Americas
CIMMYT has several offices in the Americas, including global headquarters in Mexico and a regional office in Colombia. Activities are supported by an additional 140 hectares of stations in diverse agro-ecological zones of Mexico. CIMMYT’s genebank in Mexico stores 27,000 maize and 170,000 wheat seed collections – key to preserving the crop genetic diversity of the region. CIMMYT projects range from developing nutritionally enhanced maize to mapping regional climate change hot spots in Central America. The comprehensive MasAgro project aims to increase wheat production in Mexico by 9 million tons and maize production by 350,000 tons by 2030. CIMMYT promotes regional collaboration and facilitates capacity building for scientists, researchers and technicians.
Greenhouse technologies used to develop resilient maize and wheat varieties
Innovations
Source: Horti Daily (26 Aug 2021)
At CIMMYT’s experimental station in Toluca, Mexico, scientists use greenhouse technologies to develop improved varieties that boost production, prevent crop disease and improve smallholder farmers’ livelihood.
New CIMMYT maize hybrids available from Latin America breeding program
Innovations
CIMMYT is offering a new set of improved maize hybrids to partners, to scale up production for farmers in these areas.
Preventing and protecting against wheat blast
Environmental health and biodiversity
Cross-regional collaboration brings wheat blast protection to farmers in Bangladesh and Brazil.
11 Women You Didn’t Know Revolutionized the World of Science
Nutrition, health and food security
Source: HelloGiggles (9 Aug 2021)
A list of women leaders in STEM features Evangelina Villegas—a plant chemist at CIMMYT during its early days whose ground-breaking work on quality protein maize helped combat malnutrition among developing communities.
Genome-wide association study puts tan spot-resistant genes in the spotlight
Innovations
CIMMYT’s collaboration with scientists in Kazakhstan finds a new, promising source of genetic resistance to tan spot, a damaging wheat disease.
An example of best practice
Innovations
CIMMYT’s MasAgro project acknowledged for promoting sustainable agriculture in new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Bram Govaerts asume la dirección general del Centro International de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo
Source: Debate (17 Jul 2021)
Maíz: en equipo, locos por la genética
Environmental health and biodiversity
Source: La Nación (26 Jun 2021)
An article in La Nación praises the work of a number of research institutions, including CIMMYT, for their use of science and technology to develop hybrid maize lines adapted to the needs of farmers, markets and consumers.
Improve rural women’s financial access to help solve hunger
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion
Gender equity is one of the best solutions for hunger. Why? The numbers speak for themselves.
New integrated methodology supports inclusive and resilient global food systems transformation
Nutrition, health and food security
CGIAR centers present methodology for transforming resource-constrained, polluting and vulnerable farming into inclusive, sustainable and resilient food systems that deliver healthy and affordable diets for all within planetary boundaries.
Breaking Ground: Fatima Camarillo invests in education
Capacity development
Educator and researcher trains partners from around the world in CIMMYT’s unique wheat improvement course.
A view from above
Innovations
CIMMYT scientists use high-powered drones and space satellite imagery to accelerate crop improvement, fight pests and diseases and help farmers make better crop management decisions.
A challenge solved
Environmental health and biodiversity
Massive study of breeding lines across environments pinpoints genomic regions associated with yield potential and stress-resilience in bread wheat.
Four questions with CIMMYT’s Maize Genebank Curator
Environmental health and biodiversity
How to preserve and share the genetic biodiversity of maize.
A conservation conversation
Environmental health and biodiversity
In a Q&A, Thomas Payne reflects on how CIMMYT’s wheat genebank can be a model for maintaining biodiversity in agricultural systems.