CIMMYT Fifty Years Celebrations in Nairobi

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) held its eastern and central Africa 50th anniversary celebrations on 9 – 10 September, 2016. The event was hosted by CIMMYT’s regional office in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together over 150 stakeholders, partners, dignitaries, donors and staff to take stock of achievements made in the region and lessons learned through five decades of partnership, with a focus on the future of maize and wheat research in the region.

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff led the event and encouraged staff to share CIMMYT’s impact in eastern and central Africa and strategic vision the organization has adopted for the future. Guests also had an opportunity to view CIMMYT and partner activities in the three major research sites in Kenya and give feedback on CIMMYT’s work.

Seed companies, national agricultural research organizations and long-serving CIMMYT staff were presented awards recognizing the long and fruitful collaboration between them and CIMMYT. A tree was planted in honor of the late Wilfred Mwangi, who was CIMMYT’s Regional Liaison Officer in Africa. These hunger fighters must embrace technological innovation, creativity, bold ideas and collaborate across all disciplines, while also effectively engaging smallholder farmers and private and public sectors to come up with sustainable solutions, Borlaug said, adding that the average age of a farmer in the United States and Africa is well over 50 years.

Julie Borlaug, the granddaughter of 1970 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, a former key wheat breeder at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) known internationally as the father of the Green Revolution addressed delegates at the CIMMYT 50th anniversary conference on “CIMMYT’s future as a Borlaug legacy.”

After 50 years, CIMMYT remains relevant in the fight for food security and an important part of the Borlaug legacy, Borlaug said, adding that technological innovation is needed to address agriculture and the challenge of climate change. “Since the seven years of his passing, I know my grandfather would be pleased by the leadership team and all at CIMMYT. As hunger fighters and the next generation, they have made CIMMYT their institution and continue to advocate strongly for improvement in science and technology to feed the world,” she said.

Her grandfather, who started work on wheat improvement in the mid-1940s in Mexico, where CIMMYT is headquartered near Mexico City, led efforts to develop semi-dwarf wheat varieties in the mid-20th century that helped save more than 1 billion lives in Pakistan, India and other areas of the developing world. In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Norman Borlaug paid tribute to the “army of hunger fighters” with whom he had worked.

Borlaug shared some views on CIMMYT and the future of agriculture in the following interview.

What are the key challenges the world faces into the future?
In my opinion, the entire agricultural community should focus on addressing three major challenges: the first is climate change and erratic weather patterns. Droughts and a decline of limited natural resources such as water and soil are of major consequence to agricultural productivity. The second major challenge is the societal resistance to new technologies and innovation. And the third major challenge we are facing is how to engage the next generation to work in the agricultural sector.

To address the first challenge, we must have biotechnology and technological innovation across the board to address issues that will stem from climate change. The utilization of drought, heat and saline tolerant crops, informatics, and other innovations will be a necessity. Technology will be part of the integrated solution that creates better farming systems, more nutritious foods and addresses all the issues that come with climate change and sustainability.

It is important to understand the societal resistance to new technologies and innovation. I understand their skepticisms and confusion. It is important to note that when speaking to these critics, we keep in mind the campaigns that have been mounted against our industry and have spread fear and inaccurate information that the public has accepted as fact. In my opinion, the agricultural industry has to improve in explaining to the public why modern agriculture is so important to our future and why the opposition to it cannot be permitted to deprive millions of people of its promise.

