Almost one billion people suffer from chronic hunger worldwide. Each year, it is estimated that more than 3.5 million children die from undernutrition. Alleviating these conditions makes the achievement of food security a primary goal of agricultural development. The elements of food security are three: availability, access, and utilization. Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research and CRSP research have supported each of these components by harnessing science to increase agricultural output and get it into market systems (availability); by increasing the incomes of producers’ and others living in rural areas to enhance their purchasing power (access), and by studying the process by which food is used by people once it is consumed (utilization).

The Innovation Lab and CRSP portfolio has changed over time as the emphasis of agricultural development programming also shifted. Since 1977, when Title XII of the International Development and Food Assistance Act of 1975 authorized the creation of the CRSPs, the central theme of their work has been to achieve global food security by conducting relevant research and by helping to transfer technologies to advance the productivity frontier. This was reaffirmed with the reauthorization of Title XII in October 2000 to enable long-term university research in support of “food security, human health, agricultural growth, trade expansion, and the wise and sustainable use of natural resources.”

Among the Innovation Labs’ and CRSPs’ many accomplishments helping to achieve great food security include increasing the yields of major plant crops in developing countries, including sorghum, millet, beans, cowpeas, and peanuts as well as livestock including both small and large ruminants and of fish.   In addition to the breeding of more nutritious foods, efforts to fight malnutrition have included studies of the impact of animal source proteins on the cognitive development of small children, the role of improved nutrition on HIV+ patients, and how aflatoxin contamination contributes to the stunting of children.