On Friday 25 January, representatives from the Texcoco office of John Deere gave a demonstration at El BatĂĄn of mid-size tractors and other equipment for intermediate-scale farmers. The event was organized by the Mexico State Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock Development (SEDAGRO), with support from station superintendent Francisco Magallanes, and drew 50 participants.
From 28-30 January 2008, the Genration Challenge Programme (GCP) lived up to its middle name and organized a workshop on an intricate challengeâ drought phenotyping. Held at CIMMYTâs El BatĂĄn facilities, the workshop brought together experts from diverse disciplinesâcrop physiologists, GIS specialists, model developers, to name severalâto address more effectively the increasing phenotyping needs from genomic studies and breeding programs. During the workshop, several options for tackling the complexity of drought phenotyping in GCP projects were discussed, centering on:
The participants were: Gregory Edmeades (Consultant), Abraham Blum (Consultant), Glenn Hyman (CIAT, Colombia), Sam Geerts (Leuven University, Belgium), Robert Koebner (Consultant), Paul Brennan (Consultant), Reinaldo Gomide (EMBRAPA, Brazil), John OâToole (Consultant), Guy Davenport (CIMMYT), Rosemary Shrestha (CIMMYT), Eduardo HernĂĄndez (CIMMYT), Humberto GĂłmez (GCP), Jean-Marcel Ribaut (GCP), and Philippe Monneveux (GCP).
Mr. Qingqing Zhao, head of Science and Technology issues in the Chinese Embassy in Mexico, visited CIMMYT on 29 January 2008 to broaden his knowledge of China and CIMMYTâs long-time, fruitful partnerships. This was his first visit, and fulfilled an intention heâd had since his arrival in Mexico in September 2007. Zhao was welcomed by Director General Masa Iwanaga, and also met with staff including Thomas Payne, Kevin Pixley, Erika Meng, Peter Ninnes, and Suketoshi Taba to learn more about China-CIMMYT collaboration and discuss how the Chinese Embassy can support the efforts. Highlights of his tour of the facilities included the germplasm bank and the Applied Biotechnology Center, and he also met with CIMMYT staff from China: Huixia Wu, Jianbing Yan, Shibin Gao, Xiaoyun Li, and Yunbi Xu.
During 21-25 January, 29 persons attended a course at El BatĂĄn on Fieldbook and MaizeFinder. Organized by Eduardo HernĂĄndez, of the CRIL, with support from Marianne BĂ€nziger and Kevin Pixley, director and associate director of the Global Maize Program, the aim was to train maize workers in orderly data management. Fieldbook is an application used to prepare seed for trials, manage trial data, print labels, record data, manage breeding program inventories, conduct statistical analyses, and implement selection indexes.
Instructors were Fredy Salazar (CIMMYT-Colombia), Juan Carlos AlarcĂłn, and Eduardo HernĂĄndez (CIMMYT-Mexico), who demonstrated the advantages and functionality of Fieldbook, a package developed by BĂ€nziger and perfected by CIMMYT maize breeder, Bindiganavile S. Vivek. Participants included maize breeders and technicians, as well as others who might find the application useful. The course also covered MaizeFinder, a database that permits advanced searches for germplasm with particular traits of interest, and CropFinder, a prototype program that will allow the same functions for rice, wheat, and maize. Petr Kosina, Jennifer Jones, and Ricardo de la Rosa recorded the event on video for future training uses.
Participants were: VĂctor ChĂĄvez, Luciano JuĂĄrez, Marcial Rivas, MartĂn RodrĂguez, SimĂłn Pastrana, Eva Huerta, Carlos MartĂnez, MarĂa Zaharieva, Martha HernĂĄndez, Natalia Palacios, Adolfo Basilio, AndrĂ©s Corona, JosĂ© Luis Torres, Hilda HernĂĄndez, Fernando JuĂĄrez, Silverio Ăvila, George Mahuku, Carlos Muñoz, EfrĂ©n RodrĂguez, Daniel FernĂĄndez, GerĂłnimo Ortega, Israel SĂĄnchez, Manuel Lorenzo LĂłpez, Mayolo Leyva, Ciro SĂĄnchez, Ăscar GarcĂa, Sotero Rivas, Beatriz Morales, Silverio GarcĂa y Mansir Yusuf.
On 22 January 2008, CIMMYT sent more than 160 boxes of seed for long-term deposit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway. The shipment comprised 10,000 maize accessions and 48,000 of wheat, and weighed around 3 tons in all. It was part of 200,000 seed collections of crop varieties sent this month for storage in the vault from CGIAR germplasm banks worldwide. The vault was built by the Norwegian government as a service to the global community, and a Rome-based international NGO, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will fund its operation. The aim is to ensure that the collections remain available for bolstering food security, should a man-made or natural disaster ever threaten agricultural systems or germplasm bank collections.
