CONSULTATIVE GROUP ON INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH (CGIAR) - GROUPE CONSULTATIF POUR LA RECHERCHE AGRICOLE INTERNATIONALE - GRUPO CONSULTIVO SOBRE INVESTIGACION AGRICOLA INTERNACIONAL

Mr. Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Director-General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
(on behalf of Mr. Ismail Serageldin, Chairman of CGIAR)

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is privileged to be associated with the World Food Summit. I want to assure you that the Group, which now includes almost as many developing countries as industrialized countries among the donors, is motivated by a vision in which the world's deprived are liberated from the grip of hunger and poverty. The scientists of the CGIAR, who were the artisans of the first Green Revolution, are fully engaged with others in creating a new, doubly-green revolution. The features of this effort are articulated in Technical Document No. 6 which has been distributed to the delegates. From policy to technology to environmental management to poverty reduction, we are committed to a holistic approach to promote, through research, sustainable agriculture for food security in the developing countries.

We need to identify complex agricultural production systems sustainably while preventing damage to the natural resources of biodiversity, and while contributing to the improved welfare of farmers and consumers. We must focus especially on smallholders and the landless, and particularly on women who remain the primary agents of positive social change in the world and who are sadly discriminated against in most societies. These are formidable challenges especially as we also address the needs of the fragile ecosystems and marginal areas. I am convinced, however, that research can help if it follows the advice of CGIAR pioneer, M.S. Swaminathan, namely that it must be pro-poor, pro-women and pro-environment.

Global challenges require global efforts. The CGIAR is one of many actors in agricultural research bringing together all the actors in a manner that the whole is more than the sum of the parts was at the heart of a global forum organized by the CGIAR in October of this year. Its objective was to engage scientists and decision-makers in both national and international organizations to work with all other actors in the emerging global system of agricultural research, including NGOs, farmers' groups, the private sector, local and national governments, each of whom have something important to contribute. This forum, whose core will be the national agricultural research systems of the developing world, should help to lay the basis for enhanced cooperation. The Declaration and Action Plan that emanated from this group are available here in this room for the Delegates.

The CGIAR centres have a special role in this global effort. They can, while conducting cutting edge signs for the benefit of the world's poor, serve as platforms for the exchange of ideas and the development of new technologies. The CGIAR has an established track record of international cooperation. It was the first and so far the only group to have, through agreements signed in 1994, put their collections of genetic materials numbering 600 000 samples under the inter-governmental auspices of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The CGIAR is committed to the continued stewardship of these resources ensuring that they remain available for the world community.

The CGIAR is also very pleased to have been closely associated with FAO in the International Conference on Plant Genetic Resources held in Leipzig in June 1996. The Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources, adopted by 150 nations represented at that Conference, will guide the future work of the CGIAR in the conservation and use of genetic resources maintained by these centres.

The agenda I have outlined is challenging. It will require not only excellent scientific research but also changes in policies, institutions, as well as new ways of collaborating with many different actors. We and others have to rise to these challenges but the longest journey starts with a single step. So let us start. Let us start together and let us start without delay. If not us, who? If not now, when?