5 December 2010: The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) officially launched its initiative on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) on 5 December 2010, during the Cancun Climate Change Conference.

The programme brings together research by CGIAR, the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and will be coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The initial three-year budget for CCAFS totals US$206 million. Field work is expected to begin in 2011, and will focus initially on East and West Africa as well as South Asia’s Indo-Gangetic Plain. The CCAFS partners will identify technologies and policies for adaptation and mitigation, refine models for predicting impacts of climate change on agriculture and livelihoods, and begin to select hardier crop varieties suitable for future climate conditions. The programme represents one of the CGIAR’s seven core research areas and is a component of recent CGIAR reform that represents a shift to a strategic priority- and results-driven research agenda. [CGIAR Blog] [CCAFS Website]