The scientists who work at the 15 CGIAR centers collaborate closely with a broad spectrum of civil society groups. These include farmers, producers’ associations, and community organizations. Participatory research is a way of ensuring that the results of CGIAR’s research efforts rapidly reach small farmers with limited resources so they can use them to improve their quality of life and livelihoods. The examples described below offer a brief synthesis of the participatory research projects currently under implementation and other programs that foster important linkages with civil society.

          Local Agricultural Research Committees (CIALs). In these committees, coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), farmers express their views on the development and evaluation of agricultural technologies. Researchers benefit from the feedback provided by farmers. Farmers, in turn, are encouraged to evaluate new options for increasing agricultural productivity and improving the management of natural resources. Currently, 249 local committees are active in eight Latin American countries. The benefits of this initiative range from increased local capacity in formal research methods and improved local planning and management skills to a greater availability of improved seed, not to mention food security. For example, in Cauca, Colombia, over 80% of farmers from the village of Pescador have adopted a bean variety recommended by the local committee. CIAT has estimated a 78% rate of return on investments to implement the CIALs approach (www.ciat.cgiar.org).

          Learning partnerships for agribusiness development in Latin America. CIAT, in association with CARE, Catholic Relief Services and other institutions, is creating “learning partnerships” in Central America. These innovative partnerships are made up of research and development organizations that jointly design and implement strategies and interventions aimed at building local capacity in specific geographical areas. Members of these partnerships, including farmers, jointly analyze the strategies to determine which ones work. The lessons learned are applied and generate new learning cycles. In Nicaragua, thanks to this participatory learning process, an agribusinesses initiative that began in one municipality is now being applied in 10 others (www.ciat.cgiar.org).

          Combating bacterial wilt in the Andean region, CIP scientists have developed an inexpensive detection kit that can be used in an organized seed system to eliminate infected potato seed before it reaches farmers’ fields. Although crop rotation can help eliminate the pathogen from the potato fields, the recommended method—abandoning potato cultivation for a few years—is not an economically or socially viable option for thousands of poor farmers who depend on the tuber for their income and nutrition. With CIP’s participation, farmer/researcher groups have identified a promising solution that enables farmers working in highly infested soils to sanitize their fields in 9-17 months by planting three successive non-solanaceous horticultural crops with high market value (e.g., onion, leek, or cabbage), or two successive food crops such as lupine, sweet potato, or arracacha (an Andean root crop) after the potato harvest. Using this method, farmers were able to

recover their fields for potato production in a short time—and also managed to triple their potato yields (www.cipotato.org).

          CIMMYT and the Agricultural Research and Experimentation Board (Patronato) of the State of Sonora. In the Yaqui Valley in Sonora, located in Northwestern Mexico, a group of private farmers and the Patronato have donated a new sprinkler and drip irrigation system to CIMMYT that will help scientists avoid water wastage and better manage this valuable resource in a dry zone. The system will directly benefit farmers in the Yaqui Valley who produce wheat, maize, and other crops. Patronato leaders work on a voluntary basis and make sure that the organization only invests in research efforts aimed at minimizing the obstacles to agricultural production (www.cimmyt.org).

          Self Help International, an NGO based in the United States, is promoting quality maize with high protein content in Nicaragua. This new and more nutritious variety of maize, developed by CIMMYT, is helping to reduce malnutrition in a community located in the southern tip of Lake Nicaragua (near Costa Rica) that has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. After Hurricane Mitch, Self Help International, in collaboration with CGIAR, established an innovative seed bank program, giving farmers a bag of seed to be paid back later with two bags of seed that in turn would be distributed to other farmers, allowing them to benefit from the new technology. By December 2002, more than 7,000 farmers were planting the new maize seed (www. cimmyt.org).

          Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Eco-region (CONDESAN). The consortium works with the Water and Food Challenge Program for Andean Region Watersheds. CONDESAN provides support to this program by creating links between research networks, and providing its infrastructure and experience, in order to contribute to the efficient execution of research activities. By combining the program with other regional initiatives, CONDESAN prevents duplication of efforts while promoting complementary aspects and fostering synergies. The main purpose of this collaborative effort is to promote an ecoregional approach to meet development challenges in the Andean region.

          Conserving agricultural biodiversity. Cassava, maize, beans, potato, and sweet potato are Latin America’s leading crops. The Center for Advanced Research and Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV) brings together the main national research programs and the CGIAR centers in order to promote conservation activities throughout the region. The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), for example, has implemented an international cooperation project in nine countries to strengthen basic science for in situ conservation of cultivated plants and to incorporate agricultural biodiversity into agricultural development strategies. Similarly, the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium to Support Cassava Research and Development (CLAYUCA) works to increase cassava production and expand marketing opportunities for poor farmers throughout Latin America (www.ipgri.cgiar.org).