CIMMYT’s conservation agriculture (CA) Mexico team is implementing a hub for irrigated systems in Sonora state, northern Mexico. Fundación Produce Sonora is funding the hub project in collaboration with CIMMYT; Patronato (a group of private farmers); the Mexican National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock (INIFAP); the Asociación de Organismos de Agricultores del Sur de Sonora (AOASS); and Mexico’s national wheat marketer’s organization (CONATRIGO).

“The hub aims to facilitate strategic and adaptive research and combine all elements to achieve impact in the farmers’ fields,” said Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT cropping systems management specialist. There are several on-farm modules for extension and adaptive research, and local private companies produced the CA planters based on the CIMMYT prototype. Also seed and herbicide companies are involved.

The CA team, along with its partners and some private companies, ran a two-week campaign to create awareness about the hub which received good media attention in northern Mexico. A CA field day held 22 April, 2009 and two informal cookouts (one with farmers and one with foremen and tractor drivers in charge of CA demonstration modules) held the previous week were covered by the newspapers Tribuna, El Diario del Yaqui, and two local radio stations. On its front page, Tribuna hailed the Yaqui Valley as a world class example of outstanding organization and collaboration between farmers and research institutions, and highlighted how this teamwork is now being used to support CA technology in the Valley.

The field day was opened by Antonio Gandara, president of Patronato, who said that it is the responsibility of all parties to work together in order to achieve higher quality crops with reduced production costs, and that Patronato is committed to assisting CA efforts. Speaking to the 50 participants of the field day, Govaerts said that the teamwork and dedication displayed by organizations in the Yaqui Valley helped make the Green Revolution possible, and with similar devotion the area could also become a central point for CA. He also emphasized the benefits of CA, such as a 20% reduction in farmers’ costs during the spring which can later translate in up to a 50% profit increase. “This year’s CA modules are performing well, with a yield of 7.9 tons per hectare of wheat harvested during the field day,” Govaerts said. “This is a slightly higher yield compared to the conventional system, but a significant reduction in cost of production.”

Govaerts extends special thanks to Rodrigo Rascon, Obregón station superintendent, the Mexico CA team, and to participating farmers for their support and dedication to CA in Sonora.

Since the middle of 2008 CIMMYT entered in the agreement with Google to scan our publications and make the full text available through Google Books. To date, 255 CIMMYT publications are available through Google Books. For works published as of 2000, Google Books is linked to the CIMMYT publications catalog and users can download complete high resolution pdf files. Among the top 15 visited and downloaded CIMMYT publications are:

• The Genetics and Exploitation of Heterosis in Crops (book of abstracts).
• Developing drought- and low N-tolerant maize (proceedings, Mexico).
• The Septoria .Diseases of Wheat (concepts and methods) – both English and Spanish.
• Guía práctica para la identificación de algunas enfermedades de trigo y cebada.
• Wheat production constraints in tropical environments (proceedings, Thailand).
• Maize research for stress environments (proceedings, Zimbabwe).
• Insectos nocivos del maíz (field guide).
• Estrategias y metodologías utilizadas en el mejoramiento de trigo: un enfoque multidisciplinario (proceedings, Uruguay).
• Explorando Altos Rendimientos de Trigo (proceedings, Uruguay).
• International Symposium on Wheat Yield Potential (proceedings, Mexico).
• Rust Diseases of Wheat.
• Maize in India – Production Systems, Constraints and Research Priorities.
• World Perspectives on Barley Yellow Dwarf (proceedings, Italy).
• Application of Physiology in Wheat Breeding.
• Increasing Yield Potential in Wheat: Breaking the Barriers (proceedings, Mexico).

On 25 March 2009 the Monsanto Company announced a USD 10 million grant to establish the Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program, which will help identify and support young scientists interested in improving research and production in rice and wheat through plant breeding techniques.

The program honors the accomplishments of Dr. Henry Beachell and Dr. Norman Borlaug, who pioneered plant breeding and research in rice and wheat, respectively. It will be administered by Texas AgriLife Research, an agency of the Texas A&M University System, for the next five years.

“This is a welcome investment by the private sector, in an era of increasing food insecurity and decreasing numbers of graduate students in plant breeding,” said CIMMYT DG Tom Lumpkin. “We hope others will follow suit with additional funding and look forward to hosting scholars funded by the program at our center.” Students interested in applying to the program can find more details at www.monsanto.com/mbbischolars. Applications will be accepted until May 31 2009.

