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.
Food Is Just as Vital as Oil to National Security
Nutrition, health and food security
Source: Bloomberg (7 Mar 2022)
A new Bloomberg op-ed urges nations to steer more money to organizations like CIMMYT that are advancing crucial research on how to grow more resilient wheat and maize crops in regions that are becoming steadily less arable.
CIMMYT scientist receives award for weed research
Environmental health and biodiversity
Ram Kanwar Malik named Honorary Member by the Weed Science Society of America for research on herbicide-resistant weed Phalaris minor affecting wheat crops.
CIMMYT deeply regrets the passing of leading agriculture and forestry research expert Barbara H. Wells
As Director General of the International Potato Center (CIP) and as CGIAR’s Global Director for Genetic Innovation, Wells helped improve the health and livelihoods of millions of people.
Luis Castillo Villaseñor
Plant breeding innovations
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Over millennia, natural selection and humans have systematically adapted the plant species that provide food and other vital products, changing their physical and genetic makeup for enhanced productivity, nutrition and resilience. Plant breeders apply science to continue improving crop varieties, making them more productive and better adapted to climate extremes, insects, drought and diseases.
Mexico’s seed producers honor CIMMYT work to breed and spread high-yield maize
Nutrition, health and food security
Seed producers association lauds the research and development support behind productive, resilient maize varieties and hybrids grown on more than one million hectares in Mexico.
2021 GAP Report endorses CIMMYT’s integrated agri-food systems methodology
Climate adaptation and mitigation
CIMMYT’s programs in Colombia and Mexico showcased as examples of successful public–private partnerships for sustainable agriculture, economic growth and improved nutrition.
A decade of world-leading maize and wheat research
Capacity development
Legacy websites and photo exhibition mark the closing of the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat, and their impact on sustainable agricultural development.
Bringing wild wheat’s untapped diversity into elite lines
Environmental health and biodiversity
Researchers hypothesized that many wild wheat accessions in genebanks feature useful traits that can help diversify breeding programs.
World-class laboratories and research fields to the service of Mexico and the world
Innovations
Representatives of the Carlos Slim Foundation and Mexico’s National Agriculture Council (CNA) agree on the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors, civil society and research organizations like CIMMYT.
