Author: Ricardo Curiel

New partnership announced to protect Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique by improving agricultural livelihoods and crop systems

Written by Ricardo Curiel on October 31, 2023. Posted in Press releases.

A collaboration scheme launched between the Gorongosa Restoration Project (GRP) and CIMMYT seeks to improve climate resilience, food security and nutrition in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park by facilitating the adoption of sustainable practices and giving local farmers access to formal markets and improved value chains.

The partner organizations aim to develop more resilient agrifood systems that contribute to conserve resources and improve the livelihoods of farmers inhabiting the protected area in Mozambique’s Sofala Province.

“Our primary objective is to establish an evidence-based, scalable and replicable model for developing sustainable and resilient agrifood systems in Mozambique that enhance food and nutrition security and climate resilience of local farmers and communities,” said Gregory C. Carr, GRP President.

Gregory C. Carr (left) with Bram Govaerts. (Photo: Ricardo Curiel/CIMMYT)

The parties will explore collaboration opportunities to give local farmers access to drought tolerant and disease resistant varieties and improved seeds by building capacities of local seed systems.

“We are very excited to contribute to protect Gorongosa National Park by restoring soil health, accelerating a transition to resilience and sustainability and improving, as a result, the yields and living standards of local farming communities,” said Bram Govaerts, Director General at CIMMYT.

The new projects will also aim to promote agriculture conservation-based intensification practices that will increase yields sustainably and limit the expansion of the agricultural frontier in the buffer zone neighboring the protected area.

“If you bring two world class organizations together and create critical mass, it is possible to succeed and show that agriculture is not the enemy of biodiversity,” said the U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security, Cary Fowler.

Gregory C. Carr (left), Cary Fowler and Bram Govaerts sign a Memorandum of Understanding. (Photo: Ricardo Curiel/CIMMYT)

The 5-year Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the annual Borlaug Dialogue organized by the World Food Prize Foundation, which convenes international thought leaders, development specialists, researchers, farmers, practitioners and authorities from around the world to promote global food systems transformation and food security.

Under this year’s “Harnessing Change” theme, the Foundation presented the prestigious World Food Prize to Heidi Kühn from the United States for her farmer-focused development model that revitalizes farmland, food security, livelihoods and resilience in war-torn regions around the world as a way for restoring peace and prosperity through agriculture.

About GRP

Gorongosa Restoration Project is a poverty alleviation, sustainable development and conservation non-profit organization used by Gorongosa National Park as a development engine for the Sofala region. GRP is a unique organization, with a mission to advance an integrated, multi-partner approach to conservation and people-centered development. While GRP actively protects Gorongosa National Park’s biodiversity and ecosystems, it also strives to unlock its economic potential for the community inhabitants of the Park’s Buffer Zone, former hunting and forestry concessions, Sofala Province and further afield. GRPs dual mandate of biodiversity conservation and human development is undergirded by the principle that the quest for conservation is a human-nature dynamic that must be addressed holistically. This axiom is increasingly supported by conservation science as well as by GRP’s 15 years of experience in the field.

About CIMMYT

CIMMYT is a cutting edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow’s problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers, while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries.

CIMMYT is a core CGIAR Research Center, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security and improving natural resources.

For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.

Press contact: Ricardo Curiel, Communications Manager to the Director General, CIMMYT, r.curiel@cgiar.org

Wheat fields in Kostanay, Kazakhstan. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)

Experts analyze the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on global food and energy systems

Written by Ricardo Curiel on April 22, 2022. Posted in News.

A panel of experts convened by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on April 13, 2022, discussed the effects that the Russia-Ukraine war could have on global supply chains of critical resources including staple crops, oil and natural gas, and strategic minerals.

Bram Govaerts, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), joined three experts representing a security consulting firm, a mining investment company and the academic sector. They analyzed the complex ramifications of the armed conflict and put forward policy recommendations to mitigate its impact on global food and energy systems.

“We have immediate action to take in order to boost the production of crops with fewer resources available, such as fertilizers,” Govaerts said, reflecting on how to help food-insecure countries in the Middle East and North Africa that import most of their wheat supplies from the Black Sea region. “We also need to look at where we are going to be supplied with alternate sources,” he added.

Govaerts took this opportunity to position Agriculture for Peace, the CIMMYT-led call for secure, stable and long-term investment in agricultural research for development, to transform global food systems by shifting their focus from efficiency to resilience.

More information: System Shock: Russia’s War and Global Food, Energy, and Mineral Supply Chains

Mexico’s seed producers honor CIMMYT work to breed and spread high-yield maize

Written by Ricardo Curiel on December 7, 2021. Posted in News.

