A Message from the Director General

We are delighted to bring you this report of our impacts, activities, and partnerships around the world for the past 12 months. We have given it the title “Global Research for Local Livelihoods” to reflect our truly worldwide research program—maize and/or wheat are major food crops in all regions of the developing world—and our emphasis on making a difference in the lives of poor people.

If we cannot improve the livelihoods of people where they live, then the problems of civil conflict, refugees, and immigration will only be accelerated. Urgent action is required by all of us working together. No single organization has the answers, or indeed the resources, to solve this alone.

In 1966,CIMMYT was founded. This event was a welcome formalization of a program that had been underway for decades under the leadership of Norman Borlaug, Edwin Wellhausen, and many others who had come to Mexico as part of a joint agricultural project initiated in the 1940s between the Government of Mexico and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Thirty-five years of endeavor have seen many milestones and many internationally recognized impacts from CIMMYT’s work with its partners. Together we have bred wheat and maize varieties and developed agronomic practices that have secured larger, more reliable harvests, raised incomes, and helped sustain natural resources. We have developed research initiatives whose relevance and vitality reflect our extensive field experience and our links with advanced research institutes. We continue to strengthen scientific capacity in developing countries. Our researchers are widely recognized for their contributions to scientific knowledge and human development. The bottom line, however, is that our mission is not finished, and much remains to be done if the gross inequities between the North and the South are to be addressed effectively.

It is interesting to reflect in our 35^th year on the important changes that have influenced CIMMYT and our work today. They are many: external and internal, scientific and political, people-related and environment-related. As I consider my six-plus years at CIMMYT, it is clear to me that the need for our work has never been greater, but the work has changed and must continue to change to meet new needs and more complex challenges. In earlier days, our mandate focused largely on G x E (germplasm x environment), and no organization in the world has been more successful in putting better crop varieties into the hands of poor farmers. For example, CIMMYT-related wheat varieties cover almost 90% of the spring bread wheat area in the developing world—almost 53 million hectares—and account for a significant proportion of production in the North! These higher yielding varieties possess diverse pedigrees, multiple gene resistance to diseases, and are tolerant to heat, drought, and soil acidity. This accomplishment really is one of the agricultural success stories of the world. The large “market share” for wheat, the world’s most consumed crop, is never likely to be matched by any other public or private organization. The human impact was ably summarized in an interview by Paul Raeburn in his 1995 book, The Last Harvest:

‘The specific use of the dwarfing gene from Norin 10 has affected the food supply of one-quarter of the people of the world—one billion plus,’ said Garrison Wilkes [of the Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts ].‘ And for over 100 million it has been the margin of survival.’ A single gene from a seemingly unimportant variety of wheat has saved 100 million lives.

New varieties of maize and wheat are still important, as they are the easiest way for poor farmers to adopt new technology. The more improvements we can put into that new grain—enhanced nutrient content and disease resistance, greater drought and heat tolerance—the more new technologies the poor farmer can adopt just by changing varieties. However, our research paradigm at CIMMYT in the 21st century is now G x E x M x P (germplasm x environment x management x people). The new challenge is to get the best varieties incorporated into sustainable farming systems (M) focusing on the participation and livelihoods of people (P). “P” can also emphasize the importance of sound policies in the relief of human suffering. This “plots to plate” approach has seen our research portfolio shift from a program-focused agenda to a project-focused agenda that brings together a broader mix of skills, disciplines, and partners to ensure continuing impact in farmers’ fields. More often than not, today’s multifaceted problems require a multifaceted approach to produce appropriate solutions. Our integrated projects facilitate and support these interactions.

Perhaps one of the greatest changes that CIMMYT has embraced, however, is in the nature of our partnerships. Traditional friends and partners in the national agricultural research systems remain our anchor point, but we have sought to widen our efforts for the resource-poor through the participation of a broader and more diverse range of partners. These now include more targeted and strategic alliances with advanced research institutes, both public and private. Good examples of this include the Apomixis Consortium and the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) Project. In addition, the changes in (and, in many cases, the demise of) national extension organizations have caused the comparative advantage in evaluating, refining, and delivering new technologies to farmers to shift to non-governmental organizations (large and small), seed dealers, rural schools, and farmer groups. Our best examples of this approach include the Southern African Drought and Low Soil Fertility (SADLF) Project and our program in Bangladesh. It is essential that we deliver new and better technologies faster into farmers’ hands.

The proposed changes in the CGIAR, the funding environment, and the global situation will all ensure that CIMMYT in the coming five to ten years will be much different from what it is today. Who knows what will come from the tragic events in the United States on 11 September? Some fear a hardening of attitudes between North and South on many issues.

Such a scenario would be in itself devastating, as there has never been a more important time to address global inequities. Let us all work together in supporting the latter.

Science-wise there is little doubt in my mind that new technologies will play an increasingly important part in contributing to solutions that improve the livelihoods of the resource-poor. Biotechnology will be an important facet of this effort, with functional genomics being perhaps the area of most exciting potential.

Alliances of public and private organizations will be a key factor in exploring the potential of biotechnology, and we must find ways of enhancing such alliances to ensure highly effective, but also transparent, collaboration.

This is my last message as Director General of CIMMYT, as next year’s Annual Report will be the first for a new leader. When I leave, I will have spent seven years in the most demanding and challenging job I’ve ever had. It is an honor and a privilege to work for CIMMYT, to enjoy friendships throughout the world, but above all to play a part in r educing inequity, and reaching the unreached. Thank you for your wonderful support.