Sorghum field in Kiboko, Kenya. (Photo: E Manyasa/ICRISAT)
As part of the One CGIAR reform, the Global Science Group on Genetic Innovation will implement a crop breeding and seed systems project for key crops including groundnut, sorghum and millet, across western and eastern African countries.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), a leader in innovative partnerships, breeding and agronomic science for sustainable agri-food systems, will lead the project.
The Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Cereals in Africa (AVISA) project aims to improve the health and livelihoods of millions by increasing the productivity, profitability, resilience and marketability of nutritious grain, legumes and cereal crops. The project focuses on strengthening networks to modernize crop breeding by CGIAR and national program partners, and public-private partnerships to strengthen seed systems. The project currently works in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania.
âSorghum, groundnut and millets are essential staples of nutritious diets for millions of farmers and consumers and are crucial for climate-change-resilient farming systems,â explained CIMMYT Deputy Director General and Head of Genetic Resources, Kevin Pixley. âThe oversight of this project by CGIARâs Genetic Innovation Science Group will ensure continued support for the improvement of these crops in partnership with the national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) that work with and for farmers,â he said.
âCIMMYT is delighted to lead this project on behalf of the Genetic Innovations Science Group and CGIAR,â confirms CIMMYT Director General, Bram Govaerts.
âWe look forward to contributing to co-design and co-implement with partners and stakeholders the next generation of programs that leverage and build the strengths of NARES, CGIAR and others along with the research to farmers and consumers continuum to improve nutrition, livelihoods, and resilience to climate change through these crops and their cropping systems.â
A recent portrait of Rosalind Morris. (Photo: Courtesy)
Rosalind Morris, a celebrated wheat cytogeneticist and professor, peacefully passed away on March 26, 2022, just a few weeks shy of her 102nd birthday. Morris fought a long battle with cancer in her 90s and, most recently, an infection of COVID-19, which proved fatal to her health.
According to her wishes, there was no funeral or memorial service. Morrisâs body was cremated, and her ashes deposited in her familyâs plot in Ontario, Canada.
Born in Ruthin, United Kingdom, in 1920 to schoolteacher parents, Morris pursued studies in agricultural sciences at the University of Guelph and earned a bachelorâs degree in horticulture. Morris would later earn a Ph.D. from Cornell Universityâs department of plant breeding, becoming one of the first two women to accomplish this feat, along with Leona Schnell.
Morris dedicated her life and career to understanding and developing wheat genes.
A pioneer in agricultural science and one of the first women scientists of her time, Morris dedicated her life and career to understanding and developing wheat genes. Her contributions include the development of wheat genetic stocks, or wheat populations generated for genetic studies, with far-reaching impact globally in explaining wheat genetics. The work of Morris provided a premier resource base for the emerging field of functional genomics, which explores how DNA is translated into complex information in a cell.
During World War II, Morrisâs deep concern over the effects of atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led her to study and experiment with the effects of X-rays and thermal neutrons on crop plants. In 1979, Morris became the first woman honored as a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy.
While being an acclaimed scientist internationally, Morris was also known for her passion for teaching. In the same year Morris earned her doctoral degree from Cornell University, she was hired as the first female faculty member in the agronomy department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in 1947. This career would last 43 years: first as an assistant professor in 1947, becoming a professor in 1958 and remaining in that role until 1990, when she gained the title of emeritus professor of plant cytogenetics.
Morris was a trailblazer for women in agronomy during a point in history when few women were given the opportunity to pursue a career in the sciences. Morris is remembered by her peers not only for her lifelong contribution to agricultural sciences but also her immense kindness and patience.
Wheat fields in Kostanay, Kazakhstan. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
A panel of experts convened by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on April 13, 2022, discussed the effects that the Russia-Ukraine war could have on global supply chains of critical resources including staple crops, oil and natural gas, and strategic minerals.
Bram Govaerts, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), joined three experts representing a security consulting firm, a mining investment company and the academic sector. They analyzed the complex ramifications of the armed conflict and put forward policy recommendations to mitigate its impact on global food and energy systems.
