Blogs – Page 203

The maize with the beans inside: QPM gathers a following in Kenya

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 8, August 2006

aug02 Farmers of the village of Kathaka Kaome in Embu district near Mount Kenya are saying that quality protein maize (QPM) is as nutritious as Githeri—a local dish made from maize and beans.

At a farmer field day on 24 July 2006, Samuel Kinyua Mwitari, the chairperson of Nthambo Murimi Mwaro (Nthambo’s Best Farmer) Self-help Group, has turned out in his best pinstripe suit. He stands next to his plot of maize plants—with husks pulled back revealing mature, full, healthy cobs—to tell the 180 farmers present all they need to know about quality protein maize (QPM).

Five other farmers, including the Group’s Secretary, Susan Njeru, are also on hand to inform farmers from Kathaka Kaome and neighboring villages about the new maize and its nutritional benefits. “Personally, I won’t be planting any other maize!” she declares. “And I want to advise everybody to plant QPM for the betterment of their families.”

Embu is among the first four districts in Kenya’s Central Province to host QPM promotion trials. The districts lie on the moist upper and dry lower slopes of Mt. Kenya, where maize is a major dietary staple. Inhabitants boil whole dry kernels with beans to make githeri, a popular local dish. But the price of beans and other pulses has climbed steadily in recent years, and diets in poorer households are increasingly maize-based. Serious protein malnutrition is now common in weaning babies, whose staple is maize porridge.

Quality protein maize grain contains enhanced levels of the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan, along with other characteristics that make more of its protein useful to humans or farm animals. It has 90% of the nutritive value of milk, and can stem or reverse protein malnutrition. Resource-poor farmers who cannot afford supplements can use QPM in swine or poultry feeds to increase the animals’ growth and productivity.

The QPM varieties being promoted—products of 30 years of research involving CIMMYT maize breeders and others—are indistinguishable from normal maize in appearance, and mill and store just as well. Does QPM taste better than normal maize? At the recent field day in Embu the farmers said they preferred the taste, texture, and appearance of githeri made with the QPM.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is supporting the development and deployment of locally adapted QPM, in a project led by CIMMYT agronomist Dennis Friesen. “The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute has been our main partner in adapting QPM to local environments and identifying farmer-preferred cultivars,” says Friesen. “We are also working with the Catholic Relief Services, which has strong grassroots linkages, the Catholic Diocese of Embu, and the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, to promote QPM on the ground.”

The QPM dissemination work fits the aims of the Catholic Diocese of Embu, according to CDE chief extension officer, John Namu Munene: “We at the diocese realize we have a responsibility to participate in efforts that improve the lives of our people.” Addressing farmers at the field day, he praised QPM: “Even without beans, with this maize your githeri is full of protein.”

Johnson Irungu, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) officer overseeing the dissemination project, says he is happy with the acceptance of QPM among farmers, but is quick to add that seed availability will be critical to sustaining the momentum. The QPM trait is recessive—meaning that if the maize is planted close to non-QPM varieties and is fertilized by their pollen, the quality trait will be lost. Farmers must therefore buy certified QPM seed each season or avoid sowing nearby or at the same time as neighboring, non-QPM maize fields. Embu Self-Help Group members are well-versed in this special requirement and advise fellow farmers on how to preserve the trait. As Susan Njeru explained to a group of farmers: “If you want to recycle QPM you have to harvest the cobs that you will use for seed from the center of your field, and keep them separate.”

CIMMYT has supported two local seed companies, Western Seed Company and Freshco Ltd, with training in QPM seed production and quality assurance, essential for sustainability. They are producing seed of an extra-early, drought-tolerant, open-pollinated QPM variety and two QPM hybrids for sale starting in 2007. Both companies sent their representatives several hundred kilometers to Embu to attend the field day.

For more information contact Dennis Friesen (d.friesen@cgiar.org)

Simple Screening for a Complex Problem

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

February, 2005

oldBlackMagic A CIMMYT research team is using an old but effective technique to get a head start on some very advanced crop science. Their aim is to breed high yielding maize that also resists infection by a dangerous fungus. As part of a USAID-funded project, the team uses ultraviolet or black light to identify maize that inhibits Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that produces potent toxins known as aflatoxins.

The fungus is particularly widespread in maize-growing regions of Africa, and the aflatoxins it produces can cause health problems in those who ingest it in high doses. By starting with elite maize varieties, those that already cope well in drought and high temperatures, and that resist damaging insects, the project hopes to produce a “package deal” for farmers: maize lines can survive these conditions and resist Aspergillus flavus.

No continent is immune from the Aspergillus problem. During 1988-1998, losses from aflatoxin damage in the US exceeded USD 1 billion. The United States has set an upper permissible aflatoxin level of 20 parts per billion in food, and the European Union has even stricter tolerances. A carcinogen, aflatoxin was recently linked with the deaths of more than 50 people who consumed contaminated grain in Kenya. A study in West Africa found a strong association between aflatoxin levels in children’s blood and stunted growth. “There is no easy quick-fix to this problem,” says Dan Jeffers, CIMMYT researcher overseeing the project, “but when a solution is found, everyone wins.”

By collaborating with scientists in the US, CIMMYT is better able to accomplish its goal of helping resource-poor farming households who consume their own maize. “We want to combine useful traits that will lessen the incidence of aflatoxin in the crop,” says Jeffers. “By crossing maize varieties that already are drought tolerant with those that resist Aspergillus, commercially viable and attractive lines should emerge.” This holistic approach will provide better varieties to collaborators and eventually to farmers.

