Blogs – Page 209

New Japan–CIMMYT Project Hunts for Genes to Fight Disease

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

June, 2004

No single strain of wheat, barley, or related species completely withstands Fusarium Head Blight, a disease that is making increasing inroads on health and harvests worldwide. A new project offers better methods and broader gene pools for finding genes to ward off the disease.

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), one of the most destructive wheat diseases in warm and humid regions, seriously threatens wheat and barley production around the world. Even worse, the toxins produced by Fusarium fungus cause acute food poisoning in people and harm animals that eat infected grain.

A new five-year-long collaborative project between CIMMYT and the government of Japan aims to discover genes that control FHB resistance, identify wheat germplasm that can be used in FHB resistance breeding programs, and develop FHB resistant wheat by using DNA markers.

Scientists in Japan began conducting genetic and breeding studies on FHB resistance in the 1960s, after an epidemic swept across more than 400,000 hectares in 1963 and caused estimated yield losses of more than 50%. More recent epidemics in 1996 and 1998 affected about 26% of the land in Japan. Developing countries also suffer losses from FHB, and CIMMYT started its own breeding program on FHB resistance about 20 years ago.

In the United States, FHB is the worst plant disease to emerge since the 1950s, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. In the 1990s, epidemics in seven US states caused more than US$ 1 billion in crop losses. Partly due to climate changes caused by global warming and the increased use of reduced tillage practices, FHB has become more widespread in recent years.

Sources of resistance to the disease have been elusive. Researchers have never found an accession of wheat, barley, or their wild relatives that is completely immune to FHB, according to Tomohiro Ban, a scientist at Japan International Research Center for Agriculture Sciences. A lack of good sources of resistance and good methods for finding them prompted the government of Japan to fund the new project with CIMMYT, which Ban is now leading at CIMMYT-Mexico.

The genetic constitution and chromosomal location of FHB resistance genes are not well known, but current research suggests that several quantitative trait loci or minor genes control resistance. DNA markers could identify and evaluate these genes. It is hoped that the project’s search for resistance genes will also advance because of access to CIMMYT’s genebank, which has one of the world’s largest collections of wheat and its wild relatives. Researchers will be able to screen materials from a great diversity of gene pools and environments.

“We are going to use the untapped potential of these diverse genetic resources and find new sources of resistance,” says CIMMYT Director General Masa Iwanaga. Even more important, the program could become the focus for a more organized worldwide effort to combat the disease. “We would like to facilitate a platform for international collaboration, because this is a global problem,” comments Iwanaga.

For information: Tomohiro Ban

New edition of popular field guide on maize diseases

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

December, 2004

Reducing Damage to Grain Stores of the Poor

Saving grain from hungry pests can significantly improve the food security and livelihoods of farm households in the developing world’s poorest areas.

Even if poor farmers have a good maize harvest, many who live in humid environments and do not have effective storage containers face significant grain losses in the following months. Grain can suffer 80% damage and 20% weight loss within six months after harvest in Mexico’s harsh tropical environments, where grain-damaging insects thrive, according to CIMMYT entomologist David Bergvinson. “Two major pests in Africa—maize weevil and larger grain borer—can consume as much as 15% of a harvest in a few months,” says Bergvinson. Working on reducing storage losses is one way that he and other CIMMYT scientists target impoverished areas, increasing food security and allowing farmers to enter grain markets when prices are favorable.

Participatory Breeding to Foil Weevils

There are several ways to lessen grain damage. Farmers can remove infested grain and thoroughly clean storage facilities to eliminate insects before storing new grain. Improved grain storage technologies, such as silos, also help. Finally, scientists can breed maize to be more insect resistant with tighter husks or harder kernels. “With resistance as an inherent part of seed, farmers can cut back on the use of noxious pesticides,” says Bergvinson.

Working to breed hardier maize, Bergvinson crossed farmers’ varieties in Mexico with insect-resistant and drought-tolerant CIMMYT varieties and returned the seed to farmers for planting in mid-2004. Researchers also planted these crosses on farms near CIMMYT research stations to evaluate their performance, to make controlled pollinations, and to compare farmers’ selections with their own. “Our ultimate goal is to increase the genetic diversity of landraces with resistance to production constraints identified by farmers,” says Bergvinson. Farmers most often asked for drought and weevil resistance to be added to their landraces

Targeting Peaks of Poverty

Bergvinson and his associates are working with 54 farmer varieties for lowland tropical areas of Mexico and 36 for higher altitudes (1,200-1,800 meters above sea level). It is in many of these hill zones where poverty and maize-bean subsistence farming go hand in hand. The methods applied could have relevance for smallholder maize farmers in other parts of Latin America and in Africa.

In preparation for extending their efforts to reach more of the poor, the researchers have also sampled farmer varieties in eight Mexican locations identified in a recent CIMMYT study (see Maps Unearth New Insights for Research to Help the Poor) as having a high concentration of the poor. “We’re working with farmers in these areas to improve their varieties for traits they identify, such as resistance to storage pests and, in hill zones, stronger roots and stems so that plants don’t fall over in strong winds,” Bergvinson says. The researchers are also taking care to maintain other traits that farmers value. One example in lowland areas is the long husks that farmers remove and sell as wrapping for the popular Mexican dish known as “tamales.” In some communities, husks for this purpose are worth more than the grain (see Rural Mexico and Free Trade: Coping with a Landscape of Change).

Global Science to Protect Grain

Bergvinson belongs to a worldwide community of researchers applying science at all levels to develop pest-resistant maize. “A small but noticeable renaissance in the use of resistant varieties to minimize storage losses is taking place worldwide, especially for ecologies where storage infrastructure doesn’t exist,” says Bergvinson. He says researchers have made significant progress in understanding the biochemical, biophysical, and genetic bases for resistance, among other things to ensure the traits satisfy consumer demands. Such traits are being “mapped” using DNA technology to confirm their role in resistance and to identify the genes involved. “The real potential of this technology will be felt in developing countries,” Bergvinson explains. “The resistance is packaged in the seed and designed to ensure that farmers have the option to recycle seed, a practice common to small-scale farmers.”