âWe have immediate action to take in order to boost the production of crops with fewer resources available, such as fertilizers,â Govaerts said, reflecting on how to help food-insecure countries in the Middle East and North Africa that import most of their wheat supplies from the Black Sea region. âWe also need to look at where we are going to be supplied with alternate sources,â he added.
Govaerts took this opportunity to position Agriculture for Peace, the CIMMYT-led call for secure, stable and long-term investment in agricultural research for development, to transform global food systems by shifting their focus from efficiency to resilience.
On the 67th Edition of the Day of the Farmer in Mexicoâs Yaqui Valley, JesĂșs Larraguibele Artola, president of the Agricultural Research and Experimentation Board of the State of Sonora (PIEAES), publicly recognized the work and trajectory of Ravi Singh, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Global Wheat Improvement at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
An Indian national, Singh first arrived to CIMMYTâs Experimental Station in Ciudad ObregĂłn, Sonora, in 1983, and has since developed 680 wheat varieties in 48 countries, including the Cirno and Borlaug varieties, grown in 98% of the Yaqui Valleyâs wheat fields.
At the event, Larraguibele Artola also highlighted the importance of the legacy of Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, who saved the lives of billions of people from starvation with his improved wheat varieties. He also recalled how the first Day of the Farmer was organized by Borlaug back in 1948, when the American agronomist presented his first rust-resistant wheat varieties to farmers in the region. Over time, the event became a unique place for researchers and scientists in Sonora to increase collaboration with farmers and producers in the region and share their latest scientific advances.
Acknowledging the key role of new technologies and wheat varieties in tackling current and future agricultural challenges, FĂĄtima Yolanda RodrĂguez Mendoza, Secretary of Agriculture, Farming, Hydraulic Resources, Fishing and Aquaculture (SAGRHPA) of Sonora, reiterated the commitment of the governor, Alfonso Durazo Montaño, to invest in agricultural research to boost production and drive the growth of the regionâs agrifood sector.
âWeâll continue to invest in research and innovation and support scientists, who put their knowledge at the service of the people of Sonoraâ, she promised.
âWeâll never get back all the diversity we had before, but the diversity we need is out there,â says Matthew Reynolds, head of wheat physiology at CIMMYT.
Farmers learn about two-wheel tractors. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A new project aims to climate-proof Zimbabwean farms through improved access to small-scale mechanization to reduce labor bottlenecks. Harnessing Appropriate-scale Farm mechanization In Zimbabwe (HAFIZ) is funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through ACIAR and led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
The project aligns with the Zimbabwean nationwide governmental program Pfumvudza, which promotes agricultural practices based on the principles of conservation agriculture. The initiative aims to increase agricultural productivity through minimum soil disturbance, a permanent soil cover, mulching and crop diversification.
Over 18 months, the project will work with selected service providers to support mechanized solutions that are technically, environmentally and economically appropriate for use in smallholder settings.
Speaking during the project launch, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development in Zimbabwe, John Basera, explained the tenets of Pfumvudza which translates as âa new season.â A new season of adopting climate-smart technologies, conservation agriculture practices and increasing productivity. Simply put, Pfumvudza means a sustainable agricultural productivity scheme.
âPfumvudza was a big game-changer in Zimbabwe. We tripled productivity from 0.45 to 1.4 [metric tons] per hectare. Now the big challenge for all of us is to sustain and consolidate the growth, and this is where mechanization comes into place,â Basera said. âThis project is an opportunity for the smallholder farmer in Zimbabwe, who contributes to over 60% of the food in the country, to be able to produce more with less.â
Building on the  findings of the completed ACIAR-funded project Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI), the new initiative will work with selected farmers and service providers to identify farming systems most suitable for mechanization. It will also assist companies in targeting their investments as they test a range of technologies powered by small-engine machinery adapted to the Zimbabwe context and transfer the resultant learnings to South Africa.