The kernels vibrate as they shuffle down the tray of the light box. Healthy kernels appear faded under the black light, but the infected grain glows. Jeffers and his team will use the fluorescence data to choose the maize lines that show the least amount of fungal infection. “The most promising materials will then be used in further studies to look at aflatoxin levels,” Jeffers says.

Farmer Innovation Silences the Earworm

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 8, August 2005

peru Farmers seal the corn earworm’s fate in Peru with an oily approach.

Far from markets or access to agricultural inputs, maize farmers high in the Andes of northern Peru are applying what’s at hand—including common cooking oil—to control corn earworm, a pest that used to halve their harvests. Their approach is based on experiments in the 1980s by researchers like Toribio Tejada Campos, an agronomist at Peru’s National Institute of Agrarian Research and Extension (INIA). But farmers have taken the method further, adding plastic soda bottles and bamboo “straws.”

“Everyone around here uses oil on their maize ears,” says farmer Milciades Ramírez Sánchez, of Cajamarca Department, who with his family survives growing maize, potato, and other diverse crops on less than a hectare of land. Some farmers apply the oil with small rags, sponges, or eyedroppers, but Ramírez and his wife, Jesús Quispe Correa, invented an improved applicator by perforating the cap of a plastic soda bottle and inserting a hollow bamboo twig. “We had the idea about a year ago,” says Ramírez. “Before the use of oil, we would feed infested ears to the animals. If we don’t apply it, as much as half the maize gets earworms.”

Corn earworm larvae are small but carry a large scientific name—Helicoverpa (=Heliothis) zea—and an even larger appetite. They normally start feeding on the silks, thereby impairing kernel fertilization and development. The growing larvae eventually proceed down into the ear and bore into kernels near the tip and as far as mid-ear. Besides the kernel damage it causes, their feeding opens passages for the entry of fungal

peru2

Cajamarca has roughly 1.5 million inhabitants, of which more than 70% live in isolated, rural areas, and nearly half are considered poor by Peruvian standards. Large families with inadequate housing, water, services, health care, or educational opportunities typify the region, and most farm homesteads average two hectares. “Milciades and Jesús are among the lucky few that have access to irrigation,” says Alicia Elizabeth Medina Hoyos, a colleague of Tejada’s at INIA’s Baños del Inca Experiment Station. “Milciades has little land, but likes to experiment.”

Tejada, who recalls with pleasure an in-service training course he attended at CIMMYT in 1987-8, says that farmers are hungry for new ideas, support, and techniques: “There’s also great interest in better market access and an awareness of the need to conserve natural resources,” he explains, “but it’s a process that’s just beginning. CIMMYT has played a catalytic role that’s hard to measure, but real.”

In addition to offering training, visiting scientist appointments, and thesis advisory services for Peruvian researchers, CIMMYT has contributed extensively to improved Peruvian varieties of wheat, barley, and—especially—maize (see A Maize for Farmers on the Edge: CIMMYT-Peru maize, Marginal 28, outstrips expectations for farmers in Peru).

For further information, contact Luis Narro (l.narro@cgiar.org).

New Maize from CIMMYT: No “Throw-away” Lines!

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 12, December 2005

newMaize New, elite maize lines from CIMMYT offer enhanced nutrition and disease resistance.

CIMMYT has just released two unique maize lines that will interest breeders in developing countries. One is the first to combine maize streak virus resistance in a quality protein maize and the other is a quality protein version of one of CIMMYTs most popular maize lines. Made available every few years to partners, CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs) are among the most prized products of the Center’s maize breeding program.

“These are truly elite maize lines,” says Kevin Pixley, the Director of the Center’s Tropical Ecosystems Program. “They represent a distillation of maize genetic resources from around the world to which CIMMYT, as a global center, has privileged access. Only one of 10,000 lines might become a CML. Breeders in national programs in many developing countries look forward to new sets of these lines.”

The lines are inbred and possess excellent combining ability, which means they can be used to form either hybrids or open pollinated varieties, and so are versatile parent materials for breeders in national programs.

The new quality protein and maize streak resistant line will serve as a natural replacement for a parent in the popular Ethiopian maize hybrid, Gabisa. Maize streak virus is endemic in Africa. Severely infected plants do not produce proper cobs and nor grow to full height. Farmers will have the chance to use a hybrid with the enhanced nutritional characteristics of quality protein maize, plus built-in disease resistance.

The quality protein version of one of CIMMYT’s most successful maize lines—CML264—is virtually indistinguishable from the original parent, which is found in the pedigrees of more than a dozen commercial hybrids in Central America, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. Farmers using varieties derived from it will obtain the same high yields as always, while enjoying the higher levels of grain lysine and tryptophan—two essential amino acids that improve nutrition for both humans and farm animals.

A description of the complete set of new CMLs can be found at:
https://data.cimmyt.org/

For more information contact Kevin Pixley (k.pixley@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT–China Wheat Quality Conference Highlights 10 Years of Collaboration

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

June, 2004

iwqc_group
Which food crop is traded in larger quantities than any other in the world? The answer is wheat, and China produces more of it than any other country. With more than 150 participants from 20 countries in attendance, CIMMYT and China held their first joint wheat quality conference in Beijing from 29 to 31 May. The conference focused on progress in China’s wheat quality research, educated participants about quality needs of the milling industry and consumers, and promoted international collaboration.

