At first, Fieldbook for sweet potato breeding seems highly unlikely. However, following a recent Fieldbook training session in Nairobi, Kenya, the sweet potato breeders at the CGIAR’s International Potato Center (CIP) are exploring the use of the application for just that. Jan Low, CIP’s leader of the Sweet Potato for Profit and Health Initiative, recently requested a Fieldbook demonstration from CIMMYT experts.

Fieldbook is CIMMYT software specially designed for managing maize breeding programs. The software manages pedigrees, data, seed stocks, and fieldbooks. Marianne Bänziger, CIMMYT’s deputy director general of Research and Partnerships, initially developed Fieldbook, which was further improved by Bindi Vivek, CIMMYT maize breeder. Now in its eighth version, Fieldbook is freely available from CIMMYT and is used by breeders from the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and by several national agricultural system partners.

On 31 March 2010, Dan Makumbi, CIMMYT maize breeder, and Joseph Kasango, CIMMYT research technician, conducted an hour of requested interactive training on the use of Fieldbook and demonstrated the application’s main features for the CIP breeders, their new research information systems manager, Jens Riis-Jacobsen, and other participants. The training was to help the CIP team discover if they could adapt the software for their new sweet potato initiative.

“Our breeders were very interested. Although the main difference between maize and sweet potato breeding is the starting material (vines for sweet potato), we are confident that we can adapt and use the Fieldbook for our work,” said Riis-Jacobsen, who used to be based at CIMMYT-Mexico when Fieldbook was under development. CIMMYT’s Makumbi agreed that the session was a success. “The training session was great for us to exchange views, and to find out whether Fieldbook can be of use to breeders working on other crops,” he said.

CIMMYT has also received follow-up requests for similar training and copies of Fieldbook from maize breeders from the Kenya-based firm East African Seeds. For more information about Fieldbook visit: here.

Former CIMMYT wheat agronomist Ken Sayre received the first-ever Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize on 29 March 2010 in recognition of his work to promote resource-conserving practices with developing country farmers. He accepted the award in the category of “Distinguished Scientist” from the Agropolis Foundation in a special ceremony held at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) meetings.

CIMMYT-Asia held an awareness meeting on 19 March 2010 for a proposed hybrid maize research consortium. Nearly 50 participants from national, regional, and multinational seed companies attended, representing 37 seed companies. The goal of the meeting and the consortium is to form new private-public partnerships for enhanced utilization of maize germplasm.

The morning session included an introduction and outline of meeting objectives and research priorities by B. Vivek, senior maize breeder, and P.H. Zaidi, maize physiologist. Proposed project activities included 1) germplasm development for collaborator-identified target environments and priorities, with resulting germplasm to be made available to seed companies; 2) training, including implementation of software for data and pedigree management; and 3) a hybrid testing network for India and the Asian region.

The participants then visited the breeding nurseries and trials to see the variety of germplasm available through CIMMYT-Asia. In the afternoon, participants prioritized their target environments and traits and shared suggestions for how the consortium should operate. “The deliberations during today’s planning meeting for a maize consortium went well, and had a very encouraging tone,” said N.P. Sarma, director of Research & Development, Kaveri Seed Company. “We all appreciate your efforts in conceptualizing the consortium approach for an important crop like maize, and look forward for the next meeting.”

Consortium planners have set a tentative launch date of 28 May 2010.

Five CIMMYT scientists are co-authors of a new report published this week in Nature Genetics. In “Rare genetic variation at Zea mays crtRB1 increases ß-carotene in maize grain,” the research team describes a rare genetic variation in maize that leads to increased beta-carotene in maize grain, which is the main source of dietary vitamin A.

According to a SciDev.net article, “Poor people in many developing countries depend on cheap foods such as maize that do not provide enough vitamin A. In Zambia, more than half (53 per cent) of children do not get sufficient vitamin A, and the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 children worldwide are blinded each year by the deficiency, and half of them die of related causes within a year.”

It is believed that new strains of maize with increased beta-carotene could reduce vitamin A deficiency in people in developing countries. The CIMMYT staff involved with this publication include Jianbing Yan, Maria Zaharieva, Raman Babu, Natalia Palacios, and Marilyn L Warburton.