What is significant about CIMMYT:

What role has CIMMYT played in your area of work?
CIMMYT is both personally and professionally significant to me. Personally, I have grown up knowing how deeply invested, protective and grateful my grandfather was to the role CIMMYT played in his career, the Green Revolution and as a leader in international maize and wheat research. CIMMYT was not just a place in which my grandfather was employed but part of his family. All who met, worked with my grandfather or had the opportunity to have an early morning CIMMYT breakfast with him, remember the deep interest he had in their careers and research as well as his often too candid assessment of their current & future work. His passion for CIMMYT never faded and in the end of his life his return “home” to his Yaqui Valley wheat fields in Sonora, Mexico, gave him hope for the future of CIMMYT, the CGIAR system as a whole and international research and development in agriculture. Professionally for me, CIMMYT has helped me learn more about my grandfather professionally but it has also broadened my depth and knowledge of maize and wheat research as well as the importance for the CG system. At the Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M, we work in international agriculture development and have had the opportunity to partner with CIMMYT on many occasions. I promised my grandfather that I would help to bring all the Borlaug Legacy Institutions together to work collaboratively and not competitively as we once had. CIMMYT was the first Borlaug legacy institution to join us in working collectively towards my grandfather legacy to end hunger and poverty.

Background
CIMMYT grew out of a pilot program sponsored by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1940s and 1950s aimed at raising farm productivity in Mexico. The wheat specialist in that program, Norman Borlaug, worked with Mexican researchers and farmers to develop hardier, short-stemmed wheat varieties that resisted devastating rust diseases and yielded much more grain than traditional varieties. The new wheat lines were bred and selected at various Mexican locations in a range of climate conditions, which meant they were adaptable to a range of farm settings. The higher yielding varieties helped Mexico attain self-sufficiency in wheat production in the 1950s. Additionally, the varieties were imported by India and Pakistan in the 1960s to stave off famine, soon bringing those countries record harvests. This led to the widespread adoption of improved varieties and farming practices, which became known as the “Green Revolution.” CIMMYT was formally launched as an international organization in 1966. Borlaug, who worked at CIMMYT as a wheat scientist and research leader until 1979, received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize because, more than any other single person, he helped to provide bread for a hungry world. He remained a distinguished consultant for the center until his death in 2009.

Operations
CIMMYT works throughout the developing world to improve livelihoods and foster more productive, sustainable maize and wheat farming. Their portfolio squarely targets critical challenges, including food insecurity and malnutrition, climate change and environmental degradation.

Through collaborative research, partnerships, and training, the center helps to build and strengthen a new generation of national agricultural research and extension services in maize- and wheat-growing nations. As a member of the CGIAR consortium of 15 agricultural research centers, CIMMYT leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat, which align and add value to the efforts of more than 500 partners. ]

Turning research into impact
• By conservative estimates, this work provides at least $2 billion in annual benefitsto farmers.

• CIMMYT alumni include a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and three World Food Prize winners.

• CIMMYT’s success depends on the longstanding partnerships and trust of public agricultural research systems, private companies, advanced research institutes and academia, and non-governmental and farmer organizations.

• More than 70 percent of the wheat grown in developing countries and more than 50 percent of improved maize varieties derive from CIMMYT breeding materials.

• More than 10,000 scientists have trained at CIMMYT and gone on to become leaders in their own countries. The center empowers thousands of students, extension workers and farmers through courses, workshops and field days.

It starts with seed
CIMMYT crop-breeding research begins with its Germplasm Bank, a remarkable living catalog of genetic diversity comprising over 28,000 unique seed collections of maize and over 140,000 of wheat. From its breeding programs, each year CIMMYT sends half a million seed packages to 600 partners in 100 countries. With researchers and farmers, the center also develops and promotes more productive and precise maize and wheat farming methods and tools that save money and resources such as soil, water, and fertilizer.

CIMMYT is governed by its board of trustees, director general and a management team who work together to determine scientific goals, policies and strategies of the organization.

Overall, about 1,250 people work at CIMMYT, including 570 at our headquarters in El Batan, Mexico, near Mexico City. Additionally, 510 people work in 19 countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Some 160 international scientists and specialized staff work at CIMMYT. CIMMYT employs about 400 nationally-recruited personnel in 15 countries selected for their talent and expertise.

Awards
CIMMYT scientists have won many awards for their research and field work, including the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and the World Food Prize in 2000 and 2014. The large number of trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins and ribbons acknowledging scientific excellence at CIMMYT over the past 50 years are too numerous to list