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The global warming challenge for wheat

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David Lobell is an associate professor in environmental earth system science and deputy director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University.

Scott Chapman is a principal research scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Wheat likes it cool. More than any other major food staple, wheat yields suffer when weather gets warm. Although wheat has been adapted to grow in almost every country of the world through 10,000 years of farmer selection and a century of breeding, it is still most productive in the cooler places and seasons. Given this reality, it is not surprising that most projections of climate change impacts indicate decreases in wheat production, with an average of roughly 5 percent yield loss expected for each 1°C of warming.

Indeed, many studies indicate that in recent decades global yield productivity has already been hit by warmer average temperatures.

But how important will global warming really be in shaping future wheat supply? The answer is hard to pin down, partly because it will depend on where and how quickly the world heats up.

The expected average rate of warming over current wheat areas for the next few decades is a little less than 0.5 °C per decade, which implies a negative yield impact of about 2 percent per decade.

Compared to the anticipated yield growth needed to keep pace with demand for wheat – about 15 percent per decade – this is a significant but modest addition to an already hard task.

But there is no guarantee that the expected rate of warming will happen, and models suggest that warming of as much as 1.0 °C per decade is plausible over the next couple of decades. Therefore, it is reasonable to view global warming as a major risk to future wheat supply.

What can the wheat community do to reduce these risks to the wheat supply, or more specifically, what might be done differently than business-as-usual wheat breeding? We have three suggestions.

First, in a shifting environment, it is expected that crops will face different conditions in farmers’ fields than they did in breeding trials. Physiological models that can skillfully predict crop growth then become an indispensable tool, because they can help breeders better anticipate what traits will prove useful even if those traits don’t confer yield advantages in their trials. This is an extension of a long-standing challenge of understanding gene-by-environment interactions, but requires new skill in modeling mechanisms behind crop responses to heat.

Second, these desired traits should be more reliably and quickly incorporated into elite wheat germplasm. This work will require a combination of methods to rapidly identify desirable traits among a large population (for example, rapid phenotyping) and methods (such as marker and genomic selection) to introduce and recombine new genetic variability when needed (for example, by using wild relatives).

A challenge here is that potentially adaptive traits, such as changes in flowering time, increased water-use efficiency or expression of “sunscreens” (surface waxes), might exist in current germplasm, but be genetically linked to less desirable traits. An ability to generate and test many combinations of different traits is more important, and harder, than simply having access to extreme values of a particular trait.

Interested in this subject? Find out more information here:Getting caught with our plants down: the risks of a global crop yield slowdown from climate trends in the next two decades (2014)
David B Lobell and Claudia TebaldiPhysiological Traits for Improving Heat Tolerance in Wheat (2012)
C. Mariano Cossani and Matthew P. ReynoldsPlant adaptation to climate change – opportunities and priorities in breeding (2012)
Scott C. Chapman, Sukumar Chakrabort, M. Fernanda Dreccer, and S. Mark Howden

Third, agronomy will play a key role in helping the world adapt to climate change. For example, new planting methods that allow earlier sowing can help to escape the end-of-season heat and targeted use of mulches and irrigation can help to lower canopy temperatures. Widespread testing of these techniques, ideally in combination with the testing of various genotypes, would help to ensure that promising approaches are more quickly identified and scaled up.

In a world without climate change, these issues are still relevant. But they become crucial in a world where the risks of large heat waves rise each year.

We see global warming as an important strategic issue for international groups like CIMMYT, because: (i) warming is expected to be fast enough to significantly slow global yield growth; (ii) it is difficult to predict exactly which countries will see the most severe heat waves in the next couple of decades; and (iii) it is likely that some (if not all) countries will need germplasm that is currently grown elsewhere to adapt. Thus, the global threat is serious, but individual countries have limited incentives to devote significant effort to adaptation (because they may be spared the worst of it) and limited capacity to achieve success on their own (because of the need for imported germplasm).

It will take global institutions to successfully adapt to global warming.

Mexican university students attend eighth annual CIMMYT open house

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On 19 September CIMMYT-El Batån held the eighth annual Open House for 300 Mexican students from the states of Puebla, Querétaro, Michoacån, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, State of Mexico and Distrito Federal. Students visited CIMMYT field demonstration plots of Maize, Wheat and Conservation Agriculture, and visited the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center and the biosciences complex (biotechnology, maize and wheat nutrition and quality labs).

Participating universities include:

  • Universidad de Guadalajara
  • Universidad AutĂłnoma del Estado de MĂ©xico
  • Universidad de QuerĂ©taro
  • Universidad AutĂłnoma de Chapingo
  • Universidad TecnolĂłgica de San Miguel de Allende
  • Centro de Bachillerato TecnolĂłgico (CBT)
  • Universidad Nacional AutĂłnoma
  • Colegio de Postgraduados
  • Universidad TecnolĂłgica de TehuacĂĄn
  • Instituto TecnolĂłgico de Estudios Superiores Monterrey, Campus Morelia

Will yield increases continue to feed the world? The case for wheat

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Tony Fisher is Plant Industry Honorary Fellow with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Any opinions expressed are his own

The release of the bread wheat variety Borlaug100 earlier this year in the irrigated Yaqui Valley of northwest Mexico was both apt and reassuring.

