Alice Ruhweza, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Board Member and Africa Regional Director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), presented on Nature Positive Food Systems for People and Planet on November 22.
Ruhweza has extensive experience working at the intersection of conservation and development in Africa and globally, fostering successful partnerships with a wide range of international institutions. She sits on the Board of The Global Ever-Greening Alliance and on the steering committee of the Future Earth Water-Food-Energy Nexus working group.
Agriculture has a growing environmental footprint, explained Ruhweza, and food emissions are expected to double by 2050. Exponential action is needed to find ways for food systems to co-exist successfully alongside biodiversity, while providing and maintaining healthy diets for humanity.
Ruhweza suggested three solutions for re-thinking the relationship between agriculture and nature: protecting the remaining natural habits from conversion to agriculture; managing agricultural landscapes in a way that support agriculture to enhance the richness and abundance of biodiversity and ecosystem functions, reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and enhances resilience to climate change; and restoring degraded agricultural lands and soils to healthy natural habitats or to support sustainable food production.
Organizations like CIMMYT have an opportunity to close the triple gap: producing enough healthy good for a growing population on the same extent of cropland available today, while reducing farm level emissions.
Breeding is a vital part of the global agrifood system, enabling scientists to adapt crops to developing environmental factors, support improved crop management, and inform policy interventions on global food production. The challenge to crop breeding increases every year, as farmers experience more of the effects of climate change, while the population and food demand continue to rise.
The study found that climate change necessitates a faster breeding cycle and must drive changes in breeding objectives by putting climate resilience as the top priority.
âThe risk of multiple crop failure due to climate change is very real. Breeding must become more deterministic in terms of adaption if we are to avert food price-hikes, hunger, and social unrest,â said Matthew Reynolds, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Wheat Physiology at CIMMYT.
Challenges in developing climate-ready crops originate from the paradox between urgent breeding requirements prompted by climate change and the limited understanding of how different genotypes interact with the climates. Integrating multiple disciplines and technologies including genotyping, phenotyping, and envirotyping can contribute to the development and delivery of climate-adapted crops in a shorter timeframe.
Jill Cairns in front of CIMMYT headquarters. (Photo: Sam Storr/CIMMYT)
Three scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are included in Clarivateâs 2022 Analysis of the most highly cited academic papers.
Members of Umoja, Tuaminiane, Upendo and Ukombozi groundnut farming groups in Naliendele, Tanzania showing their groundnut harvests in May 2022. (Photo: Susan Otieno/CIMMYT)
The Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Cereals in Africa (AVISA) project has developed draft national groundnut target product profiles in Malawi, Mozambique, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Groundnut is grown in eastern and southern Africa, where it remains an important food and oil crop from small holder farmers.
The new findings from the project are a result of work from groundnut crop breeding and improvement teams from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) representatives from the six largest groundnut producing countries in the eastern and southern Africa region.
Their important research was carried out with the support of representatives from the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) and CGIAR.
Developing target product profiles for groundnut
For the first time, through the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)-led AVISA program, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, groundnut breeding teams discussed and documented country level priorities at a meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The groundnut breeding teams also shared information on current groundnut production metrics and trends in the six national programs. This also helped to establish a common understanding of countriesâ level research priorities.
Futhi Magagula from CCARDESA and Elailani Abdalla, Mohamed Ahmed and Abdelrazeg Badadi from ARC-Sudan deliberate on groundnut market segments for Sudan. (Photo: Biswanath Das/CIMMYT)
Agnes Gitonga, market strategist at CGIAR Genetic Innovations Action Area, who led the team in understanding and applying the template, explained that the quality of a target product profile (TPP) is dependent on how well market segments are defined. âTo ensure target product profiles are an accurate reflection of customer needs, who include farmers, consumers, and processors,â she said.
âNational groundnut teams nominated Country Product Design Teams that will meet nationally before the end of 2022 to review and update country TPPs. These multi-stakeholder teams will ensure that the needs of diverse groups are captured and that breeding efforts are accurately focused.â.
Harish Gandhi, Breeding Lead, Dryland Legumes and Cereals (DLC) at CIMMYT, further explained that a bottom-up approach for defining country and regional priorities was used, where each country defined market segments and target product profile based on the use of the produce and growing conditions of farmers. This strategy involved each country defining its market segments and TPP, which was based on the use of the produce and growing conditions of farmers.
