Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Dr Martin Kropff, is to arrive in Dhaka on Saturday; on a four-day official visit to Bangladesh.
CIMMYT is one of the largest charter members of CGIAR (formerly known as the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) that has been working in Bangladesh for over 40 years.
CIMMYT works with a range of research and development partners in the Ministry of Agriculture, including the: Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, and Department of Agricultural Extension.
CIMMYT, operating in partnership with the government and private sector, provides most of Bangladesh’s—as well as the world’s—wheat, and much of its maize germplasm.
CIMMYT works with its partners to: identify suitable crop strains and cropping systems, support agricultural mechanization, build capacity, determine a production environment’s characterization using new GIS and remote-sensing tools, instate systems-based agronomics and undertake research that facilitates small landholder farmers in Bangladesh; and throughout the world.
While in Bangladesh, Dr Kropff will meet with senior officials of the afore-mentioned departments—as well as the minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and the DG of BWMRI—and discuss the past, present, and potential future collaborations between national agricultural research and extension agencies, donor committees, and CIMMYT.
Headquartered in Mexico, CIMMYT is the global leader in research to develop maize and wheat, as well as wheat and maize-based farming systems.
CIMMYT works throughout the developing world, with hundreds of partners, to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems; to improve food security and livelihoods.