Climate Smart Crops

Climate Smart Crops
Climate Smart Crops

ICARDA plays a critical role in the conservation, development, improvement, and dissemination of climate-resilient, market-driven crop varieties that provide a crucial defence against extreme temperatures, water scarcity, the emergence of new pests and diseases, and nutritional insecurity.

Over the past four decades, ICARDA's improved cereal and legume varieties have been tested and released by national programs in partnership with ICARDA and adopted by farmers worldwide, generating net benefits of approximately US$850 million each year.

ICARDA's new varieties combat a range of challenges typical in dry regions. They can flourish in areas where rainfall is low and erratic, offer greater and more stable yields, and have a higher tolerance to stress factors such as diseases, pests, drought, and extreme temperatures. Many varieties also offer improvements in nutritional value and quality.

ICARDA packages its technologies and innovations into integrated solutions that maximize yields from the new varieties. These include better resource management, cost-effective technology transfer, connections to the private sector and research institutions, and training and capacity development. See our scaling-up proven technologies pages for more information.

ICARDA's programs, genebank network, and international nurseries develop climate-smart crops alongside National Agricultural Research System country partners and global research institutions. ICARDA follows the guidelines of the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform to optimize future breeding efforts.

Watch and learn about our groundbreaking climate smart crops innovations!
 

Climate Smart Crop Innovations

 ICARDA innovations help countries and communities strengthen their adaptation to climate change and transition towards food and nutritional security.

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Morocco Genebank

 

GENEBANKS

ICARDA manages a gene bank network containing some 157,000 samples of landraces and wild relative species of major dryland cereals, food legumes, forage and rangeland species. ICARDA and its national partners utilize the genetic resources conserved in the genebank to develop improved lines, which are shared worldwide through our International Nurseries for a wide range of agricultural systems.

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International Nurseries

 

INTERNATIONAL NURSERIES

ICARDA and national partners use the genetic resources maintained in the ICARDA gene bank to develop and distribute improved varieties for a wide range of agricultural systems across the global drylands. This is an integral part of an international nursery trialing system through which cooperators are provided with genetically-diverse germplasm to evaluate and select under their own agro-ecological conditions and socio-economic contexts.

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Adoption

 

OUR CLIMATE SMART CROPS EXPERTS

Our research experts provide integrated packages that help farmers to implement our innovations and new approaches and allow them to flourish:

Latest News

A member of the women’s cereal processing and production group in Sanar Walof village near Saint-Louis, Senegal. Photo Credit: Ollivier Girard/ICARDA
Blog
In 2014, a bold scientific experiment was conducted to test how wheat fared against West Africa’s relentless heat. Ten years later, the collaboration has delivered heat-tolerant varieties, empowered thousands of farmers, and transformed agriculture along the Senegal River, inspiring new policies, global recognition, and a wheat revolution across the region.
Compost Making to Manage Farm Waste for Female Farmers
News
Women farmers in Walana, Pakistan, are turning farm waste into compost through training under the ICARDA–USDA Fertilize Right project
From left to right: ICARDA/BOLD’s Drs. Miguel Sanchez, Meryem Zeim, and Filippo Bassi talking with a farmer who evaluated the Jawahir durum wheat variety on his farm located in the dry region of Safi in Morocco. Photo Credit: Ahmed Isamili/ Crop Trust
News
A new wheat variety is giving farmers in drought-affected Morocco a reason to sow again. Jawahir, a durum wheat bred for dry conditions, is proving it can deliver reliable harvests where other varieties fail.

Featured Innovations