How Crop Innovation is Addressing the Impact of the Climate Crisis in Africa

Feb 22, 2021

In a just-published op-ed, Martin Kropff, Director General, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Nteranya Sanginga, Director General, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), talk about CGIAR centers’ investment on long-term breeding to increase genetic gains in an important food crop like maize using many new tools and technologies.

In the op-ed, Kropff and Sanginga make the case for increasing investments in crop improvement and seed systems innovation to cope with the climate variability crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. They said “It is not enough to lower carbon emissions. African farmers need to adapt quickly to rising temperatures, drawn-out droughts and sharp, devastating floods. With higher-yielding, multiple stress tolerant maize varieties, smallholder farmers have the opportunity to not only combat climatic variabilities, diseases and pests, but can also effectively diversify their farms. This will enable them in turn to have better adaptation to the changing climates and access to well-balanced and affordable diets.”

CGIAR has been leading technological innovation and deployment to transform food systems for many decades. CIMMYT and IITA are the two CGIAR research centers undertaking innovative maize research and development work in the stress-prone environments of Africa.

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Video: How American Farmers Harvest 1.15 Billion Pounds of Sunflowers

Across the open plains of North Dakota and South Dakota, sunflower fields turn the American landscape into a sea of gold. In this farming documentary, we go inside modern sunflower farming to see how farmers plant, grow, harvest, clean, dry, process, and transform sunflower seeds into valuable products used every day.

In 2024, American farmers harvested about 1.15 billion pounds of sunflowers. This video follows the full journey from warm spring planting to combine harvesting, seed cleaning, storage, oil extraction, refining, roasting, packaging, and animal feed production.

You will see how sunflower seeds are processed into cooking oil, roasted snacks, bakery ingredients, birdseed, livestock feed, and useful byproducts. From golden fields to modern processing plants, this is the story of how a beautiful flower becomes one of America’s important oilseed crops.

Watch until the end to discover how sunflower farming connects farmers, machines, factories, food production, and sustainable agriculture.