Last year my message described how diversity was essential to CIMMYT’s research and integral to its character as an organization. I concluded by discussing our plans to develop a mission and strategy that would build on that diversity and strengthen CIMMYT’s contribution to sustainable development.

A new mission
for renewed impact

In the intervening year, CIMMYT has consulted extensively with a broad base of stakeholders to determine how CIMMYT, with the mandate to work with two of the world’s most important crops, can best contribute to sustainable development. The consensus was that CIMMYT should build on its networks and knowledge to serve the poor as stated in its proposed new mission:

CIMMYT acts as a catalyst and leader in a global maize and wheat innovation network that serves the poor in developing countries. Drawing on strong science and effective partnerships, we create, share, and use knowledge and technology to increase food security, improve the productivity and profitability of farming systems, and sustain natural resources.

This report, “Innovation for Development,” gives an idea of what a “global maize and wheat innovation network” can mean in practice and in people’s lives. It describes the ways that partners create and share knowledge and science-based solutions that people can use to move out of poverty and towards environmental sustainability.

The first section, “Innovation for local food security,” describes strategies that enable poor communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to achieve food security. Some strategies start with soil nutrient management, others begin with plant breeding, and still others rely on selecting and delivering improved seed—but all take advantage of the unique contributions of many partners. Usually they build on years of prior research and much local knowledge. These stories show that a “one-size-fits-all” approach cannot promote development. There is no substitute for careful attention to local needs, and there is no impact without successful communication.

The second section of this report, “Innovation for human and environmental health,” looks at the integral role of food systems in delivering health and nutrition and conserving natural resources. It describes how CIMMYT links partners working on different aspects of two major health problems (arsenic poisoning and rickets). Through a broad research consortium in Asia, CIMMYT is also increasing the potential for vital food systems to be resource-conserving systems. W ith our partners, we have developed resource-conserving technologies that are flexible and profitable enough for some of the world’s poorest sharecroppers, who have little incentive to improve the land under their care, to conserve the agricultural resource base.

The final section of this report, “Innovation to adapt to change,” shows how we work with poor people to seize new opportunities and resolve problems that arrive with change. For example, we train farmers in Bangladesh to grow maize—a “new” crop that is rapidly growing in demand throughout Asia. We study traditional seed sharing networks in Mexico to determine how rural emigration and the potential loss of incentives for traditional maize production will affect seed sharing and genetic diversity. By partnering with advanced research institutes and the private sector, we are learning how to help plants—and by extension, producers—cope with future droughts or climate change.

New ways of working

We do not merely recommend that others adapt to change: CIMMYT is doing the same. Although the range of CIMMYT’s products and services will not change dramatically over the coming years—we will still develop improved maize and wheat seed and production practices, for example—we will make major changes in how we orient our research, how we work with others, and how we structure our research program. The details are available in our forthcoming strategic plan (Seeds of Innovation, CIMMYT, 2003), but we can summarize some essential points here.

As indicated in our new mission, poor people and their livelihood strategies are at the heart of our research program. Through a broad and growing set of partnerships and networks, we will:

CIMMYT’s research—and its organizational structure—will be based on projects that emphasize global and eco-regional priorities. The projects reflect CIMMYT’s commitment to being as integrative as possible in its research, considering the different natural, economic, and cultural factors that determine where and how maize and wheat are grown.

A commitment to the future

The stories in this report offer a glimpse, in microcosm, of the new CIMMYT. They show that results depend on the collaboration of many people and organizations. They also show that CIMMYT and its partners do not simply lay the groundwork for solutions to the problems of the future. They reveal how field and laboratory research come to fruition in the lives of the poor.

We are providing solutions that people can use now—not when the next round of trade negotiations ends, when the civil war is over, or when the private sector decides it is time to enter a new market. Now is when people have to pay school fees, buy seed, obtain medical treatment, decide whether to abandon their village in search of wage employment, or bury a family member who has died of HIV/AIDS or malnutrition. Although we have spent much time over the past year in planning for tomorrow, this report shows that we have not interrupted our efforts to help people today and every day. In the coming year, as the “new CIMMYT” takes shape, this important work will continue to empower more people to transform their lives for the better.

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October, 2003