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The world’s largest maize ear contest 2015

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Contest winner Domingo FrĂĄnquez Flores from the nearby village of Coapan, with a maize ear 44 centimeters long. Photo: Victor Vidal/INIFAP
Contest winner Domingo FrĂĄnquez Flores from the nearby village of Coapan, with a maize ear 44 centimeters long.
Photo: Victor Vidal/INIFAP

On 14 August 2015, I was one of the judges in the contest to find “The World’s Largest Maize Ear” held in Jala, Nayarit, Mexico. The contest is one of the most popular events during the week-long celebration in honor of the town’s patron saint. This was the third time I was a judge, and the contest has become an annual highlight for me in my role as one of the custodians of the world’s maize genetic diversity. The Jala landrace will always hold a special place in my heart, not just because of its size, which is impressive, but also because of the culture surrounding it and the dedication of the people who grow it.

I met my friend, Dr. Victor Vidal, INIFAP maize breeder and enthusiastic supporter of maize genetic resources, at the flagpole on the main street separating the twin towns of Jala and Jomulco. Our first stop was the stall of the family of Don JosĂ© Antioco ElĂ­as Partida of Coapan, the winner of last year’s contest, and a winning contestant for many years. We learned that sadly, Don JosĂ© had died earlier in the year. However, two of his sons, continuing the family tradition, entered the contest this year.

At 4:45 p.m., the contestants gathered in the auditorium of the town hall, and watched a video about Jala maize, created by Dr. J. Arahón Hernández Guzmán, a local “boy” who got his Ph.D. at Cornell, and is now a professor at the Colegio de Posgraduados in Puebla. He presented Victor and me with copies of his video. Afterwards, the “convocatoria” (list of contest regulations) was read out loud. There was a bit of discussion about the rule that the maize be grown under “natural conditions,” i.e., no irrigation.

We judges were called to the stage, introduced, and the convocatoria was read once again. We split up into three teams, and the contestants, three at a time, were called up to have their five ears of Jala maize shucked and measured. The largest ear was selected, and its length and the contestant’s number were written on pieces of masking tape that were stuck on the ear. The contestants’ names and the length of their largest ear were announced, and photos were taken. Most ears were 30+ cm long, only a few were 40+. The crowd definitely kept track, cheering loudly for their friends, and especially for the 40+ ears. The very first farmer who came to our table had the winning ear, at 44 cm. As the contest proceeded, there would be a murmur of disappointment when another farmer had an ear that was almost a winner.

Judging Team #2 in action, shucking and measuring Jala maize on stage, including Denise Costich (CIMMYT), and Victor Vidal (INIFAP) on the right. Photo: Victor Vidal/INIFAP

Once all the shucking and measuring are completed, there is always an interval while the data from the different teams are collated and the winning places are assigned. During this time, my friend Victor gave an explanation of why some of the ears did not produce kernels (the reason: lack of pollination). As it happened, one of the oldest contestants had brought in an ear that was 48 cm long, but none of the grain was filled, so it had to be disqualified. However, this showed that there is genetic potential for still larger ears. With the approval of the mayor of Jala, Victor proposed that another contest be held at harvest time, when the ears would be mature enough to be stored and eventually germinate. Having the contest at harvest time would allow for further selection and improvement of the Jala landrace; in addition, seed of the outstanding phenotypes could be stored in germplasm banks.

At the end of the contest, there was a moving ceremony in memory of the late Don José Elías, and his family came on stage to accept the tribute. Three generations of proud Jala maize growers stood before the crowd, the youngest held in the arms of his father, exemplifying a tradition that keeps maize landraces alive and well as an integral part of the culture and food security of Mexico and the world.

Three generations of the family of the late Don JosĂ© Antioco ElĂ­as Partida, accepting an award recognizing Don José’s contributions. Photo: Denise Costich/CIMMYT

Contributions from Victor Vidal

Sustainable intensification in China: doing more with less

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Transplanting rice seedlings into ZT wheat stubble in Litong, China. Photo: Yuan Hanmin

As part of CIMMYT’s ongoing collaboration with the Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences and the building of an innovation platform there, we have refurbished our site and undertaken a number of trials that reflect the concepts of sustainable intensification, which increases food production from existing farmland while minimizing pressure on the environment.

The site at Litong just outside the city of Wuzhong in Ningxia Province has been modified and now boasts a paved parking area, all-weather access roads and field paths, and an array of signage that explains CIMMYT’s activities and the history of conservation agriculture undertaken by CIMMYT-China in this part of the country.

Zero-till rice transplanting

On the left, an irrigated ZT field; on the right, a conventionally prepared field (yet to be irrigated), 35 days after transplanting. Photo: Jack McHugh/CIMMYT
On the left, an irrigated ZT field; on the right, a conventionally prepared field (yet to be irrigated), 35 days after transplanting.
Photo: Jack McHugh/CIMMYT

CIMMYT recently tested a zero-tillage (ZT) rice transplanting operation with a 9 row transplanter from Jiangsu province. The idea came from viewing a short video taken some years ago of a conventional transplanter being used under ZT conditions in Bangladesh. In Ningxia, recently harvested wheat fields were irrigated and rice seedlings were planted into standing wheat stubble without any further modification to the planter. In contrast, rice was conventionally transplanted in an adjacent field, which required two days of field preparation including inversion plowing, leveling and puddling at an extra cost of USD $375 per hectare.

