| Abstract |
CIMMYT Review 1982 is intended to provide highlights of CIMMYT program activities during 1981 for the informed layman. It is complemented by technical maize and wheat improvement reports, more than a dozen international testing reports, and various other technical and informational bulletins published by CIMMYT each year. In 1981, the number of collaborating countries and the interest of national scientists from the developing world in CIMMYT's germplasm and other services continued to grow. To respond to this growing demand, CIMMYT mapped out a plan for the 1980s which was designed to serve more effectively the program needs of our developing country clientele. This plan called for modest expansions, in real terms, in CIMMYT's human and financial resources during the 1980s. Sufficient funds, however, have not yet been made available to implement the workplan originally envisioned. In 1981, funding shortfalls required CIMMYT to hold its international staffing to 80 percent of the level approved by the Board of Trustees. We were forced to defer the hiring of new staff and leave approved positions unfilled which became vacant through attrition. Plans for staffing regional programs and needed maintenance in our physical plant, now 12 years old, were also deferred. In an effort to keep our critically important training activities at planned levels, we also sought emergency special project funding to underwrite training fellowships. Because prior investments were made in supporting CIMMYT's research development activities, we are able to report continuing benefit flows to agricultural producers and consumers in the developing countries and, indeed, the world. Globally, during the past two decades, the production of maize has increased at a rate slightly higher than the rate of population increase. In the case of wheat, the global figure exceeds the rate of population increase, providing slightly increased per capita supplies. A disproportionate share of this increase has been in the developing world,where the rate of growth in production has been nearly twice the rate of population growth over the past 20 years. In 1981, over 35 million hectares of wheat in developing countries (more than half of the total) were planted to highyielding varieties, with CIMMYT germplasm in their parentage, and the added value of these production increases has conservatively been estimated to exceed 5 billion dollars per annum. New, more specifically adapted wheat varieties with greater yield dependability are being released by national collaborators at an accelerated rate. And the new genetic materials currently emanating from CIMMYT's wheat improvement system are better suited for resource-poor, more difficult production environments. CIMMYT's maize program, substantially reorganized in 1973-74, is now beginning to show significant results. During the past four years, some 22 countries have reported the release of 70 new higher-yielding varieties and hybrids containing CIMMYT's genetic material. These varieties, in general, are also more resistant to the important pests and pathogens of maize. As an adequate supply of high-quality seed becomes available, the impact of these new releases will be substantial. We believe that the program activities and new initiatives described in this report are essential to the continued expansion of cereal production in the developing countries (and the world) during the remainder of this century. CIMMYT's future ability to continue effectively to respond to its mandate hinges on the restoration of current budget reductions, and modest expansions, in real terms, of the generous support that donor organizations have provided in the past. CIMMYT's growing financial crisis is also mirrored in many of the agricultural research budgets of our national collaborators. Unless the pay-offs, complexities, and cummulative nature of agricultural research are more fully understood by policy makers in developing countries and by the representatives of donor agencies that fund research in such organizations, sustained progress toward meeting future research requirements for expanded food production cannot be assured. |
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