The ambitious fourth phase of the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program (ACRCP) is complete and it has produced an impressive set of achievements. Phase 4 saw an emphasis on gene discovery work and on understanding the interactions between rusts and their cereal hosts. It also included a strong focus on adult plant resistance (APR) genes and their potential to deliver more-durable forms of resistance.
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Temina Lalani-Shariff explains the importance of mechanization technologies to sustainably manage finite land and water resources but also to enhance food security for a growing world population, in a more equitable manner.
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Leading crop simulation models used by a global team of agricultural scientists to simulate wheat production up to 2050 showed large wheat yield reductions due to climate change for Africa and South Asia, where food security is already a problem.
The model predicted average declines in wheat yields of 15% in African countries and 16% in South Asian countries by mid-century, as described in the 2021 paper “Climate impact and adaptation to heat and drought stress of regional and global wheat production,” published in the science journal Environmental Research Letters. Climate change will lower global wheat production by 1.9% by mid-century, with the most negative impacts occurring in Africa and South Asia, according to the research.
“Studies have already shown that wheat yields fell by 5.5% during 1980-2010, due to rising global temperatures,” said Diego N.L. Pequeno, wheat crop modeler at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the paper. “We chose several models to simulate climate change impacts and also simulated wheat varieties that featured increased heat tolerance, early vigor against late season drought, and late flowering to ensure normal biomass accumulation. Finally, we simulated use of additional nitrogen fertilizer to maximize the expression of these adaptive traits.”
The wheat simulation models employed — CROPSIM-CERES, CROPSIM, and Nwheat within the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer, DSSAT v.4.6 — have been widely used to study diverse cropping systems around the world, according to Pequeno.
“The DSSAT models simulated the elevated CO2 stimulus on wheat growth, when N is not limiting,” he said. “Our study is the first to include combined genetic traits for early vigor, heat tolerance, and late flowering in the wheat simulation.”
Several factors, including temperature, water deficit, and water access, have been identified as major causes in recent wheat yield variability worldwide. The DSSAT wheat models simulate the impact of temperature, including heat stress, water balance, drought stress, or nitrogen leaching from heavy rainfall.
“Generally, small and low-volume wheat producers suffered large negative impacts due to future climate changes, indicating that less developed countries may be the most affected,” Pequeno added.
Climate change at high latitudes (France, Germany, and northern China, all large wheat-producing countries/region) positively impacted wheat grain yield, as warming temperatures benefit wheat growth through an extended early spring growing season. But warmer temperatures and insufficient rainfall by mid-century, as projected at the same latitude in Russia and the northwestern United States, will reduce rainfed wheat yields — a finding that contradicts outcomes of some previous studies.
At lower latitudes that are close to the tropics, already warm, and experiencing insufficient rainfall for food crops and therefore depending on irrigation (North India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), rising heat will damage wheat crops and seriously reduce yields. China, the largest wheat producer in the world, is projected to have mixed impacts from climate change but, at a nation-wide scale, the study showed a 1.2% increase in wheat yields.
“Our results showed that the adaptive traits could help alleviate climate change impacts on wheat, but responses would vary widely, depending on the growing environment and management practices used,” according to Pequeno. This implies that wheat breeding for traits associated with climate resilience is a promising climate change adaptation option, but its effect will vary among regions. Its positive impact could be limited by agronomical aspects, particularly under rainfed and low soil N conditions, where water and nitrogen stress limit the benefits from improved cultivars.
Extreme weather events could also become more frequent. Those were possibly underestimated in this study, as projections of heat damage effects considered only changes in daily absolute temperatures but not possible changes in the frequency of occurrence. Another limitation is that most crop models lack functions for simulating excess water (e.g., flooding), an important cause of global wheat yield variability.
This study was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat agri-food systems (CRP WHEAT; 2012-2021), the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP115 Project), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the Mexican government through the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project, and the International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and its Benefit-sharing Fund for co-funding the project, with financial support from the European Union.
