Blogs – Page 163

Updated Web Wheat Atlas 3.0 prioritizes user experience

Written by on November 21, 2014. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Got a question about wheat? Whether you are a scientist, a researcher or simply interested in learning more about the vital staple crop that provides 20 percent of the world’s calories, the Wheat Atlas can help.

The online resource developed by the Global Wheat Program (GWP) at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) provides statistics on wheat production and trade, wheat varieties, production challenges and international wheat nurseries, which evaluate the suitability of wheat to diverse environments.

“Although the primary users are wheat scientists, we know from anecdotal evidence that donors and policymakers are also using it,” said Petr Kosina, who led the development and recent revamp of the interactive website.

The Wheat Atlas was the brainchild of Hans Braun, GWP director, he explained, adding that the project evolved into a collaboration involving Kosina, web master Paul Moncada, senior scientist David Hodson and Tom Payne, head of the Wheat Germplasm Bank, which stores seeds. CIMMYT’s Geographic Information Services team created maps.

Improvements include a redesign of site structure and navigation based on user trends observed in data provided by Google Analytics and a 2013 survey. The website now features daily wheat news on the homepage.

“The work is ongoing,” Kosina said. “We’re in continuous ‘beta mode’, improving the functionality of the site and user experience. For example, we’re developing an online submission form for users to input data on newly released wheat varieties and a wheat scientists’ ‘hall of fame’. Before the end of the year we’ll also improve data visualizations.”

The website provides up-to-date information on new wheat varieties being released worldwide, as well as data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the World Bank and the U.N. Development Programme.

Since the official launch of the Wheat Atlas in 2009, web traffic has increased to an average of 2,200 unique visitors a month, said Kosina, who works closely with webmaster Moncada.

“We’re very happy with recent access statistics, which have improved since the Search Engine Optimization we did earlier this year, but we need secure funding for bigger plans and development,” he said. “We need a new source of funding.”

The Wheat Atlas was supported until 2013 by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, which aims to reduce the devastating impact of stem rust disease on wheat, led by Cornell University.

The CIMMYT library has a large historic database of scientific publications with descriptions of new wheat varieties compiled over a 15-year time span, Kosina said.

“My dream is to consolidate this database with the Wheat Atlas and GRIS, the world’s largest database of wheat germplasm, with more than 160,000 accessions, and make it available online in the Wheat Atlas – this would be absolutely unique and smashing,” he added.

Every two years, the site managers gather information to provide a snapshot of the most important wheat varieties grown by farmers in developing countries, including acreage estimates. Mina Lantican in CIMMYT’s socio-economics program is conducting the 2014 review as part of an impact assessment study.

Ethiopia’s seed co-ops benefit entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers

Written by on November 20, 2014. Posted in Features.

ethiopia-seed — Farmer and social entrepreneur Amaha Abraham in a wheat field in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins

BISHOFTU, Ethiopia (CMMYT) — Farmer and social entrepreneur Amaha Abraham sets his sights high.

The 45-year-old aims to become as wealthy as Saudi Arabian-Ethiopian Mohammed Al Amoudi, who in March 2014 was estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $15.3 billion.

In an effort to achieve that goal Abraham is backing big reforms in Ethiopia’s agriculture sector.

He is at the forefront of a new grassroots seed marketing and distribution program supported by the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and the Ministry of Agriculture to improve the country’s wheat crop through the marketing of improved seed by multiple producers and agents.

Under the program, government-subsidized farmer-run cooperatives produce high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat seed, accelerating distribution and helping smallholder farmers grow healthy crops to bolster national food security.

About 50 farmers belong to each cooperative, planting about 100 hectares (250 acres) of government-certified seed, which produce improved wheat varieties they then multiply and sell to smallholder farmers. Seed sales garner a 15 to 20 percent price premium over wheat-grain sales, providing a significant financial incentive.

“I’ve reached so many farmers, so that their land will be covered by proper improved seeds,” Abraham said.

“When I take the seeds to them I give training and advice, which attracts more farmers to get involved. The government visits and organizes training on my land – they recognize my efforts and they’re pushing other farmers to do the same thing.”

STREAMLINED SYSTEMS

The Direct Seed Marketing (DSM) program is part of Ethiopia’s “Wheat Productivity Increase Initiative,” which aims to end the country’s reliance on wheat imports – equal to 1.1 million metric tons (1.2 million tons) or about 24 percent of domestic demand, which is 4.6 million metric tons in 2014, according to the Wheat Atlas, citing statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Previously, the process of getting new wheat seed varieties to farmers was allocation based, with limited producers and agents and a limited choice of varieties, said Sinshaw Alemu, wheat and barley chain program analyst at ATA.

“It was a seed distribution system, not a seed marketing system,” Alemu explained. “DSM is based on the concept that the producers of the seed should be able to market and then sell it at the primary level and farmers will have their choice of seed.”

Farmers can now collect seeds from a certified agent – either a primary cooperative or a private outlet where a direct channel is established with seed producers, leading to timely deliveries and better estimates of potential demand. They can buy government-allocated seed as they did under the other system or the agent can now contact the seed enterprise and purchase additional wheat varieties at a farmer’s request with no fixed allocations in DSM.

“One of the issues in the previous system was that due to delays on demand estimations from woredas (district councils), the unions and primary cooperatives had little or no control over the kind and quality of seed allocated to them,” Alemu said.

“Primary cooperatives had to take it and seed remained unsold at the end of the planting season because either the variety or quality wasn’t what they were looking for – the primary cooperative was left with hundreds of quintals of seed and they had no use for it.”

“We tried the DSM in five woredas in 2014, and it was very successful – 97 percent of the seed delivered was sold and the remainder taken away – we’ve seen some very encouraging results in this area,” he added.

DISEASE THREAT

In recent years, Ethiopia’s wheat crop has been hit hard by stem and yellow rust epidemics, which at their worst can destroy entire crops. Rust infestation can lead to shriveled grain, yield losses and financial troubles for farmers, who must avoid susceptible wheat varieties.

The revamped seed marketing system can help get the new disease-resilient wheat varieties to farmers more efficiently, said David Hodson, a senior scientist based in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) who manages RustTracker.org, a global wheat rust monitoring system supported by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative.

Rust Tracker generates surveillance and monitoring information for emerging rust threats. The information provides an early warning system for disease and can help farmers prepare for epidemics, which could otherwise wipe out their crops.