Zero-till rice transplanting not only saves time, labor and fuel, but also minimizes soil disturbance, maximizes residue retention, and mitigates moisture and nutrient loss. Results from these trials will demonstrate the effectiveness of transplanting rice into ZT winter wheat standing stubble.

Relay and intercropping

Monocropping farming systems are predominant in Ningxia, with the same crop planted year after year. The region has very cold winters and short summers, but with the use of short season varieties and relay cropping, double-cropping and crop rotations can be realized in the region. Double-cropping is a form of sequential cropping in which two crops are grown in sequence within a year on a piece of land by seeding or transplanting one before or after harvesting the other.

Winter wheat and peanut intercropping followed by relay-cropping maize into immature winter wheat. Photo: Jack McHugh/CIMMYT
Winter wheat and peanut intercropping followed by relay-cropping maize into immature winter wheat.
Photo: Jack McHugh/CIMMYT

To that end, five maize cultivars were relay-planted into winter wheat on 17 June, around two weeks before harvest; the plot was previously intercropped with 24 peanut varieties. The advanced winter wheat lines were harvested in late June and yielded quite well for the region. We expect to harvest the maize from late September to early October 2015.

Zero-till and early maturing grain crops are key to double-cropping in the region; however, the current wheat variety – Ningdong 11 – is late in maturing. Next year, the earlier maturing Ningdong 10 will be used, with emphasis on residue retention and increased stubble height during harvest, before seeding maize directly and/or transplanting rice. However, the current Chinese-made Turbo Happy Seeders will need to be modified to cope with the rougher soil surfaces encountered under ZT to ensure better seeding depth control.

Why GM wheat may be the key to stave off world hunger

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IMG_8188Sanjaya Rajaram is the 2014 World Food Prize laureate for scientific research that led to an increase in world wheat production by more than 200 million tons. Any views expressed are his own.

Unless global policymakers redouble their efforts to properly support a strategy to ensure a future food supply, the current hunger crisis threatens only to get worse.

A gathering of more than 500 scientists at the 2015 International Wheat Conference in Sydney, Australia, provides an opportunity to revisit these matters.

Already almost 800 million people worldwide – about one in nine people – are undernourished and do not get enough food to eat to lead a healthy active life, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

By 2050, the current global population of 7.3 billion is projected to grow 33 percent to almost 10 billion, according to the United Nations.

A recent report from the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience projects that food demand, driven by population growth, demographic changes and increasing global wealth, will rise more than 60 percent.

The majority of hungry people live in developing countries where almost 14 percent of the population is undernourished, the FAO states in its 2015 “State of Food Insecurity in the World” report. The current refugee crisis in Europe provides dramatic evidence that wealthy countries must increase investments that will help promote food security and political stability in poor countries.

BOLSTERING FOOD SECURITY

Investments in agricultural science must be at the top of the list. Wheat currently provides 20 percent of calories and 20 percent of protein to the global human diet. In order to keep up with population growth, we must increase wheat production from the current annual 700 million metric tons a year to 1 billion. We also face the threat of climate change-related global warming.

Over the past 50 years, the 15-member CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers – where I worked for most of my career with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) – have been helping smallholder farmers to increase crop yields and stave off devastating diseases.

To date, however, scientists have been unable to sufficiently increase yields to meet demand through hybridization. Production must grow 70 percent over the next 35 years – an achievable goal if annual wheat yields are increased from a current level of below 1 percent to at least 1.7 percent. It is time to invest in biotechnology to ensure yields can provide nourishment for an ever-hungrier planet.

Simultaneously, we must maintain balance in the food chain and restore depleted carbon in the soil. Such concerns as disease resilience, seed diversity, water management and micronutrient imbalance must be tackled.

Governments and the private sector must more fully support research efforts to accelerate the development of new wheat varieties or face the risk of further global insecurity related to price

Impacts of international wheat improvement research: 1994 – 2014

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Improved wheat varieties developed using CGIAR breeding lines, either in cross-pollinations or as direct releases, cover more than 100 million hectares — nearly two-thirds of the area sown to improved wheat worldwide, new research (Lantican et al., in press) shows. Benefits in added grain from CGIAR wheat research range from $2.8 to 3.8 billion each year — a very high return for the work’s annual, public funding of only $30 million, according to the full-length study. Consistent and secure funding is crucial to maintain the research and institutional capacities required to deliver such impact, particularly given the mounting challenges facing wheat food security and farm livelihoods in developing countries.

According to the study, the impacts derive largely from research and development activities conducted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), both members of the CGIAR Consortium of agricultural research centers, with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) and partners worldwide including national research programs, advanced research institutes, and private companies.

Findings show that since 1994, farmers globally have enjoyed access to 4,604 improved wheat varieties and that there is continued and significant use in the developing world of CIMMYT and ICARDA wheat lines, which are bred and shared freely through international partnerships. CIMMYT-derived varieties alone cover as much as 80% of the wheat area in South Asian countries and, in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 90% of the area in Kenya and in Ethiopia.

