This open-access textbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date guide for students and practitioners wishing to access the key disciplines and principles of wheat breeding. Edited by Matthew Paul Reynolds, head of Wheat Physiology at CIMMYT, and Hans-Joachim Braun, former Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, it covers all aspects of wheat improvement, from utilizing genetic resources to breeding and selection methods, data analysis, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, yield potential, genomics, quality nutrition and processing, physiological pre-breeding, and seed production.
It will give readers a balanced perspective on proven breeding methods and emerging technologies. The content is rich in didactic material that considers the background to wheat improvement, current mainstream breeding approaches, translational research, and avant-garde technologies that enable breakthroughs in science to impact productivity, facilitating learning.
While the volume provides an overview for professionals interested in wheat, many of the ideas and methods presented are equally relevant to small grain cereals and crop improvement in general.
All chapter authors are world-class researchers and breeders whose expertise spans cutting-edge academic science to impacts in farmers’ fields.
Given the challenges currently faced by academia, industry, and national wheat programs to produce higher crop yields, often with fewer inputs and under increasingly harsher climates, this volume is a timely addition to their toolkit.
A wheat field of Bamyan, Afghanistan. (Photo: Nigel Poole/SOAS University of London)
The UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet recently said of Afghanistan, “In the wake of years of conflict, and since the takeover by the Taliban in August last year, the country has been plunged into a deep economic, social, humanitarian and human rights crisis” (UN News 2022a). International humanitarian agencies and NGOs have persisted in supporting the population, half of whom are suffering food insecurity, and some of whom are facing unprecedented and catastrophic levels of hunger (UN News 2022b). The conflict in Ukraine is exacerbating the crises in poor import-dependent countries and humanitarian programmes, and Afghanistan will be among the most affected (Bentley and Donovan 2022).
The rural sector underlies Afghanistan’s economic potential, with agriculture as the foundation of the economy. Wheat, both irrigated and rainfed, is the principal agricultural crop, and bread is the major component of the Afghan diet. For decades the country has relied for food security on neighbors such as Kazakhstan and Pakistan and import dependence appears to be a permanent feature of the agricultural economy (Sharma and Nang 2018).
In a recent paper published in Plants, People, Planet, CIMMYT scientists and partners from SOAS University of London, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, FAO-Afghanistan, The HALO Trust, Afghanaid and the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan call for renewed investment in Afghanistan’s wheat and agricultural sector.
Bread and spread in Bamyan, Afghanistan. (Photo: Nigel Poole/SOAS University of London)
Improved CIMMYT wheat germplasm has supported agricultural development
CIMMYT’s activities in Afghanistan have focused primarily on supporting the national agricultural research system through the provision of elite, widely adapted germplasm with strong disease resistance. Recent estimates of genetic gains over 14 years (2002-2003 to 2015-2016) of testing of CIMMYT’s Elite Spring Wheat Yield Trial material across 11 locations in Afghanistan documents significant grain yield progress of 115 kg/year. Average yields across 11 testing locations ranged from 3.58 to 5.97 t/ha (Sharma et al., 2021). This indicates that yield potential can be increased through introduction and testing of internationally improved germplasm.
But such investment in research has come to a halt. Local public- and private-sector wheat breeding activities have been largely absent in Afghanistan for over a decade. Hence, wheat productivity remains low due to the limited availability of improved varieties, inadequate quality seed production and distribution. Although in the short term, humanitarian interventions are likely to be the major determinant of food security, we propose that strategic rebuilding of the wheat system will lay the foundation for restoring Afghanistan’s agricultural production, food supplies, nutrition and health. Here we signal opportunities for future improvement.
Opportunities to build climate resilience and enhance seed systems
The need for climate-resilient varieties that meet farmers’ varied requirements and consumer preferences is paramount. Afghan farmers need varieties with improved traits such as heat and drought resilience, incorporating functional variation from existing landrace collections. In addition, agronomic interventions such as conservation agriculture will offer substantial benefits in buffering environmental stresses.
The technological pathways for seed (re-)distribution are a critical part of the innovation pathway from plant breeding to production and productivity. Given the particularities of markets in Afghanistan, both the public sector and the private sector often fail to reach farming geographies that are remote, diverse, and unserved by physical and institutional infrastructure. For many years, basic public services and agricultural interventions have been provided by the NGO sector, and this form of delivery continues. Hence, local ‘informal’ systems for seed and inputs are important to smallholder farmers.
Investment to support both irrigated and rain-fed wheat production
Rehabilitation of ancient irrigation practices and infrastructure could once again serve local farming in a way that supports stable production, restores Afghan heritage, and rebuilds social cohesion. However, there are no easy solutions to the challenges of increasing irrigation to boost agriculture. Although yields are lower, there is potential to optimize breeding specifically for rain-fed production. We expect rain-fed agriculture to continue given the limitations of water and infrastructure access.
Wheat improvement must be embedded in the wider agricultural environment. There is a renewed need for a deep understanding of social, political, and cultural systems and how they vary between villages, and from districts, provinces, and regions to people groups. We need to re-envision the roles of men and women in agriculture, and investment in skills and capacity building to provide a stable foundation for the eradication of poverty and food insecurity.
A new wheat program for Afghanistan
We highlight the urgent need for:
Resumption of breeding of nutritious and climate-resilient varieties.
Development of a knowledge base on current wheat production systems, gendered agricultural roles, farmer needs for varietal change and consumer preferences for tasty and nutritious wheat-based products.
Development of seed information systems using new technologies to enhance farmer engagement in research.
Expansion of appropriate irrigation systems and development of nature-based solutions to protect soil and to preserve and conserve water.
Investment in capacity building among private, non-governmental, university and public stakeholders in seed systems and delivery of agricultural services.