CIMMYT director general Bram Govaerts (left) presents during the AMSAC award ceremony in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. (Photo: Ricardo Curiel/CIMMYT)

The Association of Mexican Seed Producers (Asociación Mexicana de Semilleros, A.C., or AMSAC) gave the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) its annual Cesár Garza Award for work by MasAgro (Crops for Mexico), a project that develops and spreads high-yielding, climate resilient maize and improved farming practices in Mexico. MasAgro is operated by CIMMYT and Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER).

“We unanimously selected CIMMYT for having established an effective and inclusive network of some 100 Mexican testing sites to generate and spread hybrid seed adapted to the country’s diverse agro-ecologies,” said José Luis Gastelum Careaga, president of the governing council of AMSAC, a group of more than 70 seed companies.

The award ceremony took place in Playa del Carmen, in Mexico’s Quintano Roo state, on November 4, 2021.

CIMMYT breeding research is behind the development of 70 new maize hybrids released in Mexico by dozens of small- and intermediate-scale seed companies, helping to double the maize yields of farmers who adopt them, according to Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT director general and leader of the Center’s work in MasAgro.

“AMSAC’s recognition comes at a crucial time, when public support for crop breeding, seed systems, and capacity building are more urgent than ever in the face of climate change and increased, pandemic-related food insecurity,” Govaerts said. “We’ll leverage this prestigious award and our strong partnership with AMSAC members to move toward an improved and more widespread version of MasAgro’s integrated approach for transforming Mexico’s cereal crop farming systems.”

Propelling public-private partnerships

CIMMYT director general Bram Govaerts (right) collects the Cesár Garza Award given to the MasAgro (Crops for Mexico) project. (Photo: Ricardo Curiel/CIMMYT)

Taking advantage of CIMMYT training and breeding lines, Mexican seed producers working with MasAgro have boosted their maize seed sales 33% — or 4.6% yearly — during 2011–20, Govaerts said.

This and the recent award illustrate CIMMYT’s success at sharing improved maize through powerful, decades-long partnerships with public and private entities. Small- and medium-scale seed companies have benefitted from access to CIMMYT breeding lines, technical support, business model training, and Center participation in efforts to foster competitive seed markets, according to a recently published book documenting 50 years of maize research by CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Both centers are members of CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network.

“The increased number and market share of [small- and medium-scale] maize seed companies in Mexico and sub-Saharan Africa in recent years are strongly linked to the availability of stable, stress tolerant inbreds from CGIAR programs,” the book’s executive summary states. “The annual production … of over 130,000 tons of seed of CGIAR-derived stress-tolerant hybrids in Africa by [small- and medium-scale enterprises] … has addressed an important gap in seed markets not being met by multi-national companies.”

In 2015 more than a third of the area in sub-Saharan Africa was sown to new varieties and hybrids derived from CIMMYT and IITA breeding research, and adoption has accelerated since then, generating from $0.66 to 1.05 billion each year in economic benefits, according to a 2021 study.

As part of CIMMYT partnerships with large, multi-national seed companies, the Center has obtained royalty-free licenses to use proprietary technology and maize hybrids in specific areas of Africa, focusing on small-scale farmers. These partnerships, as well as similar agreements with advanced public research institutes, have fostered more widespread application for tropical maize of tools such as genomic selection, database software, and doubled haploids.

In Asia, building on collaborations from as far back as the 1960s, CIMMYT launched a maize improvement consortium in 2010 involving 25 mostly small- and medium-scale seed companies. For a modest annual fee to fund consortium management, members have access to early- and advanced-generation CIMMYT inbred lines and trait donors, as well as support services for hybrid development. This model has subsequently been copied in Mexico and in eastern and southern Africa (17 companies).

“CIMMYT science and support for maize and wheat farming systems span more than six decades and have brought impressive, well documented impacts in improved harvests and food security for those who grow and consume these globally-critical staple crops,” Govaerts said. “On behalf of the Center, I would like to recognize and thank those who fund our work, and especially the hundreds of skilled and committed partners without whom our efforts would not be possible.”

2021 GAP Report endorses CIMMYT’s integrated agri-food systems methodology

Written by Ricardo Curiel on December 6, 2021. Posted in News.

The 2021 Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report warns that farmers and food workers globally face the intimidating challenge of producing food sustainably in a degrading environment. The global economic slowdown and climate change are making the situation even more difficult.

This year’s report, titled Strengthening the Climate for Sustainable Agricultural Growth, argues that “accelerating productivity growth at all scales of production is imperative to meet the needs of consumers and address current and future threats to human and environmental well-being.”