In recent years, advanced science has been making wheat more nutritious, easy to process, and profitable. Scientists can improve quality characteristics such as grain hardness, protein content, gluten strength, color, and dough processing properties. Quality improvement, however, is not an objective, one-wheat-fits-all-purposes kind of business. Wheat end products vary by region and require grain with different characteristics. For example, 80% of wheat in China is used for noodles and dumplings, but the desired wheat quality for those products might not be appropriate for pasta in Italy or couscous in North Africa.

“You can see a wide variation of wheat use reflecting cultural influences over many centuries,” says CIMMYT Director General Masa Iwanaga, who gave a keynote presentation at the conference about the benefits of adding value to wheat to improve the livelihoods of poor people. Iwanaga says he is impressed by China’s wheat quality research and emphasis on biotechnology in recent years.

Participants from major wheat producing regions such as China, Central Asia, India, the European Union, Eastern Europe, the United States, and Australia presented updates on a variety of topics related to the global wheat industry and quality management. The participants included experts in genomics, breeding, crop management, cereal chemistry, and the milling industry, among others.

The US, Australia, Canada, and the EU see Asia as a good market for their wheat, says Javier Peña, head of industrial quality at CIMMYT. Asian foods such as noodles have been becoming more popular in the west, says Peña, while traditional western wheat-based foods have been gaining popularity in Asia. The milling industry has been growing to meet this increasing demand. “It was evident that globalization is influencing consumers’ preferences,” he says.

Conference participant and CIMMYT wheat breeder Morten Lillemo thinks the organizers did a good job assembling top lecturers to provide information. Chinese wheat breeders have been paying a lot of attention to improving quality, he says, and participants now understand the characteristics that traditional Chinese end products require.

“China is the largest wheat producer in the world, but the quality of their wheat is highly variable, even for traditional products like steamed bread and noodles,” says Lillemo. “For me it was most interesting to learn about the wheat quality work going on in China, which challenges they have, and how they are dealing with them.”

The 10-year-long CIMMYT–China collaboration has been fruitful. Chinese wheat has been used to develop new varieties with Fusarium and Karnal bunt disease resistance, high yield potential, and agronomic traits such as lodging resistance and rapid grain filling. In turn, CIMMYT has helped to improve the productivity, disease resistance, and processing quality of Chinese wheats. It has also developed human resources and helped build research infrastructure.

“The progress China has made in this period has been impressive in the areas of molecular biology, breeding, and food processing,” says Peña, who thought the conference covered a good balance of topics, ranging from genetics to consumer preferences. “The government is really supporting the research. They have new buildings and modern equipment for molecular biology and wheat quality testing.”

The Quality and Training Complex sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and CIMMYT is a new effort. It offers a testing system for various wheat-based foods, facilities for genetic studies and other research using molecular markers, and training for graduates, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists.

Along with improved wheat and better cropping practices that help farmers save money on costly inputs, such as water, Iwanaga believes that more marketable maize and wheat grain will be important for improving the profitability of maize and wheat production in developing countries. He would like to increase the benefits that farmers reap from their harvests by bettering a range of traits, including taste, texture, safety, and nutrition with added protein or vitamins. That way, farmers can earn more money from better quality wheat.

Conference presentations covered a wide range of topics: molecular studies of the evolution of the wheat genome; new tools to assess heat tolerance and grain quality in wheat genotypes; molecular genetic modification of wheat flour quality; the biochemical and molecular genetic study of glutenin proteins in bread wheat and related species; the molecular investigation of storage product accumulation in wheat endosperm; molecular and conventional methods for assessing the processing quality of Chinese wheat; challenges for breeding high-quality wheat with high yield potential; the impact of genetic resources on breeding for breadmaking quality in common wheat; wheat quality improvement by genetic manipulation and biosafety assessment of transgenic wheat lines; and quality characteristics of transgenic wheat lines.

The conference was organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences / National Wheat Improvement Center, the Chinese Academy of Science, CIMMYT, BRI Australia, Limagrain, and the Crop Science Society of China. It was sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Nature Science Foundation of China, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, and Japan International Cooperation Agency.

For information: Zonghu He

Deadly wheat disease hits primetime Australian TV

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

cimmyt-ug99 CIMMYT-led international efforts to identify and deploy sources of resistance to the virulent Ug99 strain of stem rust have received coverage on ABC1, the primary television channel of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Stem rust spores, carried large distances by the wind, are no respecters of borders. The battle against the disease is one which requires global collaboration—and is attracting global media interest. “Wheat is our most important crop and [stem rust] is arguably the most damaging of all the pathogens of wheat, it destroys crops,” explained Professor Robert Park of the University of Sydney’s Plant Breeding Institute in an episode of Catalyst, ABC’s flagship science series, aired on 04 August 2011.

Ug99 is able to overcome the resistance of popular wheat varieties, making this new stem rust a major threat to world food security. In East Africa, where Ug99 first emerged, it has devastated smallholder wheat crops. ABC’s reporter Paul Willis visited the Njoro research station in Kenya, where the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) hosts a large-scale program now screening around 30,000 wheat lines from all over the world each year—including those brought from Australia by Park.

“What we’ve got here is materials that we receive from several developing countries. As you can see there’s Australia, there’s China, Nepal, Bangladesh. So everyone wants to test their material and see if it is actually resistant to Ug99,” said CIMMYT molecular breeder Sridhar Bhavani, pointing out plots of wheat in the field at Njoro.

