CRP1.2: The CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics, referred to as Humidtropics. seeks to transform the lives of rural poor in the humid lowlands, moist savannas and tropical highlands in tropical Americas, Asia and Africa. Humidtropics provides a new integrated agricultural systems approach, a single research for development plan, and unique partnerships platform for better impact on poverty and eco-systems integrity.

Why focus on Humid and Sub-Humid Tropics?

The humid and sub-humid tropics with 2.9 billion people on about 3 billion hectares of land are critical to global food supplies, central to the maintenance of global biodiversity, and vital to the mitigation of greenhouse gasses. Agricultural systems intensification in these areas offers the best potential for poverty reduction, especially for women and other vulnerable groups, and meeting world food demand. The bulk of the rural poor reside in the humid and sub-humid tropics, areas also associated with poor household nutrition and soil fertility depletion. Humidtropics focuses directly on rainfed smallholder farming systems and their opportunities for sustainable intensification.

Research Themes

SRT 1. Systems analysis and synthesis
SRT 2. Integrated systems improvement
SRT 2.1 Integrating markets through system intensification
SRT 2.2 Increasing system productivity
SRT 2.3 Natural resources improvement
SRT 3. Scaling and institutional innovation

Program Structure

 

The program structure is based on three strategic research themes and linked through monitoring and evaluation processes.

Action Areas

• They are representative and capture diversity.  Action Areas are selected that contain widespread poverty and poor natural resource integrity that are representative for the humid tropics diversity.
• Urgent need exists for large-scale impacts. These Action Areas have relatively high population densities where intensification, production systems diversification and integration, and rural transformation are urgently needed and have best potential for massive impact.
• They advance earlier investments and existing and potential partnerships. Earlier research investments in the Action Areas will benefit from planned interventions based on collaboration to generate better synergies between existing expertise of the Centers and their partners and develop new partnerships and expertise to achieve better impact.

Expected outcomes

Over the next 15 years, Humidtropics will advance the CIAR System Level Outcomes within the Action Areas by increasing staple food yields by 60%, increasing average farm income by 50%, lifting 25% of poor households above the poverty line, reducing the number of malnourished children by 30% and restoring 40% of these farms to sustainable resource management. In this way, Humidtropics will serve as a model to other agencies seeking to link agricultural systems research to developmental impact.