Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
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The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) was originally created at the initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, which had sponsored international meetings of agronomists at its Bellagio Conference Center in Lake Como, Italy, from 1968 onwards.
In 1970, foundation officials proposed a worldwide network of agricultural research centers under a permanent secretariat. This was further supported and developed by the World Bank; on May 19, 1971, with the FAO, IFAD and UNDP as co-sponsors, the CGIAR was established. By 1983 there were thirteen research centers around the world under its umbrella.[1] CGIAR now has 58 governmental and nongovernmental members and 15 research centres, called Future Harvest Centres.
At the time of its establishment there was widespread concern that developing countries would succumb to famine; the successes of the Green Revolution had started in Asia and the Pearson Commission on International Development had urged that the international community undertake "intensive international effort" to support "research specializing in food supplies and tropical agriculture". CGIAR was formed for the coordination of international agricultural research with the goals of poverty reduction and achieving food security in developing countries through agricultural research.
| Defunct Future Harvest Centres | Headquarters | Change |
|---|---|---|
| International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 1994: merged with ILRAD to become ILRI |
| International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) | Nairobi, Kenya | 1994: merged with ILCA to become ILRI |
| International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) | Montpellier, France | 1994: became a programme of Bioversity International |
| International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) | The Hague, Netherlands | 2004: dissolved, main programmes moved to IFPRI |
CGIAR also organises a number of inter-Center initiatives and Systemwide Programmes (SP), and Challenge Programmes (CP). The Initiatives and SPs cover cross-Center issues. The CPs are time-bound, independently-governed programs of high-impact research, executed in a partnership among a wide range of institutions. Currently there are three in operation: the Generations Challenge Programme, Harvest Plus and Water and Food.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Establishment of CGIAR - see Mark Dowie, American Foundations: An Investigative History, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001, (p.114)
