Seven awards were conferred by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development in Montpellier, France. These awards were:

• Outstanding Partnership to the World Vegetable Center and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for a project with subsistence farmers in Niger to improve local vegetable varieties and create viable systems for their production
• Outstanding Scientist to David Molden, deputy director general for research at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), for his leadership in bringing the issue of water scarcity to the level of policy
• Outstanding Scientific Article shared by two pioneering studies: one published in the biomedical journal The Lancet led by John Hoddinott, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), on nutrition and effects on economic productivity and incomes; and an article published in the Soil Science Society of America Journal, by Roland Buresh, a senior soil scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and colleagues on intensive agriculture and soil health.
• Outstanding Scientific Support Team to the Irrigated Rice Breeding Team led by Parminder Virk, a senior plant breeder at IRRI, for developing hundreds of new rice lines showing higher yield potential, better grain quality and resistance to diseases and insect pests
• Outstanding Communications to the Africa Rice Center's Rice Rural Learning Initiative
• Promising Young Scientist to Jonne Rodenburg, weed specialist at the Africa Rice Center
• Excellence in Agricultural Science Journalism to Zimbabwean journalist Busani Bafana

Read the media release of CGIAR at http://www.cgiar.org/newsroom/releases/news.asp?idnews=1024