The report, produced by Virginia Tech, was presented at the 2021 Borlaug Dialogue, part of the World Food Prize events.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) public–private partnership model for the Integrated Agri-food Systems Initiative (IASI) contributes to one of six key strategies that accelerate productivity growth, according to the 2021 GAP Report.

“Our integrated methodology engages farmers in participatory research and innovation efforts, effectively improving small-scale systems,” said Bram Govaerts, director general of CIMMYT. “This results-backed strategy bridges yield gaps and builds resilience to the effects of climate change, with the main objective of giving access to enhanced nutrition and new market opportunities.”

The skillset and cumulative knowledge of small farmers worldwide shapes CIMMYT’s integrated development projects.

“The Integrated Agri-food Systems Initiative (IASI) is designed to generate strategies, actions and quantitative, Sustainable-Development-Goals-aligned targets that have a significant livelihood of supportive public and private investment,” concludes the GAP Report.

The report argues that technology itself does not boost productivity and resilience. Instead, “partnerships play an important role in enhancing human capital: a set of skills and knowledge by producers and others in the agricultural value chain are essential in a time of pandemics.”

An example of best practice

Written by Ricardo Curiel on July 23, 2021. Posted in News.

A MasAgro-supported farmer in Mexico holds up a selection of maize varieties. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is contributing to make Mexico’s agriculture more productive, sustainable and resilient, according to a new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit and Barilla Foundation.

The study focuses on food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture, and nutritional challenges to assess how sustainable and resilient are the food systems of the 20 largest and most advanced economies of the world, which could lead the way to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

“Fixing Food 2021: An opportunity for G20 countries to lead the way” argues that global food systems are instrumental to meet all SDGs, and seeks to answer if and how G20 countries are making food sustainability a priority.

The authors discuss the intricacies between national food systems and progress towards SDGs as a cross-cutting issue: “The challenge for the agricultural sectors in the G20 countries is to make their production processes more efficient so that they are growing sufficient food for their populations and their exporters, but doing so in a way that is decoupled from resource use, repairs the damage that has already been done to the planet, helps to raise nutritional standards, and in the wake of the pandemic, rebuilds our resilience to the emergence of diseases.”

Against this backdrop, the data systems of CIMMYT’s MasAgro project are identified as an innovation or best practice that helps cut agriculture’s carbon footprint in Mexico. Under Masagro, CIMMYT monitors over 150,000 farmers and more than 500 variables of the growing cycle per farming plot.

“Farmers can then access data analysis via an app which provides them with a range of information to help them improve productivity, use more sustainable practices and access markets,” the report states.

Women farmers in Mexico attend a MasAgro field day. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The authors conclude that G20 leaders still have a narrow opportunity to adopt a systems approach to reducing food loss and waste, mitigating the impact of food production on the environment, and increasing the nutritional content of global diets to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

However, the policy responses needed to trigger a transformational change in global food systems require political will and leadership. “Involving different stakeholders in improving the sustainability of agriculture is key, according to Bram Govaerts of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT),” reads the report.

Agricultural knowledge management framework for innovation (AKM4I) in agri-food systems. (Graphic: CIMMYT)

A knowledge revolution

Written by Ricardo Curiel on March 12, 2021. Posted in News.

The key to transforming food production systems globally lies in knowledge management processes, according to a team of researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

The challenge is to combine traditional knowledge with state-of-the-art scientific research: to meet regional needs for improvement in farming systems with knowledge networks fostering innovative practices and technologies that increase yields and profits sustainably.

A group of CIMMYT researchers led by Andrea Gardeazábal, Information and Communications Technology for Agriculture Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, recently published a proposal for a new knowledge management framework for agri-food innovation systems: Agricultural Knowledge Management for Innovation (AKM4I).

“We are proposing a knowledge management framework for agricultural innovation that addresses the need for more inclusive and environmentally sustainable food production systems that are able to provide farmers and consumers with affordable and healthy diets within planetary boundaries,” Gardeazábal said.

The AKM4I framework was designed to help agricultural development practitioners understand how farming skills and abilities are developed, tested and disseminated to improve farming systems in real-life conditions.

Following systems theory principles, the model empirically describes how information is created, acquired, stored, analyzed, integrated and shared to advance farming knowledge and produce innovative outcomes that effectively contribute to: collaboratively building local capacities for developing joint problem-solving abilities and integrated-knowledge solutions; empowering farmers with site-specific knowledge; co-creating technology and conducting participatory community-based research; and bridging innovation barriers to drive institutional change.

