About Latin America and the Caribbean
With its wealth of natural resources, wide pool of human talent, and strong record of technological innovation, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has great potential for achieving sustainable agricultural development as well as for strengthening global food security.
Pathways to Eco-efficient Agriculture
Such a large and diverse region does not lend itself to a one-size-fits-all strategy of agricultural research for development. For that reason, CIAT and its partners in LAC are charting distinct pathways to eco-efficient agriculture, with particular emphasis on three different subregions or agro-ecologies to which CIAT’s integrated research on crops, soils, and policy is highly relevant.
Orinoquia Region of Colombia
More than CIAT’s host country, Colombia is a strategic research partner. In that spirit, CIAT has entered into a new strategic alliance with the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) and the Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (CORPOICA).
The alliance aims to place the development of Colombia’s vast savanna region, often referred to as Orinoquia or the Eastern Plains, on a more competitive and sustainable basis. Toward this end, CIAT researchers and their Colombian partners are working in four areas: (1) strategies for eco-efficient land use, (2) improved agricultural production systems, and (3) technology transfer.
Another model for collaborative research and innovation in Colombia consists of a science park referred to as Parque Biopacífico which unites CIAT with CORPOICA, the Colombian Institute of Agriculture (ICA), the National University of Colombia, and other partners.
A related platform for fostering partnerships in CIAT’s host country is the Agronatura Science Park. which provides a dozen research and development organizations with facilities at Center headquarters and opportunities for collaboration.
Among Agronatura’s newest members is FUNDACIAT, which was created in 2009 to find new ways of strengthening national research and speeding technology transfer in keeping with CIAT’s mission.
Central America
This is a highly vulnerable region, in which about half of the people are trapped in rural poverty. Their efforts to escape are thwarted by rapid degradation of soils, water, and forests. In addition, the region’s agriculture, already hindered by erratic weather, faces a significant threat from climate change.
Despite these challenges, Central America has wide scope for economic growth, driven by sustainable agricultural development. To help realize this potential, CIAT scientists and their partners in the region are pursuing four main lines of research: (1) improved crops for stronger food and nutrition security, (2) eco-efficient production systems and natural resource management, (3) climate change adaptation and mitigation, and (4) stronger market links for higher rural incomes.
Western Amazon
This vast region, extending over nine countries, harbors 25% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and supplies other vital ecological services as well. While deforestation in the region has slowed in recent years, much remains to be done to achieve sustainable management of this critical resource, building on momentum created by the concept of REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation).
In support of those efforts, CIAT and its partners in the region contribute through the development of: (1) tools and methods for monitoring deforestation, (2) improved options for land use in deforested areas, and (3) strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Fertile Ground for Innovation in Agriculture
CIAT’s research in LAC has contributed importantly to key advances in agriculture, which have yielded significant benefits for farmers, consumers, and society generally. Such impacts were made possible by the work of dozens of national partners, who have made remarkable strides in capacity strengthening, often with support from CIAT and other member centers of the CGIAR Consortium.
The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) is a particularly strong and influential partner for CIAT and other CGIAR centers working in the region. CIAT’s collaborative research with Embrapa involves the exchange of bean and rice germplasm, cassava improvement for novel starch quality traits, development of stress tolerance in tropical forages, and joint efforts in modeling climate change impacts and creating soil information systems.
From the New World to the Whole World
CIAT and other centers have facilitated the sharing of technologies that originated in Latin America with other regions of the developing world. Many of these products have contributed to massive development impacts including the large benefits that have accrued in Africa from improved varieties of common bean and in Southeast Asia from improved cassava.