The 100th anniversary of the late scientist Norman Borlaug’s birth was also celebrated in 2014. The performance of his namesake wheat variety represented a notable jump in potential yield, lifting bread wheat up to the potential of the best durum wheat variety, currently dominant in the valley.

Borlaug, who is credited with saving more than 1 billion lives, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and its predecessor organization, the Office of Special Studies, where he began breeding wheat in the 1940s. Scientist Sanjaya Rajaram took over leadership of breeding in 1972, followed by Maarten van Ginkel in 1995, and Ravi Singh as breeder for irrigated areas in 2005. Between 1950 and 2014, potential yield of the approximately 160,000 hectares (400,000 acres) of wheat in the valley increased from about 5 metric tons (5.5 tons) per hectare to 9 metric tons per hectare, while farm yield rose five-fold, from 1.3 metric tons per hectare to 6.5 metric tons per hectare as varieties and agronomic management improved hand in hand.

These technologies have also had an impact on many developing countries with similar or related wheat agro-ecologies.

Many people are quick to point out that yield is not everything in global food security, that other issues are also important, including grain nutritive value, yield stability in the face of pests and diseases, crop input requirements, and more broadly, access of the poor to food (income and price), diversion of grain to animal feed and biofuel, and losses due to wastage.

However, nutritive value of the staples has not greatly changed, nor have yields become less stable, while input use per kilogram of grain produced has decreased, so that none of those issues are as fundamental to food security as farm yield increase.

Indeed yield increase has contributed more than 80 percent of the huge global consumption increase over the last 50 years (incidentally supplying of the burgeoning world population with more calories per capita). The increase in arable land area contributed only about half of the remaining supply increase, since cropping intensity (crops per year per hectare of arable land) also increased. This yield increase has saved vast areas of land from the plow. It is for these reasons that the subtitle of my recent book, Crop yields and global food security: will yield increase continue to feed the world?, asks whether yield increase will continue to feed the world.

While the book looked at past and prospective farm yield change across many crops, here space permits only a brief look at the global wheat yield situation.

The importance of wheat as a food calorie and protein source has already been pointed out in this “Wheat Matters” series of blogs: suffice to say wheat, being produced equally in developing and developed countries, is the top global source of calories (rice is actually the top source for poor consumers) and the top traded food grain, a position it is unlikely to lose.

Estimates of wheat-demand increase from 2010 to 2050 vary considerably: if prices are to be kept no greater than 2010 average real prices, I estimate a supply increase of about 50 percent is needed. Thus production needs to grow at 1.25 percent a year linear relative to the 2010 yield in order to meet estimated demand growth, but currently world wheat yield is growing at only 1 percent a year (relative to the 2010 trend yield of 3.0 metric tons per hectare).

While the potential yield of wheat has been lifted remarkably by breeding, as was seen in the example above, current rates of potential yield progress have slowed, averaging only 0.6 percent a year (range 0.3 to 1.1 percent) across 12 case studies around the world.

Experience suggests that the newest varieties are adopted relatively quickly by farmers and should as a consequence lift farm yield by about the same relative amount (i.e. 0.6 percent a year).

A separate source of progress in farm yield comes from farmers adopting new management practices, which close the gap between farm and potential yield. Actually, the current gap averaged only 48 percent (of farm yield itself), ranging from 23 percent to 69 percent across the case studies, with little difference between developing and developed countries, or irrigated and rainfed environments.

Interested in this subject? Find out more information here:

Fischer R.A., Byerlee D. and Edmeades G.O. 2014. Crop yields and global food security: will yield increase continue to feed the world? ACIAR Monograph No. 158. The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra. Access at http://aciar.gov.au/publication/mn158

Since the minimum yield gap, due to considerations of costs and risk, is around 30 percent (of farm yield), the scope for further yield gap closing is more limited in wheat than in the other major cereals, which, in contrast to wheat, showed many larger yield gaps, especially in developing countries.

Besides, the gap-causing constraints in the cases of wheat are generally multiple, related to small deficiencies in soil fertility, weeds and disease management and in the timing of operations. This puts special pressure in the case of wheat on lifting potential yield progress, and justifies substantial increases in research in this area. There is certainly no sign that a biological limit in wheat potential yield has been reached, and several new tools and strategies of sufficient promise are available to justify such investment.

