The Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) working with partners such as CGIAR and its research centers, has made notable progress in creating farming solutions directed at the needs of poor farmers worldwide. This review discusses two critical achievements— development and deployment of differential systems for blast study in rice and biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). Both achievements were initiated from basic studies. Results of the research guide crop improvement programs designed to introgress rice blast resistance and BNI into target crops. Both works clearly highlight that collaboration of scientists are key to the success. The wide research networks of JIRCAS and CGIAR are effective at establishing partnerships which can tackle the complexity and geographic scale of challenges in agricultural research. CGIAR’s strong presence in regions where problems occur, rich genetic resources, and strong genetic improvement programs are crucial to effective research-for-development activities to achieve agricultural sustainability. CGIAR–JIRCAS partnerships should be strengthened to bringing the benefits of science to the world’s poor farmers.