The Fast Tracking Climate Solutions from CGIAR Germplasm Banks project, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is expanding the use of common bean and maize biodiversity, held in trust for humanity in the genebanks of CGIAR, to develop the raw ingredients of new climate-smart crop varieties for small-scale farmers in the Northern Triangle: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Aligned with, and building upon the Mining Useful Alleles for Climate Change Adaptation from CGIAR Genebanks project, this project aims to identify common bean accessions in genebanks that contain alleles, or gene variations, responsible for characteristics such as heat, drought or salt tolerance, and to facilitate their use in breeding climate-resilient crop varieties. Additionally, within the maize work, the project focuses on transferring valuable novel genetic variation identified from landraces under the aligned project into breeding materials suitable for variety development in the Northern Triangle.
Through this project, breeders will learn how to use genebank materials more effectively and efficiently to develop climate-smart versions of important food crops.
Building on ten years of support to CIMMYT from the Mexican government, CGIAR Trust Fund contributors, the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and the ongoing Mining Useful Alleles for Climate Change Adaptation from CGIAR Genebanks project, this project combines the use of cutting-edge technologies and approaches, high-performance computing, GIS mapping, and new plant breeding methods to identify and use accessions with high value for climate-adaptive breeding of varieties needed by farmers and consumers.
Objectives:
- Support faster and more cost-effective discovery and deployment of climate-adaptive alleles from the world’s germplasm collections.
- Test integrated approaches for the rapid and cost-effective discovery and deployment of climate-adaptive alleles.
Climate adaptation and mitigation 