Working together, scientists have made substantial process in understanding Ug99 resistance and developing new wheats. “So far we’ve characterised close to about fifty genes for stem rust resistance,” said Bhavani. Producing suitable varieties and getting them to farmers is an ongoing challenge, but Willis strikes an optimistic note: “This looks like the hope for the future. It’s a strain of wheat called “King Bird” that was developed by CIMMYT and is now deployed all around the world. And it looks like it’s got very high levels of resistance against Ug99.”

The complete video clip, with transcript, is available at: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3285577.htm

Body building for southern Africa’s lean soils: SOFECSA shows the way

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

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 5, May 2006

may02 Paul Mapfumo throws his fist into the air and intones, “”Pamberi ne kurima! Pasi neNzara!” Shona for “Forward with agriculture! Down with hunger!” This is the greeting every speaker uses before addressing the gathering of farmers attending a field day in Rusape settlement, eastern Zimbabwe. The 40-odd farmers, young and old, men and women, are united in their desire to learn of ways to rebuild the fertility of their farms’ soils, for better maize harvests. And Mapfumo, the newly appointed coordinator, and members of the Soil Fertility Consortium for Southern Africa (SOFECSA) such as CIMMYT, are determined to help them do just that.

The soils at Rusape are derived from the granite ranges that frame the settlement and are shallow, sandy, and acidic. Their poor water retention capacity makes them prone to waterlogging and leaching during good rains, or drying out completely during the hot season. Maize yields have been falling ever since smallholder farmers were resettled there soon after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1982.

Another recent blow to maize farming at Rusape is the promotion of tobacco farming by the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, through loans for seed and input purchase. Many farmers, frustrated by poor maize yields and the spiraling cost of inputs, have converted their maize farms to tobacco. But even with the money from their tobacco crop, they are finding they still do not have enough to eat. “From whom do you buy maize when everyone is growing tobacco?” asks Vincent Musindikhwa, an extension agent with the Agricultural Research and Extension (AREX) division. “We’ve had a maize shortage for 4-5 years now, and the granaries are empty.”

CIMMYT regional economist Mulugetta Mekuria (left) and SOFECSA coordinator Paul Mapfumo check the status of the soil on a smallholder farm in Zimbabwe.

Soil infertility is a serious and widespread bottleneck to agricultural development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Resource-poor farmers are especially vulnerable, because their plots are traditionally the least fertile, and they lack the money or credit to purchase inorganic fertilizers. Therefore, they stand to benefit the most from the various soil-fertility-improving techniques in SOFECA’s Soil Fertility Management Technologies (SFMT) ‘basket’, particularly those that do not involve a cash outlay, according to CIMMYT economist Mulugetta Mekuria, who assists Mapfumo with SOFECSA management.

The “best bet” soil fertility approaches being promoted—so called because they minimize the risk to farmers—were arrived at by SOFECSA’s predecessor project, SoilFertNet. They include manures (leaf litter, farm, and woodland), inorganic fertilizers, lime, and rotation and intercropping with various legumes and green manure crops (soya bean, sugar bean, sun hemp, mucuna, pigeonpea, groundnut, and cowpea).

Legumes, for example, can fix nitrogen from the air and make it available in the soil. Typical farms in the region have between 3 and 15% of land devoted to legumes. The consortium has determined that increasing the intensity of legume cropping in maize-based systems through systematic rotations and intercrops can provide double the level of nitrogen that is typically provided by the limited use of inorganic fertilizers.

SOFECSA is regional partnership with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and significant in-kind contributions from participants. Its broad membership spans international, national, and regional public and private organizations, including the agriculture ministries of the SADC countries. SOFESCA also works directly with farmers in four southern Africa countries: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. Improved maize production is the primary target of consortium’s work, but once soils are fertile, all other crops—and farmers’ lots overall—will benefit. “Our work is a fulcrum for broader NRM problems, and an entry point to solve a spectrum of livelihood issues in the four countries,” says Mapfumo.

Farmers and researchers at the SOFECSA field days engage on topics ranging from crops, soil fertility improvement options, pests, seed, and even markets and pricing. Already, farmers are finding that manuring pays long-lasting dividends. “Manure is a key resource; its effects last up to 3 years,” says Florence Mtambanengwe, a soil scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, one of the SOFECSA partners. The researchers are also finding that liming is a priority for farmers in these acidic soils, and Mapfumo now wants to start discussions involving farmers, researchers, extension workers, and agro-dealers to design a sustainable way to deliver this option to farmers.

By stimulating farmer experimentation and open discussion, SOFECSA is encouraging what Mapfumo terms ”a sense of ownership in the farmers,” and its field sites are taking improved farming practices forward throughout southern Africa, no matter what local language is spoken.

For more information contact Mulugetta Mekuria (m.mekuria@cgiar.org).

Ravi Singh receives prestigious prize

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

The University of Minnesota recently announced CIMMYT distinguished scientist Ravi Singh as the recipient of its 2010 E.C. Stakman Award. Established in 1955 by plant pathologist E.C. Stakman, a pioneer in combating wheat diseases, the award is given to individuals for outstanding achievements in plant pathology. Stakman was also a former professor of Norman Borlaug.

“I feel extremely honored and humbled to receive this highly prestigious award,” Singh said. “Dr. Stakman was a mentor to Dr. Borlaug and is largely responsible for sending him to Mexico in 1944. You wonder whether Dr. Stakman knew or even guessed that this decision was going to change history and save millions of lives.”