These foundations will support the wider regeneration of Afghanistan’s agricultural sector and enhance food security, nutrition and health of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Full paper
Poole, N., Sharma, R., Nemat, O.A., Trenchard, R., Scanlon, A., Davy, C., Ataei, N., Donovan, J. and Bentley, A.R. (in production). Sowing the wheat seeds of Afghanistan’s future. Plants, People, Planet DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10277
References
Bentley, A. and Donovan, J. (2022). What price wheat? Crisis in Ukraine underscores the need for long-term solutions for global food security. Retrieved 16 June 2022, from https://staging.cimmyt.org/blogs/what-price-wheat/.
Sharma, R.K. and Nang, M. (2018). Afghanistan wheat seed scenario: Status and imperatives. International Journal of Agricultural Policy and Research6(5): 71-75 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15739/IJAPR.18.008
How does CIMMYT’s improved maize get to the farmer?
CIMMYT is proud to announce a new improved subtropical maize hybrid that is now available for uptake by public and private sector partners, especially those interested in marketing or disseminating hybrid maize seed across mid-altitudes of Mexico and similar agro-ecologies. National agricultural research systems (NARS) and seed companies are invited to apply for a license to commercialize this new hybrid to bring the benefits of the improved seed to farming communities.
The deadline to submit applications is 15 August 2022. Applications received after that date will be considered during the following round of product allocations.
The newly available CIMMYT maize hybrid, CIM20LAPP2B-2, was identified through rigorous trialing and a stage-gate advancement process that culminated in the 2020 Stage 5 trials for CIMMYT’s Latin American tropical mid-altitude maize breeding pipeline (LA-PP2B). While individual products will vary, the LA-PP2B pipeline aims to develop maize hybrids fitting the product profile described in the following table:
Product Profile
Basic traits
Nice-to-have / Emerging traits
Latin America Product Profile 2B (LA-PP2B)
Intermediate-maturing, yellow kernel, high-yielding, drought tolerant, resistant to FSR, GLS, and ear rots
TSC, TLB
Information about the newly available CIMMYT maize hybrid from the Latin America breeding program, application instructions, and other relevant material is available in the CIMMYT Maize Product Catalog and the links provided below.
A women farmer picking up lodged paddy field after the untimely flash floods in Nepal (Photo: Sravan Shrestha/ICIMOD)
As climate change-induced disasters surge around the world, it is the people of the least developed countries paying the bulk of the costs. According to the International Disaster Database, the number of disasters across the globe has risen by 74.5% — comparing data from 1980–1999 with 2000–2019 — and these numbers are expected to increase due to the most recent climate change scenarios. The major climate change impacts identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change relevant for Nepal include an increase in economic losses from weather and climate-related events, with a significant contribution related to agricultural losses.
In Nepal, for example, an unexpected and untimely excessive rainfall and flood in October of 2021 caused massive damage to the ready-to-harvest crop across all major rice-producing areas of Nepal – threatening the food security and livelihood of the country’s smallholder rice farmers.
A rice damage assessment was essential to gather insights on the seed production losses and propose anticipatory measures for seed management and distribution to farmers for the next season. Thanks to a collaboration between scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a rapid loss assessment through a survey of rice-growing farmers was conducted to quickly assess the damage and recommend critical operational decisions to the Nepali government to mitigate the impact. With the help of an operational mobile app, Geofairy, the USAID-supported Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project (NSAF), implemented by CIMMYT, surveyed 253 farmers in six districts of the mid and far western region with a particular focus on the potential seed production losses for next year’s cultivation.
Unforeseen disaster
The 2021 disaster in Nepal came as a shock to farmers: the 2021 monsoon was proceeding as forecasted in the seasonal outlook, and by the end of the season, farmers were generally expecting bumper rice crops. The withdrawal of southwest monsoon system was declared in early October. However, from 18-20 October 2021, instead of dry spell, the country experienced a three-day excessive rainfall and accompanying flooding that caused massive damage to the ready-to-harvest crop across all major rice-producing areas in the southern lowland Terai region of Nepal.
The partially harvested and standing crop suffered three kinds of damage. First, farmers near the riverbanks lost their ready-to-harvest paddy as it was swept away by flash floods. The second category was in the low-lying southern plains, where rainwater inundated the harvested, but not collected, paddy fields for more than two days, causing seeds or grains on the panicles to sprout. Sprouted seeds on the mother plant have reduced germination capacity and vigor, and cannot be stored for a long period while maintaining the germination capacity. The third damage was stem and root lodging (falling over) due to powerful winds.
Digital technologies for rapid damage assessment
With conventional approaches, on-ground damage assessments after a disaster can take weeks, sometimes months, limiting critical operational decisions in the first few hours and days. However, Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) was already prepared: since 2019, the Ministry has been using satellite remote sensing for in-season rice area estimation through the USAID-supported SERVIR HKH program.
Thanks to the platform, experts from ICIMOD were able to share a satellite image-based assessment as early as 22 October 2021: two days after the flood.
This existing digital crop monitoring platform was used to produce a rapid-damage assessment to provide an analytical basis for initial decisions. In the rapid damage assessment, GMP IMERGE satellite data was used to measure the rainfall intensity across Nepal (Figure 1) and Selntinel-1 SAR satellite data was used to map flood water extent in the Terai district of Nepal on 21 October 2022. The assessment also served as a planning tool for in-depth damage evaluation for farmer compensations.
Widespread flooding
Figure 1. Rainfall distribution during 18-20 October 2021 based on the GPM IMERGE satellite precipitation data
Satellite precipitation data showed the occurrence of hefty rainfall in Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha and Jhapa districts in the Eastern region. In the Western region, Kailali and Kanchanpur experienced intense rainfall, while most of the central districts of the Terai region remained below heavy rain.
Based on satellite images acquired, the flood extent assessment showed major flood spread in the western parts, including Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya and Banke districts (Figure 2). The flood water extent remained lower in the Eastern districts compared to the West. The causes of severe damage were from direct rain pour and winds in the Eastern region, and flood swept from riverbanks in the Western parts.
