Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin and Dr. Cary Fowler will receive the 2024 World Food Prize for their extraordinary leadership in preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop biodiversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats to global food security. Over the last 50 years, their combined efforts as researchers, policy advisors, thought leaders, and advocates in favour of biodiversity have succeeded in engaging governments, scientists, farmers, and civil society towards the conservation of over 6000 species of crops and culturally important plants.
Geoff Hawtin worked in IDRC’s Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Sciences Division, as Associate Director in 1987 and 1988 and as Director from from 1988 until 1991. He then became Director of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) housed at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. During his tenure, the Board became the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. It was later renamed Bioversity International.
Geoff was instrumental in negotiating the Plant Treaty, which opened the way for the establishment of the Crop Trust and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. As a member of the Executive Board of the Crop Trust, Hawtin continues to contribute to its mission, making biodiversity available for all to use, forever.
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Bulletin 73
July 2024