Singh, who has been with CIMMYT for over 25 years, is world-renowned for his efforts to control wheat rusts and has trained over 400 young scientists. With this award he joins a long list of notable scientists, including I. A. Watson, who was dean of Sydney University’s College of Agriculture and a former pupil of Stakman himself, and 2007’s recipient, the late Bent Skovmand, former head of wheat genetic resources at CIMMYT, director of the Nordic Gene Bank, and key player in the development of Svalbard International Seed Bank.

Congratulations, Ravi!

Fostering global food security for wheat: No country is an island

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 10, October 2008

oct03 As the price of wheat goes up, countries such as the Republic of Mauritius are feeling the pinch. A former British colony off the coast of Madagascar, it imports most of its wheat from France and Australia. But with help from CIMMYT, the island has started trials to grow its own wheat—and results to date look promising.

The CIMMYT germplasm bank freely distributes maize and wheat seed to hundreds of partners worldwide each year. In January 2008, Tom Payne, Head of CIMMYT’s wheat germplasm bank (seed bank), received a request for wheat seed from Mala Gungadurdoss, Head of the Mauritanian Agronomy Department at the Ministry of Agro-industry. “The rising price of imported wheat coupled with a scarcity on the international market (made us) revisit our food and agricultural policy,” explains Gungadurdoss, who is also Principle Research Scientist of the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit. “Our food security is at stake, since Mauritius imports most of its staples.”

Payne sent a “yield trial” of 49 elite spring wheat lines that he thought might flourish in the climactic conditions and disease spectrum of the island. “In a way, it’s kind of an exploratory experiment,” he says. “I don’t really know their environment and they don’t really know wheat, so I sent them something to see if it fit their conditions.”

Payne’s selection was apparently successful. “I am really satisfied with the yields of above 5 tons per hectare for 13 of the lines,” says Gungadurdoss. “I consider these yields to be very good when I compare them to yields of 1.5-3 tons per hectare obtained in the trials of 1985-1993,” referring to the last period during which the country grew wheat trials. Gungadurdoss admits that recent conditions were conducive to achieving good yields; but the highest yields for this year’s trial ranging from 5.8 to 6.4 tons per hectare are not only vastly superior to the results of previous trials; they are more than twice wheat’s global average of 2.5 tons per hectare.

Wheat’s roots in Mauritius

The Dutch introduced wheat to Mauritius in 1598 and it was grown on a commercial scale in the 1820s. But only about 1,700 hectares were under cultivation by the end of the 1930s, when the island began focusing on growing the more profitable sugarcane and importing wheat, which was far less expensive to buy, according to Gungadurdoss. “Up until three years ago, wheat was very cheap,” says Payne. “It was overproduced in Europe, North America, and Australia. This is one of the reasons the price of wheat and other grains stayed low for long time.”

Most people who live on Mauritius are of Indian origin and eat food staples such as chappatis, pharatas, puris, and bread made from wheat and wheat flour, says Gungadurdoss. In 2007 the island imported around 140,000 tons of unmilled wheat and 9,000 tons of flour. Over the last 5 years the country imported an average of 137,000 tons of unmilled wheat and 9,500 tons of wheat flour costing USD 28 million. The per capita consumption of wheat flour averaged 74 kilograms per year, and this is expected to increase in the future, according to Gungadurdoss.

oct04

Thanks to the wheat breeding lines sent by CIMMYT, agronomists on Mauritius can screen promising wheat lines for high grain yield, early maturity, resistance to major pests and diseases, and good baking characteristics; assess wheat’s economic feasibility under local conditions; identify the main constraints to production and devise corrective measures; and conserve their own elite germplasm (seeds and genetic material).

“Based on whatever results the agronomists from Mauritius send us, we can send them more lines from CIMMYT’s wheat germplasm bank and international nurseries,” says Payne. “These lines will have much broader genetic variation and will be even better suited for the island.”

Homegrown wheat could be within reach

For now, growing wheat in Mauritius is still in the early stages; sowing, weeding, harvesting, threshing and winnowing were done manually at Réduit Crop Research Station. One of the next steps will be to research the economic viability of growing and processing wheat using mechanization which will be tested on a much larger scale, possibly with interested farmers in 2009, according to Gungadurdoss.

“Once the economic feasibility is determined, we can decide on our future move: maybe large-scale production in line with cross border initiatives with Madagascar or Mozambique to substitute part of our imports can be considered.”

“I think Mauritius gets enough rainfall for wheat, and it’s on roughly the same latitude as countries or regions that get good yields, such as Uruguay, Zimbabwe, and northern Mexico, so high wheat yields should definitely be possible,” says Hans-Joachim Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.

For more information: Tom Payne, Head, Wheat Germplasm Bank (t.payne@cgiar.org)

More stories on agriculture in Mauritius (both in French)

Mala Gungadurdoss (Areu) : «Du riz et du blé Made in Mauritius, c’est possible»

Le blé made in Mauritius bientôt à portée de bouche

Quality and quantity: China-CIMMYT wheats take prize

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 12, December 2007

dec03 Three high-quality wheat varieties developed by researchers from the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Science and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), drawing on CIMMYT wheat lines and technical support, were sown on more than 8 million hectares during 2002-2006, according to a recent CAAS economic study. They contributed an additional 2.4 million tons of grain—worth USD 513 million, with quality premiums.