Figure 2. Flood extent on 21 October 2021 in Kanchanpur district based on the Sentinel-1 satellite data
Assessment results: Reduced seed quality and shortage of rice seed supply for the next planting season
According to a field-based assessment, the two most popular varieties, Radha-4 and Sarju-52, are the most affected by the flood, especially in Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts. Accordingly, 89% of Radha-4 and 42% of Sarju-52 seed production field has faced partial or complete loss in the surveyed districts. As per the district-wise loss assessment, 80% of Sirju-52 grown in Kailali and 61% in Kanchanpur suffered 50-100% damage. Similarly, nearly 60% of Radha-4 grown in Banke and Bardiya districts has suffered a crop loss ranging from 50-100%. This clearly indicates a huge shortage of these varieties for the next rice season which calls for immediate action to mitigate the seed deficit.
The survey found that farmers in Bardiya, Banke and Kailali had severe or complete crop loss, while those in Kanchanpur, Kapilvastu and Rupendehi had partial crop failure (Figure. 3)
Figure 3. Level of rice loss (%) due to flood, based on a rapid crop loss assessment in six districts of Nepal
Losses and the limits of early warning systems
According to the government’s final estimates, about 1,10,000 ha of rice crop area was damaged across the country. Respondents from the western districts reported that 80% of the farmers could only manage 50% or less than the expected harvest. The farmers reported an average input cost of $526 per hectare (NPR 63,162 per ha) and gross expected income of $972 per hectare (NPR 116,674 per ha) – leaving a very narrow margin of profit. To compensate for this economic blow, the government distributed $43 million (NPR 5.52 billion) among the farmers. However, with a total loss of $0.1 billion (NPR 12 billion), farmers still suffered a great loss.
Figure 4. Percentage of safe harvest in four western districts (Kapilvastu, Rupandehi, Kanchanpur and Bardiya) of Nepal
Although early warning systems were in place in the surveyed districts, some respondents expressed low trust and reliability in the early warnings and only 20% of respondents were aware of the heavy rainfall forecast issued three days before the extreme event. Earlier studies in the Ganges basin have suggested that a 10–20-day lead-time forecast is needed to avoid agriculture losses. However, predicting a high magnitude of low-frequency extreme events with sufficient advance notice is still a significant challenge in climate science.
How to mitigate and weather such challenges?
Nepal’s rice seed replacement rate is around 20%, which means that about 80% of farmers are not accessing good quality seeds every season. The addition of this untimely flash flood and the subsequent seed loss will further worsen seed availability, in turn contributing to food insecurity at the national level. The assessment findings have several implications for actions needed to mitigate future climate shocks.
Among other mitigation approaches, stakeholders need to assess in-country level quality rice seed availability and design a plan to mobilize preferred varieties from the surplus districts — less affected by the flood — to those in need.
During challenging times, maintaining seed quality standards might be difficult. Hence, stakeholders need to consider adopting a flexible quality standard such as “quality declared seeds” in similar emergency scenarios. The “quality declared seed” standard helps as an important intervention when normal seed production is greatly affected by drought and/or flood. It offers alternative seed quality standards for seed producers to provide seeds and ensure continuity of crop production.
Promoting climate-resilient varieties, especially lodging- or submergence-tolerant rice varieties, will better withstand flooding as compared to the susceptible ones.
Furthermore, farmers need access to a suitable crop insurance scheme to offset seed losses during extreme weather events. For instance, seed growers can purchase a group insurance scheme where customized premiums could be available to the members.
Some of the above mitigation approaches can be applied when extreme weather events are well forecasted and less severe. However, in the wake of an emerging climate crisis and limited mitigation options, there is a need to balance efforts on all aspects of adaptation, including the adoption of crop management practices including accelerated varietal turnover to modify threats and prevent adverse impacts, strengthen early warning systems with a focus on last-mile connection to minimize damages, and develop innovative mechanisms to address risk transfer and loss and damage compensations for sharing losses.
For the first time ever, a biotechnology team has identified vegetative storage proteins (VSP) in maize and activated them in the leaves to stockpile nitrogen reserves for release when plants are hit by drought, which also causes nutrient stress, according to a recent report in Plant Biotechnology Journal. In two years of field testing, the maize hybrids overexpressing the VSP in leaf cells significantly out-yielded the control siblings under managed drought stress applied at the flowering time, according to Kanwarpal Dhugga, a principal scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
“One of the two most widely grown crops, maize increasingly suffers from erratic rainfall and scarcer groundwater for irrigation,” Dhugga said. “Under water stress, nitrogen availability to the plant is also attenuated. If excess nitrogen could be stored in the leaves during normal plant growth, it could help expedite the plant’s recovery from unpredictable drought episodes. In our experimental maize hybrids, this particular VSP accumulated to more than 4% in mesophyll cells, which is five times its normal levels, and offered an additional, dispensable source of nitrogen that buffered plants against water deficit stress.”
Dhugga noted as well that the study, whose authors include scientists from Corteva Agriscience, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), provides experimental evidence for the link between drought tolerance and adequate nitrogen fertilization of crop plants. “This mechanism could also help farmers and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, where maize is grown on nearly 40 million hectares, accounts for almost one-third of the region’s caloric intake, and frequently faces moderate to severe drought.”
Scientists multiply and power up vegetative storage proteins in maize leaves as nutrient stockpiles for drought-stressed maize crops. Graphic adapted from: Pooja Gupta, Society for Experimental Biology (SEB).
We report with great sadness the death of Ephrame Havazvidi, who passed away on May 14, 2022.
Havazvidi was one of the world’s pioneering wheat breeders. He served on the Independent Steering Committee of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) from 2015 to 2021. He was a renowned seed and crop scientist of the wheat industry in Zimbabwe and the wider region and a frequent expert contributor to projects of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in the region.