More than a quarter of all wheat varieties and 40 percent of all spring wheat varieties released in this century contain CIMMYT germplasm.

In addition to profiting farmers in the developing world, where CIMMYT and ICARDA’s efforts are focused, the surplus grain produced also benefits wheat consumers — particularly the poor who spend a large portion of their income on food — according to evidence cited.

Specifically, the authors made reference to the study of Stevenson et al. (2013), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which showed that, in the absence of CGIAR wheat improvement, global wheat prices would have been 29-59% higher in 2004 than they actually were.

Evidence also shows that elite wheat lines from CIMMYT or ICARDA are immediately useful for most wheat improvement programs worldwide and that their use saves a decade or more of cross-breeding for those programs. Moreover, far from representing a bottleneck in diversity, breeding stocks from the two centers have significantly enhanced the genetic diversity of improved wheat, particularly for critical traits like yield potential, grain processing quality, disease resistance, and early maturity, according to research cited by the authors (Warburton et al. 2006; Huang et al. 2015, pp. 13-14).

Finally, in contrast to the commonly-held belief that modern varieties are less resilient than farmers’ traditional varieties, the authors cite the study by Gollin (2006) showing that the increased use of improved wheat varieties over the past 40 years has made grain yields more stable and actually reduced farmers’ risk.

In addition to leading the world’s largest publicly-funded wheat improvement networks, CIMMYT and ICARDA delivering impact through extensive partnerships and longstanding research on productive and sustainable cropping practices. Crucial to their success are initiatives that foster farmers’ access to quality seed of new varieties and capacity-strengthening activities that target individuals and partner institutions. Notably, the two centers maintain, study, and share seed collections of wheat genetic diversity comprising nearly 200,000 unique samples wheat landraces, improved varieties, and wild relatives.

The new study proves that international collaboration on wheat research continues to provide the impressive returns on investments, as occurred during the 1960s-70s. Wheat breeding impacts at that time helped to spark the Green Revolution from which the 15-member CGIAR arose and to keep food prices at historically low levels for decades (Evenson and Gollin in Science, 2003).

Wheat farming in an age of changing climate and shifting markets

Although the costs of basic food commodities have fallen recently, they are still well above the decades-long, stable levels that preceded the 2008 food crisis. Worse, despite low grain prices, global stocks have shrunk 30% from levels at the outset of the millennium (Brown, L.R. 2012. Full Planet, Empty Plates; The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity.). Reverberations of relatively local disturbances, like droughts or crop disease outbreaks, now cause inordinate price spikes and worsen food insecurity for the world’s poorest.

Looking forward, by 2050 the current global population of 7.3 billion is projected to grow 33 percent to 9.7 billion, according to the United Nations. Demand for food, driven by population, demographic changes and increasing global wealth, will rise more than 60 percent, according to a recent report from the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience. Wheat farmers must meet this rising demand from the same or less land area, while confronting more extreme and erratic rainfall and temperatures and using inputs like water and fertilizer much more effectively.

As the world’s policymakers begin to acknowledge the interconnected nature of food, energy, water, and peace, every effort made to improve global food security is an investment in the future of humanity. Food insecurity drastically affect all sectors of society; either through hunger, high food prices, or social conflicts that send massive waves of desperate refugees in flight.

Farmers have met repeated food security challenges since the Industrial Revolution, with the support of science and focused development efforts, but science and development require investment. Wheat breeding and crop management research have long horizons – typically, for example, it takes much more than a decade for a variety to go from initial crosses to farmers’ fields.

The requisite research and institutional capacities for this work also take years to develop, but can be lost very quickly in the absence of committed policy support and consistent and secure funding. Publicly-funded wheat research barely has the resources to maintain the essential breeding and capacity building activities that underpin the impacts documented in this new publication, which will be released in November 2015 and aims to set the record straight on the magnitude of CGIAR contributions to global food supplies.

As of 2015, CIMMYT and ICARDA have agreed to operate their wheat research as a single joint program. They are struggling to find support for work on new technologies, such as advanced phenotyping platforms for heat and drought tolerance, or advanced global consortia focusing on traits that dramatically raise the genetic yield potential of wheat. Those and other tools and initiatives will be crucial for public wheat breeding research to partner effectively with the private sector and keep step with societal demands for food security and nutrition.

Funded through the CGIAR Wheat Research Program, the study is based on a survey sent to 94 countries that produce at least 5,000 tons of wheat each year. Responses came from 66 wheat-growing countries — 44 of them developing countries that account for nearly all the developing world’s wheat output. Survey data were complemented with information from published wheat varietal guides, figures on wheat varietal area insured or grown, papers in scientific journals, technical bulletins, and on-line sources including the US Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Services (USDA-NASS), the Annual Wheat Newsletter, and wheat area, production and yield statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The study updates results of Lantican et al. (2005).

Lantican, M.A., T.S. Payne, K. Sonder, R. Singh, M. van Ginkel, M.Baum, H.J. Braun, and O. Erenstein. In press. Impacts of International Wheat Improvement Research in the World, 1994-2014. Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT.

