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Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo
(CIMMYT)
“CIMMYT is a non-profit research and training center
with direct links to about 100 developing countries
through offices in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
It participates in an extensive global network of
people and organizations who share similar
development goals, including the public and private
sector, non-governmental and civil society
organizations, relief and health agencies, farmers,
and the development assistance community.”
CIMMYT’s headquarters are in El Batan, Texcoco,
Mexico and it has a number of regional offices
worldwide. It is one of the 15 international
agricultural research centres supported by the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR).
Mission
“CIMMYT acts as a
catalyst and leader in a global
maize and wheat innovation network that serves the
poor in developing countries. Drawing on strong
science and effective partnerships, we create,
share, and use knowledge and technology to increase
food security, improve the productivity and
profitability of farming systems, and sustain
natural resources.”
Go to
CIMMYT’s website.
Genetic resource
activities
Genetic Resources Program
CIMMYT’s Genetic Resources Program “ensures that
CIMMYT’s collections of maize and wheat genetic
resources are held in trust for humanity under UN-FAO
agreements. It develops key information and
inputs—primarily specialized breeding materials and
methods—that enable the eco-regional programs to
develop new maize and wheat varieties more rapidly
and effectively. The program works on genetic traits
that are identified as priorities by the
eco-regional programs, such as drought tolerance.”
“Activities:
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Collect and conserve maize and wheat genetic
resources, including wild relatives, cytogenetic
stocks and genetic populations, and molecular
materials.
§
Study the on-farm management of maize and wheat
genetic diversity and support farmers who elect to
continue growing landraces.
§
Characterize genetic resources to identify useful
diversity and make it available to breeders and
other researchers in usable forms.
§
Develop and provide new technologies to facilitate
breeding.
§
Develop germplasm with new genes for desirable
traits through conventional and molecular
technologies.
§
Fingerprint maize and wheat germplasm.
§
Conduct research on applications of genomics.
§
Assemble, manage, and make available to diverse
partners information on maize and wheat genetic
resources, in particular linking data from genomics
research to pedigrees, trial results, and agronomic
and socioeconomic data.
§
Conduct food safety and toxicology studies.
§
Manage intellectual property associated with
germplasm.
§
Assess the economic value of genetic resources and
analyze policies relating to genetic resources and
diversity.”
The Wellhausen-Anderson Plant
Genetics Resource Center
The Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetics Resource
Center: “providing secure, long-term storage for
critical maize and wheat genetic resources;
facilitating their use to solve practical breeding
problems; improving knowledge about genetic
diversity; developing and assessing complementary
strategies for in situ and ex situ
conservation; exploring genetic diversity at the
molecular level; helping develop global databases on
maize and wheat genetic resources.”
“The Plant Genetic Resource Center’s specially
designed vaults
currently hold some 22,000 samples of maize and
teosinte, a wild relative of maize, and 168,000
Triticeae samples, including bread wheat, durum
wheat, and triticale (a man-made crop developed by
crossing wheat with rye), with significant
collections of barley, rye, and primitive and wild
relatives of wheat. The Center also maintains a
living collection of Tripsacum, a more
distant maize relative.”
Find out more about
The Wellhausen-Anderson Plant
Genetics Resource Center.
The Seed Inspection and
Distribution Unit (SIDU)
“The Seed Inspection and Distribution Unit (SIDU)
oversees all activities related to the global
exchange of seed by CIMMYT and cooperating
organizations.”
The SIDU website “provides up-to-date information on
the seed that is available through CIMMYT's
international maize and wheat testing networks as
well as from the Plant Genetic Resources Center and
CIMMYT’s research programs. The site also provides
the forms for requesting seed and details the
procedures and forms for sending and receiving seed,
including CIMMYT's Material Transfer Agreement. The
results from CIMMYT’s international trials and
nurseries may also be obtained from this site.”
Go to the
SIDU
website.
The Seed Health Laboratory (SHL)
“Because CIMMYT’s research involves the
conservation, development, production, and movement
of germplasm products (usually in the form of maize
and wheat seed), it is of the utmost importance to
guarantee the safe movement of germplasm. To support
CIMMYT’s research, especially its collaboration with
partners in more than 100 countries worldwide, the
Seed Health Laboratory has a commitment to:
§
Monitor and certify the quality of CIMMYT germplasm
products in terms of the absence of pathogens and
seed viability.
§
Prevent the establishment and spread of exotic pests
and diseases that may arrive in seed imported from
outside Mexico to CIMMYT.”
Find out more about the
SHL.
Inter-Centre Working
Group on Genetic Resources
Each of the CGIAR Centres has a representative on
the Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources,
SGRP’s steering committee. The Committee sets the
strategy and priorities for SGRP and meets annually
to review its workplan.
To find out who is CIMMYT’s representative, please
go to our
Contacts page. |
The CGIAR System
Africa Rice Center (WARDA)
Bioversity International
CIAT
CIFOR
CIMMYT
CIP
ICARDA
ICRISAT
IFPRI
IITA
ILRI
IRRI
IWMI
World Agroforestry Centre
WorldFish Center
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