Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support international collaboration on research projects to improve crop resilience.

The FCDO supports the global research organisation, the CGIAR (formerly known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), to deliver the agriculture science and innovation needed to support effective responses to climate and conflict. This includes developing and scaling more productive, nutritious and climate-resilient crop varieties. The CGIAR has delivered spectacular long-term success stories: CGIAR wheat varieties are now planted on nearly half the world's wheat lands overall - and over 70 percent of all wheat varieties released in South Asia, Central and West Asia and North Africa come from CGIAR. In Ethiopia, 4 million households grow CGIAR maize varieties, representing 35% of the entire rural population. In Africa more than 37 million people benefit from new CGIAR stress-tolerant maize varieties, which cover almost 5.5 million hectares. These varieties have demonstrated increased yield and yield stability, resulting in greater production and improved livelihoods.