The Rust Tracker is funded by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, which is managed by Cornell University and supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

GENERATING GERMPLASM

CIMMYT, a non-profit research institute which works with partners worldwide to reduce poverty and hunger by increasing the sustainable productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, plays a key role in providing germplasm to be tested and improved by government-run national agricultural research systems before it is potentially released to farmers.

Additionally, CIMMYT provides smallholder farmer training and skills development on such topics as crop management and agricultural practices. In Ethiopia, these activities, along with seed multiplication and delivery are being supported by a new $5.75 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“CIMMYT supports Ethiopia’s agriculture research in a variety of ways including by training researchers, development agents and farmers skills on modern sciences and filling technical gaps by providing field and laboratory equipment, farm machinery, installing irrigation systems, modernizing breeding programs, improving quality of data, providing germplasm and project funds,” said Bekele Abeyo, a CIMMYT senior scientist and wheat breeder based in Addis Ababa.

“The government is now putting an emphasis on agriculture and the situation is far better and improving,” he said. “The structure and extension systems are there to help farmers – Direct Seed Marketing is making it easier to increase the availability of seeds and complements more traditional public seed.”

Adopting improved wheat varieties increases the number of food secure households by 2.7 percent and reduces the number of chronic and transitory food insecure households by 10 and 2 percent respectively, according to CIMMYT scientist Menale Kassie, one of the authors of “Adoption of improved wheat varieties and impacts on household food security in Ethiopia.”

Ethiopia’s wheat-growing area in 2013 was equivalent to 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres), and the country produced 2.45 metric tons of wheat per hectare, according to the country’s Central Statistical Agency.

VENTURE EVOLVES

In 2013, Abraham harvested about 250 quintals (25 metric tons) of the Digalu wheat seed variety near Bishoftu, a town formerly known as Debre Zeyit in the Oromia Region situated at an altitude of 1,900 meters (6,230 feet) 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa.

Abraham is optimistic. He expects he will soon be able to hire many employees, as he plans to expand his agricultural interests to include beekeeping, dairy cattle, poultry and livestock, he said.

“My main aim is not only to earn more money, but also to teach and share with others – that’s what I value most,” he said. “Regardless of money, there are certain people who have a far-sighted view and I want them to be involved. That’s what I value – I’m opening an opportunity for others and envisioning a far-sighted development plan.”

He still has a way to go before he catches up with Al Amoudi, ranked by Forbes as the 61^st wealthiest person in the world.

Maize opportunities and challenges for Asia

Written by on November 14, 2014. Posted in News.

Compared with other cereals, maize has recorded the fastest annual growth in Asia at around 4 percent, but consumption is rising faster than yields.

When BM Prasanna, CIMMYT’s global maize program director, opened the 12th Asian Maize Conference and Expert Consultation on “Maize for Food, Feed, Nutrition and Environmental Security” in Bangkok last week he said that boosting maize crops would be a key to food security. In China, maize is the number one crop in acreage, covering 35.26 million hectares (87 million acres) in 2013, an area comparable to that of the United States, Prasanna said. The big questions are whether or not China can increase yields before 2020 to avoid being the largest importer of maize and whether Asia can meet the demand for maize “by shortening, widening and improving the breeding funnel,” Prasanna said.

He added that efforts are underway to significantly enhance genetic gain per unit over time: CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart, Germany) are utilizing doubled haploid technology; other partnerships are focused on genetic diversity and introgressing transgenic traits under humanitarian license through public-private partnerships.

“Strengthening seed systems is also important for breeding programs to make an impact,” Prasanna said. “The sooner farmers, especially smallholders in unreached areas, have access to improved varieties and a complementary agronomic package of practices, the greater the opportunity to increase productivity.”

Challenges are many. Heat stress and drought stress, among others, are an increasing reality in many maize-growing regions in the tropics. Two promising CIMMYT- Asia heat-tolerant commercial hybrids (31Y45 and DKC9108) are currently being marketed in Asia. Scientists also confirm that a strong pipeline of water stress-resilient, Asia-adapted maize hybrids is ready for deployment in rainfed areas of Asia.

Prasanna concluded by reminding the 350 conference participants that “putting women and children at the center of development will help transform their societies.” Quoting Melinda Gates, he said that by ignoring gender inequities, many development projects fail to achieve their objectives.

As he concluded his remarks with a big smile, Prasanna could not resist sharing, “Nothing looks more beautiful to me than maize.”

Global wheat-rust research aids Ethiopian farmers

Written by on November 13, 2014. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Until a few years ago, farmers Abdela and Bayisu Kadir grew “Kubsa,” a semi-dwarf bread wheat variety on their small landholding in the Ethiopian highlands known as the Roof of Africa.

The couple manage a 3-hectare farm, which is situated at an elevation of 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) in the Arsi region about 175 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.

Kubsa, just one of 480 wheat varieties bred by 2014 World Food Prize laureate scientist Sanjaya Rajaram during his 40-year career, has had a long and successful run since it was first released in 1995.

The variety, developed by Rajaram at research stations operated by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), came from the high-yielding Atilla wheat breeding line he created in 1990.

By 2010, Kubsa was grown on 250,000 hectares (620,000 acres) of cropland in Ethiopia. Over time, as wheat rust disease fungi have mutated in the region, Kubsa has become vulnerable to yellow rust and stem rust, which can devastate crops leading to shriveled grain, yield losses and financial troubles for farmers.

“After yellow rust disease began to appear in our crop a few years ago, we switched to the Kakaba wheat variety,” said Bayisu Kadir, who has six children.

“Last year Kakaba gave us more than 5 (metric) tons of wheat per hectare (75 bushels per acre),” she added, explaining that her husband had sprayed their crop with fungicide to protect it from potential damage.

By 2012, the CIMMYT-derived variety Kakaba covered more than 200,000 hectares in Ethiopia, according to the online Wheat Atlas, and so far remains resistant to yellow rust.

CIMMYT is a member of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, an international consortium of more than 1,000 scientists from hundreds of institutions that works to reduce vulnerability to mutating rust diseases. CIMMYT continuously produces high-yielding disease-resistant wheat varieties.

BACKBONE GENES

Atilla, called Kubsa in Ethiopia, is a family of wheat varieties released by governments under different names in various countries. Its two main sister lines were widely adopted around the world.

One sister line, which became the leading variety for over a decade in the bread basket region of northwestern India, contains a combination of resistance genes including Sr31, Yr9 and Yr27, recognized by Rajaram as genes that provided resistance to both stem and yellow rusts.