WHEAT Independent Steering Committee chair John Porter said, “Ephrame will no longer be gracing us with his big beaming smile, bright eyes and gorgeous laughter. Ephrame was a unique person and did so much to promote food security in Zimbabwe. He always supported the WHEAT Independent Steering Committee and shared his pan-African perspective on wheat-based food security. It was a great pleasure to have had him on our team.”
“Ephrame was not only an outstanding partner of both CIMMYT’s maize and wheat programs, especially when it came to promoting drought-tolerant varieties, but first and foremost a lovely human being,” said Prasanna Boddupalli, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program.
Born in Masvingo District on 22 September 1954, Havazvidi held Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Philosophy and Bachelor’s degrees, all obtained from the University of Zimbabwe.
Before joining the University of Zimbabwe (then University of Rhodesia) in 1974 to 1976, he was among the top academic achievers at Berejena Mission in Chibi and Goromonzi High School for his Cambridge GCE “O” and “A” level studies respectively. Havazvidi also completed a year-long Executive Development program at the University of Zimbabwe and attended several management developments programs that include SMI.
Havazvidi began his career as a cotton agronomist at the Cotton Research Institute under the Zimbabwe Department of Research and Specialist Services in the then Ministry of Agriculture in Kadoma in 1977. He then joined Seed Co Limited, then Seed Coop, as a seed production research agronomist in 1980, where he pioneered research on maize seed production. Shortly thereafter, he became Seed Co’s principal wheat breeder between 1982 and 2011; as Seed Co breeder, Ephrame released 28 high-yielding wheat varieties that improved farmer productivity in Southern African countries. The varieties for irrigated areas helped to reduce Zimbabwe’s import burden at the time.
He also developed several high high-yielding maize inbred lines for Seed Co. Havazvidi has written several journal articles and presented at several high-level symposia and conferences locally and globally including for the CIMMYT-led Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), and HarvestPlus Pro Vitamin A projects.
In 2020, he was recognized as one of 20 most influential plant breeders by the Southern African Plant Breeding Association (SAPBA).
Hazvidi is survived by his wife Elizabeth, four children — Charles, Happines, Kennedy and Rumbi – and grandchildren.
Our planet is facing a massive biodiversity crisis. Deeply entwined with our concurrent climate crisis, this crisis may well constitute the sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history. Increasing agricultural production, whether by intensification of extensification, is a major driver of biodiversity loss. Beyond humanity’s moral obligation to not drive other species to extinction, biodiversity loss is also associated with the erosion of critical processes that maintain the Earth system in the only state that can support life as we know it. It is also associated with the emergence of novel, zoonotic pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is responsible for the current COVID-19 global pandemic.
Conservation ecologists have proposed two solutions to this challenge: sparing or sharing land. The former implies practicing a highly intensive form of agriculture on a smaller land area, thereby “sparing” a greater proportion of land for biodiversity. The latter implies a multifunctional approach that boosts the density of wild flora and fauna on agricultural land. Both have their weaknesses though: sparing often leads to agrochemical pollution of adjacent ecosystems, while sharing implies using more land for any production target.
In an article in Biological Conservation, agricultural scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), argue that, while both land sharing and sparing are part of the solution, the current debate is too focused on trade-offs and tends to use crop yield as the sole metric of agricultural performance. By overlooking potential synergies between agriculture and biodiversity and ignoring metrics that may matter more to farmers than yield —for example, income, labor productivity, or resilience — the authors argue that the two approaches have had limited impact on the adoption by farmers of practices with proven benefits on both biodiversity and agricultural production.
Beyond the zero-sum game
At the heart of the debate around land sparing versus land sharing is a common assumption: there is a zero-sum relationship between wild species density and agricultural productivity per unit of land. Hence, the answer to the challenge of balancing biodiversity conservation with feeding a growing human population appears to entail some unpalatable trade-offs, no matter which side of the debate you side with. As the debate has largely been driven by conservation ecologists, proposed solutions often approach conserving biodiversity in ways that offer limited benefits, and often losses, to farmers.
On the land sparing side, the vision is to carve up rural landscapes almost as a planner would zone urban space: some areas would be zoned for highly intensive forms of agricultural production, largely devoid of wild species, while others would be zoned as biodiversity-rich areas. As the authors point out, however, such a strictly segregated view of land use is challenged by the natural migratory patterns of species, their need for diverse types of ecosystems over the course of the seasons or their lifecycles, and the high risk of pollution associated with intensive agriculture, such as run-off and leaching of agrochemicals, and pesticide drift.
Proponents of the land sharing view argue for a multifunctional approach to agricultural production that introduces a greater density of wild species onto agricultural land, thus integrating production and conservation into the same land units. This, however, inevitably diminishes agricultural productivity, as measured by yield.
This view, the article argues, overlooks the synergies between agriculture and biodiversity. Not only can biodiversity support agriculture through ecosystem services, but farmlands also support many species. For example, the patchiness created in the landscape by swidden agriculture or by grazing livestock supports more biodiversity than closed-canopy ecosystems, benefiting open-habitat species in particular. And except for rare forms of “controlled environment agriculture” such as hydroponics, all agricultural systems depend on the ecosystem services rendered by a multitude of organisms, from soil fertility maintenance to pollination and pest control.
Tzeltal farmers in Chiapas, Mexico. (Photo: Peter Lowe for CIMMYT)
“Agriculture is about flexibility and pragmatism,” said Frédéric Baudron, a system agronomist at CIMMYT and the lead author of the study. “Farmers need to be presented with a wider basket of solutions than the dichotomy of high-yielding and polluting agriculture versus low-input and low-yielding agriculture offered by land sharing/sparing. Virtually all production systems require both external inputs and ecosystem services. In addition, agricultural scientists have developed a variety of solutions, such as precision agriculture, to minimize the risk of pollution when using external inputs, and push-pull technology to harness ecosystem services for tangible productivity gains.