For more information: d.bergvinson@cgiar.org

USD 170 million research program to help maize farmers worldwide

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

cimmyt-maize-farmers Bold Initiative Tackles Hunger in Developing World

Washington, July 6, 2011 – The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)—the world’s largest international agriculture research coalition—today announced a USD 170 million global alliance and program to expand and accelerate research into maize, the preferred staple food source for more than 900 million people in 94 developing countries, including one third of the world’s malnourished children.

“This program aims to double the productivity of maize farms, while also making those farms more resilient to climate change and reducing the amount of land used for growing the crop,” said Carlos Perez del Castillo, CGIAR Consortium Board Chair. “As a result, farmers’ incomes are expected to rise and their livelihood opportunities to increase, contributing to rural poverty reduction in developing countries.”

cimmyt-maize-planting The CGIAR applies cutting-edge science to foster sustainable agricultural growth that benefits the poor. The new crop varieties, knowledge and other products resulting from the CGIAR’s collaborative research are made widely available, at no cost, to individuals and organizations working for sustainable agricultural development throughout the world.

Under the research program, 40 million smallholder farm family members are expected to see direct benefits by 2020 and 175 million by 2030. The program is expected to provide enough maize to meet the annual food demands of an additional 135 million consumers by 2020 and 600 million by 2030.

The program will be implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the International Institute of Tropic Agriculture (IITA).

The announcement came as the CGIAR celebrated its 40th anniversary at a ceremony in Washington attended by the President of the World Bank Group, as well as the heads of several of the 15 research centers that make up the CGIAR Consortium of International Agriculture Centers.

Inger Andersen, Vice President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, and Chair of the CGIAR Fund Council, said the first target group to benefit from the enhanced maize research program would be smallholder farmers who live in environments prone to stress and who have poor access to markets.

“Small holder farmers are among the most vulnerable people in developing countries.” she said. “They should be among the first we seek to help. Enabling these people to produce more and better maize quickly and reliably will help to ensure their well being, as well as that of their communities.”

Studies carried out by CIMMYT show that the demand for maize in the developing world is expected to double between now and 2050.

“This is a highly ambitious project to address world hunger,” said Thomas Lumpkin, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “It will take an enormous amount of work and cooperation between public and private sector institutions to meet the goals. The global challenges facing mankind are immediate and chronic; the time to act is now. Millions of lives depend on our ability to develop sustainable solutions to feed more people with fewer resources than ever before.”

The global alliance that will carry out the research program includes 130 national agricultural research institutes, 18 regional and international organizations, 21 advanced agricultural research institutes, 75 universities worldwide, 46 private sector organizations, 42 non-governmental organizations and farmer associations, and 11 country governments that will host offices dedicated to the program.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for sustainable development with the funders of this work. The funders include developing and industrialized country governments, foundations, and international and regional organizations. The work they support is carried out by 15 members of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector. www.cgiar.org – www.consortium.cgiar.org

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT® (staging.cimmyt.org), is a not-for-profit research and training organization with partners in over 100 countries. The center works to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems and thus ensure global food security and reduce poverty. The center’s outputs and services include improved maize and wheat varieties and cropping systems, the conservation of maize and wheat genetic resources, and capacity building. CIMMYT belongs to and is funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) and also receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies.

See also:
Maize Global Alliance for Improving Food Security and the Livelihoods of the Resource-poor in the Developing World

Executive summary | Full document

A model project

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

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 3, March 2006

Donors and farmers agree – Project gets high marks for important work

The Africa Maize Stress project (AMS), in which CIMMYT is a key partner, was termed “A flagship project” in a recently completed review. A three-member panel from the German Corporation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) spent the week from 24 February–1 March with AMS staff and partners, to assess the performance of the project’s work from 2003-20005 and make recommendations for its future direction. Two of the six days were spent on field visits to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute’s (KARI) Embu Center, one of the project’s major maize breeding sites; Bar Sauri Millennium Village, a beneficiary of AMS maize varieties; and Western Seed Company, a local seed enterprise that is multiplying and marketing the varieties.

Team leader, Dr. Manfed van Eckert, said the reviewers saw in AMS, qualities that could serve as a model for similar multi-faceted projects in Africa. Among these were the “excellent working relations with national partners, and the Eastern and Central African Maize and Wheat (ECAMAW) Research Network.”

The review congratulated CIMMYT maize breeder and AMS project coordinator Alpha Diallo for his management of the complex, multi-donor funded, partnership project. AMS is supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the Rockefeller Foundation, and works with national agricultural research systems (NARS), NGOs and seed companies in 10 eastern and central African countries.

Review team member Jeffrey Luhanga commented that all too often breeders’ improved varieties “sit on the shelf for lack of solid partnerships with the seed sector. But this project’s successes are having a direct bearing on household nutrition, and especially on weanling children, among the most vulnerable people in Sub-Saharan Africa.” The dramatic quadrupling of maize yields recorded in 2005 at the Sauri Millennium village illustrates the point.

“The program has gone to the grassroots level; it is benefiting the people of Africa. Congratulations!” said van Eckert.

The Africa Maize Stress project is developing maize varieties that are tolerant to drought, low soil fertility, Striga weed, and endemic pests and diseases (maize streak virus, blight, and grey leaf spot), and is working with local partners to ensure that these varieties reach resource-poor farmers in its mandate regions. The project’s current phase is stepping up the development of imidazolinone-resistant (IR) maize varieties for Striga weed control, and quality protein maize (QPM) suited for African ecologies.

