Nutrition, health and food security

As staple foods, maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to two-thirds of the world’s food energy intake, and contributing 55 to 70 percent of the total calories in the diets of people living in developing countries, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. CIMMYT scientists tackle food insecurity through improved nutrient-rich, high-yielding varieties and sustainable agronomic practices, ensuring that those who most depend on agriculture have enough to make a living and feed their families. The U.N. projects that the global population will increase to more than 9 billion people by 2050, which means that the successes and failures of wheat and maize farmers will continue to have a crucial impact on food security. Findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which show heat waves could occur more often and mean global surface temperatures could rise by up to 5 degrees Celsius throughout the century, indicate that increasing yield alone will be insufficient to meet future demand for food.

Achieving widespread food and nutritional security for the world’s poorest people is more complex than simply boosting production. Biofortification of maize and wheat helps increase the vitamins and minerals in these key crops. CIMMYT helps families grow and eat provitamin A enriched maize, zinc-enhanced maize and wheat varieties, and quality protein maize. CIMMYT also works on improving food health and safety, by reducing mycotoxin levels in the global food chain. Mycotoxins are produced by fungi that colonize in food crops, and cause health problems or even death in humans or animals. Worldwide, CIMMYT helps train food processors to reduce fungal contamination in maize, and promotes affordable technologies and training to detect mycotoxins and reduce exposure.

In the media

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Source: Nature (22 Mar 2022)

War highlights the fragility of the global food supply — sustained investment is needed to feed the world in a changing climate, Alison Bentley explains.

Annual reports

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The legacy of this international collaboration in maize research sealed in the program’s final report.

Annual reports

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The legacy of this international collaboration in wheat research sealed in the program’s final report.

In the media

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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.

Blogs

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Crisis in Ukraine underscores the need for long-term solutions for global food security.

Explainers

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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.

News

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CIMMYT is offering a new set of improved maize hybrids to partners, to scale up production for farmers in the region.

Blogs

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In addition to macronutrients and micronutrients, staple cereals are important sources of bioactive food components.

In the media

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Source: Forbes (29 Dec 2022)

Pooja Bhatnagar-Mathur, a Principal Scientist at CIMMYT, says aflatoxin, a toxin produced from soil fungus and found in groundnuts like peanuts, is a serious public health and food safety problem around the globe.

In the media

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Source: Newsweek (30 Dec 2021)

The best protection is actually reducing food system risks by building food system resilience against shocks.

Features

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New research uncovers long-term impacts of Green Revolution era productivity, points out lessons for today.

News

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The facility will offer maize doubled haploid production services to public and private sector partners in South Asia.

News

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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.

In the media

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Source: The New Yorker (6 Dec 2021)

A new article in the New Yorker praises the cutting-edge technology CIMMYT, CGIAR and other scientists are developing to produce a second Green Revolution that doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the first, putting the experiences and challenges of farmers at the heart of it.

Features

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Legacy websites and photo exhibition mark the closing of the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat, and their impact on sustainable agricultural development.