Knowledge access for systems transformation

Schematic illustration of CIMMYT's knowledge and technology development networks, or hubs, for sustainable maize and wheat production systems. (Graphic: CIMMYT) — Schematic illustration of CIMMYT’s knowledge and technology development networks, or hubs, for sustainable maize and wheat production systems. (Graphic: CIMMYT)

The framework builds on CIMMYT’s learnings from MasAgro, a bilateral project with Mexico that relies on participatory research and knowledge and technology development networks for sustainable maize and wheat production systems.

This CIMMYT project was recently acknowledged with the 2020 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award for developing groundbreaking monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) systems and tools for publicly funded researchers and field technicians who advise more than 150,000 farmers in Mexico.

“Through the outlined principles and processes, the AKM4I framework can assist in closing the cycle of continually re-creating knowledge, evaluating and iterating upon innovations, building coalitions to democratize knowledge access and utilization, and using MEAL to facilitate course-correction of all stages of knowledge management,” concludes the study.

Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Director General for Research and Integrated Development Program Director, believes the AKM4I framework should be the cornerstone of agri-food systems transformation, including the current reformation of CGIAR’s partnerships, knowledge, assets, and global presence.

“The MasAgro hub and knowledge management model will become the operational model of many regional initiatives of CGIAR,” Govaerts said.

Read the study:
Knowledge management for innovation in agri-food systems: a conceptual framework

Agriculture for Peace: A call to action to avert a global food crisis

Written by Ricardo Curiel on December 14, 2020. Posted in News.

Norman Borlaug teaches a group of young trainees in the field in Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)

50 years ago, the late Norman Borlaug received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for averting famine by increasing wheat yield potential and delivering improved varieties to farmers in South Asia. He was the first Nobel laureate in food production and is widely known as “the man who saved one billion lives.”

In the following decades, Borlaug continued his work from the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), a non-profit research-for-development organization funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the governments of Mexico and the United States.

CIMMYT became a model for a future network of publicly-funded organizations with 14 research centers: CGIAR. Today, CGIAR is led by Marco Ferrroni, who describes it as a global research partnership that “continues to be about feeding the world sustainably with explicit emphasis on nutrition, the environment, resource conservation and regeneration, and equity and inclusion.”

Norman Borlaug’s fight against hunger has risen again to the global spotlight in the wake of the most severe health and food security crises of the 21^st Century. “The Nobel Peace Prizes to Norman Borlaug and the World Food Programme are very much interlinked,” said Kjersti Flogstad, Executive Director of the Oslo-based Nobel Peace Center. “They are part of a long tradition of awarding [the prize] to humanitarian work, also in accordance with the purpose [Alfred] Nobel expressed in his last will: to promote fraternity among nations.”

During welcome remarks at the virtual 50-year commemoration of Norman Borlaug’s Nobel Peace Prize on December 8, 2020, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, warned that “for the first time in many years since Borlaug defeated hunger in Southeast Asia, millions of people are at risk of starvation in several regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

According to CIMMYT’s Director General Martin Kropff, celebrating Norman Borlaug’s legacy should also lead to renewed investments in the CGIAR system. “A report on the payoff of investing in CGIAR research published in October 2020 shows that CIMMYT’s return on investment (ROI) exceeds a benefit-cost ratio of 10 to 1, with median ROI rates for wheat research estimated at 19 and for maize research at 12.”

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Department echoed the call to invest in Agriculture for Peace. “The Government of Mexico, together with the Nobel Peace Center and CIMMYT, issues a joint call to action to overcome the main challenges to human development in an international system under pressure from conflict, organized crime, forced migration and climate change,” said Martha Delgado, Mexico’s Under Secretary of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.

Norman Borlaug sits on a tractor next to field technicians in Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The event called for action against the looming food crises through the transformation of food systems, this time with an emphasis on nutrition, environment and equality. Speakers included experts from CGIAR, CIMMYT, Conservation International, Mexico’s Agriculture and Livestock Council, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Food Programme (WFP), among others. Participants discussed the five action tracks of the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit: (1) ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all; (2) shift to sustainable consumption patterns; (3) boost nature-positive production; (4) advance equitable livelihoods; and, (5) build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses.

“This event underlines the need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation in the situation the world is facing today,” said Norway’s Ambassador to Mexico, Rut Krüger, who applauded CIMMYT’s contribution of 170,000 maize and wheat seeds to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. “This number reflects the global leadership position of CIMMYT in the development of maize and wheat strains.”

