A New ‘Generation’Arrives at CIMMYT

In January 2004, CIMMYT welcomed the arrival of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Program and its director, Robert Zeigler. Generation works through partners and implementing institutions, including CIMMYT, from around the world, but its administrative headquarters are housed at CIMMYT-Mexico. Challenge Programs are independently governed programs that partner with a wide range of institutions inside and outside of the CGIAR. They address complex issues of global or regional significance with a high likelihood for great impact.

The mission of Generation is to harness the rich global heritage of plant genetic resources and create a new generation of crops that meet the needs of resource-poor people. For Zeigler, the time is ripe to realize this goal. “In recent years, three simultaneous revolutions have completely changed the way we think about problems and their solutions: revolutions in biology, information management, and communications,” he says. “Modern biology has enjoyed an explosive growth in knowledge, especially in our understanding of genetics and the creation of the field of genomics—the understanding of how genetic information is stored and
processed. This revolution would not have been possible without the second revolution in data storage and analytical capacity. A very large, sophisticated, and global “distributed” data set has been created, and is accessible around the world thanks to the third revolution in communications technology.

“Add these capabilities to a fourth, but more established resource,” says Zeigler, “the large set of genetic resources collected by CGIAR centers during the past decades, and we now have the capability to produce improved varieties for farmers working in very harsh environments—varieties that we only dreamed of a few years ago.”

Generation brings together three sets of partners—the CGIAR centers, advanced research institutes, and national agricultural research systems in developing countries—to deliver on its mission. Major funding to date is being provided by the European Commission, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the World Bank. Sweden and Austria are also contributors and serious discussions are underway with other potential donors.

For more information: r.zeigler@cgiar.org

Internet: www.generationcp.org