Conservation agriculture adoption offers multidimensional benefits to the farmers with significant yields and sustainability of their systems. The introduction of mechanization in systems using animals for draught reduces the livestock energy demand â energy that will contribute to increasing meat and milk production.
While conservation agriculture and research alone cannot solve all the issues affecting agricultural productivity, awareness-raising is integral to help address these issues, and this is where small-scale mechanization comes in, says ACIAR Crops Research Program Manager, Eric Huttner.
âWe learnt a lot from FACASI and a similar project in Bangladesh on the opportunities of appropriate small-scale mechanization as a tool towards sustainable intensification when adopted by farmers,â he explained. âIf we avoid the mistakes of the past, where large-scale mechanization efforts were invested in the wrong place and resulted in ineffective machines unusable for farmers, we can make a huge difference in increasing yields and reducing farm drudgery,â Huttner said.
Agriculture is one of the five main greenhouse gas-emitting sectors where innovations can be found to reach net zero emissions, according to the new documentary and ten-part miniseries âSolving for Zero: The Search for Climate Innovation.â The documentary tells the stories of scientists and innovators racing to develop solutions such as low-carbon cement, wind-powered global transportation, fusion electricity generation and sand that dissolves carbon in the oceans.
Three CGIAR scientists are featured in the documentary, speaking about the contributions being made by agricultural research.
Whereas all sectors of the global economy must contribute to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to prevent the worse effects of climate change, agricultural innovations are needed by farmers at the front line of climate change today.
CIMMYT breeder Yoseph Beyene spoke to filmmakers about the use of molecular breeding to predict yield potential. (Image: Wondrium.com)
Breeding climate-smart crops
âClimate change has been a great disaster to us. Day by day itâs getting worse,â said Veronica Dungey, a maize farmer in Kenya interviewed for the documentary.
Around the world, 200 million people depend on maize for their livelihood, while 90% of farmers in Africa are smallholder farmers dependent on rainfall, and facing drought, heatwaves, floods, pests and disease related to climate change. According to CGIAR, agriculture must deliver 60% more food by 2050, but without new technologies, each 1°C of warming will reduce production by 5%.
âSeed is basic to everything. The whole family is dependent on the produce from the farm,â explained Yoseph Beyene, Regional Maize Breeding Coordinator for Africa and Maize Breeder for Eastern Africa at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). As a child in a smallholder farming family with no access to improved seeds, Beyene learned the importance of selecting the right seed from year to year. It was at high school that Beyene was shown the difference between improved varieties and the locally-grown seed, and decided to pursue a career as a crop breeder.
Today, the CIMMYT maize program has released 200 hybrid maize varieties adapted for drought conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, called hybrids because they combine maize lines selected to express important traits over several generations. Alongside other CGIAR Research Centers, CIMMYT continues to innovate with accelerated breeding approaches to benefit smallholder farmers.
âCurrently we use two kinds of breeding. One is conventional breeding, and another one is molecular breeding to accelerate variety development. In conventional breeding you have to evaluate the hybrid in the field,â Beyene said. âUsing molecular markers, instead of phenotypic evaluation in the field, we are evaluating the genetic material of a particular line. We can predict based on marker data which new material is potentially good for yield.â
Such innovations are necessary considering the speed and the complexity of challenges faced by smallholder farmers due climate change, which now includes fall armyworm. âFall armyworm is a recent pest in the tropics and has affected a lot of countries,â said Moses Siambi, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Africa. âIncreased temperatures have a direct impact on maize production because of the combination of temperature of humidity, and then you have these high insect populations that lead to low yield.â
Resistance to fall armyworm is now included in new CIMMYT maize hybrids alongside many other traits such as yield, nutrition, and multiple environmental and disease resistances.
Ana MarĂa Loboguerrero, Research Director for Climate Action at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, spoke about CGIARâs community-focused climate work. (Image: Wondrium.com)
Building on CGIARâs climate legacy
Ana MarĂa Loboguerrero, Research Director for Climate Action at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), told the filmmakers about CGIARâs community-focused climate work, which includes Climate-Smart Villages and Valleys. Launched in 2009, these ongoing projects span the global South and effectively bridge the gap between innovation, research and farmers living with the climate crisis at their doorsteps.