Norman Borlaug’s famous words — “take it to the farmer” — advocated for swift agricultural innovation transfers to the field; Julie Borlaug, president of the Borlaug Foundation, said the Agriculture for Peace event should inspire us to also “take it to the public.”

“Agriculture cannot save the world alone,” she said. “We also need sound government policies, economic programs and infrastructure.”

CIMMYT’s Deputy Director General for Research and Partnerships, and Integrated Development Program Director Bram Govaerts, called on leaders, donors, relief and research partners to form a global coalition to transform food systems. “We must do a lot more to avert a hunger pandemic, and even more to put the world back on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.”

CIMMYT’s host country has already taken steps in this direction with the Crops for Mexico project, which aims to improve the productivity of several crops essential to Mexico’s food security, including maize and wheat. “This model is a unique partnership between the private, public and social sectors that focuses on six crops,” said Mexico’s Private Sector Liaison Officer Alfonso Romo. “We are very proud of its purpose, which is to benefit over one million smallholder households.”

The call stresses the need for sustainable and inclusive rural development. “It is hard to imagine the distress, frustration and fear that women feel when they have no seeds to plant, no grain to store and no income to buy basic foodstuffs to feed their children,” said Nicole Birrell, Chair of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees. “We must make every effort to restore food production capacities and to transform agriculture into productive, profitable, sustainable and, above all, equitable food systems worldwide.”

2020 World Food Prize recognizes career devoted to fight hunger and climate change through soil conservation

Written by Ricardo Curiel on October 14, 2020. Posted in News.

The World Food Prize Foundation is honoring the work of Rattan Lal, who dedicated his life to study the effect of soil health in food production and climate change mitigation. On October 15 he will receive the 2020 World Food Prize, considered the “Nobel Prize” of agriculture.

Lal, who serves as distinguished professor of Soil Science and founding director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University, is a visionary who understood the intricate relationship between soil conservation, yield potential, nutrition and carbon sequestration.

“Dr. Lal’s innovative research demonstrated how healthy soils are a crucial component of sustainable agricultural intensification — enabling higher crop yields, while requiring less land, agrochemicals, tillage, water and energy”, announced the World Food Prize Foundation in a press release.

Lal becomes the 50^th person to receive the World Food Prize since the late Norman Borlaug — 1970 Nobel Peace Prize laureate — established the award in 1987. The award acknowledges outstanding contributions to human development by individuals who significantly improve the quality, quantity and availability of food on a global scale.

“CIMMYT actively researches and promotes the sustainable farming practices that Dr. Lal studied and advocated for since the late 1980s, such as no tillage, residue retention and crop rotation, which combined with new precision farming technologies help farmers increase yields, reduce food production costs and protect the environment”, said Bram Govaerts, Integrated Development director and representative for the Americas at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

The World Food Prize has a long association with CIMMYT. Sanjaya Rajaram was awarded the 2014 World Food Prize for his work that led to a prodigious increase in world wheat production. Evangelina Villegas and Surinder Vasal were awarded the 2000 World Food Prize for their work on productivity and nutritional content of maize. Bram Govaerts received the Norman Borlaug Field Award in 2014. As an institution, CIMMYT received the Norman Borlaug Field Medallion in 2014.

CIMMYT researcher Bram Govaerts participates in the World Food Prize and Borlaug Dialogue.

Leading US agronomy organization awards fellowship to CIMMYT agri-food systems expert

Written by Ricardo Curiel on October 6, 2020. Posted in News.

The director of the Integrated Development program and Representative for the Americas at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Bram Govaerts, has been elected as Fellow by the leading professional organization of agronomists in the United States.

The American Society of Agronomy (ASA) presented this award to Govaerts for his outstanding contributions to the field of agronomy.

“His initiatives, excellence in science for impact and the partnerships he inspired have resulted in improved nutrition, nature conservation, and national and international resilience and food security”, announced the ASA in a news release.

Being an ASA Fellow is the highest honor offered by the organization, with only 0.3% of active and emeritus members holding this distinction.

The awarding body recognized Govaerts as an international authority in maize and wheat cropping systems who works for a successful transition to sustainable intensification of small-scale farming in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Bram Govaerts (third from right) with the members of management committee of the Río Fuerte Sur Farmer Association (AARFS) (Photo: José Saucedo)

“Bram engages from the field in a remote village all the way up to the office of the president, and from livelihoods and social inclusion to science and business development, in a tireless effort to generate systems change creating sustainable agri-food systems for nutrition, nature conservation and peace,” said Sanjay Rajaram, ASA Fellow, 2014 World Food Prize Laureate, distinguished scientist and retired CIMMYT Wheat Program director, who nominated Govaerts to the ASA’s Fellows Committee.

