Blogs – Page 194

Haryana Chief Minister: conservation agriculture is the way of future farming

Written by on January 22, 2013. Posted in News.

Chief-Minister-discussing-CA-in-field Thanks to high-yielding cultivars of wheat and rice, development of irrigation infrastructure, the work of innovative farmers, and the state’s support for improved technologies, the Indian state of Haryana has been a major contributor to the national food basket. However, the unsustainable monotonous rice-wheat cropping system increasingly threatens food security in the country. On 22 December 2012, a seminar on “Prosperity through diversification in agriculture” was jointly organized by the Haryana Farmers Commission, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Government of Haryana’s (GoH) Department of Agriculture, CIMMYT, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Authority (PPV&FRA), and Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (LLRUVAS) in Karnal, India, to discuss the challenges presented by ground water resources depletion, soil health deterioration, energy and labor cost volatility, and climate change, as well as options for sustainable farming.

The seminar was inaugurated by Haryana Farmers Commission chairman RS Paroda, and the inaugural function was attended by Roshan Lal (GoH Secretary of Agriculture), AK Singh (GoH director general for agriculture), KD Kokate (ICAR Agricultural Extension deputy director general), AK Srivastava (NDRI director), Indu Sharma (Directorate of Wheat Research director), and DK Sharma (Central Soil Salinity Research Institute director, Karnal). The seminar was chaired by ICAR Agricultural Extension deputy director general KML Pathak.

ML Jat, CIMMYT’s senior cropping systems agronomist, presented on the current farming issues of Haryana and potential solutions with special emphasis on crop diversification through crop systems management practices based on conservation agriculture (CA) principles. “The results of a large number of participatory field experimentations across the state suggest that CA-based cropping system management practices do not only help to produce more with less water, energy, labor, and cost,” highlighted Jat, “but also restore natural resources and adapt and mitigate climate change effects.” He added that in many rice-wheat areas of Haryana, where water table depletion is a serious concern, maize-wheat-mungbean rotation with CA-based management saves 75-80% of irrigation water. AK Srivastava (NDRI) and AK Saini (horticulture additional director), respectively, discussed potential livestock and horticultural diversification options. After the presentations, nearly 20 farmers shared their experiences on crop, livestock, and horticultural diversification using new technologies and approaches. RS Paroda summarized the deliberations made during the seminar and highlighted the need for diversification in crops and cropping systems, as well as production and management technologies, horticultural crops, and livestock. While reiterating the issues of water, labor, and energy shortages, and emerging climate change challenges, he outlined the possible technological options and necessary policy support for scaling up and scaling out these technologies. Real time access to information at farmers’ doorsteps and connecting farmers to markets is a key to success, Paroda added. He also mentioned that Haryana is the only state in the country with its own agricultural policy for convergence and synergy of programs, schemes, and investments aiming to achieve farmers’ prosperity while conserving the natural resources and rich biodiversity through complementarity and value added services.

On 23 December 2012, the seminar participants joined over 7,000 farmers, extension agents, and government and ICAR officials to celebrate the National Farmers Day. The attendees were addressed by Bhoopendra Singh Hooda, Chief Minister of Haryana. Prior to the event, Hooda, S Ayyappan (ICAR director general), and RS Paroda visited a CA field trial managed by NDRI and CIMMYT, where Jat explained the benefits of CA-based management practices and CA machinery. S Ayyappan emphasized the need for location specific diversification options including all components of farming, such as field crops, horticultural crops, livestock, and fisheries, in a holistic manner. He also stressed shrinking farm profitability as an issue of concern which should be addressed by developing technologies and strategies to increase productivity and reduce cost of production. To adopt modern farm technologies, Ayyappan concluded, it is necessary to bring youth to agriculture.

In his address, the Chief Minister emphasized replacement of rice with maize and soybean in some areas, direct seeding of rice, zero tillage, ending residue burning, usage of Happy Seeder, introduction of short-duration legumes like mungbean, bed planting and intercropping in sugarcane system, laser leveling, micro-irrigation, balanced plant-nutrient management, adoption of high value crops, and protected cultivation in the peri-urban interface. To promote these technologies, he announced doubling of subsidies on laser leveler, zero till planter, happy seeder, multi-crop planter, raised bed planter, and reaper. Hooda appreciated the progress of the CA action plan in the state and awarded 19 Haryana farmers, including 5 CA and climate smart farmers in Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) villages, for their innovative efforts in technology adaptation and scaling-out.

