ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter is about an integrated circuit of 13 research organizations which develop and/ or support new agricultural technology for the so-called Third World. Commonly referred to as international agricultural research centres, they are funded by an informal club of donors known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR or CG or the Group), which is co-sponsored by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (see Table 2.1 for list of donors). This research system’s accomplishments have not gone unnoticed as they were the target of many critics in the 1970s. Critics argued that the introduction of new high-yielding, short-statured, nitrogen-responsive cereals developed by two of the oldest centres, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Centre for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT), widened inequalities and hastened rural landlessness and environmental decay. In recent years, international agricultural research has responded. Our task is to examine this response and its meaning for world hunger and poverty.1
