Word: cimmyt
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...International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Texcoco, Mexico, has developed new strains of corn that can increase crop yields up to 40% in regions plagued by droughts and acidic soils. One-half of the 150 million acres of corn planted in the developing world are subject to periodic drought; CIMMYT scientists estimate that the new strains could feed an additional 50 million people annually...
Bent Skovmand is not exactly a household name, but he has more to do with the welfare of the earth's 5 billion people than many heads of state. As a plant breeder at CIMMYT, the internationally funded agricultural research station in El Batan, Mexico, he spends his days in silent battle with threats to the world's wheat crop. Recently Skovmand discovered a rare strain of wheat from eastern Turkey that is resistant to the Russian aphid, an invader that has so far cost American farmers $300 million. By using the Turkish strain to develop hearty new hybrid wheats...
...would rise as agricultural production fell short of demand, and they have been wrong. India, where 1.5 million people died in a 1943 famine, became a grain exporter by 1977, even as it doubled its population. Farmers planting short, seed-laden wheats developed by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug at CIMMYT had to post guards to protect the riches in their fields...
Such unrest may become more frequent in the coming years. Donald Winkelmann, CIMMYT's director general, notes that a decade ago, India's farmers could thrive even as wheat prices dropped, because production costs fell faster. Now it is harder to lower costs and, Winkelmann says, "India may not be able to count on cheap food as it has in the past as an element of industrialization." He expects crop prices to rise after mid-decade, as demand increases faster than supply...
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