The GTZ team recommended that in its next phase, AMS advance current activities, but also broaden its geographical horizons, through strategic partnerships in “…war-torn areas in Southern Sudan and Somalia,” and “investigate sustainable financing options for maize breeding programs in the region.”

Other partners in the project include the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and national research programs like KARI in Kenya.

For more information contact Alpha Diallo (a.diallo@cgiar.org)

80,000 Data Points and Growing…

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

November, 2004

cds_mwarburton In November CIMMYT unveiled a significant addition to the field of DNA fingerprinting for wheat and maize. Two databases, fashioned by molecular geneticist Marilyn Warburton and her team, are the largest public information sites of their kind.

Offered online via CIMMYT’s www page (see links below) and on CD-ROM, the new databases can be accessed or requested. Currently, over 80,000 data points are recorded, but the databases’ dynamic nature enables the constant incorporation of new information, so scientists worldwide can integrate information into the original studies. “This feature will perhaps be their greatest legacy,” says Warburton, “as people can add and compare their data with CIMMYT’s to address an infinite number of queries.” In fact, the size of these databases is expected to double within one year. Recorded in the databases are characterization information for CIMMYT varieties (pure lines and populations), breeding materials, and landraces, as well as materials from collaborating universities and national agriculture research programs in developing countries.

Of Widespread Interest

Like the diversity within the databases themselves, those who stand to reap the benefits from such a project are varied. “The more people who know how to use it and do, the more useful it becomes,” Warburton predicts. Breeders will utilize it to ascertain the success of a potential cross. Gene bank curators can steer clear of myopia and work with more complete or correct information regarding a strain’s pedigree or origin. When one encounters, for example, a wheat strain labeled as originating in the former USSR, ambiguity is difficult to overcome in such a vast area. Also standing to benefit from this affair is the relatively new field of association analysis, which determines the function of specific genes. A little bit like detective work, these databases bridge the gap between the physical traits of a variety and its DNA sequences.

Providing Access

“If you want something done, you have to do it yourself,” Warburton remarks, in reference to her newfound computer savvy skills. Because there was nothing on the market that suited the project’s needs, Warburton learned Microsoft Access™ and modified it to properly manage the deluge of data. In addition, in Access, CIMMYT’s software developers Carlos Lopez, Juan Carlos Alarcón, and Jesper Norgaard built three specific tools to manipulate the data, with more in the works as the project grows. Other scientists, students, and assistants helped build the database by carrying out individual laboratory studies, which are recorded in the final product. Reformatting data to meet the input needs for different analysis programs can be tedious, toilsome work, and nearly discouraged one postdoctoral scientist from finishing his program. The fingerprinting database has data translation tools to input and output data in multiple formats. Many supporters of the fingerprinting work have been around from the beginning, and funding came from a variety of sources including the European Commission, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economics and Development (BMZ), and more recently, the CGIAR Generation Challenge Program.

Efficient storage of multiple data types is essential for understanding and applying the vast universe of genes to improve wheat and maize varieties, which provide developing countries with better options to feed their hungry. Empowering faster and more efficient crop improvement which targets the needs of farmers, databases of the different data types will allow scientists to search for ideal traits and find the varieties with the genes that control these traits. Like a giant toolbox filled with unknown gadgets, the genes are there, but it hasn’t always clear what they do or how plants use them. Warburton and her team have started the process that, together with other data types, will allow each tool to be examined and labeled, furnishing scientists with clues to improve maize and wheat varieties.

genet_diverTable Maize database: http://staging.cimmyt.org/english/docs/manual/dbases/contents_mz.htm

Wheat database: http://staging.cimmyt.org/english/docs/manual/dbases/contents_wh.htm

New maize and new friendships to beat Thai drought

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

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 3, March 2008

CIMMYT fosters regional partnerships and provides seed to help researchers in Thailand get drought resistant maize to farmers.

“We are very, very dry,” says farmer Yupin Ruanpeth. “Last year we had a drought at flowering time and we lost a lot of yield.” In fact, she explains, during the last five years, her family’s farm has suffered from severe drought three times in a row. The soil is good and in a year with no drought they can harvest five tons of maize per hectare, but last year they could only harvest three tons per hectare.

Geographically, the Thai province of Nakhon Sawan lies only a short drive from lush lowland paddy fields, but it seems a world away. In this region the rainy season (between May and September) brings enough water for a single crop, usually of maize or cassava, and in the dry season the fields lie fallow. Almost all maize in Thailand is rainfed, grown under similar conditions

mar01 At the Thai Department of Agriculture’s Nakhon Sawan Field Crops Research Center, Pichet Grudloyma, senior maize breeder, shows off the drought screening facilities. Screening is carried out in the dry season, so that water availability can be carefully controlled in two comparison plots: one well-watered and one “drought” plot, where watering is stopped for two weeks before and two weeks after flowering. Many of the experimental lines and varieties being tested this year are here as the result of the Asian Maize Network (AMNET). Funded by the Asian Development Bank, this CIMMYT-led project has brought together scientists from the national maize programs of five South East Asian countries to develop drought tolerant maize varieties and deliver them to farmers.

AMNET achievements

“We already have two releases under AMNET,” explains Grudloyma. These are varieties produced by the national maize program, focusing prior to AMNET on resistance to the disease downy mildew, which have also proved themselves under drought screening. The first, Nakhon Sawan 2, was released in 2006. The second, experimental hybrid NSX 042029, has been popular in farmer participatory trials and with local seed companies, and is slated for release in 2008. “This is the best hybrid we have,” says Grudloyma with pride. “It’s drought tolerant, disease resistant, and easy to harvest by hand.” The two hybrids incorporate both CIMMYT and Thai breeding materials, a legacy of Thailand’s long relationship with the Center.

