Partners Magazine July - October 2009

This edition of Partners focuses on the MDGs, as well as the joint work of ACIAR with the centres of the CGIAR and other multilateral approaches. This includes work with the International Rice Research Institute to improve the marketability of rice grown by smallholders through eradicating chalkiness, one of the main reasons buyers refuse to buy, or pay little for, smallholder-produced rice.

Other projects reported on include work to capture, store and utilise the rich genetic resources from crops grown throughout the world. Collecting wild seed, cataloguing existing seed stocks from global repositories, and utilising this in breeding are vital to continue the research and development (R&D) to improve staple foods. Without continued development to lift productivity of food staples, shortages such as those of 2008 may become common. Trans-boundary animal diseases, which not only kill livestock but also hamper trade, are also reported on, as are efforts to reduce the spread of avian influenza and increase awareness of biosecurity in the region.

These are examples of how ACIAR works with developing-country partners and the centres of the CGIAR to reduce poverty. As Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance says on page 4, the centres of CGIAR are world leaders in their fields and their contribution will be vital to the global challenge of lifting agricultural productivity.

The partnerships between ACIAR, the CGIAR centres and developing-country scientists that ACIAR facilitates are practical examples of the eighth of the MDGs: a global partnership for development. Achieving the goal of halving global poverty requires both multilateral and bilateral
approaches to development. ACIAR and the Australian aid program will continue to deliver R&D initiatives to help achieve the MDGs so that our region and our world can be free of poverty.