| Abstract |
In recent annual reports, we have focused on the major problems impeding global development (poverty, environmental degratation, rapid population growth), how they interrelate and reinforce one another, and the role of agricultural research in dealing with them. We identified poverty alleviation as the main issue, and argued that research leading to new "productivitu-enhancing, resource-conserving" agricultural technologies is essential to long-term success in meeting the challege. Las year, we described some of CIMMYT's innovative efforts to generate such technologies, emphasizing thet, at its best, innovation in science translates new ideas into useful applications. Since then, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which funds CIMMYT's work, has articulated a new vision for agricultural development in low-income countries that reflects those same pprinciples. The CGIAR's missions has broadened in response to new realities and now emphasizes the promotion of "sustainable agriculture for food security in developing sountries. "We use this report to assert - largely in the words of our senior staff -that modern maize and wheat varieties make vital contributions to sustainability and food security, and that they are in fact essential components of any viable, long-term solutions to these challenges (pages 2-7). A much more complete discussion of this theme is found in a 1994 CIMMYT publication, written by Derek Byerlee, entitled Modern Varieties, Productivity, and Sustainability: Recent Experiences and Emerging Challenges. |
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