The other sister variety carried the Yr27 gene and was widely cultivated in many wheat-growing countries. At one time, these two sister varieties were grown on about 8 million hectares throughout Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

Overall, Rajaram’s adaptable, high-yielding wheat varieties are grown on more than 58 million hectares worldwide. He is credited with producing 480 wheat varieties, which have boosted worldwide yields by more than 180 million tons. These increased yields provide food to more than 1 billion people each year.

He also developed aluminum-tolerant varieties together with Brazilian researchers that were planted in acid soils, areas previously unable to grow wheat.

“Rajaram’s varieties led to more yield and better income for farmers, less yellow rust disease and less chemical application,” said Zuo Yuchun, a professor at the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Science in China who collaborated with Rajaram for more than 20 years.

Rajaram is the 2014 World Food Prize Laureate for “advancing human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.” He received the award at the World Food Prize ceremony on October 16 in Des Moines, Iowa.

VITAL STAPLE CROP

Globally, wheat provides 20 percent of the world’s daily protein and calories. Production must grow 60 percent over the next 35 years to keep pace with demand, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

“The prodigious increase in wheat production through Dr. Rajaram’s work is a furtherance of the success of the ‘Green Revolution’,” said molecular scientist Kameswara Rao, formerly with India’s University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad and currently chair of the Foundation of Biotechnology Awareness and Education.

“The wheat varieties developed by Dr. Rajaram have been grown by both small- and large-scale farmers across a diverse range of agricultural environments in 51 countries, contributing to an enhancement of food security.”

The late CIMMYT scientist Norman Borlaug, who mentored Rajaram, led efforts to develop semi-dwarf wheat varieties in the mid-20th century that helped save more than 1 billion people in the developing world in what became widely known as the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work and subsequently initiated the World Food Prize.

INNOVATIVE BREEDING

Rajaram joined CIMMYT, which aims to sustainably increase maize and wheat productivity to ensure global food security and reduce poverty, in 1969. As head of CIMMYT wheat breeding, Rajaram increased yield potential 20 to 25 percent.
During his career, Rajaram visited farmers groups and cooperatives to teach them about new technologies, said Arun Joshi, CIMMYT senior wheat breeder for South Asia. He taught them tillage and seeding techniques.

“Rajaram’s participatory approach brought confidence among the farmers and they took more interest in their agriculture and new technologies,” Joshi said.

“Training was mostly delivered as roving seminars organized in farmers’ fields before the start of sowing, during sowing, about a month after sowing and at crop maturity. Such initiatives generated new leadership among farmers and helped faster dissemination of technology among less privileged farmers.”

Although Rajaram retired from CIMMYT in 2003, he continues to help train new wheat breeders.

“We’re grateful for the hundreds of new varieties of wheat that Dr. Rajaram has developed,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

“These will deliver more than 200 million more tons of grain to global markets each year and Dr. Rajaram has helped to feed millions of people across the world through his lifetime of research and innovation.”

Q+A: Young scientist wins award for “Taking it to the Farmer”

Written by on November 13, 2014. Posted in Features.

Taking-it-to-the-Farmer EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Conservation agriculture, which improves the livelihoods of farmers by sustainably boosting productivity, is becoming a vital part of the rural landscape throughout Mexico and Latin America, leading to a major World Food Prize award for Bram Govaerts.

As associate director of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Govaerts works with farmers to help them understand how minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation can simultaneously boost yields, increase profits and protect the environment.

Govaerts, winner of the 2014 Borlaug Field Award , played a major role in developing a Mexican initiative known as the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro), and in June 2014 the 35-year-old assumed leadership of the project, spearheading the coordination of related initiatives throughout Latin America.

According to Govaerts, there are two choices – “Either agricultural production is going to grow in unsustainable ways, depleting our resources, or we take action now, investing in sustainable agriculture so that it can be a motor for growth as well as a motor for sustainable development.”

MasAgro is a partnership led by Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food and CIMMYT involving more than 100 agricultural research organizations. It offers training and technical support for farmers in conservation agriculture and gives them access to high-yielding, conventionally bred seeds.

The overall aims of MasAgro include raising the yield potential of wheat by 50 percent and increasing Mexico’s annual production by 350,000 tons (318,000 metric tons) in 10 years. Goals also include raising the production of maize in rainfed areas.

MasAgro’s “Take It to the Farmer” component was inspired by a statement made by the late CIMMYT scientist Norman Borlaug who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He believed that scientists should work closely with farmers, an idea central to CIMMYT’s overall approach to agricultural research and practice. Borlaug led the development of semi-dwarf wheat varieties in the mid-20th century that helped save more than 1 billion lives in Pakistan, India and other areas of the developing world. He also founded the World Food Prize .

“Take it to the Farmer” integrates technological innovation with small-scale farming systems for maize and wheat crops, while minimizing harmful impacts on the environment. Farmers on more than 94,000 hectares (232,280 acres) have switched to sustainable systems using MasAgro technologies, while farmers on another 600,000 hectares are receiving training and information to improve their agricultural techniques and practices. Techniques include crop diversification, reducing tilling of the soil and leaving crop residue on the fields.

Govaerts, who has also worked on conservation agriculture projects in Ethiopia and India, discussed his work after winning the award.

Q: What inspired the “Take it to the Farmer” component of the MasAgro project?

A: The strategy stemmed from the fact that there’s a great deal of information out there today for farmers, starting with seed varieties. Farmers have many choices to make about technology to increase productivity, but they need to understand how to integrate it and make it sustainable. We work closely with farmers to develop conservation-based agricultural systems so that they can generate high, stable crop yields over time. Doing this offers farmers the best opportunity for higher incomes, but also lowers environmental impact.

MasAgro helps the farmers develop an agronomic system – including the technology. In that way it’s not so much taken to the farmers, but it’s developing a system together with the farmer. We innovate with the farmers and connect them to a working value chain and we then combine what we call our hub approach. We’re connecting research platforms with farm innovation modules and from there we develop systems influenced by farmer knowledge.

Q: Is it possible for this to work on any farm in any location?

A: The key is to adapt to the specific locations of each of the farmers. We have to make the strategies work for specific farming and then on top of that we need to include other technologies to make it work. Technology might simply be hand-planting, not necessarily high-tech huge machinery. It is really about establishing basic conservation agriculture principles and working together to make those basic principles work.

Q: Are you trying to help farmers achieve their agricultural goals by helping them save money by not spending on fertilizers?

A: It depends; if you’re in an area where farmers are over-fertilizing it helps to reduce costs if they don’t use fertilizers as much. On the other hand, some farmers are not using fertilizers at all so there we recommend using them in an integrated manner. There might be areas where production costs go up slightly because farmers were not investing in any inputs or technologies, but because productivity is increased in the end they have a higher return on investment.