“I am honored and grateful for receiving this award which shows, above all, that CIMMYT stands for impact and sound science that saves millions of lives, a duty to humanity that we must never compromise,” Govaerts said.

Born in Belgium, Govaerts studied Bioscience Engineering at K.U. Leuven, where he earned a master’s degree in the same subject with specialization in Soil Conservation and Tropical Agriculture. Research stays in Ethiopia and Mexico sparked his interest in sustainable intensification of small-scale farming systems. He achieved a doctoral degree in Bioscience Engineering – Soil Science, also from K.U. Leuven.

Govaerts cut his teeth as cropping systems expert at CIMMYT, where he progressed from post-doctoral fellow to his current position. He received the Norman Borlaug Field Award in 2014 from the World Food Prize Foundation. Govaerts has co-authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications. He is a member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network on Data and Statistics (TReNDS) for the Sustainable Development Goals and A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

50 years building peace through agriculture

Written by Ricardo Curiel on September 22, 2020. Posted in Videos.

On December 10, 1970, the former chair of the Nobel Committee, Aase Lionaes, called Norman Borlaug to receive the Nobel Peace Prize arguing, “He has given us a well-founded hope, an alternative of peace and of life — the Green Revolution.”

From that moment, Borlaug became known as “the man who saved one billion lives” from famine and as “the father of the Green Revolution.” Borlaug started a pivotal process in the 20^th century, characterized by the development of high-yielding new wheat and maize varieties from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

“Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world,” Borlaug said during his acceptance speech or Nobel Lecture almost 50 years ago. The scientist, credited for coining the phrase “You can’t build peace on empty stomachs,” became the world’s most acknowledged advocate of the right to food.

The Nobel Peace Center, the government of Mexico — through its Embassy in Oslo, Norway — and CIMMYT remembered Norman Borlaug’s legacy to commemorate the International Day of Peace on September 21. Established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, this day calls to halt all forms of violence for 24 hours and to strengthen the ideals of peace, including Sustainable Development Goal number 2, ‘zero hunger.’

“Dr. Borlaug’s impact is an example of international cooperation for us to learn from and build the future,” said Ulises Canchola Gutiérrez, Mexico’s Ambassador to Norway, in the video Borlaug’s legacy: Agriculture for Peace #PeaceDay 2020.

According to the Nobel Peace Center, “Dr. Norman Borlaug’s work is one of the greatest achievements for humankind.” On a similar note, CIMMYT’s director general, Martin Kropff, noted that “Peace lies in the hands of those who cultivate the land. We can build peace through agriculture.”

CIMMYT carries on Borlaug’s legacy by implementing integrated strategic development projects that aim to transform food production units into sustainable, resilient and healthy agri-food systems. For that reason, CIMMYT issued a call to form an international coalition to tackle the current crisis and avert a new food crisis.

“Norman Borlaug led the charge in the war against hunger more than 50 years ago; let us learn from this experience, let us do it again together by listening to the current crisis and by developing a matching transformative answer to overcome today’s challenges and shortcomings,” said Bram Govaerts, director of CIMMYT’s Integrated Development program and representative for the Americas.

Mexico’s agriculture secretary calls for an integrated approach to reach the Sustainable Development Goals

Written by Ricardo Curiel on October 18, 2019. Posted in News.

“CIMMYT is the center with the most effective maize and wheat breeding programs in the world,” said Víctor Villalobos, Mexico’s Agriculture and Rural Development secretary, during his keynote address at the Borlaug Dialogue. (Photo: Mary Donovan/CIMMYT)

Víctor Villalobos, Mexico’s Agriculture and Rural Development secretary, delivered a keynote speech about the inextricable links between agriculture, forced migration and peace at the Borlaug Dialogue hosted in Des Moines, Iowa, by the World Food Prize Foundation.

Villalobos argued for adopting an integrated development approach to improve food production systems in the developing world, particularly in the Northern Triangle of Central America, with an aim to offer development opportunities to subsistence farmers and help halt forced migration.

“Any lasting answer to environmental degradation, violence, famine and forced migration demands our best collective effort, which is not the fight of one generation but the lasting legacy of Norman Borlaug, and of anybody who has ever engaged in this Borlaug Dialogue,” he said.

According to Villalobos, who is also honorary chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico is committed to investing in innovation, science and research to make whole grains farming more sustainable and profitable. Among other initiatives, Mexico is scaling out a sustainable research and development project between Mexico and CIMMYT called MasAgro.