Conservation agriculture (CA) continues to take root in Mexican fields, and CIMMYT’s CA team is helping it flourish by providing training and technological support to farmers. Examples of this are three CA events that took place in mid-March at El Batán and at Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico.

On 18 March, 27 technicians and farmers from Apan, Hidalgo, visited El Batán. Apan is a rainfed location where 90% of the land is sown with barley; the remaining 10% is sown with diverse crops (maize, beans, cowpea, potato, and oat). Andrea Chocobar and José Luis Salgado, from the Mexico-based CA program, and Francisco Magallanes, El Batán superintendent, hosted the group.

The visit originated from a request by Joaquín Pérez Aguirre, who is the general manager of a consultant agricultural services bureau and a farmer. Aguirre asked Dagoberto Flores, a member of the CA team, and Salgado to help train fellow farmers on CA practices. Aguirre has collaborated with Flores before, and both agreed that because a CA demonstration plot will soon be established in Apan, it is important to train local farmers, especially on how to calibrate seeders and fumigation equipment. The pending demonstration plot is part of the project “CA hub for small grain cereals in the highlands of Mexico,” which is a collaborative project with the Mexican Agriculture Ministry.

“Most of my colleagues had heard about CIMMYT, but it wasn’t very clear for them what CIMMYT was or did. Today, especially after the introduction by Andrea Chocobar, everybody is very impressed with what you do here,” said Aguirre, who led the group of visiting farmers. “I’ve worked 28 years in agriculture, and have seen programs start and conclude, and a lot of money invested, but in the end, not many outputs. I want to implement a different approach not just focused on keeping knowledge in your head, but on applying it in the field.”

After the field day, at least one farmer was convinced that he wants to apply CA to his field. “I want to learn more about the (CA) technology for the benefits it offers, such as less cost and more productivity,” said Felipe Vera Herrera, of Chimalpa, Hidago. “I’m going to tell my neighbors about the visit, but most of all, I will put into practice what I learned here today so they can see that CA is profitable.”

The following day, Friday 19 March, CA team members Bram Govaerts and Jesús Mendoza met with 10 representatives of the Farmer Association of West River Sinaloa (AARSP) for breakfast in Guasave, Sinaloa. This was followed by a CA course for 15 leading farmers and technicians from AARSP and the seed company subsidiary ASGROW. The course took place at the Experiment Station Miguel Leysón Pérez, and was part of the “CA hub for the irrigated zone of the Pacific,” and in collaboration with ASGROW.

The most recent CA event took place on Monday 22 March. A group of nearly 50 agronomic engineering students from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in Mexico City visited El Batán. They were accompanied by professors Mariela Fuentes and Manuel Tarín Ramírez. The visit included an explanation of CIMMYT and CA, and a visit to the long-term CA trial at lot D-5. In the field, Chocobar and Mariela Fuentes explained plot management and answered questions from students. The students also saw a demonstration of a multi-use-multi-purpose machine and of a manual seeder, and toured the germplasm bank.

“A visit like this broadens our perspectives because we can see that there are new technologies that could be used in Mexico,” said Aarón Torres López, one of the visiting students. “I decided to study agronomic engineering because I would like to make a difference in my country. I hope my fellow agronomy students also want to change things in the crop fields.” These three events and other activities focused on the development and dissemination of CA in Mexico are part of a global program and strategy to foster the adoption and use of more productive and sustainable practices for crop management. Additionally, the CA team would like to thank Scott Ferguson for arranging free child care at CENDI for famers who brought their children with them to the field training event at El Batán.

CIMMYT held a successful maize field day on 14 March 2010 at the CIMMYT maize demonstration block at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) campus, Hyderabad, India. About 110 maize breeders from the public and private sector attended.

Maize physiologist P.H. Zaidi opened the event with an overview of ongoing research activities in the maize program at CIMMYT’s Asia Program at Hyderabad, and also discussed the different types of available early and advanced generation inbred maize lines. Breeders then toured the CIMMYT maize nurseries, which were open for selection.