Producing findings in collaboration with local communities can better and more quickly meet local needs, advancing progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
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By: Professor Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Chair, CGIAR System Board
With conflict in Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere, the relationship between instability, migration and food security is increasingly apparent.
The Russia Ukraine crisis, is affecting food systems around the world, driving up the price of grains and fertilizers with countries that can least afford it hit the hardest. At the same time, broader food insecurity is contributing to forced migration and rising social tensions.
Accelerating climate change amplifies the risks, with yields for some crops in sub-Saharan Africa set to fall by up to 35 per cent by 2050.
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This article was originally published in Swedish by Global Bar Magazine.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has a proven history of improving the lives of smallholder farmers and their families through innovative crop science and strong global partnerships.
CIMMYT celebrates Healthy Eating Week (June 13 – June 18) in the context of strengthening sustainable agrifood systems, which facilitate the production and consumption of healthy foods, against the impacts of climate change and the cost-of-living crisis.
Nutritious diets contribute to human health and productivity. Diversified cropping, whereby staple cereals like maize and wheat are grown in associations or rotations with legume or horticulture crops, help to conserve soil and water. They boost the climate resilience of farms while reducing their ecological impacts, also lowering costs for small-scale farmers and improving the nutrition of rural communities.
Conserving biodiversity in crops, livestock, aquaculture, fisheries, and forestry results in more robust food production systems, able to provide reliable supplies of nutritious grain, meat, vegetables, and seafood.
Rising temperatures, freshwater depletion, more erratic and extreme weather, market swings, and human conflict are threatening agrifood systems as never before, exacerbating food and nutrition insecurity.
Smallholder farmers and their households, which the World Bank estimates to number 0.5 billion globally and comprise a large proportion of humans living on less than $2 a day, produce much of the world’s food. At the same time, they and food system workers disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental and socioeconomic shocks.
To protect them and meet the world’s rising demand for food, CIMMYT joins global calls to leverage agrifood systems to ensure equitable access to food for all, as well as greater investment in and use of technology that supports more intensive, climate resilient, and ecologically sensible food production.
Read four stories about CIMMYT’s efforts to support access to healthy food through seed health initiatives, global partnerships, and crop biofortification.
The discovery and use of powerful genetic traits from maize and wheat seed collections can strengthen crops, help produce healthy foods, and improve livelihoods.
The recent six-page statement from the G7 warns of the increased global risk of famine. CIMMYT offers innovative science and partnerships to help the G7 achieve its stated ambitions for global food and nutrition security.
In the absence of affordable options for dietary diversification, biofortification through crop breeding offers a viable way to reduce the micronutrient deficiencies that hamper the health and productivity of billions of humans, particularly in developing countries.
Zinc and provitamin A biofortified maize genotypes have potential to reduce hidden hunger in Nepal.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) played a significant role in India’s agricultural development during the 1950s and 1960s. A brief history of this involvement – through the Green Revolution – is useful to understand CIMMYT’s journey of strengthening global partnerships.
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The G20 MACS is composed of the ministries or governmental bodies responsible for agricultural research in each G20 state and leading research institutions, including CIMMYT as part of CGIAR, which strategically advise these decision makers. The G20 MACS addresses diverse global challenges in agriculture affecting the people and planet through joint agricultural research and innovation strategies and implementation of initiatives under new cooperation formats.
“CIMMYT is working for a world with resilient agri-food systems and protecting biodiversity with a multi-crop, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary approach,” said Govaerts during the recent MACS meeting. “70% of wheat and over 50% of maize varieties sown worldwide are derived from CIMMYT materials, and we are improving livelihoods in over 50 countries.”
In its efforts to ensure biodiversity, CGIAR genebanks hold over 770,000 accessions, of which 80% are immediately accessible. As an added measure of security, duplicates of 78% of the seeds reside at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Because wheat provides 20% of the global population’s daily protein intake, protecting it from disease, pests, and the effects of climate change is paramount. And to keep pace with the growing population, yields must increase in sustainable manners. To meet those challenges, CIMMYT coordinates the International Wheat Improvement Network, which involves hundreds of partners and testing sites worldwide. The Network has established a global phenotyping network, with platforms hosted locally so that environments are optimal for specific trait phenotyping.
