Americas

CIMMYT has several offices in the Americas, including global headquarters in Mexico and a regional office in Colombia. Activities are supported by an additional 140 hectares of stations in diverse agro-ecological zones of Mexico. CIMMYT’s genebank in Mexico stores 27,000 maize and 170,000 wheat seed collections – key to preserving the crop genetic diversity of the region. CIMMYT projects range from developing nutritionally enhanced maize to mapping regional climate change hot spots in Central America. The comprehensive MasAgro project aims to increase wheat production in Mexico by 9 million tons and maize production by 350,000 tons by 2030. CIMMYT promotes regional collaboration and facilitates capacity building for scientists, researchers and technicians.

Scaling specialists from around the world met in Texcoco to reflect on their scaling work in Latin America towards sustainable agri-food systems.

Maíz Criollo Kantunil, a group of farmers and agro-ecologists, has successfully reintroduced three varieties of native maize using seeds supplied by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). 

To dive into the challenges posed by climate change, researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, in Sonora, Mexico, are working to develop a range of wheat that can withstand extreme and unpredictable weather conditions.

In Mexico, there are different examples of regenerative agriculture projects led by international organizations, such as CIMMYT’s partnership agreement with NestlĂ© and Bimbo that have helped rural communities to improve their productive processes through regenerative farming practices.

Smart smallholder fertilizer management practices to address food security and climate change.

CIMMYT gender research helps the Agrovita program, a collaboration between PepsiCo and Proforest, a UK-based agriculture non-profit, to design and promote gender sensitive training programs for smallholder cacao farmers in Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico.

20 years of rigorous scientific research.

Assistant Research Associate - Plant Breeding

CGIAR’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), organized an important roundtable discussion at the beginning of February on the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report entitled Competing in Agribusiness: Corporate Strategies and Public Policies for the Challenges of the 21st Century.

Women researchers from Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru work alongside each other on innovative project and build bonds in the hope of completing future projects.