Sain Dass, director of the Indian Maize Program, was one of the participants, along with 21 maize scientists from the All India Coordinated Maize Program. Dass was happy with the variety of germplasm, which included several new lines in the medium and late maturity groups, as well as a new series of quality protein maize lines and drought and water-logging tolerant lines.

Dass, accompanied by Raj Gupta, CIMMYT South Asia coordinator, Andrew McDonald, CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist at CIMMYT-Nepal, B.S. Vivek, and Zaidi, visited the on-going trials for drought stress and were impressed with the drought management, which resulted in excellent genotypic variability for drought tolerance during the flowering stage.

“The best part of coming to Hyderabad is seeing the excellent drought tolerant materials,” McDonald said, agreeing with the others that the field day displayed an excellent selection of drought tolerant materials in yellow grain color, and that they should immediately be evaluated in water-stressed target environments.

The variety of available germplasm and its maintenance, purity, and phenotypic expression impressed many participants. “We have selected several vigorous and highly productive lines that are very much suitable for developing single-cross hybrids,” said J.P. Shahi, of the maize program at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.

In addition to the public sector, a large number of private sector breeders also attended the field day. These included large multinationals like Pioneer, Syngenta, BIOSEED, Dupont, Bayer Crop Sciences, and Advanta, as well as nearly 40 small- and medium-scale seed companies.

Congratulations to the CIMMYT team in Hyderabad: Zaidi, Vivek, V. Vengadessan, M.T. Vinayan, Jewel Jameeta Noor, Pooja Devi, S. Nagachandra Rao, and S. Murali Mohan.

During 01-05 March 2010, several board members of the new Consortium of the CGIAR Centers traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, for their inaugural board meeting. Those in attendance included Carlos Perez del Castillo, Lynn Haight, Ganesan Balachander, Tom Arnold, and Mohamad Ait Kadi. After the main meeting on 01 March, members had the chance to visit and interact with several CGIAR partners and programs and to see first-hand how they are collaborating for positive change in Africa and other developing areas.

On 02 March, Carlos Perez del Castillo, chair of the Consortium Board of the CGIAR, thanked the Kenyan government for its interest in hosting the Consortium. The board is planning to relocate to a new home base, and Nairobi is one of five cities in consideration (the others being Addis Ababa, Montpellier, New Delhi, and Rome). That night also included a cocktail hosted by the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), during which del Castillo met with Mwangi Thuita and Romano Kiome, Kenya’s permanent secretaries of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, respectively.

For the next three days, members traveled to various CGIAR facilities. On 03 March, del Castillo and Haight toured the ICRAF and then met with representatives from ICRAF and hosted institutions. Meanwhile, Balachander and Arnold toured the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Biotechnology Center in Nairobi. Then, on 05 March, del Castillo and Balachander visited KARI’s Kiboko center. There they saw some of CIMMYT and KARI’s collaborative maize research on drought, insect resistance, and low soil fertility. The team also visited the tropical legume trial sites that are jointly run by KARI and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

“What has impressed me most is the spirit of partnership that I have experienced – partnerships with farmers, national agricultural research systems, financial institutions, and CGIAR centers,” del Castillo said. “The new CGIAR will be about collective action, innovation, synergies, and impacts on the ground to tackle the problems of food insecurity, poverty, and climate change.”

At Kiboko, the consortium team interacted with the director of KARI, Ephraim Mukisira, and several CIMMYT members. Joint work on conventional and transgenic maize trials were highlighted during the visit. Other important conversations included private-public partnerships, impacts in sub-Saharan Africa, intellectual property, climate change, and information and seed dissemination.

“The facility development and research activities at this Kiboko center have been possible because of KARI’s partnerships and collaboration with the CGIAR, especially CIMMYT,” Mukisira said. “We have also benefited by jointly generating many maize varieties and developing our scientists’ capacity through CIMMYT’s training programs.”

Special thanks to our CIMMYT team members for making the visit a success: Wilfred Mwangi, Stephen Mugo, Yoseph Beyene, Dan Makumbi, Tadele Tefera, and Anne Wangalachi.