Collaborative Crop Research

Program Goal: Improve access to local, sustainable, nutritious food using collaborative research and knowledge-sharing with smallholder farmers, research institutions, and development organizations.

The Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) works to ensure a world where all have access to nutritious food that is sustainably produced by local people. We do this through collaborative agroecological systems research and knowledge-sharing that strengthen the capacities of smallholder farmers, research institutes, and development organizations. We take a holistic, ecosystem approach to agriculture, supporting research and partnerships that lead to increased crop productivity, improved livelihoods, better nutrition, and increased equity. We focus our support in twelve countries on two continents where poverty and food insecurity have created “hunger hot spots.”

Since the program’s inception in 1983, the McKnight Foundation has committed more than $100 million to the CCRP, including past and future commitments and non-grant assistance, such as support for convenings. Of the total, more than $74 million has been approved in grants to support the program’s goal.