Mexico's foresight in recognizing the potential of international agricultural research led to the founding of the CGIAR. Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug's pioneering research on wheat, which led to the Green Revolution, began in the mid-1940s under a program sponsored by Mexico and the Rockefeller Foundation. That program was the wellspring of CIMMYT, the global maize and wheat research center established in 1966 by the Government of Mexico and the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. In 1971 efforts by the World Bank, FAO and UNDP led to the creation of a consultative group in which multiple donors agreed to fund international agricultural research Centers. CIMMYT became one of the first Centers to come under the CGIAR umbrella and Mexico became a founding member of the CGIAR.

Since that time Mexico and CIMMYT together with 14 other international Centers supported by the CGIAR have made major contributions to poverty eradication through agricultural research. Scientists have achieved numerous scientific breakthroughs, including the development of disease-resistant, drought-tolerant and more nutritious maize and wheat grown by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. For every dollar invested in the CGIAR, $9 worth of additional benefits have been produced in the developing world.

Today, Mexico is a strong CGIAR supporter, partner and investor, committed to mobilizing science in the service of poor farming communities in Mexico, Latin America and the rest of the developing world.