Finally, although increasing carbon dioxide is probably lifting both potential and farm yields of wheat about 0.2 percent a year, it is suggested that out to 2050, this will be cancelled by the negative effect of mean temperature increase, which is now becoming more evident.

 

NuME organizes financial management workshop for partners

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CIMMYT’s Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project recently organized a half-day workshop to refresh the knowledge of financial officers from partner institutions on various accounting and reporting procedures, with specific reference to financial procedures that apply to projects funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD). Dr. Adefris Teklewold, NuME project leader, provided a detailed explanation of NuME objectives and its implementation to date.

Participants listen attentively during a session of the financial management workshop.

The workshop was facilitated by Ato Antenane Abeiy, NuME project manager, and hosted some 20 finance and accounting professionals drawn from both governmental and non-governmental organizations directly involved in the implementation of the project. Participants included representatives of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, Sasakawa Global 2000 and Farm Radio International.

Abeiy said that the workshop was organized to familiarize the participants with overall project financial management processes, as well as the requirements and procedures that apply both to CIMMYT and DFATD. The workshop clearly identified the challenges observed to date in NuME project fund administration processes and discussed possible solutions that will ease and speed up financial operations and systems for the remainder of the project.

Accordingly, discussions were held on topics including CIMMYT and donor requirements, NuME budget categories and budget lines, NuME cash transfer modalities, fund request and release procedures, implementation start-up, financial management and documentation, financial accountability, auditing and quality assurance and a summary checklist of required information and flow of activities developed to receive, disburse and report project-related funds.

Challenges and ‘common mistakes’ in financial management and reporting observed to date were discussed. These include: delays in signing sub-grant agreements; delays in fund release; underutilization of funds; under-reporting of expenditures; delays in reporting and reporting without following formal channels; filing reports without official approval; and reporting in lump sums with no detailed expenditure and description of expenditures attached.

Participants noted during the discussions that they will use the skills gained from the workshop to properly expedite and administer project funds and ease matters for their institutions and staff to properly implement the various activities planned for the effective implementation of the NuME project.

NuME is implemented by CIMMYT in Ethiopia and funded by DFATD. It is designed to help improve the food and nutritional security of Ethiopia’s rural population – especially women and children – through the adoption of quality protein maize varieties and crop management practices that increase farm productivity.

CCAFS climate smart village program progress makes news in India

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The CCAFS Climate Smart Village (CSV) program recently earned significant media attention for its successes in the Indian states of Bihar, Haryana and Punjab where the program is being implemented. The CSVs were featured in BBC News as well as several newspapers in the region. The CSV program is helping farmers in developing countries adapt their agricultural practices to secure dependable food supplies and livelihoods, while also decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration, thereby decreasing future climate change. The project began in 2011 and works with villages in East and West Africa and South Asia. “The Climate Smart Villages program is a community-based approach to sustainable agricultural development,” said M.L. Jat, CIMMYT senior cropping system agronomist and South Asia coordinator of the CCAFS- CIMMYT project.

Australian wheat breeders’ relationship with Mexico spans more than 40 years

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In Australia, over 90 percent of local wheat varieties can be traced back to CIMMYT varieties, reports Kim Honan in a 17 September article on ABC’s Rural website.

For 40 years, Australian wheat breeders, as a part of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)-funded CIMMYT/Australia/ICARDA Germplasm Evaluation (CAIGE) project, have traveled to Mexico annually to visit CIMMYT wheat fields.

“CIMMYT is a global program, it’s breeding for the world, so the nurseries they put together to distribute globally don’t necessarily have the traits that we’re looking for in Australia,” said Richard Trethowan, professor of Plant Breeding at the University of Sydney and former CIMMYT wheat breeder.

The trip allows the team to review materials and hand-select breeds with traits that might not have otherwise been available to Australian breeders. Each year, the scientists look for traits that show signs of potential yield increases, drought tolerance and heat tolerance. In particular, the breeders look for more diversity in each of those characteristics. During this trip, the team chose a set of about 350 varieties.

“This is a smorgasbord of diversity and here we can find that new resistance and bring that back to

Australia,” said Trethowan. “The breeder needs to take all this diversity for yield, resistance and adaptation to drought and heat, and improve that for grain quality to meet the Australian markets.”

Read Honan’s full report detailing the breeders’ trip to Mexico here.

Annual planning meeting for Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program supported by USDA

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The Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and CIMMYT organized a two-day annual wheat planning meeting at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Islamabad. The meeting was in support of the Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program (WPEP), which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The objectives of WPEP are to improve wheat though rust surveillance, breeding, pre-breeding, seed production, agronomy and coordination and capacity building. Meeting participants focused on a review of the progress made in 2013-14, identifying emerging opportunities and developing work plans for the coming year.

Dr. Shahid Masood, PARC chief science officer and senior director; Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed, PARC chairman; David Williams, agricultural counselor for the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan; Dr. Imtiaz Muhammad, country representative for CIMMYT in Pakistan.