Building on the draft national target product profiles that were defined at the meeting, participants went on to prioritize traits such as diseases, nutrition and stress tolerance. These factors can be critical at regional level and important in identifying potential locations for conducting phenotyping. The phenotyping locations are distributed based on capacity of stations in different countries to screen for traits, such as late leaf spot disease screening in Msekera in Zambia, which is a known hotspot for the disease.
âWe had a good opportunity to consider grower needs as well as consumer needs in each country for purposes of defining the relevant groundnuts market segments. I believe this will have a positive impact on future work in groundnuts in the East and Southern Africa region,â reflected Gitonga.
The collaboration of the teams involved was a key factor for the projectâs success so far and will be crucial in working towards its goals in the future.
âInvolving different stakeholders in designing target product profile was an effective way of enabling transformation of individual preferences (area of interest) to collective preferences (targeted product) with consumer needs and markets in mind,â said Happy Daudi, Groundnut Breeding lead at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI).
Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Naliendele Station Groundnut Research Team ((L-R) Bakari Kidunda, Gerald Lukurugu, Anthony Bujiku and Dr. Happy Daudi) deliberate on national groundnut breeding priorities. (Photo: Biswanath Das/CIMMYT)
Strengthening groundnut breeding programs in east and southern Africa
The projectâs first meeting will provide an important foundation for future research, which will use the new findings as a blueprint.
Biswanath Das, Plant Breeder, Groundnut for East and Southern Africa region and NARES Coordinator and Programming lead for EiB said, âDefining national TPPs, identifying regionally important traits and mapping a testing network are fundamental building blocks of a modern breeding program.â
At the meeting, a schedule was laid out for peer-to-peer assessments of breeding programs within the regional network to take stock of current efforts and gaps. This step helps to develop customized capacity development plans for each network partner.
âThrough targeted and demand led capacity development, the East and Southern Africa groundnut crop improvement network aspires to strengthen the role of each network member in collaborative, regional breeding efforts,â Das said.
The meeting laid the ground for coordinated regional groundnut breeding and took steps towards formalizing a regional NARES-CGIAR-SME groundnut crop improvement network. By building on excellent connections that already exist among national groundnut breeding teams. Das underscored that the move will strengthen alignment of NARES, CGIAR and regional research efforts around a common vision of success.
In addition, David Okello who leads groundnut research at National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) Uganda, noted that the meeting provided a good opportunity for consolidating the existing network. He also looked forward to welcoming more groundnut improvement programs in the region on board.
CIMMYT and Join Hope sign a partnership agreement on November 14. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Join Hope have cemented their partnership at a research cooperation agreement signing ceremony on November 14.
Join Hope produce seed products including maize, wheat, cotton, and soybean, as well as fertilizers, agricultural films and other products. The company will be providing some funding for five years and will receive access to CIMMYTâs international wheat nurseries and some maize inbred lines, in addition to training and other services. The funding will strengthen CIMMYTâs research efforts in China and create opportunities for training in Pakistan.
âCIMMYT and China have developed a win-win partnership that was established back in 1974,â said CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts. âOver 48 years, we have collaborated and advanced research for agricultural development in the areas of breeding, genomic research, and sustainable farming systems.â
Through this partnership, as much as 10.7 million tons of grain has been added to Chinaâs wheat output. More than 26,000 CIMMYT wheat accessions were introduced and stored in China, and more than 300 wheat cultivars derived from CIMMYT germplasm have been released in China and are currently grown on nearly 10 percent of the Chinese wheat production area.
âThe cooperation agreement that we sign today is another step in the right direction,â continued Govaerts. âIt will bring us closer to the Chinese farmer and grain consumers who we all aim to serve.â
COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference for 2022, took place this year in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, between November 6-18. Scientists and researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) represented the organization at a wide range of events, covering gender, genebanks, soil health, and digital innovations.
Gender and food security
In an ICC panel discussion on Addressing Food Security through a Gender-Sensitive Lens on November 7, Director General Bram Govaerts presented on CIMMYTâs systems approach to address gender gaps in agriculture. This event formed part of the ICC Make Climate Action Everyoneâs Business Forum, which aimed to bring together experts to determine solutions to the planetâs biggest environmental challenges.