“Improving processing quality has become an extremely important objective for sustainable development of the wheat industry in China,” says Zhonghu He, CIMMYT wheat expert in the country and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS). He was part of a joint research team from CAAS and Shandong Academy of Agricultural Science (Shandong AAS) that combined Chinese and CIMMYT wheat lines to develop three outstanding varieties for making pan breads and noodles—mainstays on Chinese dinner tables.

The three varieties were sown cumulatively on more than 8.0 million hectares in China during 2002-2006, adding an additional 2.4 million tons of grain to Chinese wheat production and some USD 411 million to wheat farmers’ incomes, according to analyses by the Agricultural Economy and Development Institute of CAAS. “Farmers benefited by an additional USD 101 million in quality-based premiums,” says He, “and USD 8 million more was generated through marketing seeds of these varieties. Finally, the improved quality of these wheats has greatly benefited the milling and food industries.”

Award-winning wheat and work

The research team has received two Scientific Progress Awards from China’s State Council, as well as awards from the Shandong Provincial Government (2003) and Beijing Municipal Government (2006). In December 2007, in a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, the team was given the 2007 Award for Outstanding Agricultural Technology in the Asia-Pacific Region of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). “This is the only research team in the Chinese agricultural community that has produced such impact and received such high honors from the provincial and central governments in recent years,” says He.

The wheat quality research team also established methodologies to test for Chinese noodle quality and for applying molecular markers. “A total of 72 scientific papers have been published in refereed journals on this work, including 19 in leading international journals,” says He. “Besides being used throughout China, the molecular marker and noodle evaluation procedures are widely used in Australia and at CIMMYT.”

Decades of strong partnership

Chinese and CIMMYT wheat researchers have carried on joint research since the early 1970s, helping both parties to develop varieties with enhanced disease resistance and higher yields, among other traits. CIMMYT has contributed particularly to the quality of Chinese wheats. Two of the varieties emerging from the work described above were improved for grain quality through cross-breeding with the CIMMYT wheat genotype Saric F74. The breeder who developed them, Liu Jianjun, attended CIMMYT training courses and did his MSc thesis on noodle quality under the supervision of He and of Roberto J. Peña, head of industrial quality at CIMMYT. CIMMYT and China have jointly organized more than a dozen training courses, workshops, and conferences involving at least 1,000 Chinese researchers.

New CAAS-CIMMYT effort to confront climate change and killer strain of wheat disease

On 04 December 2007, CAAS and CIMMYT launched a three-year joint breeding initiative worth USD 1 million per year to develop new wheat varieties that tolerate heat and drought—helping farmers face climate change—and that resist major diseases of the crop.
“Of particular concern is the new, virulent strain of stem rust, Ug99, which appeared in eastern Africa eight years ago but has since moved on prevailing winds to the Middle East and could soon threaten the vast wheat lands of Asia,” says He. “One of the varieties, Jimai 20, developed by the CAAS-Shandong team, was the only wheat cultivar from China to show high resistance to Ug99 in field screening in Kenya.”

For more information: Zhonghu He, wheat breeder (zhhe@public3.bta.net.cn)

Borlaug: The commitment continues

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 4, April 2007

Having just celebrated his 93rd birthday, the man who was at the heart of the creation of CIMMYT, Dr Norman Borlaug, visits the Yaqui Valley to meet his old friends: the farmers with whom he worked 60 years ago, the first beneficiaries of what we call the Green Revolution in agriculture.

Until you visit Ciudad Obregón, Sonora State, in northwestern Mexico, it is hard to understand the depth of feeling the citizens of that region have for Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Norman Borlaug. Though an American, he lived in the Yaqui Valley of Sonora State, where Ciudad Obregón is located, for many years starting in 1947. He and a small research team worked with the government of Mexico and the Rockefeller Foundation to improve the nation’s agricultural capacity. Borlaug’s responsibility was wheat. The Yaqui Valley farmers were poor and wheat a marginal crop, succumbing regularly to rust diseases; Mexico had to import 60% of its wheat. Under Borlaug’s leadership, researchers overcame the rust problem and pioneered the development of short-statured wheat. Nearly half the new plants’ weight was grain, and the stems were short and strong enough to stay erect until harvest. By the 1960s farmers in the valley had improved food security and incomes.

In recent years, Borlaug’s visits to the Yaqui Valley have been much less frequent, but the bond between Borlaug and Valley inhabitants has not diminished. In Ciudad Obregón a major street is named Avenida Norman Borlaug. He is depicted in a historical mural in City Hall as a pioneering father. Area hotels have meeting rooms named after him. When he stepped off the plane from Texas, where he had undergone medical treatment, airport staff, fire fighters, and ground crews formed a line from the steps of the aircraft toward the terminal building. “It wasn’t quite a red carpet, but it was red carpet treatment,” said Chris Dowswell, Borlaug’s Special Assistant.

Clearly the people of the Yaqui Vally have never forgotten. For decades the farmer organization of Sonora State (known locally as the Patronato) has provided rent-free land for experimentation to CIMMYT and INIFAP, the national agricultural research program of Mexico. The institutes have side-by-side facilities close to their experimental fields.