“The United States has a long history of collaboration with Pakistan in the agriculture sector; WPEP has made exceptional progress in the country to develop Ug99-resistant wheat varieties which will ensure food security,” said David Williams, agricultural counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. He also commended the integrated research efforts of national and international partners for the enhancement of the nation’s wheat yields.

David Williams, agricultural counselor for the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, addresses the audience.

Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT’s country representative in Pakistan, shared the impacts of WPEP on national and international wheat research systems. He added that CIMMYT’s efforts in the seed component of WPEP are substantial. WPEP has made significant progress; the release of Ug99-resistant wheat varieties (such as NARC-2011, PAK-13 and the upcoming Borlaug-14) will improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Pakistan.

WPEP has played a vital role in developing a wheat rust surveillance system, upgrading infrastructure and improving the research capacity in Pakistan. Collaborative and coordinated efforts through PARC and CIMMYT have enabled the country to develop a rust culture bank. It has built the capacity of provincial wheat breeding programs to secure wheat production against the potential threat of Ug99 races.

During the technical session, partners from across Pakistan agreed that developing Ug99-resistant wheat varieties to replace traditional varieties and making them available to farmers is a critical step in maintaining high yields in Pakistan. Participants acknowledged the support of the USDA, CIMMYT and PARC in wheat research.

The role of crop diversity in climate adaptation

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The impending threat of global climate change makes the storage and maintenance of crop diversity, held in the form of seeds in gene banks around the world, more important than ever before. “Crop diversity is agriculture’s greatest resource for adaptation, the foundation for future efforts to feed the world,” argues Rachel Kyte, World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change, in an article she recently wrote for Scientific American. “The key to facing issues of climate changes, pests and diseases is maintaining this diversity.”

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China’s wheat production critical to global food security

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China’s Wheat Production Critical to Global Food Security

Zhonghu He is country representative in China for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement
Center (CIMMYT), and Qiaosheng Zhuang is a professor at the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS).

China’s domestic agricultural activities are vital to ensuring food security for its 1.4 billion people and – as the world’s largest wheat producer – the country plays a major role in shaping international markets.

China produces about 120 million metric tons (265 million pounds) of wheat each year – on approximately 24 million hectares (59 million acres) of land, an area similar to the size of Algeria, according to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Wheat makes up 40 percent of grain consumption in China and about 60 percent of the country’s population eats the grain daily.

Cultivated wheat, which was likely introduced to China in the late 6th to early 5th millennium B.C., is the second most important food crop in China after rice. It is the dominant staple food in the northern part of the country where it is used mainly to produce noodles and steamed bread.

In present-day China, more than 95 percent of wheat is sown in the autumn. A double cropping system is used in the Yellow River and Huai River valleys in which wheat is rotated with maize. In the Yangtze Valley it is rotated with rice.

Chinese wheat matures early, so two crops can be harvested each year.

Wheat in China is also exceptionally resistant to high temperatures during the grain filling stage, during which kernel size is determined, as well as such diseases as head scab, septoria and karnal bunt. The wheat cultivar Sumai 3, a plant selected by breeders for its desirable characteristics, is used globally as a source for improving scab resistance.

Current Challenges

Demand for wheat in China is growing due to population increase and rising living standards, but production is challenged by water scarcity, environmental contamination, rising temperatures, droughts, labor shortages and land-use shifts from grain production to cash crops.

Researchers anticipate that in the near future the consumption of homemade steamed bread and raw noodles will decrease in favor of western-style breads and pastries.

Breeding for high-yield potential remains the first priority, as the available planting area for wheat is unlikely to increase.

Overall breeding goals include increasing grain yield, while maintaining genetic gains already made by scientists in grain yield and improving the processing quality without increasing needed inputs to grow healthy crops.

Conventional breeding – in which wheat plants with desirable, or “elite” traits are selected and used as “parents” for subsequent generations – has been in use for more than a hundred years. The technique, combined with an increased application of biotechnology, will continue to play a leading role in wheat variety development.

In addition to powdery mildew and yellow rust, Fusarium head blight has migrated to the main wheat regions in northern China due to climate change and the continuous practice of wheat and maize rotation, posing a major threat to wheat production. Other diseases, such as sharp eyespot and take-all, are also becoming increasingly troublesome as scientists try to increase grain yields. Wheat in the area has a very low resistance to scab, which is creating another challenge.

Scientific Innovation

It is important that foreign germplasm – the genetic resources of an organism – from international research centers and alien genes from wild relative species be explored as potential sources of multiple-disease resistance.

In order to reduce inputs for wheat production, it is essential to breed varieties with higher water, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (N) fertilizer use efficiencies, but this must be combined with high-yielding potential.

Interested in this subject? Find out more information here:

Zhonghu He and Alain P.A. Bonjean, 2010. Cereals in China, Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT.