Govaerts highlighted the importance of extension and training services targeting female farmers, particularly those delivered by women communicators. This can be achieved through training female leaders in communities, which encourages other women to adopt agricultural innovations. He also emphasized the obstacles to global food security caused by conflict, climate change, COVID-19, and the cost-of-living crisis, which will in turn create more challenges for women in agriculture.
Hearne explained that the development of current and future varieties is dependent upon breeders sourcing and repackaging native genetic variation in high value combinations. The CGIAR network of germplasm banks holds vast collections of crops that are important for global food and feed supplies. Among the diversity in these collections is currently unexplored and unused native variation for climate adaptation.
Through strong partnerships, multi-disciplinary activities, and the harnessing of diverse skillsets in different areas of applied research and development work, the sprint will help to identify genetic variations of potential value for climate change adaptation and move that variation into products that breeders globally can adopt in their variety development work. Through these efforts, the sprint improves access to specific genetic variation currently sat in the vaults of germplasm banks and facilitates crop improvement programs to develop the varieties that farmers demand.
The sprint is a clear example of the shift in paradigms we are looking for, so that people in the year 2100 know we took the right decisions in 2022 for them to live in a better world, said Govaerts. He continued by emphasizing the need for the initiative to be integrated within the systems it aims to transform, and the importance of accelerating farmersâ access to seeds.
The initiative is only possible because of the existence of the genebank collections that have been conserved for humanity, and due to cross-collaboration across disciplines and sharing of data and resources.
Addressing soil fertility management
Tek Sapkota, senior scientist, presented at Taking Agricultural Innovation to the Next Level to Tackle the Climate Crisis, the AIM4C partner reception on November 11, which gathered critical actors committed to making agriculture one of the most impactful climate solutions. Hosted on the one-year anniversary of the AIM4C launch at COP26 and on the eve of the COP27 day on adaptation and agriculture, the event was a celebration of progress made to date to address the climate crisis by 2025.
Sapkota, who leads a project that is part of CIMMYTâs AIM4C innovation sprint submission, presented alongside the Minister of Climate Change and Environment from the United Arab Emirates, the Secretary of Agriculture for the United States, and the Regional Director for Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa at CGIAR.
In the Global South, farmers are being affected by unreliable weather patterns caused by climate change, which means they can no longer rely on their traditional knowledge. However, demand climate services can fill this vacuum, enabling meteorological agencies to produce accurate climate information, co-create digital climate services for agricultural systems, and support sustainable and inclusive business models.
Cover photo: A CIMMYT staff member at work in the maize active collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center, as featured in a session on Fast Tracking Climate Solution from Genebank Collections at COP27. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Kevin Pixley, Deputy Director General for Research (Breeding and Genetics), a.i., and Director of the Genetic Resources Program, said, âThis was not easy due to the challenges of gathering and analyzing complex data, but itâs a very important milestone for CIMMYT. Peer review in a highly respected journal is a gold standard that gives external critique and endorsement to the impact assessment methods used and estimates reported for CIMMYT and IITAâs work with partners in Africa.â
Around 60 percent of the 1,345 maize varieties released in this twenty-year period had a known CGIAR parentage.
Approximately 34 percent of the total maize area in 2015 was cultivated with CGIAR-related maize varieties from 1995 onwards, equivalent to 9.5 million hectares (ha); 13 percent of the maize area was under CGIAR-related varieties released before 1995.
The new maize varieties hold an economic benefit for the region, with an estimated value of US $1.1-1.6 billion in 2015 equally attributed to CGIAR, public-sector national research and extension programs, and private sector partners. With maximum annual investment in CGIAR maize breeding sitting at US $30 million, the estimated benefit-cost ratio for investment was between 12:1-17:1, depending on the underlying assumptions.
âThis paper is a valuable contribution to literature on impact assessment, highlighting the real challenges and approaches to quantify impact of work that is a collaboration among many,â continued Pixley. âBoth the methodologies and impact estimates will be valuable to researchers and funders of plant breeding programs.â
Use of fertilizer nitrogen (N) in farming is essential for food production but also contributes to climate crisis through GHG emissions. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer accounts for 2.4 percent of global emissions, while its supply chain accounts for 21.5% of the annual direct emissions from agriculture.
One potential solution for developing appropriate N management strategies is yield-scaled nitrous oxide (NâO) emission (YSNE), which has been recognized for its potential to balance food security and mitigate emissions. Improving understanding and use of YSNE under various field conditions is an essential part of widespread adoption of this approach.