Smart mechanization is a continuous improvement process: the case of a conservation agriculture machinery manufacturer

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MartĂ­n SĂĄnchez develops machines for conservation agriculture based on CIMMYT prototypes.
MartĂ­n SĂĄnchez develops machines for conservation agriculture based on CIMMYT prototypes.

The building of local capacities is one of the objectives MasAgro pursues to achieve the adoption of conservation agriculture in Mexico. As part of this vision, MasAgro helps develop local machine manufacturers with the capacity to supply and service the implements farmers across the country need to implement conservation agriculture systems.

MartĂ­n SĂĄnchez GĂłmez welcomed us to Sembradoras TIMS, the shop where he manufactures farm machinery, located in San JoaquĂ­n Coapango, Texcoco, State of Mexico. When we arrived, SĂĄnchez and his family were in the middle of checking the details in preparation for an event to show the implements they have developed for conservation agriculture systems. They set up tents, chairs and a demonstration plot. This is the first demonstration SĂĄnchez and his family have organized to show the machines they manufacture, and they invited several partners, such as CIMMYT, to attend.

Sembradoras TIMS is a family business that used to be a car repair shop before transitioning into the manufacture of farm implements five years ago, when the family started working with CIMMYT and learned about farm machine prototypes.

Multiuse-multicrop machine, the first model developed by Sembradoras TIMS. Photo: Luz Paola LĂłpez Amezcua/CIMMYT
Multiuse-multicrop machine, the first model developed by Sembradoras TIMS. Photo: Luz Paola LĂłpez Amezcua/CIMMYT

It all began when CIMMYT staff in charge of El Batán Experiment Station asked them to replace a harvester’s four-cylinder engine with a six-cylinder one.

“I have always liked the idea of building things, but I didn’t know how these machines work,” says Sánchez. The first seeder they developed was the multiuse-multicrop seeder. During the process, “we would go to CIMMYT, make changes in the shop, test the machines, make new changes and then tried to find ways of improving them. If we were told ‘this doesn’t work,’ we would change it. Later, CIMMYT started to give technicians our contact information and we started to get calls from other states of Mexico,” says Sánchez. Due to these requests, they had more work at the shop, so Sánchez asked the whole family to join in. That’s when they decided to make a complete change and focus on manufacturing machinery.

Members of the SĂĄnchez-GĂłmez family, Sembradoras TIMS. Photo: Luz Paola LĂłpez Amezcua
Members of the SĂĄnchez-GĂłmez family, Sembradoras TIMS. Photo: Luz Paola LĂłpez Amezcua

After the “big” seeders, TIMS began manufacturing manual and animal-drawn machines.

“I can’t say we’ve done everything ourselves, because we learned a lot from CIMMYT staff like Gabriel MartĂ­nez, JesĂșs LĂłpez, Javier Vargas, Jelle Van Loon, and Dr. Bram Govaerts, who never lost faith in us, and that counts for a lot.”

That’s how the Sánchez-Gómez family started a business where innovation and continuous improvements have allowed them to market different types of seeders. Just recently they started manufacturing hermetic metal silos for post-harvest management.

GCAP to become Sustainable Intensification Program (SIP)

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Conservation agriculture has been a major focus of CIMMYT research, positioning the Center as a world scientific leader in the area. Following a recent internal consultation and discussions with Program Director Bruno Gerard, CIMMYT has decided to change the name of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) to “Sustainable Intensification Program (SIP).” This change reflects the broader research-for-development agenda that CIMMYT and the Program have progressively embraced in maize and wheat farming systems over recent years, which includes social, economic, and environmental issues beyond the strict principles of conservation agriculture. We also feel that the name should represent the Program’s objectives, rather than the means by which it works to reach them. Finally, the new name will align perfectly with those of Flagship Projects 4 of the CGIAR Research Programs MAIZE and WHEAT, which CIMMYT leads.  Change will be effective on 1 October 2015.

CIMMYT scientists make a splash on Australian radio show

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The Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast its “Country Hour” program live from the International Wheat Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney. The program features 2014 World Food Prize Laureate Sanjaya Rajaram and several CIMMYT scientists, including Sridhar Bhavani, David Hodson, Julio Huerta, Jessica Rutkoski and Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program. Jeanie Borlaug Laube, the “first lady of wheat” and daughter of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and wheat breeder Norman Borlaug, is among interviewees selected by broadcaster Michael Condon.

Click here to listen to podcast.

CIMMYT scientists make a splash on Australian radio show

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The Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast its “Country Hour” program live from the International Wheat Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney. The program features 2014 World Food Prize Laureate Sanjaya Rajaram and several CIMMYT scientists, including Sridhar Bhavani, David Hodson, Julio Huerta, Jessica Rutkoski and Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program. Jeanie Borlaug Laube, the “first lady of wheat” and daughter of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and wheat breeder Norman Borlaug, is among interviewees selected by broadcaster Michael Condon.

Click here to listen to podcast.

