In 2003 CIP completed a Vision Exercise that allowed the Center to prioritize seven development challenges that reflect eight of the UN Millennium Development Targets. These challenges can be summarized as: reducing poverty and hunger; improving human health; developing sustainable rural and urban systems; and improving availability of new technologies. The CIP Vision Plenary concluded that CIP's research and development program can contribute significantly to achieving these Development Targets over the next two decades. The first step taken in moving toward implementation of this vision was a realignment of CIPs Program into a portfolio of six Research Divisions and eight Research Partnerships in coordination with our Regional Programs in LAC, ESEAP, SWCA and SSA and involving collaboration with a variety of research partners, including national programs, universities, local, regional and international NGOs, farmers and farm organizations, and the private sector. Close association with advanced research institutions, to bring the most advanced research and other tools to bear on current constraints, is an important component.

Combating late blight Millions of poor people in developing countries who dep-end on potatoes for their food and livelihoods live in dread of a plant disease called late blight. When weather conditions are highly favorable to the pathogen, this disease can wipe out a potato crop in a mere few weeks. Potato late blight can also put millions of poor farm families at great risk by exposing them to the harmful effects of pesticides. [read more]		Improved potato technologies For poor potato farmers in developing countries, improving yields is essential to their ability to achieve economic independence and food security. While average potato yields in North America and Western Europe often reach 40 metric tons per hectare, yields in developing countries are usually below 20 metric tons per hectarea persistent and sizable yield gap. [read more]
True potato seed One of the major constraints to cost-effective potato production among marginal resource-poor farmers in developing countries is the lack of quality potato seed available to them at affordable prices. Potato seed programs have been effective in producing only small quantities of quality seed, supplying less than five percent of the seed needed in developing countries. [read more]		Integrated pest management Potato farmers and consumers in developing countries are too often faced with a serious dilemma: either sacrifice up to 50 percent of their crop to pests or use highly toxic pesticides whose application can cause substantial adverse impacts on human health. If CIP researchers succeed in improving such dismal odds on growing one of the world’s most important food crops, they will be making a major contribution to improving food security, eradicating starvation, and alleviating poverty in resource-poor countries throughout the world. [read more]
Sweetpotato improvement The dramatic return on CIP’s investment in sweetpotato improvement and virus control has set the stage for this crop to contribute more than ever to food security and equitable economic development in marginal areas across the developing world. [read more]		Root and tuber postharvest The potential contributions of root and tuber crops to the welfare of the poorest farmers and consumers in developing countries cannot be overstated. An example that is gaining an increasing amount of public attention effectively makes the case: by adding only moderate amounts of high-beta-carotene sweetpotato to their diets, millions of children and mothers in Africa can avoid serious health risks.
Conserving biodiversity Since CIP’s founding 30 years ago, the conservation and effective use of root and tuber crop genetic resources (biodiversity) has been at the core of its continuum of research activities. CIP’s dedication to this part of its mission was reflected last year with the inauguration of its new state-of-the-art biodiversity complex. [read more]		Managing mountain agro-ecosystems Mountain ecosystems are found on every continent and sustain an estimated 10 percent of the world’s population. In addition, billions of people living in the lowlands depend on mountain ecosystems for food and other resources such as water, raw materials, and energy. These areas are also important sources of plant and animal diversity, both wild and domestic. [read more]
Using genetic resources to improve crops Farmers need to grow crops that will produce reliable, profitable, and healthful harvests with a minimum of detrimental or expensive inputs. Genetic resources provide the safest and most economical source of protection from the specific pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses that challenge food security. [read more]		Commodity analysis and impact Two misguided perceptions—prices are too low to justify investments in developing-country agriculture and economic development leads to the demise of root and tuber crops—continue to have severely negative impacts on the agricultural productivity of developing countries. These now-pervasive misperceptions began more than 20 years ago and have led to the continued low status afforded to agricultural research in the development strategies of donor organizations. [read more]
CONDESAN Bringing economic, environmental, and food security to the Andean region remains a major global challenge despite decades of research and development initiatives under-taken by hundreds of organizations. Today, more than 60 percent of the rural inhabitants of the Andes—a vast and diverse mountain system that stretches 7,000 kilometers from tropical Venezuela to temperate Chile—still live in poverty; less than half have access to health services, safe drinking water, and sanitation; and one child in nine fails to reach his or her first birthday. [read more]		Urban Harvest The dramatic increase during the 20th century in both the rate of urbanization and the size of cities is placing a new significance on urban and peri-urban agriculture in global strategies to alleviate poverty and hunger. More than 800 million people throughout the world are engaged in urban farming, an occupation that was established in the ancient cultures of the Old and New Worlds. Nowadays for many urban dwellers in developing countries, agriculture is a crucial component in a diversified livelihood strategy to sustain them-selves in a complex and changing environment. Urban agriculture activities include tending home gardens and grazing animals, as well as working in large-scale livestock, aquaculture, forestry, and greenhouse operations. [read more]
Global initiative on late blight CIP is spearheading a global effort to improve and facilitate research on potato late blight disease, the single most costly biotic constraint to global food production. The economic and agricultural havoc brought about by late blight disease affects millions of poor people worldwide who depend on potatoes as a staple and/or cash crop. [read more]