CIMMYT has a longstanding partnership with India, spanning over six decades. Norman Borlaug visited India in 1963 and introduced Green Revolution technologies across the country in a significant, historic collaboration with the Government of India.
The partnership plays a pivotal role in developing improved wheat and maize varieties with climate smart and sustainable agricultural practices to meet newer challenges of climate change in economically fragile agroecosystems. CIMMYT’s presence in India formalized with the establishment of an office in 2001 which currently has 19 international and 144 national staff across Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Karnataka, and Telangana.
On 5 October 2011, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and CIMMYT launched the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) – a collaborative initiative dedicated to food, nutrition, livelihood, and environmental rehabilitation in South Asia.
Our impact
- More than 275 wheat varieties developed in the last 60 years, where CIMMYT lines were used as a parent or grandparent.
- CIMMYT, along with ICAR, CCAFS (CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security), and BISA introduced the concept of climate-smart agriculture in close to 2,000 villages of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, and Haryana.
- CIMMYT facilitated capacity building for about 30,000 stakeholders in India. This includes more than 2,000 agriculture scientists across different institutions of India.
Climate adaptation and mitigation, Innovations