Integrating gender into WHEAT and MAIZE CRPs: A leap forward

Written by on January 21, 2013. Posted in Features.

Addressing the gender disparities between women and men farmers in the developing world represents a significant development potential in itself. The FAO 2011 State of Food and Agriculture report estimates that if women had the same access to production resources as men, they could increase yields on their fields by 20-30%. According to FAO, this alone would raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5-4%, which, in turn, could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17% or 100-150 million people.

The 16 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) are developing strategies to integrate gender into research. Among the first CRPs to undertake a gender audit of their activities, WHEAT and MAIZE organized a workshop about how to implement the gender audits on 10-11 December 2012, facilitated by gender specialists Chris Hunter and Katrine Danielsen, both from the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), a research partner to MAIZE and WHEAT CRPs based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

“A gender audit is an assessment by which organizations can identify how they are addressing gender within their research programs and organization. It implies that the organization will assess their performance against some standards,” explains Chris Hunter, Senior Advisor on Social Development and Gender Equity. “Many organizations, such as CIMMYT, don’t currently have a gender policy, so the gender audit assesses performance against best practice, meaning that what we are doing should be positive towards both men and women.”

Challenges of gender mainstreaming were first discussed at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. During this conference it was recognized that just having a few add-ons for women did not work. “In a subsequent conference (Beijing +5,) it became clear that it still wasn’t always working, so gender audits were, in part, a response to that,” adds Hunter, “it is about what we have been doing and identifying where we are getting stuck.”

How is a gender audit conducted?

A gender audit usually comprises surveys and focus group discussions involving organizations and partners, and those who are ‘watching what the organization does.’ For MAIZE and WHEAT, it should provide a baseline for assessing progress on integrating gender into the CRPs and help prioritize “We really want to collaborate closely with CIMMYT, ICARDA, and IITA to institutionalize gender awareness within the CRPs and to support the empowerment of women farmers and those working along maize and wheat value-chains,” emphasized Dave Watson, MAIZE CRP manager. “Interventions can reinforce or alter gender relations. At the moment, by ignoring gender realities, we could do harm and get poor results,” he adds. “The ultimate goal is to make our research programs more gender transformative and address both the causes and consequences of gender inequalities following KIT’s findings.”

Addressing gender inequality can be arduous and require great resourcefulness. “One of the areas that Chris and Katrine emphasized in our inception meeting for the gender audit is that getting to gender equality in development outcomes means that in our work we must consider things like participatory decision-making and transparency in project design, in addition to what it might take to see gender-equal uptake of our research products,” remarks Jenny Nelson, workshop participant and program manager of the Global Wheat Program. “This is an important, maybe even revolutionary, change in the way agriculture-for-development has worked.”

Hunter and Danielsen will now assess how gender is currently addressed in projects across the CRPs and how it can be strengthened. The gender audit will take place between January and May 2013 and will include assessments of gender knowledge, attitudes and awareness of research staff and managers of the lead centers and key partners. This will lead to a detailed gender action plan.

For further reading:

The Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, (World Bank, FAO, IFAD), 2009;
The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-2011 (FAO), Women in agriculture: closing the gender gap for development;
CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network, Addressing the gender gap in agriculture: opportunities for collaboration in gender-responsive research, 2012.

Prestigious INSA fellowship to Arun Joshi

Written by on January 16, 2013. Posted in News.

Arun-Joshi Arun Joshi, CIMMYT senior wheat breeder for South Asia, has been named Fellow of the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) at its annual meeting in Pune, India, during 27-29 December 2012. Joshi has received this award for his contribution in development of popular wheat varieties and for research in management of losses caused by spot blotch pathogen (Bipolaris sorokiniana) and heat stress. He is one of the few scientists who have not only contributed to basic and applied research in wheat, but also carried research to the field, thus directly contributing to food security and improvement of farmers’ livelihoods. “It has been a very satisfying journey for an agricultural scientist,” Joshi stated.