Type 1 measures: increasing yields without changing NâO emissions. Type 2 measures: reducing NâO emissions without changing yields. Type 3 measures: both increasing yields and reducing NâO emissions. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A positive relationship between N inputs and YSNE was evidenced in more than 60% of the dataset across all three crops, while a small proportion had an optimum N rate that minimized YSNE. Type of crop, annual mean temperature and soil N content affected the background yield-scale NâO emission with higher soil temperature and N content leading to higher BYSNE. The analyses suggest that YSNE can be reduced by increasing yields, by reducing NâO emissions and both by increasing yields and reducing NâO emissions. The results of this study suggest appropriate N management strategies, yields, and N2O emissions.
The Global South, where work is more locally contextualized and applied, can end up excluded due to the existing reward structure, which rewards pure science first, then applied research and outreach.
As part of her decolonization toolkit, Snapp recommends ways to champion inclusivity, such as following a participatory research approach to create new knowledge, advocacy through authorship, and using alternative indices for performance evaluations.
âTo meet expected wheat demand for 2050, production will need to double, which means increasing harvests nearly 70 kilograms per hectare each year,â said Leonardo Crespo-Herrera, CIMMYT wheat scientist and 2022 Japan Award recipient. âBreeding will be a major contributor, but better agronomic practices and policies will also be critical.â (Photo: CIMMYT)
International science to save wheat â a crucial food grain for 2.5 billion of the worldâs poor â from a rising tide of insect pests known as aphids was lauded on November 22 with the 2022 Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers (the Japan Award).
The 2022 Japan Award recognized novel breeding approaches to identify and select for genetic resistance in wheat to two species of aphids that cause wheat grain losses reaching 20% and whose rapid spread is propelled by rising temperatures.
Aphid resistant wheat can contribute to more sustainable food production, protecting farmersâ harvests and profits, while reducing the need to use costly and harmful insecticides, said Leonardo Crespo-Herrera, bread wheat improvement specialist for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and one of the three 2022 Japan Award recipients.
âIn addition to genetic yield potential, CIMMYT wheat breeding focuses on yield stability, disease resistance, and nutritional and end-use quality,â Crespo-Herrera explained. âAdding another target trait â aphid resistance â makes wheat breeding much more challenging.â
Efficient and effective field testing to confirm the genetics
Crespo-Herrera and his CIMMYT colleagues managed to identify and characterize genome segments responsible for aphid resistance in wheat and its near relatives, as well as running innovative field tests for a set of elite wheat breeding lines that were predicted to carry that resistance.
âWith the aphid species called the greenbug, its feeding causes yellowing and necrotic spots on wheat, so we could actually measure and score wheat plants in plots that we deliberately infested with the aphids, keeping the resistant lines and throwing out the susceptible ones,â said Crespo-Herrera.
For the other species, the bird cherry-oat aphid, the only visible feeding damage is when the plants become stunted and die, so Crespo-Herrera and colleagues instead measured biomass loss and reduced growth in 1,000 artificially infested wheat lines, identifying a number of lines that had low scores for those measurements. Given that the lines tested came from a set that had already shown resistance to the greenbug, some of the successful lines feature resistance to both aphid species.
For the bird cherry-oat aphid, in two years of additional field tests, Crespo-Herrera and his team found that aphid populations were lower in plots sown with resistant wheat lines. âThe experiments included remote sensing measurements that identified certain spectral signatures correlated with aphid populations; this may help us to assess resistance in future field trials.â
The researchers also found that a cutting-edge approach known as âgenomic predictionâ provided good estimations regarding promising, aphid-resistant wheat breeding lines.
Motivating young researchers in research and development
Established in 2007, the Japan Award is an annual prize organized by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC) of Japanâs Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and supported by the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). Awardees receive a $5,000 cash prize.
In an excerpt of an official note regarding Crespo-Herreraâs research, those agencies said  ââŠThis study has been highly evaluated for developing (wheat) lines that have been distributed worldwide for use in wheat breeding, and the methods of this study have been applied to develop varieties with resistance mechanisms against various kinds of insects, not only aphids.â
Crespo-Herrera thanked JIRCAS and MAFF for the award. âI feel honored to have been selected.â
Wheat pathologist and geneticist Zhognhu He explained the spread of plant diseases such as wheat scab, which is spreading due to factors such as climate change and could threaten grain security and food safety. His work in wheat disease resistance using the vast germplasm resources in China is helping farmers worldwide.