Q: Can you give an example of a farmer who has changed practices?

A: Some smallholder farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico, are improving their production practices as they raise the local [indigenous] maize landraces. We connected them with a niche maize market in New York City. They are now exporting and selling their specialty maize to chefs in New York who use them in high-end restaurants. So they are not only increasing productivity, they are also connected to markets to sell their extra produce. The challenge now is to take this effort to scale. What we realized is that by only increasing productivity, we’re actually bringing the farmers into a risky situation unless they can find bigger markets.

We helped a novice wheat farmer who is renting land. He’s been adjusting his farming system and is now using conservation agriculture technology. As a result, because he has a slower turnaround time, when he planted his summer crop, instead of planting only 100 hectares, he jumped to 350 hectares. In a strict sense, he was not a smallholder farmer, but we work with big and small farmers.

Another example is the use of mobile phones – farmers can subscribe to a short message service, or SMS text-messaging system. Once subscribed, the farmer receives information on different topics, including technical recommendations or warnings. For example, one of the warnings we sent out during the wheat-growing season was that there was going to be an imminent frost. That led to some of the farmers irrigating their crops because that helped mitigate the damage and saved part of their crops.

Q: What challenges do you face?

We’re working with more than 150 institutions and organizations and we’re connected to more than 200,000 farmers. When Dr. Borlaug was working the world was simpler, we not only have to increase yields but we also have to work in an environmentally friendly manner. We also have to provide environmental services via agriculture and we have to make sure that farmers have sufficient income and this in a complex, institutional.
We can no longer accept that we’re just doing the science and then leave it up to others to apply the science. That’s not how it works – we scientists need to ensure that the technology is actually implemented and that it is expanded by new ideas from farmers, technicians and others along the value chain. We need to take responsibility that our knowledge and science is used and is responding to a real need. Public and private investment in agriculture should increase, especially in Latin America because it’s going to be a motor of transformation.

Q: How do you encourage farmers to change their practices?

A: We do a lot of training. In some areas our first step is bringing new seeds – connecting seed companies with a new variety CIMMYT has developed, making sure the seed system is working. There are some interventions that are rather linear – one-shot interventions. There are methods that from the beginning are going to be complicated and the farmer has to wait five years before changes are seen. That’s quite difficult, but if you can show an intervention where the farmer can store maize better and instead of losing 40 percent he’s only losing 10 percent during storage, that’s an intervention that can then start the dialogue to a more complicated system change. Much of our focus is on knowledge exchange, as well as in training and innovation.

Q: What is the significance of your award for Mexico?

A: The award has a special significance for Mexico. It recognizes Mexico’s bold decision to invest in agricultural innovation and to take responsibility not only for the country but for the region. We are proud of CIMMYT’s achievements within its host country.
Before CIMMYT’s collaboration with the Mexican government there was a real disconnect between agricultural science and the reality of farmers on the ground. As a result, this award is not only a recognition of scientific excellence, but the importance of getting the results out to the farmers. Mexico is a complex country.

Here we have all types of farmers – from large commercial farmers who exploit market opportunities for export to smallholder farmers who do not have access to markets. Mexico also hosts a wide range of unique agro-ecological environments. These circumstances offer CIMMYT scientists a unique laboratory to conduct their research and gives us an opportunity to explore new ways of doing science and connecting with farmers to ensure that science has impact.

Q: This year the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue was titled “Can we sustainably feed the 9 billion people on our planet by the year 2050?” What are your thoughts on the topic?

A: This is not just a numbers game. We will need to feed more than 9 billion people while working in a more complicated institutional and political environment and at the same time safeguarding natural resources. These global challenges are moving at a fast pace, so CIMMYT needs to move fast and expand its scientific excellence. We are at a turning point where we have to take advantage of these rapid changes in science and technology, which are becoming increasingly interlinked.

Working to help provide nutritional food for 9.5 billion people will be a collective effort. There won’t be one Norman Borlaug but a consortium of people working together with different expertise to achieve this goal. This will require new collaborations, especially public-private partnerships. CIMMYT is one of the best institutions to create these partnerships but we need to be better equipped for what is needed at this time. Complacency and living in the past is not an option.

Enhancing the nutritional quality of maize

Written by on November 13, 2014. Posted in News.

Malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency, which can cause blindness and stunting, increased infant and maternal mortality and lower IQs, are at epidemic levels in some parts of Asia. People across Asia depend on maize, rice and wheat but they do not fulfil daily dietary requirements and are deficient in vitamin A and essential micronutrients such as iron and zinc.

Biofortified maize varieties have been bred to include considerably high concentrations of essential micronutrients. Maize in Asia is largely used for feed, but direct human consumption is increasing. Scientists at the 12th Asian Maize Conference highlighted several collaborative interventions to utilize the genetic variability in maize for the development of biofortified maize. Promoting biofortified maize in rural areas and developing new food products has been part of this research. The nutritional benefits of biofortified maize can come directly from eating the crop itself or indirectly by consuming eggs from hens that are fed with provitamin A ProVA-enriched maize. Biofortified maize use for feed may also represent economic benefits for farmers.

Breeding efforts in Asia are currently focused on quality protein maize (QPM) and ProVA-enriched varieties. QPM was first developed by former CIMMYT scientists and World Food Prize Laureates Dr. Evangelina Villegas and Dr. Surinder Vasal. CIMMYT QPM inbred lines have been used in several breeding programs in China, India, Vietnam and elsewhere.

Joint efforts between CIMMYT and numerous partner scientists under HarvestPlus have shown that breeding for increased concentrations of ProVA is especially promising because of the genetic variation available in maize germplasm. New hybrids released in 2012 in Zambia showed ProVA levels 400 percent higher than common yellow maize, with the potential to bring widespread health benefits.

Food security successes earn ‘sultan of wheat’ World Food Prize

Written by on November 13, 2014. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Scientist Sanjaya Rajaram, originally from a small farm in India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, is now widely recognized by the international agriculture sector for his prolific contributions to food security and poverty alleviation.

He is credited with producing a remarkable 480 wheat varieties, which have boosted worldwide yields by more than 180 million metric tons (200 million tons). These increased yields provide food to more than 1 billion people each year.

The varieties Rajaram developed during his 40-year career have been released in 51 countries on six continents.

They are used by farmers with both large and small land holdings who rely on disease-resistant wheat adaptable to a range of climate conditions.