âTechnological innovations are critical to food system transformation,â said Loboguerrero, who was a principal researcher for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). âBut if local contexts are not considered, even the best innovations may fail because they do not respond to beneficiaries needs.â
CCAFSâs impressive legacy â in research, influencing policy and informing $3.5 billion of climate-smart investments, among many achievements â is now being built upon by a new CGIAR portfolio of initiatives. Several initiatives focus on building systemic resilience against climate and scaling up climate action started by CCAFS that will contribute to a net-zero carbon future.
Loboguerrero pointed to other innovations that were adopted because they addressed local needs and were culturally appropriate. These include the uptake of new varieties of wheat, maize, rice and beans developed by CGIAR Research Centers. Taste, color, texture, cooking time and market demand are critical to the success of new varieties. Being drought-resistant or flood-tolerant is not enough.
Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees, another CCAFS innovation that is currently implemented in 11 countries across Latin America, effectively delivers weather information in agrarian communities across the tropics. Local farmers lead these committees to receive and disseminate weather information to better plan when they sow their seeds. âThis success would not have been possible if scientists hadnât gotten out of their labs to collaborate with producers in the field,â Loboguerrero said.
Climate adaptation solutions
Across CGIAR, which represents 13 Research Centers and Alliances, and a network of national and private sector partners, the goal is to provide climate adaptation solutions to 500 million small-scale farmers around the world by 2030. This work also covers reducing agricultural emissions, environmental impacts and even the possibility of capturing carbon while improving soil health.
Interested in learning more? The documentary âSolving for Zero: The Search for Climate Innovationâ is available at Wondrium.com alongside a 10-part miniseries exploring the ongoing effort to address climate change.
As climate breakdown and worldwide conflict continue to place the food system at risk, seed banks from the Arctic to Lebanon try to safeguard biodiversity.
For a decade, scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been at the forefront of a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional effort to contain and effectively manage maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in Africa.
The manual is relevant to stakeholders in countries where MLN is already present, and also aims to offer technical tips to ââhigh-riskâ countries globally for proactive implementation of practices that can possibly prevent the incursion and spread of the disease,â writes B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYTâs Global Maize Program and MAIZE, in the foreword.
âWhile intensive multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional efforts over the past decade have helped in containing the spread and impact of MLN in sub-Saharan Africa, we cannot afford to be complacent. We need to continue our efforts to safeguard crops like maize from devastating diseases and insect-pests, and to protect the food security and livelihoods of millions of smallholders,â says Prasanna, who is presently leading the OneCGIAR Plant Health Initiative Design Team.
As agricultural researchers around the world explore ways to avert what is quickly becoming the worst global food crisis in 50 years, it is imperative to shift the focus from efficient food value chains to resilient food systems.
This was one of the key messages Bram Govaerts, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) shared with global and local audiences at a series of lectures and presentations at Cornell University the week of March 14, 2022.
Speaking as an Andrew White Professor-at-Large lecturer and lifetime Cornell faculty member, Govaerts advocated for ratcheting up investment in agricultural research and development. Not only this is necessary to avert the looming humanitarian catastrophe, he argued, but also to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuild a more peaceful, resilient and food-secure world.
âCountries that are ill-prepared to absorb a global food shock are now facing similar conditions to those that triggered the Arab Spring a decade ago â possibly even worse,â Govaerts said.
âToday, humanity faces an existential challenge fueled by conflict, environmental degradation and climate change that urges a transformational response in the way that we produce, process, distribute and consume food,â he said.
âWe need to get climate change out of agriculture, and agriculture out of climate change,â he said, advocating for climate change as the driver of research and innovation, and calling for investment in transforming from efficiency to resilience.