Zhonghu He, Xianchun Xia a, Shaobing Peng, Thomas Adam Lumpkin, 2014. Meeting demands for increased cereal production in China, Journal of Cereal Science, 59: 235-244.

Fahong WangZhonghu He, Ken Sayre, Shengdong Li, Jisheng Si, Bo Feng, Lingan Kong,2009. Wheat cropping systems and technologies in China, Field Crop Research, 111: 181-188.

Drought tolerance for wheat grown in rain-fed areas must be strengthened, because varieties with drought tolerance and better water-use efficiency are already urgently needed.

Under altered conditions driven by climate change, planting dates have been delayed by 10 days over the last 20 years, but maturity has remained basically unchanged. Climate-resilient varieties are needed.

New genes and genetic resources must be explored with novel tools to realize higher genetic gains. Gene-specific markers will play an important role in facilitating the genes for disease resistance and quality. Genetically modified wheat could offer potential tools in reducing damage from head scab and aphids.

Crop management must play an important role in increasing wheat production. Low-cost farming practices are needed so that wheat can be more competitive in the financial markets and new cropping systems must be suited to machinery operation. International collaboration has contributed significantly to improving Chinese wheat research and development capacity.

The government of China considers the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) an important strategic partner in wheat research and continues to work closely with CIMMYT and other international partners to meet future wheat demands.

 

6th CSISA wheat breeding meeting reviews gains in South Asia

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On 11-12 September, 61 scientists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal convened in Kathmandu, Nepal, for the 6th Wheat Breeding Review Meeting of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) objective 4 program.

Participants pose for a photo at the 6th CSISA Wheat Breeding review meeting, Kathmandu, Nepal, held 11-12 September.
Photo: Prakash Shrestha.

The meeting was organized by CIMMYT’s Kathmandu office and led by Dr. Arun Joshi. Other CIMMYT participants were Andrew McDonald and Cynthia Mathys. Participants included representatives of the Wheat Research Centre of Bangladesh (Dinajpur); Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Ghazipur; India’s Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), Karnal and Shimla; the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Delhi and Indore; Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal; Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Gurdaspur; Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi; the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad; Uttarbanga Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Coochbehar, West Bengal; Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur and Powarkheda; Agharkar Research Institute, Pune; Govind Vallabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar; Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, Mohanpur, Distt. Nadia, W. Bengal; Nepal’s National Wheat Research Program (NWRP), Bhairahwa; Nepal Agricultural Research Institute (NARI); Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC); Renewable Natural Resources (RNR); Research and Development Centre (RDC), Bajo; the Bhutanese Ministry of Agriculture and Forest; and SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The CSISA meeting began with remarks by the chief guest, Dr. Dil Bahadur Gurung, executive director of NARC, along with Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam Mondal, Director General of BARI and McDonald and Joshi of CIMMYT. Within a wider framework of discussions concerning wheat improvement issues, the CSISA meeting reviewed the progress of the 2013-14 cycle and established work plans for the 2014-15 crop cycle. McDonald presented a summary of all CSISA objectives and highlighted the substantial results obtained in wheat breeding. Mondal expressed his satisfaction that CSISA wheat breeding has regional recognition in South Asia and is trying its best to create linkages among regionally important research issues. Gurung highlighted the significance of collaborative research with a regional perspective and reported the successes being achieved by CSISA in wheat research and cropping systems in Nepal. He expressed his appreciation for new research efforts under CSISA and said that, “the South Asia-CIMMYT collaboration is paramount to the food security in the region.”

Four review sessions were conducted, chaired by Mondal, Dr. Ravi Pratap Singh, Dr. Girish Chandra Mishra and Joshi. Three sessions were platforms to present review reports and work plans from the 10 research centers; two other sessions discussed physiology, spot blotch, extension of wheat breeding activities and how to link wheat breeding with seed dissemination and capacity building in South Asia. Another session discussed conducting trials, weather data, advanced and segregating material in Kenya and submission of data booklets and reports. A major discussion was held to encourage the strengthening of existing links with CSISA objective 4 (wheat breeding) and other objectives of CSISA, which include linkages with hubs and other stakeholders,  and explored the possibilities of providing quality seeds from newly released improved varieties to farmers as quickly as possible. The inclusion of conservation agriculture and participatory variety selection were also encouraged.