In current work under AMNET, the Thai breeders are crossing lines from the national breeding program with new drought tolerant materials provided each year by CIMMYT. “We screen for drought tolerance in the dry season and downy mildew resistance in the rainy season, and take the best materials forward each year,” explains Grudloyma. “We now have many promising hybrids coming though.”

Funding from the project has also had a big impact on the team’s capacity to screen those hybrids. “We had a small one to two hectare facility before; now we have four hectares with a perfect controlled-irrigation system. Because we’ve been in AMNET, we have good varieties and good fieldwork and screening capacity. This is leading to other projects, for example we’re currently working with GCP [the Generation Challenge Program].” Thailand has also taken on a role in seed distribution, receiving and sharing seed from the AMNET member countries, and testing the varieties on the drought screening plots at the Research Center.

Sharing knowledge across borders

mar02 For Grudloyma, this collaborative approach is a big change. “We’ve learned a lot and gained a lot from our friends in different countries. We each have different experiences, and when we share problems we can adapt knowledge from others to our own situations.”

The Thai researchers can come up with many examples of things they have learned from their AMNET partners. “We saw the very friendly relationships between a number of seed companies and the Vietnam team, and we tried to modify the way we worked in Thailand,” says Grudloyma. “This year we shared promising hybrids with seed companies before release. Before that we just worked with farmers and small seed producers, and the seed companies could buy seed after varieties were released.” The result has been wider distribution of new drought tolerant varieties: this year the group received orders for enough parental materials for NSX 042029 to produce 300 tons of seed.

“We learned how to evaluate farmer preferences better from the Philippines team,” adds Amara Traisiri, an entomologist working on responding to these preferences. “We now use their method in all our field trials with farmers and we’re getting a more accurate picture of what farmers want.” This information caused the group to include ease of hand harvest as another trait to consider in their breeding program, after realizing how important it is to farmers. And the learning continued at this month’s annual regional training meeting. “Today, we learned a system for farmer participatory trials,” says Grudloyma, referring to a session on planning and analyzing trial data from CIMMYT maize breeder Gary Atlin. “With these new ideas to direct us we’ll be able to get better results.”

Almost all Thai maize farmers grow improved hybrid varieties, and for Ruanpeth, her priorities are clear. “Drought tolerance is very important”, she says, and dismisses other traits, such as yellow color. “No, I want varieties that are drought tolerant.” She likes to try the latest hybrids and has grown more than 10 commercial varieties. She eagerly accepts the suggestion from Grudloyma’s team to try their new hybrids on a small area this year.

The project has built capacity and relationships that will endure, according to Grudloyma. “Our station is now very good at working with drought,” he says, “and we’ll continue cooperation and providing germplasm. We already have plans for collaboration with China and Vietnam.” CIMMYT’s role in providing germplasm and access to new knowledge and technologies has been vital, as has its leadership. “It’s very hard to get hold of germplasm from anywhere except CIMMYT,” says Grudloyma. “It’s also difficult to come together: we needed an international organization to coordinate and facilitate regional interaction. With CIMMYT everything is easier.”

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

Genes explain the amazing global spread of maize

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

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 5, May 2007

No need to dig for ancient seeds to discover how and when maize moved from its ancestral home in Mesoamerica to become one of the world’s most widely-sown and popular food crops. New work by gene sleuths from CIMMYT and numerous maize growing countries solves the puzzle using DNA of present-day maize.

How did a crop domesticated some 7,000 years ago from a humble Mexican grass called teosinte become the number-one food crop in Africa and Latin America, and a major food, feed, and industrial crop just about everywhere else?

The incredible story of maize has been told in books, but there have always been lingering doubts, unanswered questions. If, for example, as records show, in 1493 Columbus brought maize to Spain from his visit to the warm climes and long days of the Caribbean, how is it that reliable accounts have the crop being grown in 1539 in the cold, short daylengths of Germany? That’s only 46 years later, and far too soon for such a radical adaptation in tropical maize. In another case, maize was supposedly brought to African countries like Nigeria by Portuguese colonists, but the local names for maize in that country are of Arabic derivation, suggesting that the crop likely arrived via Arabic-speaking traders.
may2

Deciphering the history in genes

Recent work by CIMMYT and partners sheds new light on maize’s global migration. With support from Generation, a Challenge Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and in collaboration with nine research institutes on four continents, scientists have used DNA markers—molecular signposts for genes of interest—and new approaches to analyze nearly 900 populations of maize and teosinte from around the world. “What is emerging is a far clearer picture of the crop’s global diversity and the pathways that led to it,” says CIMMYT molecular geneticist and leader of the effort, Marilyn Warburton.

Phase I of the work was funded by PROMAIS, a European maize consortium, and focused on North America and Europe. The Generation Challenge Program commissioned Phase II, which featured global coverage and brought the number of maize populations studied to 580. In Phase III, partners are adding another 300 populations of maize and teosinte, to fill any geographical gaps. A primary objective is to gather samples of landraces—local varieties developed through centuries of farmer selection—and ensure their conservation in germplasm banks. The diversity studies apply a method developed by Warburton for using DNA markers on bulk samples of individuals from large, heterogeneous populations like those typical for maize.

The great divide: Temperate vs tropical maize

Among other things, the studies corroborate the notion that northern European maize originates from North American varieties brought to the continent several decades after Columbus’ returned, and definitely not from tropical genotypes. “The two main modern divisions of maize arose about 3,000 years ago,” says Warburton, “as maize arrived in what is now the southwestern US and, at about the same time, on the islands of the Caribbean. Temperate maize spread further north and east across North America, while tropical maize spread south. The temperate-tropical division remains today. What maintains it are differences in disease susceptibility and photosensitivity—essentially, how daylength affects flowering time. The two maize types are now so different from each other that they do not cross well, and their hybrids are not well adapted anywhere.”