For those feats and more Rajaram is the 2014 World Food Prize laureate, an honor awarded each year to the person who does the most to advance human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Rajaram received the award at the World Food Prize ceremony on October 16 in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Rajaram has made a massive contribution to food security – I doubt that one person will ever again be involved in the development of as many widely grown wheat varieties,” said Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), where Rajaram worked for 33 years.

“As a former colleague once said: ‘It’s amazing what happens, when the ‘Sultan of Wheat’ puts his magic hands on a wheat line’,” he added.

INTERESTS FLOURISH

Rajaram was born in 1943 on the 5-hectare (12 acre) farm in Raipur where his family eked out a living by producing wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane and millet.

His parents recognized Rajaram’s intellectual potential and sent him to school 5 kilometers (3 miles) from home, which at the time was unusual in an area where 96 percent of people had no formal education.

Rajaram excelled scholastically and became the top-ranked student in his district. A state scholarship gave him the opportunity to attend high school, which led to his acceptance at the College of Jaunpur in the University of Gorakhpur, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in agriculture in 1962.

Afterwards Rajaram attended the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, graduating with a Master of Science in 1964.

Subsequently, he earned a doctorate in plant breeding at Australia’s University of Sydney where he first made contact with the superstars of what became known as the “Green Revolution” – Norman Borlaug and Glenn Anderson, who were leading scientists at CIMMYT.

CIMMYT VARIETIES

Borlaug, who was from the United States, died in 2009 at age 95. He is known as the “Father of the Green Revolution” and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Borlaug is credited with saving 1 billion lives in the developing world — particularly in South Asia — as a result of the disease-resistant, high-yield semi-dwarf wheat varieties he developed.

Borlaug had also introduced similar innovations throughout Mexico – where CIMMYT is headquartered – leading to the country’s self-sufficiency in wheat.

Anderson, a Canadian who died in 1981 at 57, was recruited by Borlaug to lead the major “Green Revolution” wheat improvement project in India. In 1971, Anderson became deputy director of the CIMMYT Wheat Program and then its director after Borlaug retired in 1979.

The two recruited Rajaram, who joined CIMMYT in 1969. He was appointed head of the wheat breeding team by Borlaug three years later. He set to work cross breeding select plant varieties, and the yield potential of his cultivars increased 20 to 25 percent.

“His technique was to cross winter and spring wheat varieties, which were distinct gene pools, leading to the development of higher yield plants that can be grown in a wide range of environments around the world,” Braun said, adding that Rajaram’s varieties were disease- and stress-resistant.

“The varieties he developed were eventually grown on a larger area than those developed by Borlaug.”

His varieties could be planted in areas previously uninhabitable for wheat in China, India and in Brazil’s acidic soils, for which he developed aluminum-tolerant wheat. Rajaram also developed wheat cultivars now grown on millions of hectares worldwide with durable resistance to rust diseases, which can devastate crops.

Rajaram spent eight years working for the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). At ICARDA, first as director of the Integrated Gene Management Program, then as special scientific advisor, he oversaw the promotion of new technologies to help farmers in the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region.

He developed wheat improvement strategies to tackle some of the challenges facing wheat in dry areas, including stripe rust disease, which can spread quickly and have a devastating effect on wheat.

MENTOR TO MANY

“Rajaram’s research not only led to enhanced productivity, but farmers also saw big increases in profits due to higher yields and disease resistance – they no longer had to buy expensive fungicides to protect their plots,” said Ravi Singh, current head of wheat breeding at CIMMYT, one among many breeders Rajaram mentored.

Now a Mexican citizen and still a firm believer in the value of education, Rajaram continues his affiliation with CIMMYT, recently attending a “trainee wheat boot camp” for students from major wheat-growing nations.

“We know we need to double food production to feed the more than 9 billion people we’re expecting by 2050,” Rajaram said.

“Global objectives for food security can most definitely be met. However, we must be able to rely on guaranteed research funding from both the public and private sectors to address the many challenges we face, including decreasing land availability and erratic environmental changes related to climate change.”

Wheat currently provides 20 percent of overall daily protein and calories consumed throughout the world. Production must grow 70 percent over the current amount by 2050, according to the international Wheat Initiative – an achievable goal if annual wheat yields are increased from a current level of below 1 percent to at least 1.7 percent.

Researchers at CIMMYT are aiming to develop resilient wheat varieties tolerant to the drought, heat, extreme wet and cold conditions anticipated by scientists to grow more extreme as mean annual temperatures continue to increase and weather patterns become more volatile.

Rajaram’s great legacy was to give opportunities to newly graduated doctoral students, Singh said.

“He put us in charge of different parts of the breeding program each season, so we had to learn all aspects of the process for ourselves – we worked many long hours with him in the field developing confidence, which was very important for our professional careers.”

Rajaram intends to put a portion of his World Food Prize winnings, valued at $250,000, into training and education programs.

Scientists ship 2 tons of wheat seed samples around the world

Written by on November 12, 2014. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Wheat farmers can boost yields and protect crops from pests and disease by using improved seed varieties, but in the developing world more than 80 percent of farmers use poor quality varieties, losing potential earnings and putting food security at risk, according to research.

Farmers often sell and trade wheat seed among themselves without having much knowledge about the size of the yield they can expect and how a particular variety fares with regard to climate, soil type or disease resistance.

Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are continuously developing improved varieties and each year seed samples — known as International Wheat Nurseries — are sent out to government and university research institutions and national agricultural research systems around the world.

“Wheat plays a vital role in food security,” said Tom Payne, head of CIMMYT’s Wheat Germplasm Bank, which stores almost 145,000 wheat varieties collected over the past 60 years. “We’ve been sending out wheat samples each year since 1974, so if you do the math that’s 367 tons over the years.”

In October, 1,720 kilograms (3,790 pounds) of experimental seeds were shipped to India, one of 75 current recipient countries.

Overall, the 2014 international shipment of seeds delivered in 351,990 sample envelopes weighed 9,230 kilograms. Recent recipient countries included Algeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Ukraine and Sudan.

SORTING SEEDS

Over the past 24 years, Efren Rodriguez, head of CIMMYT’s Seed Distribution Unit has overseen the five-month process of preparing, packaging and shipping of wheat seed samples.

“This year the seed requests we received filled 94 boxes,” Rodriguez said. “Seeds are requested at the end of summer prior to planting season. Each box is filled with envelopes of wheat seed and weighs up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds).”

Seeds arrive at CIMMYT’s headquarters near Mexico City in June in bags weighing from 10 to 35 kilograms from CIMMYT’s research station in Mexicali in northeastern Mexico accompanied with paperwork naming the varieties for inclusion in the shipment.