Battling pests
In efforts to combat the threat of wheat blast, CIMMYT has established a regional collaboration which includes testing centers (over 15,000 lines tested), surveillance networks, and the release of blast resistant varieties in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In addition, CIMMYT has trained 100 extension agents from 10 countries in wheat blast identification and surveillance protocols.
Fall armyworm, is a voracious pest in both Africa and Asia, has caused up to $13 billion per year in crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa since 2016, threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers throughout the region. CIMMYT has developed hybrid maize varieties resistant to this pest by identifying and validating sources of native genetic resistance.
International Year of the Millet: 2023
Within its presence in CGIAR, CIMMYT is working in networks with African NARS and private sector partners to share resources and knowledge and innovating sustainable crop and crop-livestock systems. This will directly support the Millets And Other Ancient Grains International Research Initiative (MAHARISHI), inaugurated at the G20 MACS conference. The initiative facilitates research collaboration on climate-resilient and nutritious grains, including millets and other underutilized grains. CIMMYT is also initiating and supporting crop improvement programs for sorghum, millet, groundnut, pigeon pea, and chickpea, in a model that empowers the national research centers.
This work dovetails with the recently announced Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), in which CIMMYT is catalyzing efforts to scale up existing and high potential innovations, technologies, and business models as opposed to starting new ones in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Creating sustainable solutions
CIMMYT is also pioneering the development of a hub network which supports adaptive research and integrated development for sustainable agrifood systems. With particular attention paid to inclusivity, these hubs are changing the perception of women’s roles in agriculture.
“CIMMYT is building towards future-proof solutions that foster empowerment through raising family income and food security, working with partners in the Global South for the benefit of the Global South,” said Govaerts.
Mixed farming can boost Nepal’s income, food security and resilience to climate change.
CGIAR Research Centers such as the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are organizing pilot activities to promote sustainable intensification of mixed farming systems (SIMFS) as a vital strategy. SIMFS has the potential to enhance the current mixed farming system by utilizing the same quantity of natural resources and employing effective crop management.
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A well-functioning seed system is key to timely access to low cost and quality seed by farmers. Improved varieties are critical to increase grain production in terms of both quality and quantity.
CIMMYT is working with the National Agricultural Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute (NaSARRI) to strengthen seed systems for millet, sorghum, and groundnuts.
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Soil-borne pathogens (SBP) are a serious threat to Turkey’s food security, especially as climate extremes (temperature, precipitations) become more commonplace. SBP are an array of specific adverse effects, such as root rot, wilt, yellowing, and dwarfing caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes. These pathogens can cause 50-75% yield loss in crops.
On May 2, 2023, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Country Representative in Turkey, Abdelfattah Dababat, joined the inauguration ceremony of the International Soil-Borne Pathogens Research & Development Center (ISBPRDC).
Vahit Kirişci, Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, inaugurated the Center, which is the first of its kind in the Central West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region dedicated to advancing research on SBPs and developing innovative solutions to control and prevent their spread.
The opening ceremony took place at the Directorate of Plant Protection Central Institute working under the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM), and it was attended by deputy ministers, TAGEM’s DG, and high-level officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Serving under the auspices of the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM), part of the Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, the ISBPRDC will meet international standards for sanitary conditions.
CGIAR and TAGEM mutually supported the SBP CIMMYT Turkey program by establishing and funding the ISBPRDC.
Bringing partners together
CIMMYT is signing a collaboration agreement with the ISBPRDC to facilitate knowledge exchange and technology transfer between the two institutions, which will support joint research and development activities aimed at improving crop health and productivity.
“The most effective way forward to battle against threats to food security is through cooperation,” said Dababat. “This collaboration is a great opportunity for Turkey’s seed industry to maintain its competitive advantage in foreign markets.”