The work continues and, in addition to elucidating the epic journey of maize, will help breeders to home in on and more effectively use traits like drought tolerance from the vast gene pool of maize.

The above report is largely based on a longer description of this work, “Tracing history’s maize,” that appears in Generation’s “Partner and Product Highlights 2006.”

For more information: Marilyn Warburton, molecular geneticist (m.warburton@cgiar.org)

Solving the Zinc Problem from Field to Food

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

January, 2005

Thanks to pioneering research in Turkey, the links between zinc-deficient soils, plants, people, and continued malnutrition and poverty have been clearly articulated. Few other countries in the world are as well placed to show how plant breeding research can limit the impact of zinc deficiency on crop and human health. So what’s the next step?

In her work as a medical doctor and nutritionist, Prof. Ayhan Çavdar saw many women who could not give birth to healthy children. They had repeated miscarriages and stillbirths. Their babies had agonizing defects of the central nervous system, such as spina bifida, in which the spine fails to close properly, and anencephaly, characterized by an undeveloped brain and incomplete skull. One 18-year-old woman had already miscarried two anencephalitic fetuses. This devastating condition had a surprisingly simple treatment. Çavdar measured the levels of zinc in the young woman’s blood serum, plasma, and hair. They were extremely low. She prescribed zinc supplements for five months. The young woman conceived and gave birth to a healthy child after an uneventful pregnancy.

Zinc deficiency is implicated in health problems throughout the world (see box). The causes and consequences of the problem have been particularly well studied in Turkey, where Çavdar says “a nutrition-related, zinc-deficient milieu exists.”

Wheat is part of that milieu. Most people in Turkey and neighboring countries rely heavily on wheat as a staple. In rural areas, people can consume more than 500 grams of bread every day. Throughout West Asia and North Africa, wheat can constitute from 40 to 60% of daily caloric intake, compared with 21% in Europe or 20% worldwide. People risk zinc deficiency when they subsist on white bread, white rice, or other cereals and consume few vegetables, red meat, or other animal protein.

The Missing Zinc

The widespread zinc deficiency in Turkey’s soils and crops, including wheat, is considered a major
reason for the relatively high incidence of zinc deficiency in its people. In the early 1990s, researchers started a NATOsponsored project in Central Anatolia, Turkey’s major wheat growing area, to investigate the extent and significance of zinc deficiency in soils, plants, foods, and people. Partners included Çukorova University in Adana, the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute in Eskisehir, the Bahri Dagdas International Agricultural Research Center in Konya, the Research Institute of Rural Affairs in Sanliurfa, CIMMYT and Advanced Research Institutes in Australia, Germany, and the USA.

The project, led by Prof. Ismail Çakmak (then with Çukurova University, now with Sabanci University), built on the work of Dr. Robin Graham from Adelaide University in Australia and Mufit Kalayci from the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute in Eskisehir, who had shown the effects of zinc on plant growth and yield. Some wheat varieties, especially those developed from local landraces, used zinc much more effectively than others. Zinc application increased wheat yields by 5-500%, depending on location and soil zinc levels. Also seed that had higher zinc content yielded better than seed with low content.

Çakmak recalls that “when farmers saw the results with zinc fertilizer, they said, ‘Something good like aspirin has come!’ ”Because of the impressive project’s findings, fertilizer companies started producing zinc fertilizer. “Today, ten years after the problem was solidly diagnosed, Turkey uses 300,000 tons of zinc fertilizer. This is a success story,” emphasizes Çakmak. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the economic benefit from zinc fertilization in Turkey is about USD 150 million per year.

No Happy Ending—Yet

Plants that get a high dose of zinc fertilizer do not necessarily accumulate enough zinc in the grain to improve human nutrition. Some varieties cannot draw much zinc from the soil. Others easily extract zinc from the soil but cannot make good use of it. Finally, not every farmer can afford zinc fertilizer, and not every country provides it.

“Wheat varieties and landraces, and wheat’s wild relatives, have the genes to solve the zinc problem,” says Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Rainfed Wheat Systems Program and participant in the NATO project.

Getting Good Genes

Turkish wheat landraces and cultivars that use zinc efficiently are being combined with wheat varieties developed in the Turkey- CIMMYT-ICARDA International Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP) that have resistance to yellow rust and root diseases. “We’re evaluating about 180 wheat lines with these traits right now,” says Çakmak. “They’re showing very high levels of zinc efficiency when grown in zinc-deficient soils.” Çakmak and colleagues also found that wild relatives of wheat (Triticum monococcum, T. diccocoides, and Aegilops tauschii) tolerate zinc-deficient soils well compared to bread wheat. “Many of the wild wheats and Aegilops species that exhibit very high tolerance to zinc-deficient soils originated in Turkey,” says Çakmak, “very probably because Turkey has such zincdeficient soils.” They feel this valuable trait can easily be passed to improved bread wheats. Researchers also have high hopes that rye can contribute a similar genetic advantage to wheat.

With funding from DANIDA, CIMMYT evaluated accessions from its wheat genebank for cultivars that produced zinc-rich grain, and considerable variation was found. Çakmak and his team, together with collaborators from Çukurova University (Hakan Ozkan),Tel Aviv University (Eitan Millet), and Haifa University (Eviatar Nevo), have identified wild and primitive wheats from the Fertile Crescent that have grain with seven times as much zinc as modern wheat varieties. Preliminary results also suggest that the grain of wild species has higher levels of proteins and amino acids that make it easier for people to absorb micronutrients such as zinc.