Similarly, an exclusive focus on yield as a measure of agricultural performance obscures ways in which greater biodiversity on agricultural land can support farmers’ livelihoods and economic wellbeing. The authors show, for example, that simplified landscapes in southern Ethiopia tend to have higher crop productivity. But more diverse landscape in the same area, while hosting more biodiversity, produce more fuelwood, support a higher livestock productivity, provide a greater dietary diversity, and are more resilient to environmental stresses and external economic shocks, all of which being highly valued by local people.
Imagining landscapes where biodiversity and people win
The land sharing versus sparing debate deserves enormous credit for bringing attention to the role of agriculture in biodiversity loss and for pushing the scientific community and policymakers to address the problem and think about how to balance agriculture and conservation. As the authors of this paper show, as researchers from a more diverse range of scientific disciplines join the debate, there is tremendous potential to move the conversation from a vision that pits agriculture against biodiversity and towards solutions that highlight the potential synergies between these activities.
“It is our hope that this paper will stimulate other agricultural scientists to contribute to the debate on how to feed a growing population while safeguarding biodiversity. This is possibly one of the biggest challenges of our rapidly changing agri-food systems. But we have the technologies and the analytics to face this challenge,” Baudron said.
Cover photo: Pilot farm in Yangambi, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo: Axel Fassio/CIFOR)
(Left to right) Bram Govaerts, Claudia Sadoff, Joaquín Lozano and Kevin Pixley stand for a group photo next to the Norman Borlaug sculpture at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
Senior leadership from CGIAR had the opportunity to strengthen ties with senior leaders and researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) during a visit on April 25–26, 2022. Claudia Sadoff, Executive Management Team Convener and Managing Director for Research Delivery and Impact, visited CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico, and the experimental station in Toluca, west of Mexico City. Joining her was Joaquín Lozano, CGIAR’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
On April 25, 2022, scientists provided an overview of CIMMYT’s research in Africa and Asia and discussed with Sadoff how CIMMYT’s science and operations contribute to the One CGIAR 2030 Strategy. Examples included sustainable agri-food systems research in South Asia and maize research in Africa, with emphasis on work that aligns with CGIAR’s Action Areas and impact. These sessions underlined CIMMYT’s involvement in multiple CGIAR Initiatives, its influence on policy, and evidence of translating science into impact on the ground.
Lozano and Sadoff toured the facilities, including the CIMMYT Museum, the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center, and the Applied Biotechnology laboratory. Along the way, scientists explained their latest research and answered questions about conservation agriculture, innovation hubs, climate-smart technologies, and scale-appropriate mechanization.
In the afternoon, CIMMYT and CGIAR representatives had targeted discussions on poverty reduction, gender equity and social inclusion, climate adaptation, environmental health and biodiversity,
The remainder of the first day was spent at the Bioscience complex, with visits to the wheat molecular breeding lab, the greenhouse, the wheat quality laboratory, and the maize quality laboratory, which hosted a discussion on nutrition and health.
(Left to right) Joaquín Lozano, Claudia Sadoff, Carolina Sansaloni, Bram Govaerts and Alberto Chassaigne stand for a group photo inside the germplasm bank at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
Honoring our roots, growing into the future
On April 26, 2022, Lozano and Sadoff joined representatives from the Mexican and Indian governments, CIMMYT colleagues, and other partners at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Toluca for a dedication event for the late Sanjaya Rajaram.
In Sadoff’s speech, she praised CIMMYT’s highly committed staff and shared her honor at being invited to such an event. “Dr. Norman Borlaug, Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, Dr. Ravi Singh, and many more talented researchers who have worked and continue to work at CIMMYT have built an outstanding international research organization that has been a role model for other CGIAR centers,” she said. “In view of this impressive history, it is very important that we all contribute to continue CIMMYT’s legacy and to multiply its impact worldwide, but also to honor those great colleagues who have truly inspired us with their impressive achievements.”
After the event, Lozano and Sadoff toured the station and praised the engaging program produced by CIMMYT.
For Lozano, it was his second visit to CIMMYT. “It was an honor to be back at CIMMYT HQ in Mexico this week with Claudia,” he said. “It’s evident that CIMMYT’s science, staff and partners support and proactively contribute to our global research strategy for a food-secure future. A big thanks to Bram Govaerts and the CIMMYT team for such a constructive dialogue and hospitality.”
Firpo was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he received a BSc degree as an agronomy engineer in 1997 from the University of the Republic, College of Agronomy. His PhD degree in 2008 was from the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota (UMN). He began his career as a postdoctoral research associate with the Department of Plant Pathology and the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Lab, and then became a research assistant professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at UMN in 2017.
Firpo has been a vital member in the global cereal rust pathology community and contributed substantially to the fight against Ug99 and other virulent wheat stem rust races that have re-emerged around the world and pose serious threats to food security. Firpo’s contributions are not only within the realm of research of great impact, but also include training 79 scientists and facilitating the establishment of a world-class research group in Ethiopia. He has worked to improve international germplasm screening in Ethiopia. As a postdoctoral research associate, Firpo’s first assignment was to search for new sources of resistance to Ug99 in durum wheat, used for pasta, and related tetraploid wheat lines. That project took him to Ethiopia, where an international Ug99-screening nursery for durum wheat was established at Debre Zeit Research Center. He worked closely with researchers from the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the International Maize and Wheat Research Center (CIMMYT) to improve the methodologies for screening and to provide hands-on training to researchers managing the international screening nursery. During a period of 10 years (from 2009 to 2019), he traveled to Ethiopia 21 times to evaluate stem rust reactions of US and international durum wheat germplasm and completed the screening of the entire durum collection (more than 8,000 accessions) from the USDA National Small Grains Collection.
Firpo’s research on sources and genetics of stem rust resistance led to discoveries of valuable genetic resistance in durum and other relatives of wheat. These sources of resistance have provided the needed diversity to ensure the development and sustainability of durable stem rust resistance.
