A new IRRI-CIMMYT alliance aimed at boosting international efforts to fight poverty and strengthen food security in the developing world has been formed. It focuses on harnessing science to provide the world’s millions of poor farmers with improved access to new, more productive maize, rice, and wheat technologies.

Because all three crops are cereals, IRRI and CIMMYT believe that research into their sustainable development and use can be much better coordinated through a stronger alliance. At a January meeting in Shanghai, the two boards identified four research priorities:

• Intensive crop production systems in Asia (specifically, rice-wheat and rice-maize) and research on crop and resource management, crop genetic improvement, and socioeconomics
• Cereals information units for researchers and partners working on genetic improvement and the management of cropping systems involving the three staples
• Training and knowledge banks for the three crops that would take advantage of modern technologies to provide training events, the development of learning materials and education methods, distance learning, Web-based knowledge systems, library services, and logistical support
• Climate change research directed at both mitigating and adapting the three crops to global changes that are affecting temperature, water, and other factors having crucial effects on them.

To further maximize operational efficiency, the IRRI-CIMMYT alliance will also share a range of support services including services related to management and regulatory affairs for intel­lectual property rights and biosafety, information and communication technologies, public awareness, scientific publishing, library services, and external auditing. There is also good potential for sharing the country offices in developing nations such as Bangladesh, China, India, Iran, and Nepal.

Further, the IRRI-CIMMYT Alliance agreed to develop a unified governance and management system commensurate with these shared activities. Working groups made up of staff members from both centers will be formed immediately to draft implementation plans for the four priority programs in consultation with stakeholders.

IRRI and CIMMYT were the first and second centers formed in what became the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). They are the world’s leading research and training institutes for rice, wheat, and maize. The three staples provide 60 percent of global food needs annually, and cover more than 70 percent of the planet’s productive cropping land.