“We have access to nearly 10,000 unique accessions of wild relatives from the Fertile Crescent,” observes Çakmak. “Other research groups are not working with these materials. Because Turkey has zinc deficiency not only in soils and plants but also in people, we’re ideally suited to screen a range of crops for the HarvestPlus program.” (See box below)

HarvestPlus for a More Nutritious Harvest

Zinc deficiencies have serious consequences for health. Because there is no widely accepted method for measuring zinc deficiency, no firm estimates are available on the number of people who are zinc deficient. But billions are at risk for zinc deficiency, with the prevalence highest for South and Southeast Asia and Africa. Zinc supplementation has been shown to reduce by a third the effects of common childhood infections, especially diarrhea, pneumonia, and possibly malaria. In addition, zinc deficiency is an important cause of stunting.

harvestplus2 As part of its contribution to HarvestPlus, the CGIAR’s global alliance to breed and disseminate crops for better nutrition, CIMMYT is developing nutritionally enhanced wheat varieties that will automatically increase people’s intake of essential dietary elements like zinc. Given that CIMMYTderived spring bread wheat varieties are planted on 80% of the global spring wheat area, the impacts could be wide-ranging.

The white bars in the figure above show the zinc content of wheat lines that are far along in the breeding process, of excellent agronomic type, and into which CIMMYT breeders have incorporated high levels of zinc (172% of check, in the best line). The best will be used to transfer this trait to other wheat varieties and for studies in which DNA markers will help researchers identify genes associated with high zinc content.

For more information: h.j.braun@cgiar.org

Bachelors Take Note: Reduce Your Tillage

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

February, 2005

bachelors This is the story of Anil Singh, a farmer from the remote, relatively poor area of Uttar Pradesh, India, who found fortune with help from CIMMYT-South Asia Regional Program and the Rice Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains (RWC). His eye-catching success has been based on reduced tillage and direct seeding of wheat.

Arun Joshi, researcher at Banaras Hindu University and CIMMYT-South Asia/RWC partner, smiles when he tells the story of farmer Anil Singh, from Karhat Village in Mirzapur District. Singh was the first in the village to try zero-tillage for sowing wheat when it was introduced in 1997. “When Anil’s father-in-law first saw Karhat, he began telling everyone that women shouldn’t marry its men, because they wouldn’t be able to support a family,” says Joshi. “When Anil had success with zero-tillage and other farmers adopted the practice, his father-in-law changed his tune completely, and now says that all young ladies should marry men from Karhat!”

Singh, his brother, and the 11 other family members formerly scraped by growing only a rice-wheat rotation on some six hectares of land. Adoption of direct seeding without tillage for wheat has increased harvests and brought savings in seed, labor, diesel, farm equipment, and irrigation water. The practice allows earlier sowing of wheat, so the brothers have introduced okra, tomato, gourd, potato, mungbean, and other crops, and are growing “green-manure” legumes to enrich the soil. Through a participatory varietal selection program, supported by DFID-UK and coordinated by Joshi with CIMMYT input, farmers in the village have gained access to the latest, high-yielding wheat varieties. Singh used the added income from all of the above to sink a new well, put an upper story on his home, purchase a used car, and launch a rice and wheat seed company.

“Previously we had no linkages with agencies or persons to obtain knowledge or information,” he says. “We used to grow only the old varieties—we sowed the same seed for ten years! Now we are looking to diversify and intensify farming to get more cash.” Singh says that farmers come from far and wide on tractor trolleys, bikes, motorcycles, and other transport to purchase his company’s seed. “This is because they trust us and because we were the first in the region to sell seed. I want to make our company big, involve several villages, with each growing only a single variety to maintain purity and include many farmers.”

The village had no telephone or refrigerator when Joshi and his associates first came, and now it has plenty of both. According to Joshi, the credit for farmers’ improved fortunes goes to the Directorate of Wheat Research of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Karnal, the RWC, the Centre for Arid Zone Studies-UK, and CIMMYT-South Asia. “It was the idea of CIMMYT regional wheat breeder Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara to test varieties and zero-tillage with farmers, and we joined hands,” he says.

The RWC does much more than simply promote direct seeding for wheat crops. To learn more about the Consortium, its partners, and its supporters, read the recently published report RWC Highlights 2005 (in PDF version 88kb).

The RWC includes the national agricultural research systems of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, as well as international centers like CIMMYT and advanced research institutes. It promotes resource-conserving practices and more diverse cropping in the rice-wheat farming systems that cover 13.5 million hectares in the region, and provides food and livelihoods for over 300 million people.

Bug Havens Keep Maize Pest-Proof

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

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

bugHavens African maize farmers who will grow transgenic maize varieties resistant to one of the crop’s most damaging pests—the maize stem borer—learn that to keep borers at bay, some must survive.

Maize stem borers destroy approximately 12% of Kenya’s maize crop annually—losses valued at more than US$ 50 million. Under the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), CIMMYT, and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture have worked in partnership since 1999 to offer farmers maize varieties that resist borers. They are drawing this resistance from several sources, including maize landraces and experimental varieties and even a common soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The latter produces its own, natural insecticide: a protein that perforates borer larvae’s stomach lining, causing them to starve. There are several types of this protein and each is very selective, affecting certain species of borers but no other animals. Researchers have taken the gene responsible for the protein and put it into maize, thereby obtaining a plant that borers of the targeted species cannot safely eat.

The resistance from Bt is effective until, through a chance mutation, an individual borer emerges that can beat it. Borer offspring with the same mutation will eventually become more numerous than other borers, making the Bt-based resistance useless.

A safe haven for borers

Farmers in developed countries who grow Bt maize usually protect its effectiveness through use of “refugia”—fodders or cereal crops that foster the survival and reproduction of Bt-susceptible borers. IRMA recently sponsored a two-day workshop on refugia at KARI’s Kitale center. The 50 participants—19 researchers, and 17 extension staff, and 14 farmers from 9 districts of North Rift Valley and 2 neighboring districts—learned about the progress in the development of insect resistant maize and the importance of refugia.