The seed is sorted according to instructions from the wheat breeders, cleaned with chlorine, rinsed in an industrial restaurant-style dishwasher, doused in protective fungicide, dried, placed in small envelopes by machine, then boxed.

“Research institutions plant the seeds, which have different characteristics designed to solve particular problems – for example, they may be heat, drought- or disease-resistant – and then recommend varieties for general release and sale to farmers,” Rodriguez said, explaining that the seeds tested and selected by the international research programs are incorporated into national wheat breeding or growing programs.

CIMMYT also distributes wheat nurseries as part of a partnership with Turkey and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

Globally, wheat provides 20 percent of the world’s daily protein and calories.

Research on climate-resilient wheat keeps Green Revolution on track

Written by on November 12, 2014. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), gestures toward an expansive field of green wheat shimmering in the hot sunlight outside his office.

“If we don’t prepare crops resilient to heat and drought, the effects of climate change will increase the risk of worldwide famine and conflict,” he explained. “That’s why CIMMYT is part of an international research program to develop new climate change-resistant varieties.”

As the global population grows from a current 7 billion to a projected 9.6 billion by 2050, wheat breeders involved in the battle to ensure food security face many challenges.
Already, U.N. food agencies estimate that at least 805 million people do not get enough food and that more than 2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiency, or “hidden hunger.”

Globally, wheat provides 20 percent of the world’s daily protein and calories, according to the Wheat Initiative. Wheat production must grow 60 percent over the next 35 years to keep pace with demand, statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations show – an achievable goal only if wheat yields increase from the current level of below 1 percent annually to at least 1.7 percent per year.

The scientists that Braun leads are on the front lines – tackling the climate change threat in laboratories and at wheat research stations throughout Mexico and in 13 other countries.

LIFE-SAVING GRAIN

Wheat is vital to global food security. In particular, since CIMMYT scientist Norman Borlaug, who died in 2009 at age 95, led efforts to develop semi-dwarf wheat varieties in the mid-20th century that helped save more than 1 billion lives in Pakistan, India and other areas of the developing world.

Borlaug started work on wheat improvement in the mid-1940s in Mexico – where CIMMYT is headquartered near Mexico City. The country became self-sufficient in wheat production in the early 1960s.

Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work, and in his acceptance speech paid tribute to the “army of hunger fighters” with whom he had worked.
However, in contemporary times, some critics have cast a shadow over his work, questioning the altruistic aims of the project that became widely known as the Green Revolution.

They argue that the modern high-yielding crop varieties did not help poor farmers, but caused environmental damage through overuse of fertilizers, water resources and the degradation of soils.

Other condemnations include claims that food scarcity is a mere political construct, that food provision has helped governments suppress disgruntled masses and that vast wheat mono-croplands compromise agricultural and wild biodiversity.
However, a 2003 report in “Science” magazine analyzed the overall impact of the Green Revolution in the 20th Century. The authors, economists from Yale University and Williams College, found that without the long-term increase in food crop productivity and lower food prices resulting from the Green Revolution, the world would have experienced “a human welfare crisis.”

“Caloric intake per capita in the developing world would have been 13.3 to 14.4 percent lower and the proportion of children malnourished would have been from 6.1 to 7.9 percent higher,” authors Robert Evanson and Douglas Gollen wrote.

“Put in perspective, this suggests that the Green Revolution succeeded in raising the health status of 32 to 42 million preschool children. Infant and child mortality would have been considerably higher in developing countries as well.”

Braun acknowledges certain points made by critics of the Green Revolution, but asks how else developing countries would have met the food demands of their rapidly-expanding populations with less environmental impact.

“It’s very easy to look back 50 years and criticize,” Braun said. “People forget that at the time, new farm technologies were an incredible success. We have to put it into context – saving hundreds of millions of lives from starvation was the priority and the Green Revolution did just that.”

CLIMATE-RESILIENT WHEAT

Fast-forward and today much of CIMMYT’s current work remains steadily focused on improving wheat yields, but now with an emphasis on ensuring sustainable productivity and reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint.

Scientists are engaged in an international five-year project to develop climate-resilient wheat. They estimate that in tropical and sub-tropical regions, wheat yields will decrease by 10 percent for each 1-degree rise in minimum night-time temperature, which means that production levels could decline by 30 percent in South Asia. About 20 percent of the world’s wheat is produced in the region.

CIMMYT is collaborating with Kansas State University, Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the project, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

Field evaluations are conducted in Mexico, Pakistan and at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) in India.

BOOSTING INFRASTRUCTURE

According to Braun, one of the biggest challenges over the next 30 years is to develop better production systems in addition to resource-efficient crops.

For example, a great deal of water is used in food production and demand can and should be cut in half, he said. “We need to focus on sustainable intensification in ways that won’t overuse natural resources.”

To aid in these efforts, CIMMYT has developed international research programs on conservation and precision agriculture.

In conservation agriculture, farmers reduce or stop tilling the soil, leaving crop residues on the surface of the field and rotate crops to sustainably increase productivity. Precision agriculture involves such technologies as light sensors to determine crop vigor and gauge nitrogen fertilizer dosages to determine exactly what plants need.

“This reduces nitrate runoff into waterways and greenhouse gas emissions,” Braun explained. CIMMYT and its partners are also breeding wheat lines that are better at taking up and using fertilizer.

“Wheat in developing countries currently uses only 30 percent of the fertilizer applied,” he said. “There are promising options to double that rate, but developing and deploying them require significant investments.”

“I’m very optimistic that we can produce 60 to 70 percent more wheat to meet demand – society is beginning to recognize that food production is one of humanity’s biggest challenges – today and in the future,” Braun summarized.

“We have or can develop the technologies needed, but politicians must recognize that investment in agriculture is not a problem, it’s a solution – the longer we wait the bigger the potential problems and challenges we face.”

Braun continued, “We also need policymakers to reach agreement that global climate change is a big problem that absolutely must be addressed so that we can gain access to sufficient resources and more fully develop appropriate technologies.”

Strengthening maize policies and public-private partnerships in Asia

Written by on November 11, 2014. Posted in News.

Policies designed to promote maize industry growth require data and information, which is often difficult to obtain in Asian countries. This was discussed during the technical session on improving maize seed systems in Asia at the 12th Asian Maize Conference. David Spielman, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), highlighted that policy-makers often face difficult challenges in promoting seed industry growth – especially in Asian countries that have more smallholder and resource-poor farmers.

Spielman said, “Innovation policies require data on firm-level research and development spending; product pipeline and competition policies require data on market structure and firm behavior.”

