N lives in the uplands of northwestern Vietnam.
Three years ago the local leader called a
meetingto ask for volunteers who would be
willing to use their own land to try out new
farming methods. The technology and seed were
new, and had been brought by an international
agricultural NGO for testing. The leader
cautiously agreed to ask. Few were willing to
risk their lands and livelihood on such a
venture, but in recent years, N's fortunes had
been in decline. When asked, she immediately
put up her hand.

At that point, her home was little more than a
tumbledown shack, barely able to keep out the
rain. Her fields were small, steep and eroded.
Since she had little to lose, N agreed to try
out CIAT's suggestions, borrowing starter seed
from the organization and planting her cassava
according to the program officer's
recommendations.

Two years later, N's fields, which had been spotty at best, were
lined with verdant rows of cassava. Moreover, these fields had
multiplied many times beyond the small patch that she had
previously tended, and now covered the entire hillside. Where her
broken-down house had stood was now a two-story brick home, nicer
than any other in the neighborhood. It was a realization of the
kind of success story that usually only appears in literature.

Perhaps best of all, other farmers in the area, having seen her
example, were beginning to copy her modern methods. The whole area
was undergoing something of a rural renaissance.

This is the kind of change that CIAT is bringing about in Asia.
CIAT, which stands for Centro Internacional de Agricultura
Tropical, is an agricultural research center based in Columbia. The
center's mission, stated succinctly on its home page, is:

"To reduce hunger and poverty in the tropics through collaborative
research that improves agricultural productivity and natural
resource management."

In Vietnam, China and Thailand, it is following this mission, and
through an extremely effective farmer-participatory program,
delivering cutting-edge agricultural technology and methodology to
farmers in those countries' poorest regions.

CIAT belongs to a group of 16 food and environmental research
groups around the world that have banded together in a consortium
known as the Future Harvest Groups. Together, the Future Harvest
Groups are benefiting more than 100 impoverished countries around
the world.