Joshi also highlighted major achievements by the CGIAR Centers during the last six years of CSISA: breeding for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance gained momentum with around a dozen new varieties released and popularized in South Asia; germplasm exchange with CIMMYT increased significantly; the majority of advanced lines in CIMMYT trials carried resistance to Ug99 and other rusts; shuttling of segregating generations between South Asia and Kenya increased; use of physiological tools for heat and drought tolerance increased in the region; stronger links were formed among breeders, seed producers and farmers; and capacity building was promoted in the region. Many new topics were discussed, including the current status of wheat rusts in SAARC countries by Dr. Subhash Bhardwaj, DWR Shimla; the current status and future options for wheat breeding for salt-affected soils by Neeraj Kulshrestha, CSSRI, Karnal; capacity building options for crop protection at DWR for SAARC scientists by M.S. Saharan, DWR, Karnal; and how DWR can fast-track CSISA wheat varieties to farmers in the eastern Gangetic plains by Dr. Randhir Singh Poswal, DWR, Karnal. Dr. Shree Prakash Pandey of IISER Kolkata presented the outcome of new research on a WHEAT CRP project, “Deciphering phytohormone signaling in modulation of resistance to spot blotch disease for identification of novel resistance components for wheat improvement.” “SAARC Agriculture Centre – Its Introduction and Programs,” was presented by Dr. Tayan Raj Gurung, senior program specialist from SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), Dhaka. He stressed that regional collaboration on wheat breeding for salt-affected soils is urgently required in South Asia and recommended that CIMMYT play a leading role.

The review meeting enabled CSISA wheat researchers to highlight research achievements and increase their understanding of the newer challenges and provided opportunities for further improvements in the coming years.

Addressing challenges in maize breeding to deliver improved seed to African smallholder farmers

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Members of a CBO that produces improved open-pollinated varieties in Malangeni, Swaziland, host visitors from NSIMA and DTM.

In Swaziland, maize is a staple crop and a source of income for many of the nation’s farmers. “The work on our staple crop cannot be overstated,” said Dr. Vusumuzi Mkhonta, acting director, Department of Agriculture, Research and Specialist Services in Swaziland. “If anything were to happen to maize, the entire population might perish.”

Mkhonta was speaking at the opening ceremony of the annual collaborators meeting, which brought together partners of the New Seed Initiative for Maize in Africa (NSIMA) and the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) projects in Mbabane, Swaziland, held 13-15 August. Mkhonta recognized the importance of maize research in the country to enhance food security and livelihoods. He also expressed appreciation for support from the Centre for Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA).

Participants discussed some of the challenges in maize breeding that impact the delivery of improved seed. These include the parasitic weed Striga and maize lethal necrosis (MLN), a deadly disease that has affected maize-growing areas in eastern Africa.

The CIMMYT-led NSIMA project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), involves five countries: Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (Katanga Province), Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland. In South Africa, the project is implemented in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Limpopo provinces, serving smallholder farmers who do not have access to maize hybrid seeds. “The large seed companies that operate in South Africa cater to commercial farmers and sell seed in huge quantities,” said James Gethi, CIMMYT seed system specialist and NSIMA project leader. “This means that farmers who need about two to three kilograms of seed are left out of the improved seed network.”

The CBO’s leader addresses visitors from the NSIMA and DTMA projects during the field day.
The CBO’s leader addresses visitors from the NSIMA and DTMA projects during the field day.

Since its inception, the project has been contributing to food and seed security in the southern Africa region. “Within three years, we have delivered 500 tons of open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) of improved seed to smallholder farmers within the NSIMA countries,” said Gethi, citing this as a key highlight of the project.

“Seed production is the second most important pillar for DTMA,” said Dr. Tsedeke Abate, the project leader. Abate indicated that in Kenya, seed production in the past year was significantly lower as a result of MLN disease. Abate highlighted the importance of the partnership between the project and small- to medium-sized seed companies that play an important role in disseminating drought- tolerant maize seed to farmers.

Dr. Abebe Menkir, a maize breeder with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), gave a keynote address during the meeting. “Resistance to Striga is an important trait for maize varieties specifically developed for areas infested with the parasite,” said Menkir. “Let us bring the technologies together to benefit farmers.”

“We need innovative systems for transforming agriculture and research results as business,” said Professor Timothy Simalenga, Executive Director of CCARDESA. Simalenga gave an overview of CCARDESA’s role, which cuts across the research value chain.

Participants visited a seed processing unit in Malangeni, run by a community-based organization (CBO) that currently produces ZM521, an improved OPV. “This women-dominated farmers’ group specializes in producing certified seed for use by the community,” said Gethi. With assistance from the SDC-supported Seed and Markets Project (SAMP), the farmers have acquired machinery. “CIMMYT is providing the group with basic seed and technical support for production of certified seed.”

The DTMA project also awarded country teams for their efforts in breeding and dissemination of drought- tolerant maize during the meeting. The Zimbabwe and Angola teams won the breeding and dissemination awards, respectively. The winners received a plaque and cash prizes.

The NSIMA project is providing improved open-pollinated seed to farmers who did not have access to them before. Project staff and partners pose for a group photo during the annual meeting.

In Swaziland, maize is a staple crop and a source of income for many of the nation’s farmers. “The work on our staple crop cannot be overstated,” said Dr. Vusumuzi Mkhonta, acting director, Department of Agriculture, Research and Specialist Services in Swaziland. “If anything were to happen to maize, the entire population might perish.”