A meeting of green-seekers

apr02 Borlaug, still a consultant with CIMMYT, is also the President of the Sasakawa Africa Association, which is devoted to improving the lives of the rural poor in sub-Saharan Africa. One of his reasons for visiting Obregón this time was to see and learn about a technology developed by Oklahoma State University (OSU) and CIMMYT. The approach allows farmers easily and cheaply to determine the optimum application of fertilizer for a developing wheat or maize crop. Fertilizer resources are scarce in much of Africa, so timely application of the correct amounts can save farmers money and help produce a better crop.

The technology, known as GreenSeeker, uses a special sensor to measure infrared and near-infrared light reflected from the leaves of growing plants. A hand-held computer, programmed with the data about the crop and location can calculate the nitrogen status of the plant. Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, who leads CIMMYT’s research in nitrogen efficiency, says many Yaqui Valley farmers can recover the cost of the sensor in a single season through savings in fertilizer use, but acknowledges the economics on smallholder farms in Africa are quite different. OSU researchers are now taking on the challenge of producing a less expensive model that will work for the rural poor in Africa.

Research: The icing on agriculture’s cake?

In a speech to the farmers, extension workers, and researchers, Borlaug explained the plight of the resource poor in Africa and how a technology like the GreenSeeker might make a difference. In one farmer’s field he was given a demonstration and explanation of the device and how to use it. One of the messages that came through loud and clear was this: without research in agriculture, there would be no progress.

apr03

That was what the farmers of the valley learned from Borlaug and his team more than half a century ago, and they heard it again when he came back. Today the farmers have passed down their pride in the original work done at Obregón, first to their children and now, their grandchildren. At a luncheon at the CIMMYT research station, students from Colegio Teresiano de la Vera Cruz in Ciudad Obregón presented Borlaug with a birthday cake. They had just completed a project for the school’s cultural week that focused on Borlaug and his work in the Yaqui Valley. From Borlaug to the people of the Yaqui Valley, and from the people themselves, it is clear that the commitment made 60 years ago continues.

For more information: Christopher Dowswell (c.dowswell@cgiar.org).

Turning on radios, tuning in to resource-conserving farm practices

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 8, August 2006

aug05 A radio program in Nepal brings information to farmers in a language they understand.

It’s Monday, 6:30 pm on Radio Birgunj, the voice of the plains in Southeastern Nepal. Fans for kilometers in all directions huddle by their radios to listen—not to a soap opera or pop music, but to a show about bed planting, horticulture, and zero-tillage. The weekly radio show on farming, targeted specifically to rural inhabitants, is one component of a project funded by CABI to introduce and promote resource-conserving technologies to the region’s rice and wheat farmers.

Radio is often the best way to reach rural families in developing countries, and farm shows broadcast from small community stations are not unusual. But Radio Birgunj broadcasts to a population of five million Nepalese, nearly all from farm families, and the station’s only “competition” is the region’s government radio network.

Ganesh Sah, head of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) Agricultural Implement Research Center in Birgunj and long-time CIMMYT partner, is responsible for 70 programs since the show’s launch in January, 2005. “It’s been difficult coming up with a different topic each week, but we’ve managed with just a couple repeats,” he says. The program uses a question-and-answer format, with the station’s Anita Kumwar usually putting questions to an expert guest on behalf of farmers. The show uses the region’s indigenous language and music, attracting listeners and ensuring that messages are clearly understood.

aug06

“The program has been very effective,” says Paras Thakur, a farmer in the nearby village of Tripeni. He leads a community group that is experimenting with zero-tillage, a practice whereby crops are seeded directly into field residues without plowing. “I especially liked the show about vegetables.” Eight out of ten farmers in the group have radios and listen to the broadcasts. In areas where radios are not so common, many people gather around a single radio for the show.

The program’s popularity has led the government of Nepal launch another radio farm show in the region. Is Sah worried about the competition? “Of course not: the more messages, the better,” he says. “Besides, the government program is in Nepalese, which is not the first language of Birgunj farm families.” The last show funded by the CABI project has been aired. But the project team has saved a small amount of money, so Sah hopes he and researchers from his center can hit the airwaves again soon with information to improve the livelihoods of thousands of farmers they could never meet in person.

Zero-tillage for growing wheat after rice saves water, diesel, and other inputs, and allows earlier sowing of wheat, which raises yields. The practice has been adopted by farmers on more than 2 million hectares in South Asia over the past six years. This is largely a result of work to test and promote zero-tillage and other resource-conserving practices by the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains, which includes the national agricultural research systems of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan; several centers of the CGIAR with leadership from CIMMYT; and various advanced research institutes.

For more information contact Raj Gupta (r.gupta@cgiar.org)

Bidding to Balance Color with Quality

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 8, August 2005

auction1 Experimental auctions in Kenya gauge farmer interest in vitamin A-enriched maize.

Kenyan farmers bid for color or quality in experimental auctions to determine how well maize with enriched vitamin A will catch on. Traditionally, East Africans prefer white maize, but vitamin A maize, being developed by CIMMYT and HarvestPlus, the CGIAR Biofortification Challenge Program, will be yellow because of the increased beta-carotene content. Will the nutritional value of the yellow maize overcome East Africans’ color bias?

CIMMYT researchers tried to answer this question in a series of novel experimental auctions held in Vihiga and Siaya, western Kenya. By giving consumers real money to bid for real maize meal, they hoped to properly estimate a customer’s willingness to pay for vitamin A-enriched maize. The highest bidders won the auction and exchanged their bag of maize for their choice of white, yellow, or white vitamin-enriched maize, after paying the money. By creating an active market, researchers found a way to determine how much demand there would be for maize with perhaps an unpopular color but superior quality.