INSA, the leading science academy in India, plays crucial role in promoting, recognizing, and rewarding excellence in science. It was established in 1935 with the objective of promoting science in the country and harnessing scientific knowledge for the cause of humanity and national welfare. This fellowship is a great honor not only for Joshi, but also for CIMMYT and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, of which Joshi is the first faculty to receive this award. Congratulations!

German and Partec partnership facilitates DNA analysis

Written by on January 15, 2013. Posted in News.

CIMMYT has received a new flow cytometer that will allow speedy DNA analysis for breeding. “With this new technology, we save tremendous amounts of money, time, and resources. We’re really grateful to Partec for this donation and to the German people for their support,” senior scientist George Mahuku thanked Edmund Duckwitz, German Ambassador to Mexico, and Hubertus von Römer, Science Attaché of the German Embassy, during their visit to CIMMYT on 18 December 2012. The German delegation officially handed over a new flow cytometer donated by Partec, a German biotechnology company, thus re-establishing a partnership that began in 1999 when Partec equipped a CIMMYT laboratory with a flow cytometer.

According to Mahuku, the new device will facilitate producing good hybrids to fight drought, heat, or diseases, such as the maize lethal necrosis disease in Eastern Africa. “We have identified some sources of resistance to this virus,” says Mahuku, “but we need to cross the sources into the appropriate background.” Finding the sources of resistance used to be a costly and lengthy process. “Before, we would plant two hectares, and after two or three weeks, we would find out that half of them weren’t desirable, so you’d have to chop them out. This wastes part of the investment in land preparation, the chemicals for treating, and the people planting all those things,” explained Mahuku. “With this equipment, we germinate the seeds and are able to analyze them within three days. Thus we plant only the desirable materials and save a month and a half of work.” CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin added: “This instrument allows us to look at the blueprint of the plant, instead of waiting for the plant to grow.” The cytometer will ultimately benefit both maize and wheat research at CIMMYT.

The delegation had the opportunity to observe a demonstration of a quick DNA analysis using the Partec cytometer.

Honoring the memory of former maize director, Rip Paliwal

Written by on January 14, 2013. Posted in News.

We are sad to inform readers that on 05 January 2013, at the age of 84, Ripusudan L. Paliwal, a CIMMYT employee for 17 years who served as director of the maize program, passed away in the presence of his family near New Delhi, India. Rip, as he was respectfully and affectionately known by colleagues, came to CIMMYT as associate director of the maize program in 1976, after serving as dean of the college of agriculture of GP Pant University, Pantnagar, India. Former colleague and retired CIMMYT maize director Ron Cantrell called Paliwal a major factor in the success of the maize program. “I have nothing but fond memories of my time at CIMMYT and one of the principal reasons was the support and friendship of Rip,” says Cantrell. “He was an invaluable source of information about tropical maize and the national programs throughout the world.” His activities after retirement from CIMMYT in 1993 included authoring books such as the 2000 FAO publication “Tropical maize: Improvement and production.” The CIMMYT family extends its sincere sympathy and prayers to the Paliwal family, including children Nirupama, Nivedita, Muktesh, and Sarvesh, who worked as a CIMMYT maize scientist in the early 2000s.

CIMMYT mourns the passing of Twumasi-Afriyie, creator of the quality protein maize Obatanpa

Written by on January 14, 2013. Posted in Features.

Dr-Twumasi On 03 January 2013, 63-year-old Ghanaian-born maize breeder Strafford Twumasi-Afriyie succumbed to cancer, leaving a substantive legacy that includes the creation of the world’s most widely-sown quality protein maize (QPM) variety, Obatanpa. His demise represents a huge loss to family, friends, hundreds of colleagues and collaborators, and many thousands of farmers. A highly-committed and knowledgeable scientist, Twumasi is remembered by all for his kind, gentle demeanor and modesty, as well as for building strong partnerships.