Firms often do not share proprietary revenue data and governments may not monitor firm-level activity on a regular basis. One of the factors could be that policy-makers are not sufficiently informed about the opportunities and trade-offs associated with designing laws and regulations that enable the effective governance of seed industry development. Spielman emphasized that a better designed dataset with a finite set of indicators to measure competition and innovation in a country’s seed industry can better inform policy-makers.

The conference highlighted the need for the public and private sectors to work together to provide affordable new seed varieties and deliver new technologies to smallholder farmers. An eminent group of panelists – Arvind Kumar, Rasi Seeds; Shilpa Divekar Nirula, Monsanto; Fan Xingming, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China; John McMurdy, U.S. Agency for International Development; and Bijendra Pal, Bioseed, discussed the opportunities and challenges to ensure a vibrant Asian maize seed sector through public-private partnerships (PPPs).

The panel noted that decision-makers should not look at public vs. private; rather they should learn from models and best practices where the two sectors have worked together successfully.

As a best practice on PPPs, Ian Barker, head of agricultural partnerships at the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), talked about its Seeds2B program in Africa that builds linkages between breeders and seed companies to make more improved seed varieties available to farmers at the right time and price.

He also highlighted that SFSA is now aiming to kick- start the Seed2B concept in Asia – bringing together breeders, seed companies, farmer associations and other relevant players in the Asian maize value chain – to improve access to seed in marginal maize areas. Barker said, “Public-private breeding partnerships can efficiently deliver new affordable and accessible hybrids – correctly positioned and targeted at proven smallholder demand.”

Is gluten the new villain? The New Yorker covers the rising gluten-free trend

Written by on November 7, 2014. Posted in Blogs.

“The most obvious question is also the most difficult to answer: How could gluten, present in a staple food that has sustained humanity for thousands of years, have suddenly become so threatening?” asks an article published in the November 3, issue of The New Yorker. The article, “Against the Grain” by Michael Specter, examines the gluten-free movement and the various theories surrounding the recent rise in “non-celiac gluten sensitivity,” the name given to those who report discomfort after eating gluten yet do not suffer from celiac disease. According to Specter, “there are many theories but no clear, scientifically satisfying answers.”

Among the theories is the notion that wheat genes have drastically changed in the past 50 years and the grain can no longer be properly digested by humans, an idea promoted by “Wheat Belly” author William Davis. Little scientific evidence supports this claim however, and the true cause of “non-celiac gluten sensitivity” symptoms remains unknown.

Specter contends that the culprit is more likely to be FODMAPs, a group of carbohydrates present in numerous food items (including wheat) that can cause abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea; industrial bread additives such as vital wheat gluten; or unhealthy modern dietary patterns. “Although dietary patterns have changed dramatically in the past century, our genes have not,” attests Specter. “The human body has not evolved to consume a modern Western diet, with meals full of sugary substances and refined, high-calorie carbohydrates.”

For those without celiac disease, cutting gluten and wheat products from their diet may not answer the underlying cause of the symptoms, and may do more harm than good. Gluten-free products are often high in sugar and calories to make up for missing ingredients. More investigation and longterm dietary studies are necessary, Specter argues, before blaming wheat or gluten as the culprit of a growing percentage of the nation’s reported dietary sensitivities.

12th Asian Maize Conference

Written by on November 4, 2014. Posted in News.

(From left to right) Anan Suwannarat (Director General, Thai Department of Agriculture), Hiroyuki Konuma (Assistant Director General, FAO-RAP), Raj Paroda (Executive Secretary, APAARI) and Thomas Lumpkin (Director General, CIMMYT) open the 12th Asian Maize Conference by revealing the accompanying Books of Extended Summaries and Abstracts.

The 12th Asian Maize Conference is taking place in Bangkok from 30 October to 1 November, bringing together more than 350 leading agricultural researchers, policy-makers, farmers and service providers from across the public and private sectors. The conference, “Maize for Food, Feed, Nutrition and Environmental Security,” was organized by the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Thai Department of Agriculture, and will culminate in 10 major recommendations to set in place a roadmap for a sustainable intensification strategy for maize in Asia.

The objectives of the conference are to assess specific priorities to enhance maize production and productivity in the region, share the latest knowledge on cutting-edge maize technologies and generate awareness among institutions and stakeholders of better uses of maize as food, feed, fodder and as an industrial crop in Asia.

“This forum provides us with a platform to create synergies among institutions and stakeholders, all of whom recognize the enormous value of maize as a food and feed crop,” said guest of honor Anan Suwannarat, Director General of the Thai Department of Agriculture.

The area, production and yield of maize have increased several-fold over the last 50 years; much of that growth has occurred in the developing world. Compared to other cereals, maize has recorded the fastest annual growth in Asia (around 4 percent). The demand for maize in Asia has been growing in response to changing consumer interests and to feed the growing livestock sector.

“Among cereals, maize offers immense opportunities to address both food and nutrition security in Asia,” said Dr. Raj Paroda, APAARI executive secretary and conference co-chair. “Exciting scientific achievements in the recent past have led to higher annual growth in maize than all other cereals in the region. We now need to effectively harness the existing potential by out-scaling innovations in maize to have greater impact on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.”

At the same time, maize production and productivity in several Asian countries is severely constrained by an array of factors, including lack of access to improved seeds and other critical production-related inputs, lack of training and knowledge transfer for resource-poor farmers, and abiotic and biotic stresses, the magnitude and dynamics of which are rapidly increasing due to climate change. However, there remains great scope to increase the production area of maize in the region, as well as tremendous opportunities for productivity increases and innovations in crop improvement, management and diversification.

According to Dr. Thomas A. Lumpkin, CIMMYT director general and the other conference co-chair, “Sustainably increasing yields and stabilizing prices requires a concerted effort at the policy level, deployment of new technologies and long-term research investments to ensure that Asian farmers are prepared to respond to the enormous challenges facing agriculture.”

CIMMYT prepares to launch second phase of SIMLESA in Kenya and Tanzania

Written by on October 30, 2014. Posted in News.

Dr. Fidelis Myaka, director of research and development with the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives, officially opens the meeting in Arusha, Tanzania.

Representatives from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Queensland Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation (QAAFI), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the national agricultural research systems (NARS) of Kenya and Tanzania, and CIMMYT scientists from Ethiopia, Kenya and Zimbabwe met between 14-17 October in Arusha, Tanzania, to finalize activities to meet the objectives of the second phase of CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project.

