Helping build sustainably productive farming systems through the work of the Asian Cassava Breeders, and Forage Legumes, Networks

by Madelline Romero | Dec 21, 2017

Researchers from eight Asian countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam – gathered on December 12-13, 2017 in Haikou City, China, to form the Asian Forage Legumes Network. This is in response to the increasing pressure for...

Opinion: Armed conflict was not always ‘good’ for preventing deforestation in Colombia | Mongabay

by Augusto Castro | Dec 20, 2017

A field trip to Reserva Natural El Hatico, familia Molina Durán, near Palmira, Colombia, to take carbon measurements in an area of tropical forest, as part of a CIAT-hosted workshop on REDD+. Photo by: Neil Palmer / CIAT   This piece first appeared on Mongabay. ...

[Press Release] HarvestPlus is awarded US$15 million grant from MacArthur Foundation

by Stefanie Neno | Dec 20, 2017

[Re-posted from HarvestPlus website] Washington D.C., December 20, 2017 – HarvestPlus is proud to announce it has been awarded $15 million as one of the finalists in the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition. This global challenge...

How Can Ugandan Farmers Ease South Sudan Hunger Crisis?

by Georgina Smith | Dec 13, 2017

This is post is part of our climate campaign in Africa. The story has appeared in several news outlets including Associated Press, the New York Times and others.   Earlier this year, South Sudan fell victim to the first famine declared since 2011. Almost six million...

‘Preemptive’ breeding: More than a step ahead of crop disease outbreaks

by Maria Eliza Villarino | Dec 13, 2017

 Bush bean trials at CIAT’s headquarters in Colombia. Photo by: Neil Palmer / CIAT Back in 2000, Francisco Morales, then virologist and now emeritus at CIAT, led a survey of plant viruses present in Colombia. He and his team discovered geminiviruses, or...

Soil carbon sequestration – when aspirations and reality collide

by Rolf Sommer | Dec 5, 2017

This piece celebrates December 5, World Soils Day, and was first posted on the Thrive Blog, of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. Just a few weeks ago, we published a study stating that farm land soils, if managed properly, have the potential to...