“We believe that MasAgro’s innovation hubs, integrated crop production systems and design thinking approach to sustainably increasing the productivity of traditional farming methods can really help to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals that all countries are committed to achieve by 2030,” said Villalobos.

In 2014, the World Food Prize Foundation acknowledged the achievements of the MasAgro project by granting Bram Govaerts — currently CIMMYT’s Integrated Development Program director and representative for the Americas — the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation.

MasAgro’s model has since earned recognition from several international development organizations, funding agencies and governments, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the G20, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The theme of the 2019 Borlaug Dialogue was “Peace through Agriculture,” and the winner of the 2019 World Food Prize was Simon Groot, founder of the East-West Seed Company, which commercializes improved vegetable seeds in more than 60 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America at affordable prices for the benefit of subsistence and small farmers.

The World Food Prize has a long association with CIMMYT. Sanjaya Rajaram was awarded the 2014 World Food Prize for his work that led to a prodigious increase in world wheat production. Evangelina Villegas and Surinder Vasal were awarded the 2000 World Food Prize for their work on productivity and nutritional content of maize. As an institution, CIMMYT received the Norman Borlaug Field Medallion in 2014.

Surveyors in Mexico collect data from farmers. (Photo: CIMMYT)

UN-sponsored report acknowledges CIMMYT’s use of data and technologies to promote sustainable farming in Latin America

Written by Ricardo Curiel on September 24, 2019. Posted in News.

CIMMYT’s projects in Latin America feature in a new report that aims to help countries use data to design public policies and projects that help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

The Counting on The World to Act report was released on September 23, 2019, by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (TReNDS) during the 74^th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 74) in New York City.

The report describes CIMMYT’s data management systems and tools as examples of “frontier technologies” for data gathering, management and analysis that effectively contribute to sustainable farming in Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.

“As part of the data revolution, efficiencies are being derived from lower-tech approaches such as using citizen-generated data and smartphones to speed up existing survey-based approaches,” reads the introduction to CIMMYT’s sidebar story in Chapter 4, Incentives for Innovation.

The MasAgro Electronic Log that field technicians use to monitor crop cycles and management practices, and the AgroTutor application that offers farmers more specific and timely recommendations are some of the new affordable tools for data management that CIMMYT is successfully implementing in Latin America.

Read the full report on the TReNDS website.

Read more about MasAgro’s work for sustainable farming in Latin America here.

Cornell University appoints Bram Govaerts as Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large

Written by Ricardo Curiel on July 12, 2019. Posted in News.

Expertise, multiple achievements and a significant contribution to sustainable agri-food systems in Mexico and globally, have merited Bram Govaerts, director of the Integrated Development Program and regional representative for the Americas at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Cornell University’s appointment as Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large. This is a distinction granted to individuals whose work in science, education, social sciences, literature and creative arts has had great impact and international visibility.

Cornell University launched the Professors-at-Large program to commemorate its centenary and to honor its first president, Andrew D. White. The program secures a connection between the university and its faculty with the world, global issues, great thinkers and outstanding intellectuals. Since then, personalities such as philosopher Jacques Derrida, writer and poet Octavio Paz, geneticist M. S. Swaminathan, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Norman Borlaug have received this distinction.

“I was honored to learn about my nomination and glad to be interviewed, but I was happily surprised and humbled to learn that I had been chosen to join this group of distinguished thinkers and artists, which has welcomed such outstanding members as Norman Borlaug and Octavio Paz,” said Govaerts.

Professors-at-Large take the responsibility to participate, over a six-year period, in several activities that strengthen the international academic community and are, afterwards, considered distinguished and lifetime members of the university.

Govaerts takes inspiration from the “take it to the farmer” vision, and has been instrumental to the development of CIMMYT’s project portfolio, which integrates innovations in maize and wheat production systems by minimizing their environmental impact.

Govaerts shares this acknowledgement with his team and collaborators who have joined efforts to achieve the objectives set in Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico and many other countries that have taken the decision to make a difference.

In 2014, Bram Govaerts received from the World Food Prize Foundation the Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation, for leading the MasAgro project and finding innovative ways of applying science to improve the productivity and resilience of small and medium-sized maize and wheat farmers in Mexico.

From left to right: Fabrice DeClerck, Science Director at the EAT Foundation; Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, Mexico’s Undersecretary for Prevention and Promotion of Health; Teresa Shamah Levy, Deputy Director General for Evaluation and Surveys Research at Mexico’s Public Health Institute; Jorge Alcocer Varela, Mexico’s Secretary of Health; Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture; Bram Govaerts, Director of Innovative Business Strategies at CIMMYT; Rut Krüger Giverin, Norway’s Ambassador to Mexico; Juan Ángel Rivera Dommarco, Director General of Mexico’s Public Health Institute; and Olav Kjørven, Chief Strategic Officer at the EAT Foundation. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Farmers key to realizing EAT-Lancet report recommendations in Mexico, CIMMYT highlights

Written by Ricardo Curiel on March 7, 2019. Posted in News.