Referencing the Ukraine crisis and its looming food security implications, he reminded attendees that we can all be inspired by Norman Borlaugâs accomplishments applying science to agriculture, and move quickly, together, to avert disaster.
âWe need the same bold thinking, to do something before itâs too late,â Govaerts told the audience, which included nearly 200 online attendees and a full auditorium at Cornellâs College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
âThere is no âotherâ team that is going to do it for us. This is the meeting. This is the team.â
CIMMYT implements integrated agri-food systems initiatives to improve maize and wheat seeds, farming practices and technologies to increase yields sustainably with support from governments, philanthropists and farmers in more than 40 countries.
In addition, along with the Nobel Peace Center and the Governments of Mexico and Norway, CIMMYT launched the Agriculture for Peace call in 2020 to mobilize funding for agricultural research and extension services to help deliver much-needed global food systems transformation.
Cover photo: Maize and other food crops on sale at Ijaye market, Oyo State, Nigeria. (Photo: Adebayo O./IITA)
Guillermo Breton with Karim Ammar at CIMMYT Toluca (Credit: Global Farmer Network)
Global food prices were already increasing when the worldâs wheat supply came under extra pressure, due to Russiaâs war on Ukraine. We donât know whether the farmers who have made Ukraine the fifth-largest exporter of wheat will produce anything in 2022.
Food security is bound to fall, with the greatest impact to be felt by those most vulnerable first. Ukrainians are bearing the worst of it, of course, but the fallout from Vladimir Putinâs cruelty will affect us all.
The problem would be much worse if a remarkable group of scientists had not dedicated themselves in the last century to the improvement of agriculture, in work that continues today and promises to make the future a little more hopeful.
My family witnessed the work of these scientists up close. Our farm is in the state of Tlaxcala, in the highlands east of Mexico City. We grow corn, barley, sunflower, and triticale, which is a hybrid of wheat and rye.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Norman Borlaug brought teams of agronomists to our region as he worked to improve wheatâs germplasm. I wasnât born at that time, so I couldnât meet Dr. Borlaug at our farm, but he came many times across several summers. Iâve heard the stories: As my father worked with Borlaug in the fields, growing the seeds that would help Borlaug produce a better kind of wheat, my mother made sure that our house was in order so that Borlaug and his companions had proper accommodations.
Today, of course, Dr. Borlaug is a legend: In 1970, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Hailed as âthe father of the Green Revolution,â he arguably saved hundreds of millions of lives through science-based improvements to the wheat germplasm.
The result is that wheat farmers around the world grow a lot stronger, healthier wheat today. No matter where we live, weâre better able to deal with problems of scarcity.
Drought, disease, and war still possess the horrible potential to inflict suffering, but weâre in fact much more capable of dealing with them because of what Dr. Borlaug and his fellow researchers accomplished decades ago.
Their work continues today at the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center, also known as CIMMYT (in its Spanish acronym). Founded by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation, this non-profit group devoted itself to improving the productivity of Mexican farmers. It became the institutional home of Borlaug, whose work was so successful it transformed agriculture not just in Mexico but around the world.
Mexican farmers gained from its work, and so did wheat farmers in India, Pakistan, and elsewhere. In fact, everybody wins: The world has much more wheat today because of Borlaug and CIMMYT.
Iâm a special beneficiary, and not just because of my familyâs historical connection to CIMMYT. I live within driving distance of CIMMYTâs headquarters, which is a sanctuary of knowledge. It enjoys an amazing history, but also holds a promising future: It remains a resource for improvements in agriculture.
As an agronomist, I always believed that science is a status improver. Because of CIMMYT, Iâm a better farmer today than I was just a few years ago, and Iâll be even better in the years ahead.
CIMMYTâs Karim Ammar taught me about triticale, which is producing great results on my farm. As science has progressed and with the conjunction of science and technology, farmers are able to improve productivity and have better soils. Today, Bram Govaerts, who is now CIMMYTâs Director General, introduced me to the value of no-till, which is making my farm both more productive and more sustainable.