Wheat value chain workshop aims to bolster food security in Sindh, Pakistan

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Food insecurity is a persistent problem in Sindh, a province in Pakistan slightly smaller than Tajikistan and home to 42.5 million residents. Almost three-quarters of the population are subject to regular food shortages due to the stagnation of staple food production and pressures caused by a doubling of the population since 1999.

One of several breakout groups brainstorms solutions during the workshop.

In an effort to address the food security challenges in the area, CIMMYT held a one-day workshop as part of the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan on 26 August in collaboration with the Wheat Research Institute and the Sakrand, Sindh and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council. More than 40 representatives vital to the wheat-seed value chain – including researchers, extension representatives, seed companies and the seed regulatory body of Pakistan – gathered in Hyderabad to analyze ways to transform wheat seed systems in the province.

The workshop was instrumental in revealing major opportunities and limitations across the entire spectrum of wheat seed systems, from breeding and releasing wheat varieties along with popularization and demand creation, to generating profitable and sustainable seed businesses.

On-farm evaluation of newly released varieties, Benazir 2013 and NARC 2011, indicated yield potentials 15 to 20 percent higher than existing varieties. If such varieties are made available and accepted throughout the region, food security could improve considerably due the varieties’ higher yield potential and rust resistance capability – traits critical to sustaining wheat productivity gains in Sindh.

According to the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD), only 31 percent of wheat seeds in Sindh are supplied by the commercial sector – public and privately owned seed companies – while 69 percent come from farmer-saved seeds.

Certified wheat seeds used in Sindh that are transported from Punjab province are not officially recognized in Sindh. If the unofficial transactions facilitating the flow of wheat seeds from Punjab are considered, this may indicate that wheat-seed systems in Sindh are fully functional and healthy.

Figure 1. Wheat varietal portfolio in Sindh seed systems (source: FSC&RD)
Figure 1. Wheat varietal portfolio in Sindh seed systems (source: FSC&RD)

However, this new batch of wheat varieties is not currently in the commercial seed production chain, so the average age of wheat varieties in Sindh indicates an unhealthy seed system. This is also illustrated by the predominance of the 10-year- old wheat variety TD 1 (Figure 1), the fact that wheat cultivars in the seed supply are, on average, 18 years old, and that two out of five varieties are more than 25 years old (Figure 1; Tj-83 and Sarsabz-89).

The Major Gap

The workshop identified a lack of coordinated efforts among those involved in the wheat-seed value chain to popularize new varieties as a significant weakness in Sindh. Weak coordination and linkages among research, extension, seed companies, the seed regulatory body and farmers has resulted in a very slow popularization of new varieties.

Many wheat varieties released in recent years have yet to reach farmers. This may be in part because the Sindh government’s Department of Agricultural Extension does not appear to have specific activities devoted to the publicity of new seed varieties.

More than 90 percent of certified wheat seeds in Sindh are supplied by private seed companies, which tend to focus on selling a few common wheat varieties with the highest market demand.

Deployment of new varieties in seed systems is slow also due to limited land and financial resources of research organizations. The lack of a regulatory framework allowing private seed companies to produce pre-basic and basic seeds is also a factor limiting the supply of adequate seeds.

Private seed companies said they recognized there is a lack of varietal choice – including short-duration varieties – and expressed interest in being involved in wheat variety development. However, they said they are limited by a lack of technical capability, financial resources, land and capital to develop research and development capacity.

Workshop participants identified a number of actions to incorporate into the AIP work plan for the upcoming wheat season, which begins in October-November. These actions include:

‱ Participatory varietal selection involving small-, medium- and large-scale farmers.

  • Participatory on-farm demonstrations of new varieties with involvement of all major actors of the wheat seed value chain.
  • Initiation of pre-basic and basic seed production by private seed companies with support from research, extension and seed regulatory bodies.
  • Provision of new seed wheat varieties to landless and smallholder farmers in Sindh.
More than 40 wheat-seed value chain representatives attended the workshop.

Upcoming: 12th Asian Maize Conference

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In Asia, maize production is growing at a faster rate than any other cereal. The demand for maize has grown in response to changing consumer habits; with greater demand for meat in consumers’ diets, maize is in high demand as feed for the growing livestock sector. At the same time, there remains great opportunity to increase the area under maize production in the region, as well as tremendous opportunities for innovations in crop improvement, management and diversification.

A Bangladeshi farmer uses a bed planter on his land, where his maize yields have increased since using the equipment.

It is in this context that the 12th Asian Maize Conference and Expert Consultation on “Maize for Food, Feed, Nutrition and Environmental Security” will be convened in Bangkok, Thailand, from 30 October to 1 November.

