The CGIAR Consortium may be the biggest international agriculture force you’ve never heard of. It’s publicly funded to the tune of about $1 billion U.S. annually, and plays a major role in agriculture research and funding programs to end hunger, improve nutrition, and preserve the planet.

As the climate conference COP21 kicked off in Paris last week, I had a chance to catch up with CGIAR CEO Frank Rijsberman to talk about why he thinks agriculture needs a bigger forum in Paris and how CGIAR is reforming itself for a brave new world. Our chat has been edited for length and clarity.

We’ve had a rather large number of world leaders show up.

Eighty percent of countries have put agriculture into their [climate