With frequent epidemics and severe yield losses caused by stem rust in eastern Africa, establishing a functional rust pathology laboratory to support international screening, as well as to monitor and detect new virulences in the pathogen population, became a high priority for the international wheat research community. Utilizing the onground opportunities in Ethiopia, Firpo and his colleagues at the CDL and UMN enthusiastically participated in building up the rust pathology lab at the Ambo Plant Protection Center of EIAR. Firpo traveled to Ambo 11 times to provide hands-on training to staff and to develop cereal rust protocols to suit local conditions. He worked closely with colleagues at CDL, EIAR, and CIMMYT to secure and upgrade facilities, equipment and supplies to a standard that ensures reliable rust work will be carried out. As a result, the rust pathology lab at the Ambo Center became the only laboratory in eastern Africa, and one of a handful in the world, that can conduct high-quality race analysis of wheat stem rust samples and provide vital and necessary support for breeding global wheat varieties for rust resistance. Currently, the laboratory is playing a critical role in the global surveillance of the stem rust pathogen and supports wheat breeding efforts led by EIAR, CIMMYT, and the USDA.
Firpo has been passionate in supporting capacity building of human resources in Ethiopia and elsewhere. He has been eager to share his knowledge whenever he encounters an opportunity to do so. In addition to the direct training of the staff at the Ambo Center, Firpo accepted invitations to provide training lectures and hands-on field- and greenhouse-based workshops on rust pathology at three research centers in Ethiopia. He prepared training materials, delivered a total of 12 lectures and 10 practical sessions in three Ethiopia national workshops in 2014, 2015, and 2017. These workshops enhanced human resource development and technical capacity in Ethiopia in cereal rust pathology; participants included a total of 64 junior scientists and technical staff from nationwide research centers. Beyond Ethiopia, he was responsible for developing and implementing a six-week training program in cereal rust prevention and control for international scientists. This training program, under the aegis of the Stakman-Borlaug Center for Sustainable Plant Health in the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, provided an experiential learning opportunity for international scientists interested in acquiring knowledge and practical skills in all facets of working with cereal rusts. The program trained 15 rust pathologists and wheat scientists from Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, ranging from promising young scientists selected by the USDA as Borlaug Fellows to principal and senior scientists in their respective countries. Many of these trainees have become vital partners in the global surveillance network for cereal rusts.
Working in collaboration with CDL and international scientists, Firpo has been closely involved in global surveillance of the stem rust pathogen, spurred by monitoring the movements of, and detecting, new variants in the Ug99 race group. Since 2009, he and the team at the CDL have analyzed 2,500 stem rust samples from 22 countries, described over 35 new races, and identified significant virulence combinations that overcome stem rust resistance genes widely deployed in global wheat varieties. Among the most significant discoveries were the identification of active sexual populations of the stem rust pathogen in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Germany, and Spain that have unprecedented virulence and genetic diversities. More than 320 new virulent types (or races) were identified from these sexual populations. Evolution in these populations will present continued challenges to wheat breeding. Research in race analysis has provided valuable pathogen isolates that are used to evaluate breeding germplasm to select for resistant wheat varieties and to identify novel sources of stem rust resistance.
CIMMYT scientists are using biodiversity, testing forgotten wheat varieties from across the world, to find those with heat- and drought-tolerant traits. The aim is to outpace human-made global heating and breed climate-resilient varieties so yields do not collapse, as worst-case scenarios predict.
Reporter Nina Lakhanivisited CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, in Mexico’s Sonora state, and witnessed CIMMYT’s unique role in fighting climate change through the development of resilient varieties as “international public goods”.
Kate Dreher, Data Manager at CIMMYT, presents to scientists, technicians, data management and support teams during the training on the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: Susan Umazi Otieno/CIMMYT)
Scientists overseeing breeding, principal technicians and data management and support staff from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) learned about the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) at a training in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 4–6, 2022. This was the first in-person training on this advanced tool held in Eastern Africa.
Kate Dreher, Data Manager at CIMMYT, was the primary trainer. Dreher sought to ensure that scientists and their teams are well equipped to confidently use the EBS for their programs, including the creation and management of trials and nurseries. During the training, participants had the opportunity to test, review and give feedback on the system.
“The EBS is an online comprehensive system that brings together different types of data, including field observations and genotypic data, to harmonize processes across all teams and enable optimized decision-making in the short term and continuous learning for the long term,” Dreher said.
She explained that the EBS is more efficient than the former approach of using the Excel-based Maize Fieldbook software, even though it managed several useful processes.
The EBS is currently available to registered breeding and support team members and data managers from CIMMYT, IITA, IRRI and AfricaRice, across all geographies where related programs are implemented. Currently, the EBS is used by programs in maize, rice and wheat crops.
A more streamlined approach
“Although teams sent germplasm and phenotypic data for centralized storage in two databases (IMIS-GMS and MaizeFinder) managed by the data management team in Mexico in the past, this required curation after the data had already been generated,” Dreher said. “The EBS will enable teams to manage their germplasm and trial nursery data directly within one system.”
The EBS stores information on germplasm and linked seed inventory items. It is also designed to house and perform analyses using phenotypic and genotypic data. Users can also capture metadata about their trials and nurseries, such as basic agronomic management information and the GPS coordinates of sites where experiments are conducted.
Yoseph Beyene, Regional Maize Breeding Coordinator for Africa and Maize Breeder for Eastern Africa at CIMMYT, observed that the training gave him firsthand information on the current capabilities and use of the live version to search germplasm and seed, and the capabilities to create nurseries and trials.
“In the AGG project, we have one primary objective which focuses on implementing improved data management, experimental designs and breeding methods to accelerate genetic gain and improved breeding efficiency. Therefore, implementing EBS is one of the top priorities for AGG project,” said Yoseph, who leads the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods Project (AGG).
Lourine Bii, an Assistant Research Associate who recently joined CIMMYT and the only female research technician on the Global Maize program based in Kenya, also found the training useful. “The EBS is a fantastic system that enables an individual to create experiments. The system links a team, for instance a product development team, to get live updates on the various stages of creating an experiment, reducing back and forth by email.”
