As the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) celebrated its 40th anniversary in May 2011, it also embraced a new business model that has positioned it to play a central role in delivering the science needed to feed the earth’s growing human population while protecting the environment and the resource base upon which future food production depends.

This section goes behind the evolution of the CGIAR, beginning with its establishment four decades ago, when it had four international agricultural research centres under its umbrella; looks briefly at its growth during subsequent years; the reasons for its reform process, which started in 2009; its new vision and how it now does business differently; and the ways in which it proposes to strengthen linkages between the various components of agricultural knowledge systems.