The HarvestPlus Challenge Program, an international consortium of collaborative partners that includes CIMMYT, aims to produce new crop varieties to reduce micronutrient malnutrition, also known as “hidden hunger.” They are working to develop maize that will have higher levels of vitamin A available to those who eat it. Vitamin A deficiencies plague over 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. According to HarvestPlus, this deficiency damages the eye and severely weakens the immune system.

auction2 Determining how consumers will balance their desire for nutritionally superior maize while sacrificing the color to which they are accustomed sheds light on whether or not biofortified maize will be readily adopted. “Despite a need for this knowledge, very few consumer studies of the rural poor in sub-Saharan Africa have been done,” says Hugo De Groote, CIMMYT economist.

“The results from the maize auctions agree with our previous consumer surveys of city dwellers,” says fellow scientist Simon Kimenju, “The auction was very realistic—these prices are similar to those found in Kenyan markets and grocery stores.” Although the auction was found to be the most realistic compared to other methods, it was also more expensive and took more preparation and training time.

In addition to discovering an accurate way to gauge consumer preferences, researchers found another upside of the auctions: “The one-on-one interactive nature of the auctions, using real products, and real money makes it great fun for the participants!” exclaims De Groote.

A full paper on this topic was presented at the African Econometric Society Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, 6–8 July 2005. It is available in PDF form here (270 kb).

For further information, contact Simon Kimenju (s.kimenju@cgiar.org) or Hugo De Groote (h.degroote@cgiar.org).

Wheat warriors: The struggle to break the yield barrier

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 6, October 2009

nov01 In 2009, out of a global population of 6.8 billion people, more than 1 billion regularly woke up and went to bed hungry. By 2050 the population is expected to grow to 9.1 billion people, most of whom will be in developing countries. Unless we can increase global food production by 70%, the number of chronically hungry will continue to swell. To help ensure global food security, a new research consortium aims to boost yields of wheat—a major staple food crop.

There is no easy fix for world hunger. Any improvement will require complex collaborative efforts and funding to support them. With this in mind, wheat scientists and agricultural experts from diverse private and public institutions are joining to form a Wheat Yield Potential Consortium (WYC). This group will strive to improve wheat yields, which must increase 1.6% annually to meet a projected demand of 760 million tons by 2020.
The unofficial launch of the WYC happened in November 2009, when over 60 world-renowned experts gathered for a USAID-sponsored symposium at CIMMYT’s Mexico headquarters to integrate various research components into a common breeding platform for improving wheat yields.

“Over the past year we’ve been pulling together experts in photosynthesis who have ideas on how to raise the overall biomass of the crop, as well as other experts in crop adaptation to make sure that increased biomass will also translate into better yields,” says Matthew Reynolds wheat physiologist and initiator of the WYC.

In recent decades, wheat yields have increased nearly 1% each year, but global population is growing roughly 1.5% annually. Climate change, unsustainable cropping practices, and changes in diet preferences further challenge wheat’s ability to meet the demands of a global population that relies on the crop for more than one-fifth of its caloric intake.

Meeting of the minds

“The international wheat community recognizes that each of us has different skills and that, though individually we cannot solve the problem of insufficient wheat yields, collectively we can,” said Richard Richards chief research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Plant Industry, who has been commissioned to review a WYC project proposal under development.

The Consortium will pursue advanced approaches to increase wheat yields, including increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis, improving the plant’s adaption to target environments, and using physiological and molecular breeding. To date, selective, conventional breeding has been the main force behind yield improvement. Scientists breed a large number of high-yielding wheat plants, select early generations with good agronomic traits, populate trial fields with the offspring, and move the best forward in the breeding program. The cycle is then repeated. This system has been successful, but precedent suggests it will not be fast enough to overcome the combined challenges of population growth and climate change. “Instead of going straight to the end product —yield—we must look at every yield-determining physiological process and improve the efficiency of the limiting ones,” Richards said.

Powering up photosynthesis

Under favorable conditions, yield is a function of the interception, conversion, and distribution of solar energy. To increase yield, one or more of these components must be improved. Thanks to years of wheat improvement, the efficiency of solar energy intercepted is nearly 90% and energy distribution results in an almost optimal proportion of total biomass to grain, roughly 50%. “This leaves the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy—mainly controlled by photosynthesis—as the main yield component left to improve,” said Xinguang Zhu, group leader of Plant Systems Biology at the CAS-MPG Partner Institute of Computational Biology.

One way to do this is to increase carbon-fixing efficiency during photosynthesis. Plants that thrive at moderate temperatures, like wheat, tend to use C3 carbon fixation, a slow system that accepts both carbon dioxide and oxygen. The fixation of oxygen, called photorespiration, reduces the efficiency of photosynthesis. Plants that inhabit warmer locations, like maize, tend to use C4 carbon fixation, which increases chloroplastic CO2 concentration, reduces photorespiration, and improves energy-use efficiency.

The fact that the C4 system has evolved many times in nature has inspired scientists to look for ways to introduce parts of it into wheat, so that the plant can thrive at relatively high temperatures. This will be essential as temperatures in tropic and subtropic regions continue to climb. Studies show that for every 1°C of warming, wheat yields in these areas will fall 10%. Given that 95% of the world’s malnourished people live in these regions—which also have the highest rates of population growth—high-yielding wheat that can beat the heat could make a world of a difference.
For more information: Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist (m.reynolds@cgiar.org).