The cereal crop triticale was the focus of a four-day meeting in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora State, Mexico, from 23-26 March. CIMMYT started breeding this wheat-rye hybrid in the 1960s for its durability and strong yield performance in marginal wheat areas. The 7th International Triticale Symposium hosted representatives from over 30 countries, including several from developing countries that had been unable to attend previous triticale symposiums due to lack of funding.

Dr. Perry Gustafson, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) delivered the keynote address, focusing on the history of the crop and giving tribute to the late Bent Skovmand, who was a CIMMYT champion of triticale and helped establish the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. One goal of the conference was to gauge interest and advances in the crop; results will help determine the future of CIMMYT’s triticale program, which is in severe lack of funding. Triticale typically performs as well as or better than wheat and has multiple end uses (food, feed, biofuel), yet it is still largely ignored by the agricultural community.

“One of our strategic mistakes is that we have pushed triticale as human food, and that placed it in a market where it competes at handicap with bread wheat. It does not have the bread-making quality of bread wheat; it does not have the pasta-making quality of durum wheat,” said Karim Ammar (pictured top center), head durum wheat and triticale breeder and executive chair of the organizing committee. “But as feed, it has a competitive advantage, both in terms of cost of production and in terms of quality. This is how I think CIMMYT should promote and encourage people to use triticale.” Ammar added that for developing countries to experience the full benefits of the crop, more emphasis needs to be placed on promotion, technology transfer, and education.

Former MSc student Eliel Martínez Cruz, now a PhD student at the Colegio de Postgraduados, received a Pan-American Nutrition, Food Science and Technology Award from Grupo Bimbo. He won recognition in the “young scientist category” for zone 2 (the four zones represent the US, Mexico, Central-, and South America), for his work on the effects of diverse Glu-1/Glu-3 glutenin alleles on dough rheology and the bread-making quality of wheat. This research is part of the INIFAP-CIMMYT wheat quality collaborative project. Martínez Cruz conducted his research in CIMMYT’s Cereal Chemistry and Quality Laboratory, under the supervision of Roberto J. Peña.

With a full-house in the auditorium at El Batán, on Wednesday 25 February 2009, Director General Tom Lumpkin addressed Mexican national staff in person and via simultaneous Skype conference call also personnel of the 4 research stations – Agua Fría, Ciudad Obregón, Tlaltizapán, and Toluca.

Among other things, he took advantage of the occasion to introduce Scott Ferguson, new Deputy Director General for Support Services, who spoke briefly about changes he would like to bring about in the Center and its activities.

Talking in from Agua Fría, station superintendent Raymundo López provided input on several topics, including partnerships with Mexican state governments. María Teresa Rodríguez, of the Global Wheat Program and speaking in her capacity as representative of the Grupo de Representación de Personal Nacional (GRPN), summarized and responded to 10 questions that staff had sent to the DGs office and the GRPN for the occasion.

There were thoughtful comments and criticisms from others of staff attending. The GRPN will soon circulate minutes of the meetings, and a full audio recording of the event is on the Intranet in the right bar under the title “Messages from the DG.”

“We have the same amount of land but we need it to yield more, because every day there are more of us; we need a livelihood and we’re sad to see that our children, our brothers, and our family are leaving as farming’s not profitable for us.” said Maria del Carmen Puga Quezada, who was among 22 farmers who came to El Batán for an introduction to conservation agriculture (CA) course.

Two farmer organizations (El Surco de Nopalucan and Soñadores del Maíz de Coronango) from the state of Puebla learned about basic CA principles during 23-24 February 2009 in a course led by Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT crop systems management specialist.

“Four of the farmers will implement on-farm CA modules with the help of contracted extension services,” said Govaerts. “This reflects our hub concept for coordinated action and sustainable impact, and specifically to support farmers who help develop and disseminate the technology. These farmers can then train other farmers on how to implement CA.” CA techniques have been shown to improve soil structure, save water, and reduce labor and energy costs. “Farmers lack information, but somehow we’re getting it to them and opening the way for those with the resources and materials to use their imaginations to modify their machinery for CA.” said CIMMYT research assistant Adrián Martínez Barrera, who taught part of the workshop.

Participants learned about managing crop residues, advantages and disadvantages of CA, calibration of CA machinery, proper crop rotations, pest and weed control, and permanent beds, among other topics. “It’s not so much teaching the farmers, but rather showing them how CA works so they themselves can adapt the system to their needs and communities,” said Francisco Magallanes, El Batán station superintendent, who also gave part of the course.