Twumasi worked at the Crops Research Institute (CRI), Ghana, through much of his career. Following the completion of his MSc at the University of Guelph, Canada, in 1981, he returned to Ghana to serve with former CIMMYT maize physiologist Greg Edmeades as Joint Coordinator of the Ghana Grains Development Project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It was during this period and under the aegis of the GGDP that he used CIMMYT germplasm during the early 1990s to develop Obatanpa, which by 2005 was sown on more than half of Ghana’s maize area. With support from Sasakawa-Global 2000, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and CIDA, Obatanpa has been released in numerous countries of Africa, including Uganda where as “Nalongo” it is among the most popular maize varieties.

Twumasi joined CIMMYT in 1997 to develop maize varieties for African highland areas in a project supported initially by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany and later the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), CIMMYT, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), and CIDA. Releases from that effort are still gaining popularity in high-altitude zones of Ethiopia.

As a breeder in CIDAfunded research in Ethiopia beginning in 2003, Twumasi worked with EIAR to develop a QPM version of the hybrid BH660, which accounts for some 60% of seed sales in Ethiopia. These and other superior varieties developed are being promoted through the new “Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia” project that Twumasi was leading. “The National Maize Program recognizes the relentless work of Dr. Twumasi for small-scale farmers of Ethiopia in particular and Africa in general,” says Berhanu Tadesse, Ethiopia’s National Maize Research Coordinator.

Edmeades remembers Twumasi as scrupulously honest, slow to judgment but always fair, and one of nature’s true gentlemen. “He was not afraid to take risks as a scientist and promote QPM when many others declared it a lost cause,” says Edmeades. “As my counterpart in Ghana I very much enjoyed working with him and came to appreciate his wry sense of humor and his lovely smile.”

Twumasi’s mentorship and tutelage helped several maize researchers from the region develop as strong breeders in their own right. His academic background included a BSc in agriculture from the University of Ghana (1975) and a PhD in plant breeding from the University of Missouri, USA (1989).

The CIMMYT family extends its sympathies to Twumasi’s beloved wife, Veronica, his daughters Mame and Truelove, and his son Kwaku in this difficult time.

The best photo of 2012

Written by on January 14, 2013. Posted in News.

Since the beginning of our weekly photo contest, we have received many pictures of maize and wheat from staff and friends around the world. Every week, we chose a winner, but we asked you to choose the best photo of 2012. After three weeks of online voting, the winner is Vadim Ganeyev, one of our friends and partners in Kazakhstan, with his photo of a grasshopper on a wheat spike. Congratulations to Vadim and many thanks for everyone’s participation!

Climate Change and Agriculture: Building Resilience

Written by on January 7, 2013. Posted in Features.

This article is cross-posted from the Feed the Future blog. Feed the Future is the United States Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. It supports country-driven approaches to address the root causes of hunger and poverty and forge long-term solutions to chronic food insecurity and undernutrition. Drawing upon resources and expertise of agencies across the U.S. Government, this Presidential Initiative is helping countries transform their own agriculture sectors to sustainably grow enough food to feed their people.

Feed the Future strategies for food security are designed not only to accelerate agriculture-led growth and reduce undernutrition, but also to encourage sustainable and equitable management of land, water, fisheries, and other resources. Feed the Future Intern Christopher Chapman asked CIMMYT’s conservation agriculture expert Bruno Gerard (pictured left) how climate change relates to agricultural development.

Tropicalized maize haploid inducers for doubled haploid-based breeding

Written by on December 28, 2012. Posted in Features. 1 Comment on Tropicalized maize haploid inducers for doubled haploid-based breeding

tropicalized-maize-haploid The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

Generating DH lines involves four major steps: (1) In vivohaploid induction; (2) haploid seed identification using morphological markers; (3) chromosome doubling of putative haploids; and (4) generating D1 (DH) seed from D0 seedlings. In vivo haploid induction is achieved by crossing a specially developed maize genetic stock called an “inducer” (as male) with a source population (as female) from which homozygous DH lines are developed.

What are tropicalized haploid inducers?
Adoption of DH technology by public maize breeding programs and small- and mediumscale enterprise (SME) seed companies, especially in developing countries, is limited by the lack of inducers adapted to the tropical/subtropical conditions. The CIMMYT Global Maize Program, in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics of the University of Hohenheim (UHo) now has tropical haploid inducers for sharing with the interested institutions under the terms outlined below.