Organized by the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), CIMMYT, the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the Thai Department of Agriculture and the CGIAR Research Program on MAIZE (MAIZE CRP), the event will bring together around 250 researchers, policy-makers, service providers, innovative farmers and representatives of various organizations from across the public and private sectors.

The objective of the conference is 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 toward the better use of maize as a food, feed and an industrial crop in Asia.

These discussions will lead to an innovative and impact-oriented regional strategy for accelerated adoption of resilient technologies, market opportunities, networks, investment priorities and policy guidelines.

The Third Circular is available on the MAIZE CRP website. Registration forms, also available with the Third Circular, are accepted until 1 October.

Towards total quality: workshop on maize seed quality analysis based on ISTA protocols

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During the training courses for MasAgro Network seed producers given in 2014, surveys were conducted to determine their training needs in 2015. CIMMYT seed systems experts who visited seed production facilities and fields also identified gaps in the capacities of small, medium and large seed producers in Mexico.

They found that the genetic and physical quality of the seed produced by the different seed companies varies, even among seed of the same hybrid. Some companies do not conduct quality analyses before marketing the seed, while others have quality laboratories but lack adequately trained staff.

To help bridge this gap among seed companies and standardize the methods used for analyzing maize seed quality, a Maize Seed Quality Analysis Workshop based on the protocols of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) was held at CIMMYT Headquarters from 22-24 July. Organized by CIMMYT in collaboration with Mexico’s Seed Inspection and Certification Service (SNICS), the workshop was led by staff from the Central Reference Laboratory, which is certified by ISTA.

During the workshop, 48 Mexican seed company representatives and CIMMYT technicians updated their knowledge of the methods used for sampling maize seed plots, analyzing physical purity, and conducting germination and biochemical (tetrazolium) viability tests. The acquired hands-on experience will allow seed companies that conduct seed analyses to refine their methods, and those that don’t, to incorporate them into the production process.

Toluca Experiment Station holds field day for CIMMYT scientists and staff

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A field day was held on 4 September at CIMMYT’s Toluca experiment station to give CIMMYT scientists the opportunity to explain their program objectives and research activities to colleagues who may not have been familiar with their work. Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, 2014 World Food Prize recipient, and several retired CIMMYT employees who had worked with him also attended. Over 100 current and former staff members attended, with one group receiving presentations in English and the other in Spanish.

The day began with a welcome from Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program (GWP), after which the visitors headed out to the fields where GWP’s David Bonnet and Masahiro Kishi presented the work they are doing with hybrids and wide crosses. The term “wide cross” refers to the practice of crossing modern plant varieties with wild plant relatives, in order to create new varieties with desired characteristics.

A presentation on durum and triticale was given by Karim Ammar, GWP wheat breeder, who explained the importance of the Toluca experiment station, where the last visual check of plants occurs before going to field trial. Carlos Guzman, a post-doctoral fellow at CIMMYT in GWP’s Wheat Quality Laboratory, presented on the different varieties of wheat, their properties and the resulting products. At the end of the presentation, samples of bread and cookies created using CIMMYT wheat were given to participants.

The activities of the Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) project were presented by Sukhwinder Singh, wheat lead for SeeD, and Carolina Saint Pierre, genetic resources (wheat) phenotyping coordinator for SeeD. They explained their work on phenotyping, which involves screening seeds for different accessions, diseases and properties. Pavan Singh, wheat rust pathologist and molecular breeder in the GWP and head of pathology, discussed the various diseases that challenge wheat production today and their locations.

Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram (far right) speaks alongside other former CIMMYT Global Wheat Program colleagues. Photo: Suzanne Lundin-Ross

Ravi Singh, wheat breeder in GWP’s Bread Wheat Improvement and Rust, led the presentation on bread wheat, highlighting the fact that 95 percent of wheat farmers grow bread wheat on over 220 million hectares of the world’s farmland. Afterwards, Maria Tattaris, post-doctoral researcher, Mariano Cossani and Gemma Molero, associate scientists, presented on the Wheat Physiology Program and distributed the program’s most recent publications to the visitors.

Michael Mulvaney of the Global Conservation Agriculture (CA) Program (GCAP) presented on the three main principles of CA – minimal tillage, keeping soil covered with organic matter and rotation. He also discussed the economic and ecological benefits farmers can gain from adopting these practices. Lastly, staff members of the Maize Genetic Resources Center spoke on their activities and gave a manual pollination demonstration.

After the presentations, the visiting staff members returned to the Toluca station for a delicious lunch of carne asada and esquites provided by Toluca superintendent Fernando Delgado and his staff. Dr. Rajaram gave a speech during the luncheon, and invited the retired CIMMYT employees in attendance to stand with him as he spoke on CIMMYT’s past and his hopes for its future. “CIMMYT’s greatest strength is its human resources,” he said, and thanked them for their contributions to the Center.