 

Replacing gender myths and assumptions with knowledge

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CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff speaks on the topic of ‘Wheat and the role of gender in the developing world’ prior to the 2015 Women in Triticum Awards at the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative Workshop in Sydney on 19 September.

If we are to be truly successful in improving the lives of farmers and consumers in the developing world, we need to base our interventions on the best evidence available. If we act based only on our assumptions, we may not be as effective as we could be or, even worse, actively cause harm.

One example is the common perception that women are not involved in the important wheat farming systems of North Africa and South Asia. By recognizing and engaging with these myths, we are beginning to build a more sophisticated understanding of how agriculture works as a social practice.

Currently, there are only a few published studies that take a closer examination of the roles played by women in wheat-based farming systems. These studies have found that, in some cases, men are responsible for land preparation and planting, and women for weeding and post-harvest activities, with harvest and transport duties being shared. Between different districts in India, huge variations may be found in the amount of time that women are actively involved in wheat agriculture. This shows that some careful study into the complexities of gender and agricultural labor may hold important lessons when intervening in any particular situation.

We must also never assume that, just because women are not as involved in agriculture in a particular context, they can not benefit from more information. In a survey carried out by CIMMYT researcher Surabhi Mittal in parts of rural India, it was found that women used a local cellphone agricultural advisory service just as much as men, and that this knowledge helped them get more involved in farming-related decision-making.

Gender is not just about women

For all that it is important to include women, along with other identity groups in project planning, implementation and data collection, it is important not to get into the trap of thinking that gender-integrated approaches are just about targeting women.

For example, the World Health Organization estimates that micronutrient deficiency affects at least two billion people around the world, causing poor health and development problems in the young. The effects of micronutrient deficiency start in the womb, and are most severe from then through to the first two years of life. Therefore it would make sense to target women of childbearing age and mothers with staple varieties that have been bio-fortified to contain high levels of important micronutrients such as zinc, iron or vitamin A.

However, to do so risks ignoring the process in which the decision to change the crop grown or the food eaten in the household is taken. Both men and women will be involved in that decision, and any intervention must therefore take the influence of gender norms and relations, involving both women and men, into account.

The way ahead

To move forward, each component of the strategy for research into wheat farming systems at CIMMYT also has a gender dimension, whether focused on improving the evidence base, responding to the fact that both women and men can be end users or beneficiaries of new seeds and other technologies, or ensuring that gender is considered as a part of capacity-building efforts.

Already, 20 of our largest projects are actively integrating gender into their work, helping to ensure that women are included in agricultural interventions and share in the benefits they bring, supplying a constant stream of data for future improvement.

We have also experienced great success in targeting marginalized groups. For instance, the Hill Maize Research Project in Nepal, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) alongside the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), focused on food-insecure people facing discrimination due to their gender or social group. By supporting them to produce improved maize varieties in community groups, the project managed not only to greatly increase their incomes, but also to improve their self-confidence and recognition in society.

CIMMYT researchers are also among the leaders of a global push to encode gender into agricultural research together with other international research partnerships. In over 125 agricultural communities in 26 countries, a field study of gender norms, agency and agricultural innovation, known as GENNOVATE, is now underway. The huge evidence base generated will help spur the necessary transformation in how gender is included in agricultural research for development.

Further information:

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, chaired by Jeanie Borlaug Laube, has the overarching objective of systematically reducing the world’s vulnerability to stem, yellow, and leaf rusts of wheat and advocating/facilitating the evolution of a sustainable international system to contain the threat of wheat rusts and continue the enhancements in productivity required to withstand future global threats to wheat. This international network of scientists, breeders and national wheat improvement programs came together in 2005, at Norman Borlaug’s insistence, to combat Ug99. The Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project at Cornell University serves as the secretariat for the BGRI. The DRRW, CIMMYT, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the FAO helped establish the BGRI a decade ago. Funding is provided by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information, please visit www.globalrust.org.

CIMMYT is the global leader in research for development in wheat and maize and related farming systems. CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat to improve food security and livelihoods. CIMMYT belongs to the 15-member CGIAR Consortium and leads the Consortium Research Programs on wheat and maize. CIMMYT receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.

Follow the #BGRI2015 hashtag on social media

Twitter: @CIMMYT, @KropffMartin and @GlobalRust

The first heat tolerant maize hybrids are licensed for deployment in Bangladesh, India and Nepal

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Women farmers at a HTMA hybrid demonstration at Dumarawana village, Bara District, Nepal. Photo: NMRP, Rampur
Women farmers at a HTMA hybrid demonstration at Dumarawana village, Bara District, Nepal. Photo: NMRP, Rampur

The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh’s ACI Seeds, India’s Bihar Agricultural University, Sabor, and the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Ajeet Seeds, and Nepal’s Hariyali Community Seeds and Sean Seeds are the first proud institutions/companies to receive a license for the deployment of heat tolerant maize hybrids. B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program, formally presented the product licensing certificates to the heads/representatives of these organizations during the Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project’s 3rd Annual Progress Review and Planning Meeting held from 10-12 August 2015 in Hyderabad, India. Other project partners, including national program and seed companies from Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, have shared their choice of hybrids, and asked to submit them for formal licencing. The hybrids were developed under the HTMA project funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Feed the Future (FTF) initiative, a public-private alliance that targets resource-poor people of South Asia who face weather extremes and climate-change effects.Women farmers at a HTMA hybrid demonstration at Dumarawana village, Bara District, Nepal.

