CIAT is dedicated to using science to help the rural poor improve their livelihoods. To achieve these objectives, CIAT is reorganizing its research under two major themes—Sharing the Benefits of Agrobiodiversity and People and Agroecosystems. Each theme addresses global challenges and presents important opportunities to improve rural livelihoods.

Sharing the Benefits of Agrobiodiversity will evolve to focus on developing clearly defined public goods by working closely with partners. It will seek to share genetic resources with other research centers and to develop and introduce, in collaboration with local farmers, improved varieties of important tropical crops. Its objectives are to strengthen international collections of important genetic materials and to use these resources to enhance the competitiveness and profitability of local farm operations and achieve food security.

This is the project portfolio for this initiative:

• Conservation and Use of Tropical Genetic Resources
• Bean Improvement for the Tropics
• Improved Cassava for the Developing World (in Spanish)
• Improved Rice for Latin America and the Caribbean
• Tropical Grasses and Legumes
• Tropical Fruits