Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security.[4] CGIAR research aims to reduce rural poverty, increase food security, improve human health and nutrition, and sustainable management of natural resources. It is carried out at 15 centers (CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers) that collaborate with partners from national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations, and the private sector.[4][5] These research centers are around the globe, with most in the Global South and Vavilov Centers of agricultural crop genetic diversity.[6] CGIAR is an ad-hoc organization funded by its members.[7] Members include the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan, the Ford Foundation, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the European Commission, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Fund of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC Fund). In 2009 CGIAR had revenues of US$629 million.[8] Early years CGIAR arose in response to the widespread concern in the mid-20th century that rapid increases in human populations would soon lead to widespread famine. Starting in 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican government laid the seeds for the Green Revolution when they established the Office of Special Studies, which resulted in the establishment of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1960 and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in 1963 with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation, developing high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties that dramatically increased production of these staple cereals, and turned India, for example, from a country regularly facing starvation in the 1960s to a net exporter of cereals by the late-1970s. But it was clear that these foundations alone could not fund all the agricultural research and development efforts needed to feed the world's population. In 1969, the Pearson Commission on International Development urged the international community to undertake "intensive international effort" to support "research specializing in food supplies and tropical agriculture". In 1970, the Rockefeller Foundation proposed a worldwide network of agricultural research centers under a permanent secretariat. This was further supported and developed by the World Bank, FAO and UNDP, and CGIAR was established on May 19, 1971, to coordinate international agricultural research efforts aimed at reducing poverty and achieving food security in developing countries. CGIAR originally supported four centres: CIMMYT; International Rice Research Institute (IRRI); the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT); and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The initial focus on the staple cereals—rice, wheat and maize—widened during the 1970s to include cassava, chickpea, sorghum, potato, millet and other food crops, and encompassed livestock, farming systems, the conservation of genetic resources, plant nutrition, water management, policy research, and services to national agricultural research centers in developing countries. By 1983 there were 13 research centers around the world under its umbrella.[10]