“It’s not hard to find refugia for stem borers; the challenge is to find refugia that both work and are acceptable to farmers,” says KARI entomologist Dr. Margaret Mulaa, who organized the Kitale workshop, and leads the insect resistance management (IRM) component of the IRMA project. “The refugia species have to fit in with the farmers’ cropping systems.”

All workshop participants took to the field to evaluate and score potential crops and varieties that could be used as stem-borer refugia on farms. They ranked the top 5 each from among 15 sorghum and 18 grass varieties, and 4 maize varieties for their attractiveness as food, fodder, or refugia for stem borers.

Farmers lead the way scoring refugia

The farmers raced ahead of the other two groups, doing what comes most naturally to them: visually assessing the yield and disease resistance of the sorghum varieties; squeezing the sorghum grains between two fingers and tasting them to judge texture and flavor; splitting open maize and grass stalks to assess moisture content and borer damage; and examining fodder crops for yield, vigor, and traits like hairiness and moisture content—important indicators of palatability for livestock. “Bana grass yields well and is not too hairy, so my cows enjoy it,” said Philomen Berut, a farmer from South Nandi who has received two awards for the best livestock at the Kitale Agricultural show.

More than 26 different criteria were given for selecting the sorghum varieties, but the major ones were high yield, early maturity, tolerance to pests and diseases, short height (which helps plants resist lodging), and tolerance to bird damage.

And the winners?

All three groups ranked the ‘local brown’ and ‘local red’ sorghum varieties among the top five favorites. Four improved Napier varieties (Kakamega 1 & 2, Napier 16798 and 16837) were also ranked top by all three groups. The popular maize hybrid H614 was ranked among the best five refugia species for its stable yield, lush foliage, and good cobs.

Mulaa finds this type of information extremely important for developing an IRM strategy that farmers will actually use. “By understanding farmers’ choices and criteria early enough, the resistance management package that IRMA will introduce along with Bt maize will have the farmer’s hand in its design, making it more likely to succeed.”

For more information contact Stephen Mugo (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT Helps New Country Improve Productivity and Food Security

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

June, 2004

timor_photo1 After almost 450 years of foreign occupation, East Timor became the world’s newest country when it declared independence in May 2002. Facing a host of hurdles as it rebuilds destroyed towns and damaged infrastructure, one thing the country lacks is productive and well-adapted germplasm for major crops.

In response to this need, a project called Seeds of Life has been introducing, testing, and distributing improved germplasm to farmers on the island. The project, in which CIMMYT participates, aims to improve food security and build the capacity of Timorese scientists to resolve the agricultural problems that affect local livelihoods.

“Farmers have suffered from decades of unrest,” says Ganesan Srinivasan, a CIMMYT breeder and senior scientist involved in the project, which is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of East Timor. “Improved maize varieties will provide food and nutritional security for resource-poor farmers.”

timor_photo2 Almost 800,000 people live in East Timor, which was once a Portuguese colony. The BBC estimates that about 25% of the population died during Indonesia’s occupation, which began after Portugal withdrew in 1975 and lasted until 1999. After citizens voted for independence, anti-independence militia killed hundreds of people and destroyed towns and already poor infrastructure.

Maize and rice are East Timor’s major staple food crops. Although maize covers the largest area of land planted to any crop, its productivity is low. Growing local varieties, some farmers produce less than 1.5 tons per hectare and 125,000 tons annually. Farmers face production constraints such as low soil fertility, frequent drought, a lack of improved varieties and fertilizer, northern leaf blight, and storage pests. Collaborators hope that replacing low-yielding local varieties with improved germplasm will increase productivity and lead to income generation.

Australian agronomist Brian Palmer manages the project, which aims to improve farmers’ access to high quality seed, create a crop performance database for research to raise crop productivity, and increase the capacities of East Timorese institutions and staff in evaluation, production, and distribution of improved germplasm.

Scientists have been testing the adaptation of various lines of rice, maize, cassava, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peanuts that have been supplied by CIMMYT, IRRI, CIAT, CIP, and ICRISAT, which are the five CGIAR centers involved in the project. Researchers have identified and multiplied well-adapted varieties that are tolerant to pests, diseases, drought, and low soil fertility.

In the first phase of the project, which lasted from October 2000 to December 2003 followed by a six-month bridge phase, CIMMYT provided improved, stress-tolerant, high-yielding maize varieties to test in different agro-climatic conditions of East Timor. Scientists initially selected maize varieties using information from CIMMYT records, results from similar regions, and input from researchers. They tested several yellow open-pollinated varieties and a few white quality protein maize varieties, among others.

In their experiments, researchers found that yields were much higher when improved maize cultivars and fertilizer were used. During 2001–02, one variety yielded almost four tons per hectare. In the second and third years, CIMMYT maize varieties yielded around six tons per hectare, compared with two tons per hectare from the local variety that was used as the benchmark.

“Several yellow maize varieties resistant to downy mildew disease have been identified that have given double or triple the yield of local varieties,” says Srinivasan. In March 2004, in response to problems at several sites, they planted downy mildew disease resistant seed developed by the CIMMYT-Zimbabwe team.

Although it is difficult to identify varieties that are well adapted across East Timor’s diverse climatic and soil conditions, the project has already found several. During 2003–04, researchers received enough seed to evaluate selected varieties in yield trials, to use in on-farm tests, and to multiply to produce more seed. In addition to this, more seed from the five most promising varieties has been increased in India and will be shipped to East Timor.

The second phase of the project, lasting from three to five years, will focus on better village welfare by promoting farmer use of improved varieties and strengthening MAFF and other East Timor institutions. Challenges include building research capacity, creating a system to continuously screen and release varieties, establishing a good seed production and distribution system, and reducing post-harvest losses. Representatives from the five CGIAR centers, ACIAR, AusAID, East Timorese research organizations, and other partners will discuss plans for phase two in August 2004. They plan to support model farms, farmer demonstrations, seed production, germplasm management, and research on variety adaptation and crop agronomy.