At the event’s inaugural session, Nora Lapitan, Senior Science Advisor, Bureau for Food Security, USAID, gave an update on the FTF initiative and highlighted its priorities, which include reducing poverty and malnutrition in children in target countries through accelerated inclusive agricultural growth and a high-quality diet. This was followed by an overview by B.M. Prasanna of the new CGIAR research program on Maize Agri-food system, its focus and priorities and the importance of stress-resilient maize in food security and livelihoods, especially in climate-change vulnerable regions, such as the Asian tropics.

The inaugural session was followed by technical sessions, during which Raman Babu, CIMMYT molecular maize breeder, M.T. Vinayan, CIMMYT maize stress specialist for South Asia, A.R. Sadananda, CIMMYT maize seed system specialist, and CIMMYT socioeconomist Christian Boeber presented their latest research results.

Mohammad Jalal Uddin, BARI Director of Research, receiving a licence for HTMA hybrid deployment from Prasanna. Photo: CIMMYT-India

Mohammad Jalal Uddin, BARI Director of Research, receiving a licence for HTMA hybrid deployment from Prasanna.P.H. Zaidi, HTMA project leader and senior maize physiologist at CIMMYT, described the progress achieved at the end of the project’s third year. Representatives from public and private sector partners presented the results of the HTMA trials conducted at their locations, and shared a list of top-ranking, best-bet heat-tolerant maize hybrids to take forward for large-scale testing and deployment. Collaborators from Pakistan’s Maize and Millet Research Institute (MMRI) and Bhutan’s Maize Program could not participate in the meeting but their progress reports were presented by K. Seetharam and Zaidi, respectively. It is quite impressive that within the first three years of the project, each partner has identified promising and unique maize hybrids suitable for their target markets/agro-ecologies.

Participants visited a demonstration of elite HTMA hybrids and their parents, where they observed the performance of their selected hybrids under Indian conditions. They were able to see the hybrids and their parents side by side, assess their performance and request seed of parental lines.

The project is also involved in capacity building, including providing support to a total of nine M.Sc./Ph.D. students, as well as workshops and in-country training courses in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, where over 100 researchers have been trained on developing stress resilient maize. In a special session dedicated to student research projects, four HTMA students, including Mahender Tripathi from Nepal, Ashraful Alam from Bangladesh and Akula Dinesh and C.N. Ranganath from India, presented their research projects.

The project’s progress was critically reviewed by the project steering committee (PSC) headed by Prasanna, who expressed great satisfaction with its overall progress and acheivements. Speaking for USAID, Lapitan said they are highly impressed with the progress of the HTMA project and consider it a model project. Other PSC members also expressed their satisfaction and agreed that the HTMA team deserves special appreciation for remarkable achievements within a period of just three years.

The HTMA project meeting was attended by program leaders, scientists and representatives from collaborating institutions in South Asia, including BARI, Nepal’s National Maize Research Program (NMRP) and two of India’s state agriculture universities. Seed companies operating in the region, including Pioneer Hi-bred, Kaveri Seeds and Ajeet Seeds from India, and Sean Seeds and Hariyali Community Seeds from Nepal, and international institutions such as Purdue University, USAID and CIMMYT also participated in the event.

The HTMA team at CIMMYT, Hyderabad, India. Photo: CIMMYT-India

 

Value of CGIAR wheat estimated at up to $3.8 billion a year, research shows

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A field at El BatĂĄn research station. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins

SYDNEY, Australia (CIMMYT) – About 70 percent of spring bread and durum wheat varieties released globally over the 20-year period between 1994 and 2014 were bred or are derived from wheat lines developed by scientists working for the 15-member CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers, according to new research.

Benefits of CGIAR wheat improvement research, conducted mainly by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), range from $2.8 billion to $3.8 billion a year, states a new policy brief, which highlights the economic benefits of international collaboration in wheat improvement research.

The research featured in the policy brief, which follows a series of global wheat impact assessments initiated by CIMMYT, was the focus of a keynote address at the 9th International Wheat Conference (IWC), hosted in Sydney, Australia from September 20 to 25, 2015.

“The policy brief shows the vital contribution CGIAR and CIMMYT have played in delivering international public goods in the form of improved maize and wheat varieties for resource poor consumers,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Wheat.

“Values reflect the increasing use of high-yielding modern varieties on more land area and higher mean wheat prices during the period under review,” Braun said.

A primarily publicly funded breeding pipeline established by CIMMYT in the 1960s and 1970s to help stave off famine in Asia and other regions in the developing world, distributes about 600 elite lines a year worldwide through its international wheat improvement network.

About $30 million is invested in international wheat improvement research annually, mainly through publicly funded research conducted with CIMMYT, national partners, ICARDA and the Wheat CRP.

“Our findings indicate that international wheat improvement research continues to generate high returns,” Braun said.

