CIAT official kidnapped.

On Sept. 23, Thomas Hargrove, a Texas native working for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (known by its Spanish acronym CIAT), disappeared - and was presumed kidnapped - while traveling to work in Colombia. The captors of CIAT's communications director have now confirmed his abduction with a ransom letter.

"We know that he's alive" but little more, says Fritz Kramer, CIAT's deputy director. Because CIAT's $30 million annual budget contains no reserve, he told Science News, "we do not have the money to respond to the kidnappers' request."

CIAT employs some 110 researchers and a support staff of about 1,050 in Colombia to work on local projects and help manage others in some 43 countries. The nonprofit group focuses on improving the quantity and quality of tropical forages and food staples - such as beans, cassava, and rice.

CIAT is headquartered in Cali, home of the violent drug cartel that recently assumed control of 80 percent of the world's cocaine trade. Here, Kramer says, little can be done to guarantee safety "short of assigning bodyguards to every staff." And relocating CIAT - an established organization with field sites throughout Colombia - "is a practical impossibility," he said. While CIAT has been rattled by Hargrove's abduction, Kramer maintains that "people who choose a career in international agricultural research know there are risks."