This document describes·CIMMYT's needs for financial support from 1990 through 1994. This is our first five-year budget; we found its preparation a challenging task and we have taken a great deal of care in its development. Our point of departure for preparing the budget was our strategic plan. In 1988 a draft version of the plan was endorsed by CIMMYT's Board of Trustees and by the CGIAR-commissioned External Program and External Management Review panels. The CG's Technical Advisory Committee commented briefly on aspects of the plan in a session focused on the results of the two reviews; the TAC commented more fully in March 1989. The themes discussed in the presentation of the budget, in particular those found in Chapters 3 and 4, rest heavily on the plan. With each review we have refined our strategic plan and, congruently, the budget. In framing our budget, we gave careful consideration to likely funding. One option was to plan as if the strength of our arguments would itself ensure the required financial support. A second was to plan in terms of the straitened conditions of the CGIAR today. We decided on the latter course leading, we think, to quite reasonable proposals. It will not surprise the reader to discover that we believe the CGIAR gets very good value from its investment in CIMMYT. It is a well established fact that investment in the global maize and wheat germplasm networks has yielded immense direct returns in added production. As well, but frequently overlooked, these networks provide assurance of the continued delivery of effective materials even in the face of declining fortu11es for individual national programs. These returns are not just a consequence of the excellence of our scientific and support staffs, nor the ethic of service that powers our efforts, nor the prudence with which we use our funds. They rest as well on the fact that, however measured, maize and wheat are two of the principal food crops of the developing world. That single fact gives our work tremendous leverage. I add that, as we see it, the pressure for increased production for these crops will not abate during the next decade.