“The influence of CIMMYT’s publicly funded research resounds throughout the developed world and in private industry. The private sector benefits from CIMMYT’s work, ultimately profiting from a trustworthy, streamlined wheat breeding system which eliminates the need for costly duplication of efforts.”

Globally, about 150 to 160 million tons of wheat are traded a year at a value of roughly $250 a ton.

“Agricultural sectors in wealthy donor countries also benefit from CIMMYT’s work,” said Martin Kropff, CIMMYT’s director general, referring to investment in research and development for the poor as a “triple win.”

“The effectiveness and the return on public sector investment are extremely high,” Kropff said. Investment leads to more food and income for the rural poor, lower prices for the urban poor and extra stability and income for farmers.”

Wheat currently provides 20 percent of calories and 20 percent of protein to the global human diet. However, in some countries, such as Afghanistan, wheat provides more than half the food supply.

By 2050, the current global population of 7.3 billion is projected to grow 33 percent to 9.7 billion, according to the United Nations. Demand for food, driven by population, demographic changes and increasing global wealth will rise more than 60 percent, according to a recent report from the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience. This demand can only be met if global investments in wheat improvement are significantly increased.

Lantican, M.A., T.S. Payne, K Sonder, R. Singh, M. Van Ginkel, M. Braun, O. Erenstein and H.J. Braun. (in press). Impacts of International Wheat Improvement Research In the World, 1994-2014. Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Julie Mollins
News Editor & Media Manager
Global Wheat Program
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
E-mail: j.mollins at cgiar.org
Skype: juliemollins
Twitter:@jmollins

Related Research:

Braidotti, Gio. The international nature of germplasm enhancement [online]. Partners in Research for Development, Nov 2013: 27-29. Availability:<http://search.informit.com.au/ ISSN: 1031-1009. [cited 08 Sep 15].

Brennan, John P. and Kathryn J. Quade. Evolving usage of materials from CIMMYT in developing Australian wheat varieties. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research, 2006, 57, 947-952.

A ‘double-hatted’ maize variety brings good tidings to farmers in western Kenya

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double-hatted-picturePoor soil fertility is a major – yet often overlooked – factor affecting food production in Africa. Farmers suffer low yields and crop failure due to poor soils, a situation that has crippled food security for millions of smallholders in the continent.

For farmers like Mrs. Azbetta Ogembo, the challenge of poor soil fertility is common in her village in Kakamega County, western Kenya. To address this problem, she buys fertilizer every planting season to boost productivity. But for better yield, in addition to fertilizer, maize farmers are advised to use certified seed tailored for specific soils and agroecologies.
WH507-teaser_w
Yet when Azbetta received a maize variety called WH507 from the One Acre Fund to plant in preparation for the 2015 long rains, she was very skeptical. And why was this? “I had never used WH507 before. That is why I resisted planting the seed at the beginning. I was afraid of losing yields, which I depend on for food. I just did not know how this variety performs,” says Azbetta. This was her first time to see this variety, and with no one to attest its performance, Azbetta was simply not ready to risk losses from low yield after investing heavily on her farm.

Now, two months before she harvests her maize, the widow and mother of seven is elated. The first thing Azbetta noticed about WH507 is that it matures faster compared to other varieties she has used before. Furthermore, the plant has very strong stalk, good height and the cobs are big and full. This was a very pleasant surprise to her.

“I am certain of harvesting more than 150 kilograms from the two kilograms of seed I planted. I will definitely plant this maize on a bigger land in the next season since I’m assured of very good harvest for food and some extra to sell so I can raise money for my children’s school fees,” says Azbetta. She also plans to use the additional cash to purchase more seed and enough fertilizer for the next planting season.

Maize cobs from the WH507 plant
Maize cobs from the WH507 plant

The Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) Project led by CIMMYT, supported the Western Seed Company – the sole distributor of WH507 – to produce parent seed for mass production because WH507 was found to be both nitrogen-use efficient (NUE) and drought-tolerant. This variety not only performs well during moderate drought, but also utilizes more efficiently the small amounts of fertilizers most farmers afford to apply to their maize, giving them higher grain yield compared to other varieties on the market.

Just as in Kenya, most soils in sub-Saharan Africa are nitrogen-deficient, yet nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients for plants. Many farmers in Kenya apply far less fertilizer than the recommended amounts because nitrogen fertilizers are costly. And even with subsidized prices, demand outstrips supply. But affordability is still the crunch, and not awareness – farmers know all too well the importance of applying fertilizers, but cannot afford to buy: for instance, Azbetta uses at most 100 kilograms of fertilizer for her three-acre land. She knows this is an under-dosage, but this is all she can. Farmers who cannot afford fertilizer use manure.

Science offers a partial solution at midpoint to beat the fertilizer crunch: “NUE maize is by no means a replacement for fertilizer. In fact, farmers who do not apply any fertilizers on their farms will not get as much yield as desired. What this variety simply does is it makes the most of what is made available to the soil by the farmers as dictated by their economic ability,” says Dr. Biswanath Das, a maize breeder at CIMMYT.

