Project Briefing
The Global Futures for Agriculture project is designed to improve agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability, especially in developing countries. It is focused on evaluating promising technologies, investments, and policy reforms.
To achieve its goals, the project is enhancing a coordinated suite of biophysical and socioeconomic models including IFPRI's International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT), hydrology and water supply-demand models, and the DSSAT suite of process-based crop models to assess the potential returns to a range of possible investments in new technologies and policy and programs. Since the benefits to investments occur in the future, the project views strategic foresight activities as a central component of its work.
Project Team
Scientists from across the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and leading public and private institutions around the world collaborate to improve the capacity of the CGIAR centers, national agricultural research centers and the private sector to evaluate and prioritize research investments, and to support the decision-making of international development partners and national policymakers Learn more about the Global Futures Project Team.
The Virtual Crop
Crops are susceptible to a variety of abiotic (physical) and biotic (biological) stresses due to climate change. These include heat, drought, flooding, increased salinity, pests, and diseases. If farmers are to increase yields in these increasingly hostile conditions, they need to replace current crops with new varieties that will thrive in these changing environmental conditions. Learn more about the Virtual Crop model.