Dr. Borlaugâs dying words were âtake it to the farmers.â Thatâs exactly what his successors at CIMMYT are doing. Theyâre adapting cutting-edge technologies to agriculture. The best part, though, is that they donât keep their knowledge locked up in labs. They share what they learn with farmers like me, who can apply them to the practical work of food production.
Agriculture will face plenty of tests in the 21st century. The worldâs population continues to grow, but our arable land doesnât increase with it. That means we must continue to produce more food from the farms we already have. At the same time, we must contend with the threat of climate change and make our methods more sustainable, which means preserving biodiversity, conserving water, and kidnapping carbon.
Amid these challenges, Russiaâs invasion of Ukraine, a globally important farming nation, is adding stress to the challenge of global food security. As we watch a country and its innocent people suffer, we arenât thinking much about wheat germplasmsâbut we should be grateful that CIMMYTâs agronomists have made us all a little more resilient.
More than 40% of the global agricultural labor force is made up of women, and in the least developed countries, two in three women are employed in farming. Yet, despite being the largest contributors to this sector, womenâs potential as farmers, producers and entrepreneurs is frequently untapped due to gender inequalities, limited access to farming assets and inputs, low participation in decision-making spaces, and lack of financing and capacity-building opportunities.
Tackling these gendered barriers is critical not only to help women achieve their highest economic potential, but also to feed an increasingly hungry world. Before this yearâs Womenâs History Month comes to an end, read the stories of three Bangladeshi womenâBegum, Akter and Raniâto find out how the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are empowering them to become decision-makers in their communities, learn new skills and knowledge to boost their incomes, and advocate for bending gender norms across the country.
Embracing agricultural mechanization has improved Begumâs family finances
Rina Begum lives in Faridpur, a major commercial hub in southern Bangladesh. Before starting a business, her financial situation was precarious. Her primary source of income was her husbandâs work as a day laborer, which brought in very little money. This, coupled with the lack of job security, made it hard to support a family.
Rina Begum started out in business as a service provider, hiring agricultural machines to farmers.
About five years ago, Begumâs interest in agricultural mechanization was ignited by the farmers in her town, who were earning extra money by investing in farm machinery and hiring it out. Her first foray into the business world was buying a shallow irrigation pump and setting herself up as a service provider. Next, she saw her neighbor using a power tiller operated seeder and decided to try one out for herself. Finally, after taking part in a potential machinery buyer program run by CIMMYT under the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia â Mechanization and Irrigation (CSISA-MEA) and funded by USAID, she took the bold step of purchasing a seeder and adding it to her inventory of machines available for hire.
While her husband learned to operate the seeder, Begum put her business and accounting skills to good use, taking on an essential role in what ended up being the family business and establishing herself as an entrepreneur. Her work defied the established social norms, as she regularly interacted with the mechanics and farmers who came to her for mechanized services. Moreover, she occasionally stepped up alongside her husband to repair and maintain the machines. All this earned Begum a reputation as an experienced service provider, operator and mechanic, and turned her into a decision-maker and a role model to her family and community.
In 2021, Begum used her business profits to pick up the bill for her daughter’s marriage. “I know this job inside-out now,” she says, “and Iâm really proud to have paid for the wedding myself.”
This taste of success fueled Begumâs appetite to expand the business even further, pushing her to take part in another training offered by CIMMYT, this time in mat-seedling production. Moreover, Begum, who plans to grow seedlings to sell on to rice farmers this year, has applied for a government subsidy to buy a rice transplanter, which can be hired out for use with mat-seedlings, and increase her stock of agricultural machinery.
With her new skills, Akter is advancing gender equality in Bangladeshâs light engineering sector
At age 18, Nilufar Akter (pictured top) passed her high school certificate and soon after married Rezaul Karim, the owner of a light engineering workshop in Bogura, a city in northern Bangladesh, that manufactures agricultural machinery parts, with a workforce mainly composed of men. Akterâs ambition was to go out into the workplace and make her own money, so when Karim asked her to work alongside him, she agreed and soon became a valuable part of the business. Her primary responsibilities were inventory management and marketing, as well as business management, which she found more difficult.