The system’s software development is ongoing. The development team continues to add and enhance features based on feedback from users.
A climate change hotspot region that features both small-scale and intensive farming, South Asia epitomizes the crushing pressure on land and water resources from global agriculture to feed a populous, warming world. Continuous irrigated rice and wheat cropping across northern India, for example, is depleting and degrading soils, draining a major aquifer, and producing a steady draft of greenhouse gases.
Through decades-long Asian and global partnerships, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has helped to study and promote resource-conserving, climate-smart solutions for South Asian agriculture. Innovations include more precise and efficient use of water and fertilizer, as well as conservation agriculture, which blends reduced or zero-tillage, use of crop residues or mulches as soil covers, and more diverse intercrops and rotations. Partners are recently exploring regenerative agriculture approaches — a suite of integrated farming and grazing practices to rebuild the organic matter and biodiversity of soils.
Along with their environmental benefits, these practices can significantly reduce farm expenses and maintain or boost crop yields. Their widespread adoption depends in part on enlightened policies and dedicated promotion and testing that directly involves farmers. We highlight below promising findings and policy directions from a collection of recent scientific studies by CIMMYT and partners.
Getting down in the dirt
A recent scientific review examines the potential of a suite of improved practices — reduced or zero-tillage with residue management, use of organic manure, the balanced and integrated application of plant nutrients, land levelling, and precise water and pest control — to capture and hold carbon in soils on smallholder farms in South Asia. Results show a potential 36% increase in organic carbon in upper soil layers, amounting to some 18 tons of carbon per hectare of land and, across crops and environments, potentially cutting methane emissions by 12%. Policies and programs are needed to encourage farmers to adopt such practices.
Another study on soil quality in India’s extensive breadbasket region found that conservation agriculture practices raised per-hectare wheat yields by nearly half a ton and soil quality indexes nearly a third, over those for conventional practices, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60%.
Ten years of research in the Indo-Gangetic Plains involving rice-wheat-mungbean or maize-wheat-mungbean rotations with flooded versus subsoil drip irrigation showed an absence of earthworms — major contributors to soil health — in soils under farmers’ typical practices. However, large earthworm populations were present and active under climate-smart practices, leading to improved soil carbon sequestration, soil quality, and the availability of nutrients for plants.
The field of farmer Ram Shubagh Chaudhary, Pokhar Binda village, Maharajganj district, Uttar Pradesh, India, who has been testing zero tillage to sow wheat directly into the unplowed paddies and leaving crop residues, after rice harvest. Chaudhary is one of many farmer-partners in the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), led by CIMMYT. (Photo: P. Kosina/CIMMYT)
Rebooting marginal farms by design
Using the FarmDESIGN model to assess the realities of small-scale, marginal farmers in northwestern India (about 67% of the population) and redesign their current practices to boost farm profits, soil organic matter, and nutritional yields while reducing pesticide use, an international team of agricultural scientists demonstrated that integrating innovative cropping systems could help to improve farm performance and household livelihoods.
More than 19 gigatons of groundwater is extracted each year in northern India, much of this to flood the region’s puddled, transplanted rice crops. A recent experiment calibrated and validated the HYDRUS-2D model to simulate water dynamics for puddled rice and for rice sown in non-flooded soil using zero-tillage and watered with sub-surface drip irrigation. It was found that the yield of rice grown using the conservation agriculture practices and sub-surface drip irrigation was comparable to that of puddled, transplanted rice but required only half the irrigation water. Sub-surface drip irrigation also curtailed water losses from evapotranspiration and deep drainage, meaning this innovation coupled with conservation agriculture offers an ecologically viable alternative for sustainable rice production.
Given that yield gains through use of conservation agriculture in northern India are widespread but generally low, a nine-year study of rice-wheat cropping in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains applying the Environmental Policy Climate (EPIC) model, in this case combining data from long-term experiments with regionally gridded crop modeling, documented the need to tailor conservation agriculture flexibly to local circumstances, while building farmers’ capacity to test and adapt suitable conservation agriculture practices. The study found that rice-wheat productivity could increase as much as 38% under conservation agriculture, with optimal management.
Key partner organizations in this research include the following: Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR); Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research (IIFSR), Agriculture University, Kota; CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar; Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University, Jobner, Rajasthan; the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA); the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University; Damanhour University, Damanhour, Egypt; UM6P, Ben Guerir, Morocco; the University of Aberdeen; the University of California, Davis; Wageningen University & Research; and IFDC.
Generous funding for the work cited comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat Agri-Food Systems (WHEAT) and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), supported by CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements), The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and USAID.
Cover photo: A shortage of farm workers is driving the serious consideration by farmers and policymakers to replace traditional, labor-intensive puddled rice cropping (shown here), which leads to sizable methane emissions and profligate use of irrigation water, with the practice of growing rice in non-flooded soils, using conservation agriculture and drip irrigation practices. (Photo: P. Wall/CIMMYT)
Ted McKinney (left) listens to a technician explaining the use of an alvograph. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)
Representatives from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) of the United States visited the global headquarters of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) on May 19, 2022. Ted McKinney, NASDA’s Chief Executive Officer, was joined by RJ Karney, Senior Director of Public Policy, and John Goldberg, consultant and partner at The Normandy Group.
“I wish the world could all understand what you do here. This is just fantastic,” said McKinney after seeing the broad range of work conducted at CIMMYT.
NASDA’s tour of CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico, included visits to the museum, the maize and wheat genebanks, the greenhouse, the bioscience complex, the wheat quality laboratory and the experimental station.
In each location, the visitors met with CIMMYT representatives who provided an overview of their research areas. Discussions ranged from the importance of preserving disease resistance in wheat in order to conduct experiments, the process for using DNA to inform breeding programs, and the assessment process for wheat grain. NASDA’s representatives also gained an understanding of how CIMMYT connects experiments with the needs of farmers, ensuring that scientific progress is translated into real-life solutions.
