Meeting was held in the Indian holy city of Varanasi during 27 February to 01 March 2012. It was organized jointly by Banaras Hindu University (BHU), HarvestPlus, and CIMMYT to discuss wheat biofortification research outputs and future plans. The meeting was attended by about 40 scientists, including Hans Braun, Ravi Singh, Kevin Pixley, Velu Govindan, Etienne Duveiller, Arun Joshi, and Iván Ortiz-Monasterio from CIMMYT, along with participants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, HarvestPlus, the Indian national agricultural research system, the private sector, and more than 200 farmers from the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh.
This meeting was inaugurated by the Honorable Vice-Chancellor of BHU, Dr Lalji Singh, which he followed by a meeting with the press. He honored CIMMYT distinguished scientist Ravi Singh as BHU’s greatest alumnus for his ongoing efforts in developing improved bread wheat varieties that are grown across the world. Standing out in a week of fruitful meetings, the highlight for many was the farmer field day on 29 February, during which more than 200 farmers participated in discussions and expressed their interest in CIMMYT-derived biofortified wheat varieties.