Thirty-five scientists and technicians will work at the ISBPRDC and the institute will act as an umbrella for all SBP research in Turkey. Bahri Dağdaş International Agricultural Research Institute (BDIARI), the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute (TZARI), and the Plant Protection Central Research Institute (PPCRI) with offices in Konya, Eskisehir, and Ankara, respectively, will support the ISBPRDC center and collaborate with the SBP program at CIMMYT to deliver high-yielding wheat germplasm that is resistant to SBP.
Among new programs at the center are the development of a robust surveillance system to track pathogens, a genebank for germplasm, and screening facilities for resistance against SBP.
Recent successful events in Beijing included the first annual meeting of the China-Pakistan Joint Lab on Wheat Molecular Breeding. The meeting was attended by six distinguished Pakistani wheat scientists who had been invited to China for a 10-day training.
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With many stresses facing agricultural food systems, including climate change, disease epidemics, growing populations, there is not one solution that will answer all the challenges. However, a foundational part of any attempt to strengthen food systems is the effort to conserve crop diversity. Maintaining a robust set of plant varieties serves as a building block for developing favorable traits, like increased yield, increased disease resistance, and drought tolerance, among others.
Dedicated to conserving crop diversity, the Crop Trust is a non-profit international organization with the mission of making that diversity available for use globally, forever, for the benefit of everyone.
On April 3, 2023, Crop Trust’s Executive Director, Stefan Schmitz, and Director of Programs, Sarada Krishnan, visited the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for the first time to examine CIMMYT’s maize and wheat genebanks, with the goal of establishing a set of standards for genebanks around the world. The parties also discussed future collaborations between the two institutions that will be best amplify each organization’s strengths.
A key part of the Crop Trust’s mission is support for collections of unique and valuable plant genetic resources for food and agriculture held in genebanks.
“CIMMYT is — and has been — one of the key partners in making sure crop diversity is safe and available for all of humanity,” said Schmitz. “Their maize and wheat genebanks serve a crucial role in assuring crop diversity, especially in Latin America.”
CIMMYT manages the most diverse maize and wheat collections. CIMMYT’s germplasm bank, also known as a seed bank, is at the center of CIMMYT’s crop-breeding research. This remarkable, living catalog of genetic diversity comprises over 28,000 unique seed collections of maize and 123,000 of wheat.
“CIMMYT is honored to host the Crop Trust as any global solution requires global collaboration,” said CIMMYT Director General, Bram Govaerts.
Advances in genebank management
Representatives of the Crop Trust were eager to learn more about CIMMYT’s efforts in Digital sequence information (DSI). CIMMYT is using DSI to analyze structure, redundancies, and gaps within its own genebank and is now working to bring DSI tools to national genebanks in Latin America.
This visit builds on ongoing work, such as the third workshop of the Community of Practice for Latin America and the Caribbean on the use of genomic and digital tools for the conservation and use of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GRAA) held in November 2022.
Among CIMMYT led initiatives, the Mining Useful Alleles for Climate Change Adaptation from the CGIAR Genebanks project, is expanding the use of biodiversity held in the world’s genebanks to develop new climate-smart crop varieties for millions of small-scale farmers worldwide.
The doomsday vault
In 2020, CIMMYT was the largest contributor to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, providing 173,779 maize and wheat accessions from 131 countries.
The Seed Vault, managed by the Crop Trust, is a repository collection holding duplicates of seeds from over 1,700 genebanks around the world.
CIMMYT’s most recent donation to the Seed Vault was in October 2022.
“All CIMMYT staff we met were passionate about their work and welcomed us kindly, generously sharing their knowledge and time with us. We look forward to continuing our collaboration, to strengthen it, and make sure that the crop collections held at the CIMMYT genebank are safe and available, forever,” said Schmitz.
Wheat production is strained by rising temperatures, longer droughts, and emerging crop diseases. CIMMYT wheat researchers are leading what the Technology Times and scientists call a ‘wheat revolution’ by developing drought-tolerant and fungal-resistant wheat varieties.
Read more here.
With the harmful effects of climate change, including drought and extreme temperatures moving from the abstract into the practical, the development and deployment of sustainable investments and support for climate action in agricultural and food systems must be accelerated.