(From left to right) Carolina Sansaloni, a translator, Kevin Pixley, Ted McKinney, RJ Karney and John Goldberg visit CIMMYT’s Wellhausen and Anderson Genetic Resources Center, housing the maize and wheat genebanks. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)
Nayelli Hernandez (second from left) explains the process for measuring wheat quality. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT).
(Left to right) Jelle Van Loon, John Goldberg, Ted McKinney, RJ Karney and Kevin Pixley stand for a group photo next to the Norman Borlaug statue at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)
Spot blotch, a major biotic stress challenging bread wheat production is caused by the fungus Bipolaris sorokiniana. In a new study, scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) evaluate genomic and index-based selection to select for spot blotch resistance quickly and accurately in wheat lines. The former approach facilitates selecting for spot blotch resistance, and the latter for spot blotch resistance, heading and plant height.
Genomic selection
The authors leveraged genotyping data and extensive spot blotch phenotyping data from Mexico and collaborating partners in Bangladesh and India to evaluate genomic selection, which is a promising genomic breeding strategy for spot blotch resistance. Using genomic selection for selecting lines that have not been phenotyped can reduce the breeding cycle time and cost, increase the selection intensity, and subsequently increase the rate of genetic gain.
Two scenarios were tested for predicting spot blotch: fixed effects model (less than 100 molecular markers associated with spot blotch) and genomic prediction (over 7,000 markers across the wheat genome). The clear winner was genomic prediction which was on average 177.6% more accurate than the fixed effects model, as spot blotch resistance in advanced CIMMYT wheat breeding lines is controlled by many genes of small effects.
“This finding applies to other spot blotch resistant loci too, as very few of them have shown big effects, and the advantage of genomic prediction over the fixed effects model is tremendous”, confirmed Xinyao He, Wheat Pathologist and Geneticist at CIMMYT.
The authors have also evaluated genomic prediction in different populations, including breeding lines and sister lines that share one or two parents.
Spot blotch susceptible wheat lines (left) and resistant lines. (Photo: Xinyao He and Pawan Singh/CIMMYT)
Index selection
One of the key problems faced by wheat breeders in selecting for spot blotch resistance is identifying lines that are genetically resistant to spot blotch versus those that escape and exhibit less disease by being late and tall. “The latter, unfortunately, is often the case in South Asia”, explained Pawan Singh, Head of Wheat Pathology at CIMMYT.
A potential solution to this problem is the use of selection indices that can make it easier for breeders to select individuals based on their ranking or predicted net genetic merit for multiple traits. Hence, this study reports the first successful evaluation of the linear phenotypic selection index and Eigen selection index method to simultaneously select for spot blotch resistance using the phenotype and genomic-estimated breeding values, heading and height.
This study demonstrates the prospects of integrating genomic selection and index-based selection with field based phenotypic selection for resistance in spot blotch in breeding programs.
A generalized wiring diagram for wheat, as proposed by the authors. The diagram depicts the traits most commonly associated with the source (left) and sink (right) strengths and others that impact both the sink and source, largely dependent on growth stage (middle). TGW, thousand grain weight.
As crop yields are pushed closer to biophysical limits, achieving yield gains becomes increasingly challenging. Traditionally, scientists have worked on the premise that crop yield is a function of photosynthesis (source), the investment of assimilates into reproductive organs (sinks) and the underlying processes that enable and connect the expression of both. Although the original source-and-sink model remains valid, it must embrace more complexity, as scientific understanding improves.
A group of international researchers are proposing a new wiring diagram to show the interrelationships of the physiological traits that impact wheat yield potential, published on Nature Food. By illustrating these linkages, it shows connections among traits that may not have been apparent, which could serve as a decision support tool for crop scientists. The wiring diagram can inform new research hypotheses and breeding decisions, as well as research investment areas.
The diagram can also serve as a platform onto which new empirical data are routinely mapped and new concepts added, thereby creating an ever-richer common point of reference for refining models in the future.
“If routinely updated, the wiring diagram could lead to a paradigm change in the way we approach breeding for yield and targeting translational research,” said Matthew Reynolds, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Wheat Physiology at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the study. “While focused on yield potential, the tool can be readily adapted to address climate resilience in a range of crops besides wheat.”
Breeding milestone
The new wiring diagram represents a milestone in deterministic plant breeding. It dovetails simpler models with crop simulation models.
This diagram can be used to illustrate the relative importance of specific connections among traits in their appropriate phenological context and to highlight major gaps in knowledge. This graphical representation can also serve as a roadmap to prioritize research at other levels of integration, such as metabolomic or gene expression studies. The wiring diagram can be deployed to identify ways for improving elite breeding material and to explore untapped genetic resources for unique traits and alleles.
Yield for climate resilience
The wheat scientific community is hard at work seeking new ways to get higher yields more quickly to help the world cope with population growth, climate change, wars and stable supplies of calories and protein.
“To ensure food and nutritional security in the future, raising yields must be an integral component of making crops more climate-resilient. This new tool can serve as a roadmap to design the necessary strategies to achieve these goals,” said Jeff Gwyn, Program Director of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP).
Matthew Reynolds – Distinguished Scientist and Head of Wheat Physiology at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Gustavo Ariel Slafer – Research Professor at the Catalonian Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and Associate Professor of the University of Lleida
For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact the CIMMYT media team:
The study is an international collaboration of scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Catalonian Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), the Center for Research in Agrotechnology (AGROTECNIO), the University of Lleida, the University of Nottingham, the John Innes Centre, Lancaster University, Technische Universität München, CSIRO Agriculture & Food, and the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP).
ABOUT CIMMYT:
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis.
Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. CIMMYT’s research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.
CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
The International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) represents a long-term global endeavor that utilizes a collaborative approach to bring together funding from public and private research organizations from a large number of countries. Over the first five years, the growing list of partners aims to invest up to US$100 million.