CIMMYTâs shipment was drawn from regenerations performed over the past two years, and represents roughly a third of the centerâs entire collection of crop genetic resources. The CGIAR shipments, were brought to the attention of the global media through timely public-relations efforts of the CG Secretariat communications team, with support from Burness Associates. Reports have appeared to date on 8 wire services, 5 TV and radio stations, 10 newspapers, and 6 web-based outlets. Coverage in Mexico included articles in the major dailies El Universal and La Jornada, as well as a spot in the Canal 11 evening news, all reflecting favorably on CIMMYT.
Congratulations to Tom Payne, Suketoshi Taba, Bibiana Espinosa, VĂctor ChĂĄvez, and all staff in the germplasm bank and seed areas, who coordinated and prepared the shipment and interacted with reporters. Thanks as well to Rodomiro Ortiz, who served as CIMMYT spokesperson to the media for this initiative.
Since 1966 and throughout its history, CIMMYT has sought to enhance the human resources available for agricultural research related to its own objectives. In doing so, CIMMYT has helped candidates study for professional qualifications or higher degrees at appropriate universities. The library at CIMMYT headquarters maintains a list of theses in which CIMMYT is named, and its supportâeither financial or through the use of its research resourcesâis recognized in the thesis itself or in a journal article based on the thesis. The list has 867 theses presented at 170 academic institutions, located in 44 countries, and represents the work of 795 scientists from 75 countries. (To see the list visit: http://staging.cimmyt.org/ libtools/thesis.htm.
During 7-11 January 2007, Jesper Norgaard of the IRRI-CIMMYT Crops Research Informatics Lab (CRIL) gave a course for Spanish-speaking CIMMYT staff on IWIS3, the latest version of the International Wheat Information System and on the related International Crop Information System (ICIS). The two systems integrate data on the geneologies, yields, general performance, and other traits of IRRI and CIMMYT mandate crops.
Participants: Hans Joachim Braun, Vicente Morales, Yann Manes, MartĂn RodrĂguez, Karim Ammar, Leopoldo Arteaga, Luis Banderas, Etienne Duveiller, NĂ©rida Lozano, Francisco LĂłpez, Thomas Payne, Bibiana Espinosa, Sergio GonzĂĄlez, MarĂa Luisa GĂłmez, Eduardo HernĂĄndez, Juan Carlos AlarcĂłn, Gary Atlin, Manuel LĂłpez Nava, Mayolo Leyva, Susanne Dreisigacker, EfrĂ©n RodrĂguez, Ismael Barrera, GerĂłnimo Ortega, Daniel FernĂĄndez, and Luis Banderas.
In a development reported this week in Science magazine and which could enhance the nutritional status of millions of people in developing countries, a team of plant geneticists and crop scientists including CIMMYTâs Jianbing Yan pioneered an economical approach to boost levels of provitamin A in maize. ‘Provitamin A’ describes substances that are converted to vitamin A upon consumption. The team showed that variation at the lycopene epsilon cyclase (lcyE) locusâfavorable alleles of which can be selected using molecular markersâcontrols biosynthesis pathways for Vitamin A precursors in maize.
Vitamin A deficiency is a leading cause of eye disease and other health disorders in the developing world. Some 40 million children are afflicted with eye disease, and another 250 million suffer with health problems resulting from a lack of dietary vitamin A. Selecting for provitamin A in maize normally involves expensive lab analyses, so the ability to use DNA markers for this purpose should reduce costs significantly.
âI played a very small part in the study, and more work needs to be doneâ says Yan, who came to CIMMYT in October 2006 from the China Agricultural University, Beijing. âI helped to re-confirm the markers and fix some tables.â According to Yan, molecular markers associated with lcyE are being used in several institutes around the world, including CIMMYT, for breeding to enhance the vitamin A value of maize. He will give a seminar at El BatĂĄn on Monday, 21 January in B115 at 3:30.
CIMMYT recently sent three tons of maize and wheat seed to a âdoomsday vaultâ near the North Pole to keep itâand the valuable genetic diversity it embodiesâsafe for future generations.
