ISSN 2027-1238
E-Newsletter No. 3
April 2009

After more than a year under development CIAT's outgoing Director General Geoff Hawtin announces the availability of CIAT's new Strategic Directions as endorsed by the Board and the incoming Director General, Ruben Echeverría.

The document is the result of a rigorous process of reflection, debate, and consultations with different partners and stakeholders in agricultural research and the Center's staff.

The new directions aim to achieve a more eco-efficient agriculture at the service of the poor of Latin America and the tropical world. The strategy proposed is based on three areas: (1) improved crops for the poor, (2) improved soil fertility management, and (3) programmatic alliances with Latin America and the Caribbean.

This strategy derives from a new vision of eco-efficient agriculture, which benefits the poor by delivering sustainable increases in productivity; by better enabling family farms to compete in markets; by limiting the damage to natural resources both within and beyond agriculture; and by showing resilience in the face of environmental shocks, particularly climate change.

"We believe that the scenario is ready for new advances in 2009 and beyond," Dr. Hawtin said.

Download the document (1168 kb).

Contacts:
Edith Hesse, e.hesse@cgiar.org
Eduardo Figueroa, e.figueroa@cgiar.org