Campuses:
Editor’s note: The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) aims to achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy and environment. Last year, two of its 15 international centers—the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C., and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture in Bogota, Colombia—named CFANS alumni as their directors general. Shenggen Fan (’89–Ph.D., agricultural and applied economics) became director general of IFPRI in December, and Ruben Echeverria (’85–M.S.; ’88–Ph.D., agricultural and applied economics) has led CIAT since March 2009. We interviewed them via email about the challenges and opportunities in their new roles. A much longer version of this interview appears at www.cfans.umn.edu/solutions.
What do you see as the greatest 21st century challenge in achieving global food security and reducing poverty in developing countries? Are the challenges different for different regions of the world?
Shenggen Fan: The greatest challenges to global food security include climate change, trade protectionism and demographic transitions (especially continued population growth, urbanization and an increasing proportion of young people, particularly in rural areas). However, each region faces its own special challenges. South Asia’s concerns include the reduced availability of water due to climate change, gender inequality and high rates of child malnutrition. For Africa, governments’ lack of capacity to design and implement their own food security strategies is particularly challenging.
Ruben Echeverria: I believe that the four challenges mentioned above (food security, poverty, climate change and energy) bring agriculture science back to where it belongs, very high in the development agenda. However, the main challenge is the need to strengthen policies and institutions in order to be able to deliver on the four challenges. There is a solid global knowledge base on ag science (public and private sectors and the civil society) from which innovations will certainly occur, but the funding base to achieve it is much weaker. As global citizens, we really spend very little time and money on making sure that the right investments on ag and rural development are made.
A key challenge for us in the CGIAR is to engage intelligently with the very large and strong public sector research capacity in Brazil, China and India, to cite three obvious examples, while at the same time continuing to work with the smaller research systems. Plus, we must open up much more to work with the private sector, at the national, regional and global levels. The CGIAR is well known for its capacity to reinvent itself, so I hope that we do it right and become much more open, flexible and research-network-oriented. If that happens, we will be able not only to depend on donations from the more developed countries but we will be part of the innovation systems of the less developed countries.
How can the CGIAR centers work with universities and colleges—like CFANS—to further their shared goals?
SF: Both play a role in nurturing the scientists of the future. Developing the next generation of researchers and agricultural scientists is critical to continue making strides against poverty and hunger. Many students find out about us through their coursework, as I did. Some go on to intern here.
We also work with many universities, conducting joint research. I would like to see IFPRI and universities like Minnesota increase their collaboration in research, data collection, the development of teaching materials and the exchange of staff through the use of sabbatical leave.
RE: A new generation of agricultural scientists with a global development mission is needed and we in the CGIAR look forward to rebuilding the traditional bridges between U.S. universities and international research centers.
