CGIAR Bellagio Group Meetings

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    Conference on National Agricultural Research Systems, Montebello, Canada, June 1-4, 1975 (Bellagio VII)
    (Internal Document, 1975-06-01) Hulse, J.H.
    Report on the Conference on National Agricultural Research Systems held in Montebello, Canada in June 1975, written by J.H. Hulse of IDRC. The meeting, sponsored by IDRC and the Rockefeller Foundation, was foreshadowed at Bellagio VI, and was held at Montebello because the number of participants greatly exceeded the capacity of the Villa Serbelloni. Called, nevertheless, "Bellagio VII," it was the last in the numbered series of meetings of the Bellagio Group. It was part of the process that led to the founding of the IADS by the Rockefeller Foundation, and ultimately creation of ISNAR within the CGIAR.Discussions centered on the needs of national agricultural research systems (NARS) in developing countries, the factors limiting their effectiveness, and the types and organization of financial and technical assistance required to strengthen their capacity to promote agricultural development. Participants discussed the role of the IARCs in assisting, and in some cases inhibiting, the work of NARS. They encouraged increased donor support both to outreach activities of the IARCs and to NARS directly. The consensus was against creating a new institution for this purpose, however, apart from IADS which was being mooted by the Rockefeller Foundation. A number of other actions were suggested to TAC, donors, and the CGIAR.
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    Conference on Strengthening National Agricultural Services, Bellagio, Italy, 19-21 March 1974 (Bellagio VI)
    (Internal Document, 1974-05-01) Rockefeller Foundation
    Brief notes on the sixth session of the Bellagio Group, which met at the Villa Serbelloni to discuss the expanding demands placed by the world food situation on national agricultural research institutions in developing countries. The conference considered presentations from FAO, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, and leaders of the national research systems in Nigeria and Ecuador. Also presentations on links between the IARCs and the NARS and research institutions in industrial countries, and the activities of regional programs and IARCs in strengthening national research and training activities.It concluded that the demands, and the opportunities represented by new technologies and the emergence of a global information system, required that donors, recipient nations, international institutes, and others review together what was being done and planned to be done to strengthen national research systems. The notes include a list of direct and indirect actions that might be taken. As next steps, the meeting recommended a broad effort to collect information from donors on their agricultural research projects, and a conference of interested parties about a year in the future, to be organized by the Rockefeller Foundation. Agenda document at TAC's Eighth Meeting, July-August 1974.
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    Conference on International Agricultural Development, Bellagio, Italy, May 17-19, 1972 (Bellagio V)
    (Internal Document, 1972-06-01) Bellagio Group
    The Bellagio Group, composed of the heads of agricultural research programs in various agencies, or their representatives, continued to meet for some time after the creation of the CGIAR, under the auspices of the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, and the IDRC. This is an aide-memoire summarizing the discussions at Bellagio V, a conference on approaches to accelerating the agricultural development process, held at the Villa Serbelloni in May 1972.The conference was organized around five topics:1. The status of international agricultural development: Situation and outlook.2. Progress and evolving roles of the international agricultural research and training institutes.3. New experiences and concepts in organizing efforts to assist small landholders, using projects in Malawi and Mexico to illustrate the need to adjust to local conditions. 4. Research and development gaps and linkages, drawing from the experience of the French system of international agricultural research.5 Organization of capabilities at the international research institutes or other centers to deal with social and economic problems of agricultural development, based on a paper by A. T. Mosher, which is in the Collection.The last topic was referred to the TAC Chairman, Sir John Crawford. It was decided to have another meeting to discuss research gaps and linkages.
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    Summary of Conference of Heads of Assistance Agencies. New York, December 3-4, 1970 (Bellagio IV)
    (Meeting Report, 1970-12-01) Ford Foundation; Koffsky, Nathan M.
    Summary of a conference of heads of international assistance agencies organized by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations in New York, December 1970, designated Bellagio IV. The meeting was a follow-up to Bellagio III held in April 1970, and had the same agency participation, with the addition of representatives of France and Japan. It centered around a series of five papers prepared by the IDRC and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. After generally accepting a review of funding requirements of the four existing centers (IRRI, CIMMYT, CIAT, and IITA) for the coming five years, as presented by Dr. Hill of the Ford Foundation, the meeting turned to the papers:1. A proposal for an international upland crops program,. It was agreed that a technical panel would evaluate scientific requirements to improve sorghum and millet.2. A proposed allocation of responsibility for food legumes to CIAT, CIMMYT, and IITA. It was agreed that work on dry beans, cowpea, pigeon pea, chickpea should go forward, but soybeans and peanuts were of lower priority.3. The establishment in Africa of an animal disease research laboratory, to be located in Nairobi, and a production research and training center. More study was recommended, including the possibility of building on the East Africa Veterinary Research Organization (EAVRO) in Kenya, and a combination of the two centers proposed.4. Irrigation and water management. IDRC was encouraged to move ahead with a symposium on research and training needs.5. A proposal to strengthen policy research at national institutions in Asia, linked by a small international staff. The meeting said that the nations themselves should shape such a plan, and that a similar approach might fit other regions as well.The meeting also briefly discussed possible future consideration of proposals in the related fields of population and education.
