The CGIAR System Council approved a set of 11 Core Research Programmes (CRP) and three research platforms that will form the next generation of agricultural research for development led by the CGIAR Consortium.
The CRPs and platforms will focus on improving farmer incomes, food availability and resilience against climate change impacts in developing countries.
28 September 2016: The CGIAR System Council approved a set of 11 Core Research Programmes (CRP) and three research platforms that will form the next generation of agricultural research for development led by the CGIAR Consortium. The CRPs and platforms will focus on improving farmer incomes, food availability and resilience against climate change impacts in developing countries.
According to a CGIAR press release, the new research projects will be launched in January 2017 with specific funding allocations to be determined in November 2016. The research programme agenda builds on a growing record of the CGIAR as a source new agricultural technologies for poor farmers in developing countries. For instance, CGIAR cites a study showing that CGIAR-derived wheat varieties cover almost half of the area planted to wheat worldwide.
The new projects also continue to “retool” the CGIAR’s research portfolio towards addressing the challenges of eradicating huger under conditions of climate change and contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They can also build on existing CGIAR research that aims to improve resilience of poor farmers suffering the impacts of climate change. For example, ClimMob, a participatory research project led by Bioversity International, enables farmers to test locally adapted varieties in their fields while contributing to a collective data pool for research on the performance of the tested varieties. This “crowdsourcing” of data collection accelerates the search for varieties that can cope with impacts of climate change.
Another recent example is the ‘Smart Villages Initiative’ led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which provides renewable energy solutions to off-grid communities in India . Through micro- and multi-village grids farmers gain access to electricity sourced from solar, wind, hydro, biomass of hybrid generation facilities. Access to electricity is a key driver in the development of local agri-business, which can make local communities more resilient against economic or climate shocks. [CGIAR Press Release][Bioversity International Press Release][ICRISAT Press Release]