CIMMYT's director of innovative business strategies, Bram Govaerts (left), explained that three changes are needed to reduce the environmental impact of food systems in Mexico: innovation in production practices, reduction of food waste, and change of diets. (Photo: CIMMYT) — CIMMYT’s director of innovative business strategies, Bram Govaerts (left), explained that three changes are needed to reduce the environmental impact of food systems in Mexico: innovation in production practices, reduction of food waste, and change of diets. (Photo: CIMMYT)

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) — The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) was invited to discuss the findings of the EAT-Lancet Commission report and its implications for Mexico, during a launch event hosted by Mexico’s Health Department on March 4, 2019.

The report, published earlier this year, aims to offer an in-depth scientific analysis of the world’s food production systems and their impact on the planet and human health. It proposes a “planetary health diet” that balances nutrition with sustainable food production.

“Our first objective was to develop healthy diets for the 10 billion people who will inhabit the planet in 2050”, said Juan Ángel Rivera Dommarco, Director General of Mexico’s Public Health Institute and member of the EAT-Lancet Commission. According to Dommarco, the healthy diet recommended for Mexico had to increase the intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains to avert chronic diseases and combat malnutrition and obesity.

The report also makes several recommendations to reduce the environmental impact of food production, taking into account planetary boundaries. “The world needs to sustainably intensify food production and to produce basic foodstuffs of higher nutritional value”, said Fabrice DeClerck, EAT’s Science Director.

“If anybody is able to manage the complex systems that will sustainably yield the volume of nutritious food that the world needs, that’s the farmer”, said Bram Govaerts, Director of Innovative Business Strategies at CIMMYT. “In Mexico, more than 500 thousand farmers already innovate every day and grow maize, wheat and related crops under sustainable intensification practices that CIMMYT and Mexico’s Agriculture Department promote with MasAgro”.

Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, said that the EAT-Lancet Commission report recommendations were very much in line with the strategic public policies that Mexico plans to implement in the coming years.

Matthew Reynolds joins the Mexican Academy of Sciences

Written by Ricardo Curiel on November 16, 2018. Posted in News.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Mexico’s most prestigious scientific association has welcomed Matthew Reynolds among its regular members after accepting the nomination presented by fellow member, Alfonso Larqué Saavedra from the Yucatan Scientific Research Center.

The Mexican Academy of Sciences is an independent and not-for-profit association formed by acknowledged scientists working in both Mexican and international organizations. Its main objective is to offer expert advice to address the most pressing issues and challenges confronting Mexico’s government and civil society.

“I am deeply honoured to be recognized by the Academy,” Reynolds said. “Mexico has a proud tradition of scientific achievements including those of its pre-Hispanic civilizations, and not least in crop science. It is my hope that I can continue to contribute to Mexican agriculture and capacity building, especially in helping to buffer the effects of climate change. I am also very grateful for my long association with Professor Larqué Saavedra with whom I jointly supervised my first Mexican graduate student at Colpos and who nominated me for this position.”

*CIMMYT scientist Matthew Reynolds has been appointed a member of the Mexican Academy of Science.*

Reynolds is a Wheat Physiologist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). His leadership of the Wheat component of the MasAgro project strengthened his nomination to the Academy. In this capacity, he has overseen the publication of 32 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals that account for the progress achieved in the development of new high-yielding and resilient wheat varieties for Mexico and for other wheat-growing regions in the developing world.

Since 2011, MasAgro Trigo has characterized 71 thousand wheat lines in field trials designed to test yield potential under severe stress caused by heat and drought conditions. As a result, Reynolds and his team have formed the Wheat Yield Collaboration Yield Trial and the Stress Adaptive Traits Yield Nursery, two panels of elite lines that yield more grain in high temperatures and under limited water supply. Mexico’s agricultural research system INIFAP has recently incorporated 42 elite lines from these nurseries into its wheat-breeding program.

Reynolds has also mentored 12 Mexican students who have undertaken postgraduate studies under the supervision of renowned wheat scientists in American, Australian, British, Chilean and Spanish universities. Eight students have already achieved a PhD degree in different areas of wheat research. This new generation of scientists will further contribute to promote science and research in Mexico, one of the Academy’s main objectives.