A hotter and drier world will significantly affect the average yields of key staple crops. Researchers at the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) estimate that, without adaptation of climate-smart solutions, each Celsius degree increase in global mean temperatures will cut average maize yields by 7.4 percent and wheat yields by 6.0 percent.
“Those would be catastrophic losses, affecting every part of the global food system,” said CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts “Already we see havoc being caused in food insecure regions like southern Africa. With that in mind, it’s time not only to keep developing climate smart solutions, but we need to speed up the distribution of innovations.”
CIMMYT is a partner in the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C) initiative, which aims to raise global ambition and drive more rapid and transformative climate action in all countries by bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, producers, civil society groups, and scientists and researchers.
The AIM for Climate Summit, May 8-10, in Washington DC, brought together a global coalition of climate partners, including CIMMYT, all working towards the mission of rapid dissemination of climate-smart innovations.
As part of its participation in the Climate Summit, CIMMYT is reshaping its strategy for contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The new strategy places CIMMYT research within three main pillars: (1) discovery, (2) systems development, and (3) inclusivity, all within the framework of climate adaptation and mitigation.
“Our new approach ensures that CIMMYT will be a partner of choice and a contributor to science and technology development. All while keeping the focus on smallholder farmers and establishing guidelines to ensure advances are sustainable and fair, as we engage previously underrepresented stakeholders,” said Govaerts.
Establishing frameworks for rapid innovation
At the Summit, CIMMYT updated partners on the progress of two Innovation Sprints, which are key components of the AIM and intended to achieve innovations for climate smart agri-food systems in an expedited time frame.
CIMMYT is leading two sprints: Climate-Resilient soil fertility management by smallholders in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and Fast Tracking Climate Solutions from CGIAR Genebank Collections.
The Right Fertilizer at the Right Time
The Climate-Resilient soil fertility management by smallholders in Africa, Asia, and Latin America Innovation Sprint provides targeted interventions for fertilizer application and overall soil health to smallholder farmers.
Fertilizers are essential for increasing crop yields and ensuring food security, yet fertilizer use for food and fodder is severely skewed at the global level, leading to over-fertilization in some regions and under-fertilization in others.
“We need innovations that promote local adaptation and agency by smallholder farmers. By tailoring fertility management practices to specific conditions, smallholders will optimize productivity, enhance climate resilience, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions,” said Sieglinde Snapp, Innovation Sprint Leader and Program Director of CIMMYT’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems.
Withdrawals from genebanks
CIMMYT’s germplasm bank, also known as a genebank, is at the center of CIMMYT’s crop-breeding research. This living catalog of genetic diversity conserves over 28,000 unique seed collections of maize and 150,000 of wheat. Many other CGIAR institutions hold similar genebanks for other key crops. The Genebank Sprint unlocks potential climate smart solutions lurking in varieties held in genebanks.
Research has developed integrated approaches for six major crops (cassava, maize, sorghum, cowpea, common bean and rice), providing a scalable model for the rapid and cost-effective discovery of climate-adaptive alleles.
“Genetic diversity is a key part of our responses to climate change,” said Sarah Hearne, CIMMYT Principal Scientist. “By utilizing the vast diversity catalogue in our CGIAR genebanks, we can disseminate climate resilient varieties to smallholder farmers around the world.”
Working towards speeding up deployment
In addition, CIMMYT’s Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and based on the MasAgro model in Mexico, works toward improving legume seed and maize varieties. So far, 35 local partners are employing solutions in Zambia, Tanzania, and Malawi, and there have been 125 mega demonstrations, a majority managed by women, for farmers of improved seeds.
In conjunction with the Summit’s focus on rapid implementation, CIMMYT is ready to deploy a similar project immediately in Central America, a historically under-funded region, which would improve livelihoods throughout the area.
“CIMMYT is dedicated to accelerating food systems transformation by using the power of collective action for research and innovation to foster productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood systems that ensure global food and nutrition security,” said Govaerts.