Getting to know the CGIAR

Every time I take another work trip to another CGIAR center, Im fascinated by how diverse our own narrow world is. First of all, CGIAR (or CG, as we call it) stands for the Consultative Group on the International Agricultural Research. There are 15 centers that are part of the CG, and my institute, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), is part of it. The general mandate of the CG, which was founded by the initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1960s during the time of post-colonial famine in many parts of Asia and Africa, is to breed new crops that have better yields and are more suited for various climate conditions. Therefore, most of the CG centers are actually crop and livestock breeding centers, and each has a mandate for specific crops and for a specific part of the world. IFPRI is the only exception---we do not do any breeding, but provide analysis of the effectiveness and potential of these new crops. Of course, we do plenty of other things as well, but ours is the only center that does not have any natural scientists (biologists, zoologists, breeders) on staff.

However, Im always reminded when I encounter other CG folks that the majority of the people in the CG system are natural scientists. For a social scientist like myself, the differences are very clear in the communication styles and topics of conversation. For example, since I got here a bit earlier than the rest of the workshop participants, I have been hanging out with a CIP (International Potato Center) potato breeder who is Italian by birth but lives in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In addition to finding out all about the woes of working in that part of the world, I have also learned A LOT about potato breeding. Good thing my parents made me participate in the potato harvesting in our garden---I could contribute a little bit to the conversation besides just the nodding and the “Oh, I see.”

On another note, the CG is like the United Colors of Benetton---many nationalities, languages, disciplines, and specialties. At this very workshop, I have met:
-An Irish-Australian working on maize breeding in Zimbabwe
-Another maize breeder, from Botswana, working in Zimbabwe
-A Ghanaian economist working in Kenya on wheat and maize
-A Belgian economist working in Kenya on wheat and maize
-The aforementioned Italian biologist working on potato breeding in Central Asia
-A Canadian nutritionist working on livestock forage issues in India
-An Australian plant geneticist working in Syria

This is the CG in a nutshell.