In 2003 CIP completed its Vision exercise by realigning its research and development program for optimal impact (see New Research Division Targets UN Millennium Development Goals). The exercise reconfirmed the strength and relevance of CIP’s long-established core research areas while highlighting the opportunity to consolidate efforts in other areas, human health in particular (see New Research Division Integrates Crops, Environment, and Human Health).
In accordance with this Vision, in 2003 CIP continued to give high priority to Africa, building up capacity and targeting opportunities to make a concerted impact in key urban and rural settings. A new series of potatoes derived from traditional Andean varieties showed great promise in helping farmers control late blight disease, while sweetpotato continued to make inroads in the battle against vitamin A deficiency (see Harnessing the Trend: A Millennium Strategy for Africa).
Also in Africa, Urban Harvest facilitated a two-year-long process of debate and consultation among the members of the Kampala City Council. Their aim, achieved in 2003, was to develop a new set of ordinances to update the rules governing urban agriculture. Urban Harvest helped the diverse stakeholders to find ways around impasses while addressing the concerns of all the participating groups (see Partners Move to Bring Urban Agriculture Above Ground in Sub-Saharan Africa).
Bacterial wilt is second only to late blight in its impact on developing-country potato production. In 2003 CIP scientists advanced on many fronts in their work to empower developing country farmers and agricultural programs with measures that will allow them to control this devastating disease (see CIP Scientists Set to Breach Age-Old Disease Barrier). Center researchers also made the most of the tools of modern molecular biology to provide much needed solutions to other important, long-standing problems in Africa and Latin America (see Advanced Technologies Readied for Potato and Sweetpotato Producers).
In northeastern India, scientists sought to provide viable alternatives to expensive and difficult-to-transport potato tuber seed. In areas such as Nagaland, a remote tribal region of 20 million people—many of whom depend on slash-and-burn agriculture for subsistence—true potato seed provided the answer (see Northeast Indian Farmers and Consumers Benefit from Novel Seed Technology). Sweetpotato offered similar solutions to pressing livelihood problems in Asia. In Indonesia’s Papua Province, a CIP-developed processing technique that helps farmers turn sweetpotato into nutritious pig feed heightened the efficiency of farm and family resources, and boosted family income (see Sweetpotato Fermentation Process Aids Papuan Pig Farmers).
Building on wide and innovative partnerships, CIP also made considerable advances in 2003 in its efforts to promote improved livelihoods and environmental health in the mountain regions of the world, particularly in the Andes (see A Watershed Year for Natural Resources Management).
We hope that you will enjoy reading about these advances, and that you will share our enthusiasm as we begin to shift gears, using CIP’s new Vision to build on these successes and to increase our Center’s impact and relevance. |