The Western Seed Company plans to produce 1,000 tonnes from the WH507 parent seed to increase its availability in the market for farmers to buy at the current market value of KES 410 (USD 4) per a two kilogram pack. “In 2015, we produced 150 tonnes of WH507 for selling mainly in Nyanza and western regions where we operate. This variety has become the first choice particularly in Nyanza creating a very big demand in this region because of its suitability in warm and humid areas. In western Kenya the demand is still low,” says Saleem Esmail, the Managing Director of Western Seed Company. The company is actively promoting the variety in western Kenya. “We conducted 1,200 demonstration plots during the short rains in 2014 to sensitize farmers on WH507,” adds Saleem. According to Saleem, the level of production depends on the farmers’ adoption and uptake of the seed, which determine how much of the seed will be produced.

Efforts to increase awareness on improved varieties like WH507 will remain key particularly in western Kenya to ensure that farmers like Azbetta enjoy good harvests to counter the economic and ecological constraints they face. Seed companies and agricultural extension systems can play a major role in creating this awareness, as well as promoting good agronomy practices including proper use of fertilizers.

AAA hybrids move towards commercialization

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PLC6 is a term used to refer to an advanced stage of hybrid testing at Syngenta, a partner of the Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Project. Four hybrids, representing combinations of Syngenta and CIMMYT germplasm are currently at PLC6 in big plots at multiple locations.  The trajectory of this process points to pilot marketing of a limited quantity of hybrid seed in 2016 and a full market launch in 2017.

AAA Drought Tolerant Maize Project Meeting, ICRISAT Campus, Hyderabad, India. 22-23 July 2015. Photo: P.S. Rao/ICRISAT

Four million hectares in India and Indonesia is the potential target area of this project.  This translates to a market potential of about 80,000 metric tons of seed and offers the opportunity to address the needs of over five million households.  In Indonesia, this primarily covers the island of Sulawesi and eastern Java province. In India, the targeted west central zone includes drought prone and tribal areas, a high risk environment where farmers require improved low-cost seed.

According to Syngenta, the region’s climate and other dynamics make seed marketing risky, unpredictable and unattractive, and is often overlooked by the private seed sector – exactly the kind of underserved area CIMMYT is mandated to target.

The AAA annual meeting was held at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) campus in Hyderabad, India on 22 and 23 July 2015.  Members of the AAA team highlighted achievements over the past five years that ranged from identifying hybrid combinations, fast tracking them to deployment, developing new inbred lines, identifying molecular marker leads for grain yield under drought and for root traits, generating information on genomic selection and genome wide associations and building human, infrastructural, informatics and networking capacity.  All this was done through an exploratory partnership model that included NARS partners (from Vietnam and Indonesia) in addition to Syngenta.

CIMMYT and the AAA team would like to thank the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), especially Mike Robinson, Chief Science Advisor and the mastermind behind this approach, for the support provided and for enabling such a collaborative opportunity.

Boosting nutrition for Ethiopian children

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During 26-28 March 2012, CIMMYT scientists, partners, and collaborators met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the Inception Planning Workshop of the NuME project. NuME (Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia) is a new five-year USD 13 million project that aims to significantly reduce malnutrition, especially among young children, and increase food security and household income of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Ethiopia through the widespread adoption, production, and utilization of quality protein maize (QPM). QPM contains more than twice as much lysine and tryptophan as conventional maize, giving its protein a nutritive value that is roughly 90% that of milk.

The project, led by CIMMYT and supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), is being implemented in collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the Ministry of Health, the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI), Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG2000), other NGOs, universities, and public and private seed companies. The purpose of the meeting was to present the approved project to partners; review, organize, and agree on the project’s management structure; review and agree on partner roles and responsibilities; and develop detailed work plans and budgets.

Project coordinator S. Twumasi-Afriyie gave an overview of the status of QPM in Ethiopia and pointed out that NuME was building on the achievements of the previous and largely successful CIDA-funded QPMD project that was implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda during 2003-2010.

Underscoring NuME’s importance, Twumasi said that diets in eastern and central Africa are largely based on maize, for it provides up to 80% of the calories consumed and is a primary weaning food for children. However, it is poor in two essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan, putting infants who consume maize without protein supplements at risk for malnutrition and stunted growth and development. The problem is more acute in Ethiopia, where 47% of children are stunted, 38% are underweight, and 11% suffer from wasting.

Consequently, the project has targeted areas with high maize production and consumption, areas where farmers grow BH660 or other conventional maize varieties that now have QPM versions, and most importantly, areas with high malnutrition, according to Hugo De Groote, CIMMYT socio-economist.

Andreas Oswald, SAA director of crop productivity enhancement, outlined the strategies planned for demonstrating new QPM technologies, improved crop management practices, and post-harvest handling and processing to farmers, and for improving their knowledge and skills. Increasing the participation of women in NuME activities and identifying ways to ensure that they benefit substantively from QPM technologies are key goals of the project.

The project will also partner with Farm Radio International (FRI), which will work with Ethiopian radio stations to develop a gender sensitive campaign to help women and men farmers gain a better understanding of nutrition and protein, and to raise awareness of QPM and other strategies for improving the nutrition and health of families, especially children.