CIMMYT Annual Report 1999-2000: Science and Sustenance

CIMMYT is an international, non-profit, agricultural research and training center dedicated to helping the poor in low-income countries. We help alleviate poverty by increasing the profitability, productivity, and sustainability of maize and wheat farming systems.

Focus

Work concentrates on maize and wheat, two crops vitally important to food security. These crops provide about one-fourth of the total food calories consumed in low-income countries, are critical staples for poor people, and are an important source of income for poor farmers.

Partners

Our researchers work with colleagues in national agricultural research programs, universities, and other centers of excellence around the world; in the donor community; and in extension and non-governmental organizations.

Activities

Development and worldwide distribution of higher yielding maize and wheat with built-in genetic resistance to important diseases, insects, and other yield-reducing stresses.
Conservation and distribution of maize and wheat genetic resources.
Strategic research on natural resource management in maize- and wheat-based cropping systems.
Development of new knowledge about maize and wheat.
Development of more effective research methods.
Training of many kinds.
Consulting on technical issues.

Impact

CIMMYT-related wheat varieties are planted on more than 64 million hectares in low-income countries, representing more than three-fourths of the area planted to modern wheat varieties in those countries.
Nearly 14 million hectares in non-temperate environments of developing countries are planted to CIMMYT-related maize varieties, which is nearly half of the area planted to modern maize varieties in those environments.
Between 1987 and 1998, CIMMYT delivered nearly 40,000 shipments of wheat seed and more than 20,000 shipments of maize seed to researchers in developing and developed countries. These shipments, which included improved materials developed by CIMMYT breeders and accessions from our germplasm banks, represented a valuable source of genetic resources for public and private research organizations.
More than 9,000 researchers from around the world have benefited from CIMMYT's training efforts. CIMMYT alumni now lead major breeding programs, public and private, throughout the world.
Our information products and research networks improve the efficiency of researchers in more than 100 countries.

Funding

CIMMYT wishes to thank the many governments and organizations that help us fulfill our mission (see p. 69 of this report). We owe a special debt of gratitude to those who support our core activities. The impacts described in this publication would have been impossible to achieve without that support.

Location

Activities and impact extend throughout the world via 17 regional offices. Headquarters are in Mexico. See contact information, back cover.

Newly Updated Website

We have redesigned our website to give you more news and technical information. Visit us at www.cimmyt.org.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

ADB Asian Development Bank

BARI Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute

BRDB Bangladesh Rural Development Board

CAC Central Asia and the Caucasus

CGIAR Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo

CIRAD Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement [France]

EC European Commission

EMBRAPA Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária [Brazil]

EST Expressed sequence tag

FAW Fall armyworm

GIS Geographic information systems

GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit [Germany]

ICARDA International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas

ICRISAT International Center for Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute

INIFAP Insituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias [Mexico]

IRD Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

IRMA Insect Resistant Maize for Africa

IRRI International Rice Research Institute

ITEC International Triticeae EST Consortium

JIRCAS Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences

KARI Kenya Agricultural Research Institute

MAS Marker-assisted selection

NARS National agricultural research system

NBC National Biosafety Committee [Kenya]

NGO Non-governmental organization

PRA Participatory rural assessment

PRM Programa Regional de Maíz [Central America]

QPM Quality protein maize

RWC Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains

SADLF Southern Africa Drought and Low Soil Fertility Project

SCB Sugarcane borer

SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

SWCB Southwestern corn borer

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

USAID United States Agency for International Development

WRC Wheat Research Centre [Bangladesh]

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Published on October 2000

August, 2004