About the CGIAR

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), established in 1971, is a strategic partnership of diverse donors that support 15 international Centers, working in collaboration with many hundreds of government and civil society organizations as well as private businesses around the world. CGIAR donors include both developing and industrialized countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations.  

Guided by a vision of reduced poverty and hunger, improved human health and nutrition, and greater ecosystem resilience, brought about through high-quality international agricultural research, partnership and leadership,the CGIAR applies cutting-edge science to foster sustainable agricultural growth that benefits the poor. The new crop varieties, knowledge and other products resulting from the CGIAR’s collaborative research are made widely available to individuals and organizations working for sustainable agricultural development throughout the world.

Eleven of the CGIAR Centers maintain international genebanks. These preserve and make readily available a wide array of plant genetic resources, which form the basis of global food security.

In addition, the CGIAR implements several innovative Challenge Programs, which are designed to address global or regional issues of vital importance. Implemented through broad-based research partnerships, these programs apply knowledge, technology and other resources to solve problems such as micronutrient deficiencies, which afflict more than three billion people worldwide; water scarcity, which already affects a third of the world’s population; and climate change, which poses a dire threat to rural livelihoods across the developing world.

CGIAR expenditures amounted to US$572 million in 2009, the single largest investment made to mobilize science for the benefit of the rural poor worldwide. The global food crisis of 2008 restored agriculture to its rightful place at the top of the development agenda, prompting a global recommitment to agricultural research, as expressed in recent statements by world leaders through the Group of Eight and High-level Food Security Summits.

For more details on the CGIAR go to: www.cgiar.org