The tropically adapted inducer lines (TAILs) developed by CIMMYT and UHo showed high haploid induction capacity (~8-10%) and better agronomic performance than temperate inducers, in trials at two CIMMYT experiment stations in Mexico. A haploid inducer hybrid developed using these TAILs revealed heterosis for plant vigor and pollen production under tropical conditions, while maintaining similar haploid induction rates (~8-10%). CIMMYT and UHo decided to share the seed and grant authorization for use of one of the tropicalized haploid inducer lines (one of the parents of a hybrid inducer) and the hybrid inducer to interested applicants, after signing of the relevant material transfer agreement (MTA) and with restrictions to protect the intellectual property rights of both institutions for the inducer lines.

Process of indenting for the tropicalized haploid inducers
Interested applicants should send a letter of intent or an expression of interest in the tropicalized haploid inducers. CIMMYT may seek more information, if required, and will share the relevant MTA template for signing by applicants. The general guidelines to obtain inducers for research use and commercial use are as follows.

For research use by publicly-funded national agricultural research systems
Publicly-funded institutions interested in access to the haploid inducers for specific purposes (e.g., to develop DH lines for breeding programs) may send a letter of intent or expression of interest to CIMMYT. For eligible institutions, the haploid inducers will be provided free-of-charge by CIMMYT and UHo, after signing of a Research Use MTA. Commercial use of the inducers by institutions or others should be in accordance with a separate license agreement for commercial use (as given below).

For commercial use
Applicants may access the inducers for commercial use pursuant to signing of a Material Transfer and License Agreement with CIMMYT and UHo. Applicants shall pay UHo a one-time licence fee of USD 25,000 for provision of seed of two haploid inducers; these include one of the parents of a tropicalized haploid inducer hybrid and the haploid inducer hybrid itself. If applicants wish to access the other parent of the haploid inducer hybrid, an additional one-time licence fee of $10,000 will be payable to UHo.

Acknowledgments
Generous support for joint research on doubled haploids by CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim has come from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; SAGARPA, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.; USAID (US Agency for International Development); Dr. Dr. h. c. Herrmann Eiselen and the Foundation fiat panis, Ulm, Germany; the Tiberius Services AG, Stuttgart, Germany; Vilmorin Seed Company; DTMA (Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa) project.;MAIZE CGIAR Research Program; and the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) project under MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture).

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

Maize Doubled Haploid Facility for Africa (3.17 MB)

The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

Mainstreaming gender in maize improvement research

Written by on December 20, 2012. Posted in News.

“Women are a key part of the mainstream in agriculture, yet they face formidable obstacles,” said CIMMYT gender and development specialist Vongai Kandiwa during a recent seminar in Nairobi, Kenya. Vongai was speaking on the importance of having a strategy to put men and women’s concerns and experiences at the centre of research design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. This involves looking at the socioeconomic settings of men and women to ensure that they benefit equally – often referred to as “gender mainstreaming.” The seminar was attended by colleagues working on various aspects of maize technology development, production, and dissemination. “By closing the gap in access to technology between men and women, we could increase productivity by 30%,” said Vongai, referring to the State of Food and Agriculture report (2010-2011) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). According to Vongai, this would contribute to child survival and nutrition, as “women are key to household food security.”

Vongai emphasized the importance of considering gender in our work. She explained that gender shapes patterns of power relations, asset and wealth distribution and control, labor allocations, as well as preferences and aspirations within households. Mainstreaming gender is encouraged by most donors, she said, citing an example from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which encourages moving from neutrality to awareness and finally to gender transformative program design and implementation.

Many organizations may be considered gender “aware”— that is, they are able to generate gender disaggregated data on the stakeholders that benefit from their development work — but transformation lies in using that information to improve the products and services delivered, paying specific attention to women’s preferences. “The woman is the custodian of food in most African societies,” said Vongai. As the ultimate consumers of our maize products, women ought to be involved in the research for development activities. “We have to make it convenient for women to attend activities and pay attention to the composition of groups we convene,” said Vongai. “This could be done by working with women’s groups and using female technicians,” she said. By making a deliberate effort to accommodate women’s needs and voices in the selection of maize varieties, we make it possible to meet their needs.