They also hope that East Timorese researchers will be able to train at a location where CIMMYT multiplies seed. Because the few trained researchers with bachelor’s and master’s degrees hold important positions in the Ministry of Agriculture, it is difficult for them to train for an extended period of time. However, five researchers and extension workers from East Timor have received training at ICRISAT in India. Pending Ministry approval, CIMMYT may conduct a training course in East Timor in August about on-farm testing and seed production.

For information: Ganesan Srinivasan

Tribute to Hugo Córdova: the passing of a great scientist and hunger fighter

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

The CIMMYT community and friends across the globe mourn the loss of maize breeder and distinguished scientist, Hugo Salvador Córdova Orellana, who died on 25 December 2009. Córdova worked for more than three decades with CIMMYT to improve the food security of disadvantaged maize farmers and consumers.

Countering drought: Journalist / policy advisor Roger Thurow visits farmers in Machakos, Kenya

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

countering-drought-note This growing season in south-central Kenya has been a good test for the new drought tolerant maize varieties being bred in Africa. This is a semi-arid area, but this year they can drop the semi. Farmers report only three short periods of rain since the February planting time.

“Without this seed, I’d have nothing. Nothing, like my neighbors,” says farmer Philip Ngolania. He sweeps his hand to direct the eye first to his maize and then toward a neighbor’s plot. Philip’s maize stalks, though looking thin and weak, have fairly uniformly produced large ears of corn. His neighbor’s maize is shriveled and dead, the stalks have toppled in their feebleness and there isn’t a cob to be found. (See the entire writeup on the blog of the Global Agricultural Development Initiative)

Mexican Farmers Durable Despite Free-Trade Shocks

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

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 4, April 2006

A new study from CIMMYT describes some of the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Mexican maize and wheat farmers, and their creative and resilient responses.

NAFTA took effect on January 1, 1994. Among other things, it stipulated the elimination of tariffs on most basic crops in Mexico, Canada, and the United States

With support from the Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows Program of the US Congressional Hunger Center, former CIMMYT research affiliate Amanda King has published a study that addresses the effects of NAFTA on farmers in two very different Mexican agricultural areas. Her study examined Mexico’s northern Yaqui Valley, a high-productivity wheat farming zone, and small-scale, low-input producers of maize in two areas of Veracruz State, southeastern Mexico.

The report reviews recent literature regarding NAFTA impacts on maize and wheat farming in Mexico, and provides an overview of maize and wheat production, a characterization of the country’s farming households, and circumstances leading up to and following NAFTA. It closes with the case studies mentioned above, and conclusions and recommendations.

Photo by Amanda King. Rural Mexico 10 Years After the North American Free Trade Agreement: Coping with a Landscape of Change.

The results suggest that cooperation and diversification have helped some Mexican farmers cope with economic changes under NAFTA, despite economic crises and inadequate institutional support. Out-migration to large cities or to the USA has continued to increase steadily, but commercial maize production is going through a resurgence in the southern part of coastal Veracruz state, and farmers in northern Veracruz are capitalizing on new export opportunities involving the sale of maize husks. “Throughout the state,” says King, “farmers have increasingly turned toward cooperation and collaboration as tools to survive and even thrive in conditions of economic upheaval. Whereas the Mexican government expected NAFTA reforms to restructure and remove small-farmers from the agricultural sector, coping with the new conditions of agricultural production has ironically made many of these farmers stronger and more willing to fight to be considered a part of Mexico’s economic future.”

Results from the Yaqui Valley case study suggests that, even in areas considered favored in terms of economic and environmental resources, farmers have had difficulty making the livelihood transitions necessary to participate in international trade.

The report is intended for researchers and policy-makers interested in the themes of trade liberalization, agricultural production, and social welfare. “Mexico’s experience with NAFTA can provide lessons for other countries seeking to support a development agenda within the framework of trade liberalization,” says King.

One key conclusion of the study is the need for national governments as they pursue trade liberalization to put more emphasis on strategies that protect at-risk groups and that build the resiliency of vulnerable sectors. This is underlined by evidence showing that income inequality has been on the rise in Mexico since NAFTA took effect.

The new study, published in English, is the more technical supplement to a photo essay/descriptive portrayal of farmers’ circumstances and livelihoods in the case study areas published by King in 2004.

Both reports are available for download or viewing.
King, A. 2006. Ten Years with NAFTA: A Review of the Literature and an Analysis of Farmer Responses in Sonora and Veracruz, Mexico. CIMMYT Special Report 06-01. Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT/Congressional Hunger Center. To view or download a copy, click here.

King, A. 2004. Rural Mexico 10 Years After the North American Free Trade Agreement: Coping with a Landscape of Change. Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT. To view or download a copy, click here.

Enhanced partnerships for improved productivity and livelihoods in Kenya

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

November, 2004

A reaffirmation of partnerships spanning the globe occurred at the 9th Annual KARI Biennial Scientific Conference and the First Kenya Agricultural Research Forum, in Nairobi. Staff from CIMMYT joined scientists, farmers, seed producers, and manufacturers at the 8–12 November meeting to share research findings, heighten awareness, and promote discussion. A key topic was the consolidation of Kenya’s national agricultural research system. The conference was opened by Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Kipruto arap Kirwa, who noted that the agricultural network should be “more efficient, cost effective, with the desired impact at the household level, and have effective dissemination of research results.” These goals, once realized, will enable Kenya’s agricultural sector to improve linkages with research partners and farmers. Studies on farmer access to grain marketing information were presented and discussed by CIMMYT’s Hugo de Groote and Martins Odendo.