2021 World Food Prize Week: CGIAR 50th Anniversary Celebration. Photo by the World Food Prize.

Global recognition

Global recognition

In 2021, CGIAR researchers and a CGIAR Center were recipients of prestigious food awards recognizing their valuable contributions to global food security.

Among the honors were Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, who was named World Food Prize Laureate; Dr. Elliott Dossou-Yovo, who won the Borlaug Field Award; and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which won the Africa Food Prize.

Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted receives the 2021 World Food Prize.

World Food Prize

Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at WorldFish, was named 2021 World Food Prize Laureate for her groundbreaking research, critical insights, and landmark innovations in developing holistic, nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquatic food systems, including fisheries and aquaculture.

Dr. Thilsted is the first woman of Asian heritage to be awarded the World Food Prize — the most prominent global award recognizing an individual who has enhanced human development and tackled global hunger through improving the quality, quantity, and availability of food for all.

Dr. Thilsted was the first to examine the nutritional composition of small native fish species commonly found and consumed in Bangladesh and Cambodia. Her research demonstrated that the high levels of multiple essential micronutrients and fatty acids in these affordable and locally available foods offered life-changing benefits for children’s cognitive development in their first thousand days of life, along with helping the nutrition and health of their mothers.

In addition to this breakthrough, Dr. Thilsted has developed nutrition-sensitive approaches and innovations to food production from land and water that have improved the diets, nutrition, and health of millions of vulnerable women, men, and children living in low- and middle-income countries across Asia, Africa and the Pacific.

“I am truly honored to receive the 2021 World Food Prize, and I am deeply humbled to be placed in such distinguished ranks as those of past laureates. Aside from personal joy and gratitude, as a scientist, I feel this award is an important recognition of the essential but often overlooked role of fish and aquatic food systems in agricultural research for development. Fish and aquatic foods offer life-changing opportunities for millions of vulnerable women, children, and men to be healthy and well-nourished.”

 Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health, WorldFish and 2021 World Food Prize Laureate.

Arrell Global Food Innovation Award

Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted was also awarded the 2021 Arrell Global Food Innovation Award for her pioneering nutrition-sensitive approaches, which honor local, culturally appropriate solutions to improve the nutrition, health, and development of children and mothers across Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

“Aquatic foods offer life-changing opportunities for millions of vulnerable women, children, and men to be well-nourished and healthy. The Arrell Food Innovation Award recognizes the value of research that builds on local diets, food production, and cultures in low-and middle-income countries. This is crucial to shaping the global discourse on nutrition and public health, as well as our shared call to action to transform food systems towards sustainable healthy diets for all.”

Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health, WorldFish and 2021 World Food Prize Laureate.

2021 Borlaug Field Award winner Dr. Elliott Dossou-Yovo works on Smart-Valley development plans with farmers. Photo by World Food Prize Foundation.

Borlaug Field Award

At the 2021 Africa Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), Elliott Dossou-Yovo, Associate Principal Scientist and Agriculture and Climate Change Specialist at AfricaRice, was named the 2021 Borlaug Field Award Laureate. Dr. Dossou-Yovo was recognized for initiating innovative water management systems for resilient rice production in the face of climate change, and close collaboration with smallholder farmers throughout West Africa.

Dr. Dossou-Yovo drove the widespread adoption of “Smart-Valleys,” a low-cost, leading-edge approach to decrease the impact of drought on rice plants. The “Smart-Valley” approach has led to increased production of rice, increases in farmers’ incomes, and reinforced food security. Dr. Dossou-Yovo also led the adaptation of the Alternate Wetting and Drying irrigation method (AWD) in Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso to address water scarcity, temperature changes, rainfall variabilities, and other climate change impacts affecting rice farmers.

“Smart-Valleys” and AWD are part of a collection of CGIAR innovations that have changed the world during the past 50 years.

“I am truly honored to be selected as the tenth recipient of the Borlaug Field Award, named after the great agricultural scientist and World Food Prize founder, Norman Borlaug.”

“I was inspired by his credo, ‘take it to the farmer.’ Agriculture is the wisest investment we can make since it will ultimately contribute the most to real wealth, morality and satisfaction. Now more than ever, our collective actions are required.”

Dr. Elliott Dossou-Yovo, Associate Principal Scientist and Agriculture and Climate Change Specialist, Africa Rice and 2021 Borlaug Field Award Laureate.

Dr. Rebbie Harawa receiving the Africa Food Prize at the AGRF 2021 Summit. Photo by ICRISAT
Dr. Rebbie Harawa receiving the Africa Food Prize at the AGRF 2021 Summit. Photo by ICRISAT

Africa Food Prize

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a CGIAR Center, was awarded the 2021 Africa Food Prize for work that has improved food security across 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, helping more than 25 million farmers.

The Africa Food Prize highlighted ICRISAT’s work with other CGIAR Centers — the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) — on the Tropical Legumes Project, which ran from 2007–2019. The project developed 266 improved legume varieties and almost half a million tons of seeds for a range of legume crops, helping more than 25 million farmers facing climate change and pest and disease outbreaks.

The Africa Food Prize is a major accolade and recognition of ICRISAT’s work in Africa and reinforces our belief that agriculture can be profitable for smallholder farmers. It is also testament to the work of our close collaborators, the national agriculture research and extension systems, without whose support this would not have been possible.”

Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes, ICRISAT Director General.

“ICRISAT’s leadership in developing seeds that not only end malnutrition but also survive in semi-arid areas is inspiring other agricultural organizations to rethink seed development and farming practices that suit and solve Africa’s agricultural challenges.”

H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, Chair of the Africa Food Prize Committee and former President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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