Paying particular attention to research innovations that would reduce the drudgery of farm work for women is also important, highlighted the global maize program director B.M. Prasanna. Prasanna pointed to quality protein maize (QPM) as a product developed with the nutrition needs of end users—and particularly women— in mind. QPM has increased amounts of lysine and tryptophan, important amino acids which improve nutrition. Prasanna also pointed out the promise of pesticide resistant maize that would reduce the burden of weeding for women who often provide most of the farm labor.

“When we take the stance that gender matters, we can start to satisfy the needs of our clients, both male and female,” argued Vongai picturing the scenario when gender considerations will be made in all aspects of our work; breeding, seed systems, impact assessment, and communication.

Congratulations to Germplasm Bank!

Written by on December 19, 2012. Posted in News.

The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank achieved ISO9001:2008 certification this week, after nearly two years of data gathering, intensive analysis, and assessment of processes and best practices. The ISO standards relate to quality management systems and are designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders, while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements. The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank is the first CGIAR germplasm bank to achieve ISO9001 certification, and is now one of only three genebanks globally to achieve certification (and the first outside of Europe). CIMMYT staff and areas involved in this certification included both the germplasm banks, human resources, purchasing, risk management, security, maintenance, and ICT departments. A special thanks is extended to Bibiana Espinosa and Paulina Gonzalez, both of whom sheparded the lengthy process to this noteworthy conclusion.

Improving wheat seed system and end-use quality in Ethiopia

Written by on December 19, 2012. Posted in News.

“My work in Africa is not finished,” Jeanie Borlaug quoted her father, Dr Norman Borlaug, during her opening statement for wheat seed system field day bringing together farmers, researchers, seed growers, and development enterprises experts to discuss improved seed system and end-use quality issues in Ethiopia. The field day was held at the Kulumsa Research Center (KRC), Ethiopia, on 15 November 2012 and was followed by an end-use quality workshop on 16 November. Both events were organized by KRC and CIMMYT and sponsored by Cornell University’s Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project (DRRW).

Calls to adopt SIMLESA approach in project implementation across Tanzania

Written by on December 18, 2012. Posted in News.

“The Ministry, and specifically the Directorate of Research and Development, immensely commends SIMLESA’s participatory approach and would like to recommend it to other research and development partners both at national and international levels. By any means, this approach won’t ignore or omit farmer participation in variety dissemination, as was the case in the past. This participation exactly addresses the value chain approach that has been over emphasized by the Agricultural Sector Development Program that we are implementing in our country,” stated Fidelis Myaka (director of Research and Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Tanzania) in a speech read on his behalf by Ruth B. Madulu, Agricultural Research Institute (ARI)-Mikocheni at the recently concluded Tanzania SIMLESA 2012 Progress Review and 2013 Planning Meeting in Arusha.

Improving postharvest grain storage and loss assessment methods

Written by on December 14, 2012. Posted in News.

In November, twelve researchers and development practitioners implementing phase two of the Effective Grain Storage for Sustainable Livelihoods of African Farmers Project (EGSP II) travelled from Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, for training on improved postharvest grain storage and loss assessment methods in Nairobi, Kenya.

The course was facilitated by Prof. Rick Hodges, University of Greenwich, UK, and CIMMYT Socioeconomist Hugo De Groote, Policy Economist Jones Govereh, and Project Leader Tadele Tefera. Practical and theory sessions covered topics such as hermetic storage, postharvest technologies, estimating storage losses, assessing ear and grain damage, economic data requirements and collection, and economic analysis of on-station and on-farm storage trials.

Participants were also introduced to the Africa Postharvest Loss Information Service (APHLIS); a system with an innovative framework for analyzing and computing quantitative postharvest losses under different farming and environmental conditions in eastern and southern Africa. It was discussed how using the APHLIS downloadable calculator can support loss reduction projects. According to Hodges, the advantages of this system are that its measure of percentage weight loss of grain is based on an actual reduction in the dry weight of grain; it does not account for changes in quality unless the grain is no longer fit for human consumption; and losses are cumulatively calculated from production and including each step in the postharvest chain.

