern South America: are the hotspots of genetic diversity threatened by climate change?
Biodiversity in all its dimensions is being threatened by climate change and the impact of human activities. Genetic diversity is a key dimension of biodiversity underlying adapta- tion to global changes. Here we assess the impact of climate change on plant genetic diver- sity in a region located in the southernmost portion of Argentina and Chile range. We com- piled available published research on population genetics of 22 plant species from forests, monte and steppe ecoregions and modelled the impact of future climates on their suitability distributions.
Two crops are better than one for nutritional and economic outcomes of Zambian smallholder farms, but require more labour
Sustainable intensification practices suitable for smallholders in southern Africa will be needed to counteract the impact of future climate change and soil fertility decline in the region. Diversification of maize-based farming systems with grain legumes could play a key role. Here, we compared the performance of different maize-legume diversification strategies (single-row intercropping, strip cropping, and crop rotation) with sole cropped maize under conventional ploughing and Conservation Agriculture in four Zambian districts in the Eastern and Southern Provinces.
Microbial resistance and resilience to drought and rewetting modulate soil N2O emissions with different fertilizers
Future climate models indicate an enhanced severity of regional drought and frequent rewetting events, which may cause cascading impacts on soil nitrogen cycle and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, but the underlying microbial mechanism remains largely unknown. Here we report an incubation study that examined the impacts of soil moisture status and nitrification inhibitor (DCD) on the N2O-producers and N2O-reducers following the application of urea and composted swine manure in an acid soil.