China has also provided thousands of wheat germplasm resources to CIMMYT’s genebank in Mexico, contributing towards the development of new varieties.
CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts with representatives from ATI and EIAR. (Photo: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)
In early September 2022, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Director General Bram Govaerts made a brief visit to Ethiopia â his first since taking on the role in 2021. Over two days in Addis Ababa he met with a number of government representatives, donors and partners, including the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR), Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and The Development Fund.
Discussions centered around South-South cooperation and how CIMMYTâs strategic priority to transform agrifood systems can support efforts to improve the livelihoods of resource poor farmers in Ethiopia and national food security. Through longstanding collaboration with local partners, CIMMYT has continued to support the country through maize and wheat germplasm supply, joint technology generation and demonstrations at scale, but the visit provided an opportunity to identify shared priorities and key areas for partnership.
Supporting a plan for self-sufficiency
In a meeting with representatives from the ATI and EIAR, the CIMMYT delegation were briefed on the elements of the Government of Ethiopia’s ten-year development plan and its targets to achieve food self-sufficiency by 2030, with commercialization, advocacy on land ownership, and financial sector reform emerging as key areas of focus.
In terms of policy change, explained ATI Director General Mandefro Nigussie, there are ten core agendas that the government has set and plans to implement in the coming years. These include land governance and advisory; public-private partnership; marketing and infrastructure; and digital agriculture. The continued need for capacity building emerged as a key concern, as high staff turnover has meant many of those trained by CIMMYT previously had now left their posts.
Govaerts thanked ATI and EIAR for their collaboration so far, noting that this would surely continue as CIMMYT planned to double engagement, collaboration, production and partnerships in the coming years. Addressing the concerns raised around capacity building, particularly the training of experts, he explained that training opportunities had been limited in the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic and budget constraints, but capacity building for research and extension was included in the list of future action points, including a ministerial visit to CIMMYT offices in either Mexico or India.
The discussions were productive, and participants reached agreement on several other points, including collaboration on the establishment of a One Stop Shop by ATI; supporting EIARâs data warehouse development that will provide farmers with access to an agronomy advisory services hotline; and supporting the breading of wheat for heat tolerance and Ethiopiaâs irrigated wheat initiative.
Representatives from The Development Fund, a non-government organization (NGO) from Norway, meet with Govaerts. (Photo: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)
Strengthening collaboration
Govaerts later met with several representatives from The Development Fund, including Country Director for Ethiopia Ulf Flink, to discuss opportunities for strengthening partnerships for greater impact. The Development Fundâs Ethiopian portfolio has evolved over four decades from supporting relief work by one Tigrayan organization to supporting multiple projects with several organizations in Tigray and Afar, with a focus on socio-economic development to alleviate poverty, and improve food security and natural resource management in dryland areas.
While the organization has recently encountered challenges in Tigray, with several programs disrupted by instability, Flink noted that the implementation of The Development Fund’s collaborative projects with CIMMYT are progressing well and pointed out opportunities to scale-up joint operations in the region, where more than 5,000 farmers have been supported so far.
Govaerts thanked The Development Fund for the strong collaboration so far and emphasized CIMMYTâs need for continued strategic partnership in South-South collaboration that can make a difference to smallholders in the country. He also pointed to CIMMYTâs aim of doubling impact and coverage, highlighting that changes in partnersâ thinking and ways of intervening could be opportunities to strengthen collaboration with The Development Fund.
Cognizant of the limitations imposed by major challenges such as funding modalities â which are shifting towards humanitarian rather than development assistance â and the increasing price of mechanization, meeting participants were able to agree on a number of action points to support future collaborative work. These include continued support to project implementation in Tigray when the security situation allows; exploring opportunities to strengthen collaborations in other countries such as Malawi; and supporting research-based advocacy at both regional and zonal levels.
Additionally, CIMMYT will share its methodology for Integrated Development and research-based humanitarian development support, and work with The Development Fund to provide improved crop varieties and grain with smallholder famers in drought- and conflict-affected areas where projects are being implemented.
Over the next 10 years, maize is due to become the most widely grown and traded crop globally and is already the cereal with the highest production volume. Its versatility offers multiple purposes â as a livestock feed in both developed and developing economies, as a key component of human diets in several low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia, and for an array of non-food uses worldwide.