On 22 January 2008, CIMMYT sent more than 160 boxes of seed for long-term deposit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway. The shipment comprised 10,000 seed collections of maize and 47,000 of wheat, held in trust by CIMMYT, and weighed around 3 tons in all. âThis represents roughly a third of the centerâs entire collection of crop genetic resources,â says Tom Payne, head of wheat genetic resources at CIMMYT. The shipment was part of more than 230,000 seed samples of crop varieties sent this month for storage in the vault, from germplasm banks of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), NGOs, and national program collections.
Sheltering frail seed
As any farmer knows, seed is the basis of the worldâs food supply. For plant breeders, seed also holds the genetic diversity needed to defend crops against adverse conditions, like drought and heat, or against damaging pests and diseases. But, whereas genetic diversity strengthens crops against threats, the seed that bears it is relatively vulnerable. In 1998, for example, Hurricane Mitchâs floodwaters destroyed the maize seed of Honduran farmers and of a national institution in charge of seed. In another case, during Latin Americaâs âlost decadeâ economic crisis of the 1980s, many national seed banks lacked funds to maintain adequately unique collections of native maize landraces no longer grown in farmersâ fields.
âIn both instances, we helped replenish or regenerate the lost or endangered seed collections, but these and other cases illustrate the natural fragility of seed and the need for multiple safeguards,â says Suketoshi Taba, head of maize genetic resources at CIMMYT. The centerâs own seed collections are held in constant low-temperature and low-humidity conditions in a concrete bunker at CIMMYTâs El BatĂĄn, Mexico, facilities. They are secured against earthquakes, power outages, insect or rodent damage, and other threats.
Food and diversity for future generations
The Svalbard vault, which will open officially on 27 February 2008, provides another level of security. It was built by the Norwegian government as a service to the global community, and a Rome-based international NGO, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will fund its operation. Its aim is to ensure that seed collections remain safe against cataclysmic events, such as a nuclear war, natural disasters, accidents, mismanagement, or short-sighted budget cuts. Carved into rock and permafrost on an island where polar bears roam, the vault can conserve seed for hundreds and, in the case of some crop species, thousands of years.
CIMMYTâs own germplasm bank conserves more than 140,000 collections of wheat and its relatives from over 100 countriesâthe largest unified collection in the world for a single crop. For maize, the center conserves more than 25,000 unique seed collections, including the world’s largest store of maize landraces (traditional farmer varieties), along with samples of the wild relatives teosinte and Tripsacum spp. and of improved varieties. The maize collections represent nearly 90% of maize diversity in the Americas, the hemisphere of origin for the crop. âMost of the seed collections are held âin trustââthat is, under long-term storage for the benefit of humanity and free from any intellectual property restrictions,â according to Masa Iwanaga, CIMMYT Director General. CIMMYT also observes the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, signed in 2004.
Occasionally a source to replenish partnersâ collections in cases of catastrophe, CIMMYT germplasm bank collections are most often used for the centerâs own research and the work of othersâeach year CIMMYT typically ships more than 5,000 seed samples, in response to requests from hundreds of researchers in dozens of countries worldwide. The collections also furnish useful genes for resistance to diseases and pests of both crops, as well as tolerance to constraints such as drought or poor soils.
âThe maize seed we sent to Svalbard included collections backed up at CIMMYT over the last 15 years, as part of a cooperative program to regenerate endangered seed from Latin American germplasm banks,â says Taba. The wheat shipment to the vault comprised samples from collections regenerated over the past two years, according to Payne. âWeâll continue sending back-ups of regenerated collections to Svalbard each year, until the entire CIMMYT maize and wheat stores are represented in the vault holdings,â says Payne.
Former CIMMYT Wheat Program director, Tony Fischer, has won the 2007 Farrer Memorial Medal, an annual award established in 1911 to perpetuate the memory of famous Australian wheat rust researcher William Farrer and to encourage and inspire agricultural scientists.
In announcing the award, Farrer Memorial Trust Chairman Barry Buffier described Tony as the preeminent Australian crop physiologist of his generation. Tonyâs main interest throughout his carrier has been wheat yield under both dry and well-watered conditions, with the goal of applying physiological knowledge to wheat improvement through breeding and agronomy. He has published more than 120 scientific publications, including several papers drawing on data from his own property in southern NSW where he kept crop, soil and climatic records for more than 40 years.
Tony received his medal in August at a ceremony in Canberra held to coincide with the Crawford fund 2007 Conference. He then delivered the 2007 Farrer Memorial Oration.
CIMMYT Bangladesh held an opening ceremony for their new visitorsâ office at the Regional Wheat Center at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) on 08 January 2008. Harun-or-Rashid, Director General of BARI, formally inaugurated the office, and Abu Sufian, Director of Research at BARI, attended the ceremony as a special guest.