Despite the importance of economically analyzing crop and storage pest losses, Govereh lamented that such analyses are not well established in the research community. “Economic analysis is rarely available, especially for on-farm losses. In most cases, crop losses are commonly overestimated with benefits often overstated and costs underestimated.”

Govereh outlined the economic analysis of crop and storage pests: estimating the extent of the problem (the area infested); estimating the intensity of the problem (infestation levels, damage, and crop loss); testing efficacy of control methods on-station and on-farm; basic economic analysis of new methods; farmer evaluation of new control methods; modeling and econometric analysis; and impact assessment. According to Hodges, estimating postharvest losses helps in influencing policy makers, improving the efficiency of value chains, and identifying opportunities for increasing food security.

Reiterating the economic benefits of storage, Govereh stated: “Most maize is produced by small-scale farmers in one major season and is meant for home consumption. However, consumption is continuous therefore storage is needed to buffer stocks and protect against price fluctuations.”

Connecting people for sustainable agriculture

Written by on December 13, 2012. Posted in Features.

In Central Mexico, Conservation Agriculture, a more sustainable way of farming, has evolved from being a handful of researchers and a few innovative farmers working off of an idea to a full-fledged network, a system of support and dissemination since its beginnings in 2010. But there are no roots in the historically poor and, at times, politically volatile, Southern States; states that could greatly benefit from a farming system saving labor while ensuring higher productivity. To change this, CIMMYT decided to implement the Conservation Agriculture system in the state of Chiapas with hopes that if things go well, it can act as a gateway to the region.

My first experience with the technology dates back to June 2010, when Bram Govaerts, the head of CIMMYT’s Conservation Agriculture program in Mexico, picked me up outside of a bakery in Mexico City at five in the morning, so we could leave before traffic, some of the worst in the world, became too unruly. We arrived to the first field around seven and were met by a farmer’s eyes underneath a straw hat. At his side was a dog, which did not stray more than a few feet from the farmer, as he explained how rotating his crops had helped cut back on fertilizer use. Thoughtful crop rotation, an important part of Conservation Agriculture, can restore what the previous plant depletes, and thus helps cut down not only on fertilizer use, but also other chemicals, like herbicides, because weeds have more trouble surviving across the change from one crop to another.

Our next visit was to an idyllic field that seemed as if it had been untouched in the last 100 years, except for what looked like raised rows, known in Conservation Agriculture as “beds.” When you till too much, a lot of important nutrients are left loose and exposed to be washed away by rain or picked up by wind. Using special machinery to move the soil less and create these beds helps hold onto what makes soil, well, soil.

Fifty minutes later, we parked next to a crosshatch fence where a farmer waited with his family. A granddaughter held a rabbit that upon introduction hopped out of her hands and onto dried maize stalks, known as residues in Conservation Agriculture, covering the field. Leaving behind residues, which are really just part of what is grown, like stalks and stems, helps hold in moisture and protect old soil before decomposing into new soil. We traveled for thirty minutes more and met another farmer. One more hour and the next. And so on until we, dirt under our fingernails, arrived back in Mexico City just after midnight.

Two years later, what continues to resonate are the conversations with Bram. I see now that as we drove from unpaved road to stretched highway I heard his vision for what the young program would become in Mexico. A vision that today is a reality, spreading from Central Mexico to other Mexican states.

In August, I went to Chiapas to see these efforts. Late Friday night I arrived at the new office, where a storm had knocked out the power. The team and I made plans in the dark as we ate leftover sandwiches from a Conservation Agriculture training course earlier that day. The next morning we spoke with a farmer who adopted the technology after farming traditionally for over three decades, a result of having been inspired by the success of his son. We gave a silo to a farmer interested in a different storage option, and he told us how he had been waiting, how he had always believed in people like us as we explained Conservation Agriculture and MasAgro’s work over a cup of pozol made from maize he had sown.

Talking to the farmers taught me a lot about the importance of continuing to learn when faced with new practices. But what lingers more than the farmers are the people spreading this technology. The methods and benefits of Conservation Agriculture can make no difference without the people connecting to one another to explain them. To convince a farmer to go against tradition, against what most of his neighbors perceive as the right way to farm, and against how his parents grew the same crop. That is the real issue. And the team in Chiapas works to address this issue with a combination of skill and heart that is infectious.