The joint meeting for the Kenya and Tanzania country teams was the third and last launch and planning meeting. It was also a follow-up of two previous operational meetings held in Lilongwe, Malawi, and Hawassa, Ethiopia.

Gender matters in farm power

Written by on October 28, 2014. Posted in News.

The goals of the Farm Power and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project are to address the issues of declining farm power in eastern and southern Africa, and to reduce the labor burden that comes with low farm mechanization, by promoting small-scale mechanization based on two-wheel tractors. Farm power is particularly scarce for female-headed households (FHHs), That have limited access to human labor and often don’t own (or are culturally forbidden to operate) draft animals. FHHs are often the last households to access land preparation services, which leads to lower yields. Even in households headed by men, women supply most of the farm labor and perform highly labor-intensive tasks, such as weeding, threshing, shelling or transport of inputs and agricultural commodities to and from the market by head-loading.

Front row, from left to right: Mulunesh Tsegaye, FACASI gender and agriculture specialist; Katrine Danielsen KIT; Elizabeth Mukewa consultant; Mahlet Mariam, consultant; and David Kahan CIMMYT, business model specialist. Back row, from left to right: Anouka van Eerdewijk KIT; Lone Badstue CIMMYT strategic leader, gender research and mainstreaming; and Frédéric Baudron, FACASI project leader. Photo: Steffen Schulz/CIMMYT

Although mechanization has the potential to close the gender gap in agriculture, past efforts based on large four-wheel tractors have generally led to inequitable access to mechanization, favoring wealthier farmers, and have often widened the gender gap. Similarly, although most of the labor burden in agriculture is placed on women, it is often men’s tasks that are mechanized. Will small-scale mechanization follow the same pattern? Or will the use of less expensive two-wheel tractors promote equitable access to mechanization and contribute to closing the gender gap? In addition, will the versatility of these small machines accelerate the mechanization of tasks done by women? Or is women’s current labor burden unlikely to translate into demand for mechanization, regardless of its form, because of socio-cultural norms affecting gender dynamics? Finally, if women’s tasks are mechanized, will this create opportunities for them, or alienate them in their household chores?

To answer parts of these questions, a CRP MAIZE competitive grant was awarded to the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) at the beginning of 2014 to conduct a gender analysis of small-scale mechanization in the FACASI sites of Ethiopia (Hawassa and Assela) and Kenya (Bungoma and Laikipia). The research team included: Anouka Van Eerdewijk, KIT gender advisor, Katrine Danielsen, KIT senior advisor; gender and rights; Elizabeth Mukewa, consultant in charge of the field work in Kenya; and Mahlet Mariam, consultant in charge of the field work in Ethiopia. The team presented its finding to the FACASI project in Addis Ababa on 10 October.

The first conclusion of the study is that women’s labor burden itself is unlikely to translate into demand for mechanization, because women’s labor is poorly valued, women’s labor burden is often not recognized and women have little control over the financial resources of the household. However, mechanizing men’s tasks could indirectly reduce women’s labor burden. For example, mechanizing land preparation and seeding – generally a task handled by men – may reduce the need for weeding – a task generally done by women – because of early planting and good crop establishment. In addition, mechanizing men’s tasks would reduce the need for women to prepare and transport food to men working in the field. Substituting mechanization for animal draft power could also reduce the number of livestock owned by the household, and reduce the labor needed for livestock feeding and manure collection, tasks which are generally done by women. Substituting mechanization for animal draft power could also reduce the number of livestock owned by the household, and reduce the labor needed for livestock feeding and manure collection, tasks which are generally done by women.

A second conclusion is that there are large variations in contexts, household types, and even between women in similar household types. For example, pooled labor is used to reduce the labor burden in some locations (e.g., Assela), but not in others (e.g., Laikipia). In addition, women in male-headed households often don’t have control over resources for reducing their labor burden, whereas women in FHHs might have control, but are resource-constrained. In male-headed households where women do control part of the resources,women can choose options to reduce their labor burden and adopt mechanization. This is particularly true of women who own land and/or have a formal employment outside agriculture. These variations suggest that demand for, and the benefits of mechanization cannot be assumed, but need to be considered and monitored in context.

The findings of this study will be used to develop a set of gender sensitive indicators to monitor and evaluate FACASI. They will also guide a number of research activities in the project, including the testing of mechanization business models with women entrepreneurs, in which the adoption and benefits of mechanization can be further scrutinized for different household types and members.

Raising wheat productivity across North Africa and West Asia

Written by on October 28, 2014. Posted in Blogs.

Dr. Mahmoud Solh is Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

Wheat is a staple and strategic crop across most of North Africa and West Asia, accounting for almost 40 percent of the region’s total food supply, including 40 percent of its calorific, and 20 percent of its protein intake. ¹

However, due to a combination of environmental, policy and human constraints the region is unable to produce enough high quality wheat for its growing population – currently 417 million and expected to reach almost 500 million by 2020.²

Agricultural productivity is hampered by water scarcity: rainfall is generally very low; groundwater extraction rates are mostly unsustainable; and, growing domestic and industrial demand is putting pressure on the amount of water available for agriculture, leading to shortages in irrigated production systems. The region’s wheat production potential is also restricted by a lack of arable land.

These problems will be exacerbated by climate change, since projections show that North Africa and West Asia will be hardest hit by shifting climate patterns. Precipitation is expected to decrease while temperatures will rise, driving ever-increasing pressure on already-limited resources.³

Climate change is worrying in another respect, as it creates optimal conditions for aggressive wheat diseases and pests. A particularly destructive threat to wheat production in the region is stripe rust, a fungal disease that attacks wheat early in the growing season, weakening crops and causing significant grain losses.

Aggressive new strains of the disease are adapting to more variable rainfall and increased temperatures, and are expected to become more widespread and strike more frequently. Farmers have already endured significant losses due to stripe rust when a major epidemic struck the region four years ago.

These constraints are driving an economically unsustainable dependence on wheat imports. North Africa and West Asia are the most food-import dependent areas in the world. In 2010 alone the region imported 65.8 million tons of cereal – an amount expected to grow to more than 73 million tons by 2020.⁴

Potential crop shortages and related food-price hikes expose consumers to the vagaries of global commodity markets. The poorest members of society who spend a disproportionate amount of their income on food will be particularly hard hit.

¹FAO/CIMMYT figures in a presentation delivered by Hans-Joachim Braun at International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium, 2011.
²Compiled by ICARDA using FAO Statistics (2012)
³FAO AQUASTAT database (http://www.fao.org/nr/aquastat; accessed in 2011)
⁴FAO Statistics Division, Rome, 2013.