The visitorsâ office will serve as a work space for visiting scientists and international collaborators. Other visitors to CIMMYT Bangladesh will still be received at the office in Banani, Dhaka. The new visitorsâ office is located at BARI-Gazipur and will house various documents, books, and publications. The building where the new office is located was built with money from CIMMYT and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and was given to BARI in 1984.
Long-time CIMMYT collaborator ABS Hossain, consultant and in-country coordinator for the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and Enamul Haque, Senior Program Manager for CIMMYT Bangladesh, will be working in the new office space.
Md. Saifuzzaman, Principal Scientific Officer for the Wheat Research Center (WRC) at BARI, presided as chair of the opening ceremony. Directors, division heads, WRC scientists, the IRRI liaison scientist, and CIMMYT staff also attended the opening ceremony.
The Chinese National Wheat Quality Conference, jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), and CIMMYT, was held in Beijing on 13 to 14 December. The program covered market needs and quality improvement, biotechnology applications, quality testing, the development of high-quality varieties, and crop management. In addition to 150 Chinese participants from more than 20 provinces, Roberto Javier Peña and Erika Meng from CIMMYT, Rudi Appels from Australia, and Peter Shwery and Huw Jones from Rothamsted Research were invited to talk on global wheat quality, the health grain project, and wheat transformation.
This is a continuation of CIMMYT-China joint efforts in promoting Chinese wheat quality. Zhonghu He, CIMMYT representative in China, talked about Chinese wheat quality and future trends. More than 8 wheat quality workshops and conferences, including the Sino-Australia Wheat Quality Conference (2002) and International Wheat Quality Conference (2004), with a total of more than 1,000 participants, have been organized by CAAS and CIMMYT during the last 10 years.
The Sino-UK Wheat Workshop, jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Rothamsted Research, and CIMMYT, was held in Beijing on 10 to 11 December. It was coordinated by Zhonghu He, CIMMYT Representative in China, and Peter Shwery from Rothamsted Research. They were more than 40 participants, including 20 from Rothamsted Research, UK, the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, John Innes Center, and University of Nottingham, along with participants from 6 Chinese institutes. The presentations covered breeding technologies, sustainability and yield, grain development and quality, and plant pathogens. Lijian Zhang, CAAS vice president, was presented in the opening ceremony. Priority areas for future collaboration were identified and the second Sino- UK wheat workshop will be held in UK in 2009. The workshop was sponsored by UK Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC), the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, and the National Nature Science Foundation of China.
As part of its capacity building initiatives, CIMMYT conducts periodic in-country training for visiting senior scientists drawn from national research systems. Three such scientists – Luka Atwok, Kaka Meseka (both from Southern Sudan) and Mbuya Kankolongo (the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – completed their six-month tour of duty at CIMMYT Kenya at the end of November. Their comprehensive training spanned an entire cropping season and they were taken through all aspects of a cropping system – planning, executing, data collection and analysis as well as reporting – within a breeding program. The breeding programs included those for Striga management, drought tolerance, insect resistance and improved protein quality in maize. The three were awarded their course completion certificates at a colorful and tasty lunch, hosted in their honor. They were grateful to CIMMYT for the opportunity to have participated in the training and were more confident of their capacity to lead their national breeding programs, once back in their respective countries.
CIMMYT Kenya held its joint Christmas and end of year lunch on 7 December. There was a convivial mood all round as the event provided a wonderful opportunity for all the team (including visiting consultant David Watson) to share a warm meal and stimulating conversation, while reviewing the year that was. Everyone was in good spirits and agreed that 2007 had been a good year for CIMMYT Kenya. Global Maize Program Director Marianne BĂ€nziger congratulated everyone for their excellent team efforts, hard work, and dedication throughout the year. From CIMMYT Kenya, it is a joyous and restful festive season to you all!
William Eusebio and Warren Constantino, both from the IRRI CRIL office, are spending two weeks working with Vivek Bindiganavile at the CIMMYT-Zimbabwe station. They are planning the integration of the maize field book system with ICIS (International Crop Information System) and finalizing software tools for capturing maize pedigree information from the breeding program. Initial development resulted in a semi-automated user interface for inputting and analyzing pedigree information to ensure the correctness of entries. A work plan was drawn to build the bridge that would attach the maize field book to the ICIS databases. Though two weeks is a short time, the foundations have been laid to connect another isle of information into the growing ICIS community. In a related activity, former CIMMYT maize scientist Scott McLean is wrapping up a several-month consultancy to gather Global Maize Program trial data and render them in a usable storage and access format.