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    Conference of Heads of Assistance Agencies, Bellagio, Italy, April 8-9, 1970, (Bellagio III)
    (Internal Document, 1970-05-01) Rockefeller Foundation; Wortman, Sterling
    Notes prepared by Sterling Wortman of the Rockefeller Foundation on a conference of heads of assistance agencies held April 8-9, 1970 at the Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy. The agenda was the recommendations from a conference of agricultural experts (Bellagio II) in February 1970.In the discussion on funding, USAID agreed to cover the $225,000 deficit of the four existing centers for 1970. It was agreed that the World Bank should move forward with the formation of a consortium, if the Bank's Governors approved, and that an informal meeting should be held in early December to consider funding, and the formation of additional centers.Four centers were discussed: water management, parasitic diseases of animals, dryland farming, and agricultural management and policy. The meeting also considered food legumes, which would be allocated among various institutions. New papers would be prepared on all five subjects by December. The agenda for December would also include the organization and operation of the consortium.Mr. McNamara, President of the World Bank, estimated that annual costs would rise to the order of $44 million per year by 1975, including capital costs of $10 million for one new center per year. Various participants stressed the importance of the foundations taking the lead on planning, organizing, and arranging for continued good management of the institutes. The foundations would discuss how to handle these responsibilities in late April.The paper lists individual comments by various participants during the meeting. Agencies represented were three foundations: Ford, Rockefeller and IDRC; six multilateral organizations: the Economic Commission for Africa, FAO, the Inter-American Development Bank, OECD, UNDP, and the World Bank; and four bilateral agencies: CIDA, SIDA, the UK Ministry of Overseas Development, and USAID.
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    Accelerating Agricultural Modernization in Developing Nations: A Summary of Findings and Suggestions from Agriculturists from Development Assistance Agencies, Bellagio, Italy, February 3-6, 1970 (Bellagio II)
    (Internal Document, 1970-03-01) Ford Foundation; Hardin, Lowell S.
    Memorandum prepared by Lowell Hardin of the Ford Foundation summarizing a conference of agricultural development experts held as a follow-up to the Conference on Agricultural Development of April 1969. The meeting was sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and held in at the Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy in February 1970. It was subsequently referred to as "Bellagio II." Participants reviewed the experience of the early years of the green revolution, and discussed possible ways of bringing similar improved technologies and varieties to bear on the crops and production systems of more marginal areas with harsher agricultural environments, including the possibility of additional IARCs based on the model of the existing four - IRRI, CIMMYT, CIAT, and IITA. Seven areas of research were identified as warranting consideration for new international research centers: 1. Water management2. Food legumes3. Starchy root crops4. Livestock systems in Southeast Asia5. Upland crops in Asia6. Farming systems in semi arid areas7. Policy, management, and socioeconomic research Given the resource requirements of continuing the existing centers and expanding international agricultural research, participants suggested the possibility of creating a consortium or consultative group as tentatively proposed by the World Bank.They also recommended special attention to economic and social problems, involvement of key scientists in a series of workshops, support to informational services for researchers, and a continued emphasis on training. There is an attached table of impressions of the adequacy of present technical knowledge for various crops and regions.
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    Agricultural Development: Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy April 23-25, 1969 (Bellagio I)
    (Report, 1969-04-01) Rockefeller Foundation; Meyers, Wil M.
    Report of a meeting of sixteen heads and key decisionmakers of major national, international, and private development agencies who met in April 1969 at the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation at Villa Serbelloni, the Foundation's conference center in Bellagio, Italy, to discuss the implications of recent improvements in agricultural productivity in a few developing countries, and programs to sustain and extend the agricultural revolution. No formal record was kept. This document consists of six preparatory papers, and a brief summary of the meeting prepared by Will M. Myers, vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and presented orally at the end of the conference.The six papers include two by FAO, on world needs and potentials in agricultural production, and the high-yielding varieties. Sterling Wortman, director of agricultural sciences at Rockefeller discussed the technological basis for intensified agriculture, and Lowell Hardin, program officer for agriculture at the Ford Foundation reviewed later-generation agricultural development problems. Stanley Please of the World Bank wrote about capital and income flows needed to sustain the agricultural revolution, and F. F. Hill, retired vice president of the Ford Foundation, considered priorities in agricultural development.The conference also reviewed the work of the four existing IARCs, CIMMYT, IRRI, CIAT and IITA, and their growing financial requirements. There was agreement that vigorous efforts to develop superior agricultural technology must continue.Two further meetings were planned at Bellagio. The first would involve the principal agricultural officers or the agencies represented, and the second, about a year later, those who participated in this first meeting and representatives of other appropriate agencies.