The study primarily focused on the Global South, where intensive work is being done to transform the agrifood systems in which maize plays a key role. Through scientific advancements over time, maize yields have increased, although heterogeneously, while the area under cultivation of maize has also expanded due to sharply growing demand.
Research determined that this transformation offers opportunities for investment in maize research and development (R&D) to determine ways that production and productivity can be significantly improved without expanding maize area or creating negative impacts on the environment.
âAgriculture systems are sensitive to climate change because they are dependent on stable, long-term conditions to determine productivity, quality and yields,â said Bram Govaerts, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the conferenceâs keynote speaker. âFarmers are struggling to cope with climate risks and their ability to meet rising global food demands.â
Breeding maize and wheat with traits resistant to the consequences of climate change, such as flooding, drought, and heat, moving growing areas to amenable climates, and promoting soil health and biodiversity were all proposed as solutions to address the challenges highlighted by Govaerts.
Bram Govaerts presents at Cereals and Grains 22. (Photo: MarĂa Itria Ibba/CIMMYT)
One of the biggest challenges facing the world today is how to balance a healthy diet for humans with agricultural production that is good for the environment. At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), scientists work closely with farmers to achieve these aims and contribute towards food security, as well as improving their livelihoods and nutrition.
Govaerts explored the sensitivity of agricultural systems to the impacts of climate change, which in turn affects farmersâ ability to successfully produce crops and their capacity to meet rising global demand for food. However, agriculture itself is not immune from contributing towards climate change, currently accounting for 24% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The effects of climate change are not the only pressure on agrifood systems, with other system shocks such as COVID-19 and conflict causing disruption to production and yields, prices, and supply chains, said Govaerts. For example, the current Ukraine crisis, which has heavily affected wheat imports and exports, underscores the need for long-term solutions to stabilize global food security. The encroaching cost of living crisis is adding further challenges to an already delicate situation, and hunger is predicted to increase across the Global South.
Investing in solutions
Research and development (R&D) has an essential role to play in addressing this crisis. Evidence shows that for every $1 USD invested in anticipatory action to safeguard lives and livelihoods, up to $7 USD can be saved by avoiding losses in disaster-affected communities. Simply put, proactive investment in agricultural science will save money in the long run by solving problems before they reach critical point.
CIMMYTâs R&D projects focus on extensive research on climate change adaptation and mitigation in maize and wheat-based production systems, helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate shocks and to raise and maintain yields in profitable and sustainable ways, and on capacity building for stakeholders in the development and application of new technologies.
Scientists are also harnessing the power of genebanks and breeding, focusing on safeguarding, characterization, and use of biodiversity to identify characteristics of seeds for genetic gain, adaptation to climate change, and better nutritional quality. This means farmers can access more and better seeds that respond to agrifood needs.
These innovations are only as effective as their level of adoption, which is why CIMMYT works closely with actors at all levels of agrifood systems.
Climate science at work in Africa
Govaerts shared examples of CIMMYTâs climate change adaptation and mitigation work include the introduction of drought-tolerant maize in Zimbabwe, which yielded more than 0.6 t/ha more than previous varieties. This equates to $240 USD more income per hectare, which provides nine monthsâ worth of additional food security at no extra cost.
In Malawi, drought-tolerant maize varieties planted under conservation agriculture yielded 66% more than non-tolerant varieties planted under conventional tillage. Farmers harvested more maize while spending on average 35-45 fewer days working in the field.
There is also an increase in popularity for stress-tolerant wheat varieties in Ethiopia, such as Dandaâa, Kakaba, Kingbird and Pavon 76.
Scientists have also combined tropical fall armyworm (FAW)-resistant maize germplasm, from Mexico, with elite stress resilient germplasm developed in sub-Saharan Africa to successfully breed three FAW-tolerant elite maize hybrids. This is addressing the serious threat of FAW to maize production in eastern and southern Africa.
Transformation through partnership working
Following an Integrated Agrifood Systems Approach (IASA) has given CIMMYT significant edge by building effective partnerships with the public and private sector. Collaboration on responsible sourcing with Kelloggâs and Grupo Bimbo, as well as a new three-year partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft fĂŒr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Grupo Modelo to encourage water-conserving farming practices, will contribute to a one-system approach.
More than 18 million farmers worldwide benefit through CIMMYTâs improved maize and wheat system farming practices. With so much at stake for the entire world, CIMMYT has no plans to stop now.