Reza Engineering Workshop began working with CIMMYT in 2020 as part of CSISA-MEA, an initiative that supports light engineering workshops in Bangladesh with staff development, access to finance, management, and business growth. Under this project, CIMMYT organized a management training at the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), which Akter attended. With the confidence these new skills gave her, she went back to the workshop and introduced a few changes, including building a computerized finance management system and updating the stack management. Moreover, she also established a dedicated restroom for female employees.
“We need human resources to maintain things in the businessâand women can do a fantastic jobâ, Akter says. âWe had no idea what good source of strength women workers would be for the factory. Therefore, if we provided them with adequate facilities, we could create jobs for many women who really need them”, she adds.
Akterâs current priorities are workshop safety and occupational health, two issues sheâs tackling using the knowledge she learned in the CIMMYT training. Recently, sheâs created some occupational health and safety posters, and established a series of workshop rules. “I used to think I wasnât cut out for light engineering because it was primarily male-dominated, but I was mistakenâ, Akter confesses. âThis industry has a lot to offer to women, and I’m excited at the prospect of hiring more of them”, she adds.
Producing better quality rice has boosted the income of Rani and her family
Monika Rani lives in Khoshalpur, a village located in Dinajpur district in northern Bangladesh, with her husband Liton Chandra Roy and their two-year-old child. They farm just a quarter of a hectare of land, and Liton supplements their income with occasional wages earned as a day laborer.
Monika Rani wanted to increase her family’s income to provide better schooling opportunities for her children.
Rani was looking for ways to increase their income so they could give their children an education and a better life. During last yearâs boro rice-growing season (December to May), she and her husband joined the premium grade rice production team of CIMMYT as part of CSISA-MEA. The market value and yield of premium quality rice is greater than other types, so when Rani heard that she could make more money producing that variety, she decided to make a start right away. CIMMYT provided her with five kgs of premium seed for the 2021-22 winter season and trained her in premium quality rice production technology and marketing, which she followed to the letter.
Through hard work and persistence, Rani and her husband avoided the need to hire any additional labor and were rewarded with the maximum yield possible. She dried the premium quality rice grain according to buyer demand and sold 1,600 kgs, in addition to 140 kgs to farmers in her town.
“Knowing about premium quality rice production has tremendously changed my future for the better,” Rani explains. “I had no idea that, through my own hard effort, I could have a better life”, she added.
Cover photo: Nilufar Akter is using the knowledge she gained in CIMMYT training to focus on workshop safety and occupational health in her business.
The war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia will disrupt wheat supply chains, fertilizer exports and other components of food systems. Their combined effect, along with other factors, could unchain a major food security crisis as well as increased inequality.
Explore our analysis and coverage on major media outlets and journals. To get in touch with our experts, please contact the media team.
CIMMYT scientists have also made available a summary of key facts and figures about the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on wheat supply (PowerPoint, 32MB): changing patterns of consumption and effect on food prices, geographic export supply concentration, global wheat imports, and specific vulnerabilities particularly in the Global South.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict will cause massive disruptions to global wheat supply and food security. Agricultural research investments are the basis of resilient agri-food systems and a food-secure future.
War highlights the fragility of the global food supply â sustained investment is needed to feed the world in a changing climate, Alison Bentley explains on Nature.
A new Bloomberg op-ed urges nations to steer more money to organizations like CIMMYT that are advancing crucial research on how to grow more resilient wheat and maize crops in regions that are becoming steadily less arable.
The war in Ukraine, coupled with weather-related disruptions in the worldâs major grain-producing regions, could unleash unbearable humanitarian consequences, civil unrest, and major financial losses worldwide, say Sharon E. Burke (Ecospherics) and Bram Govaerts (CIMMYT) on The Boston Globe.
The paper âEnlisting wild grass genes to combat nitrification in wheat farming: A nature-based solutionâ received the 2021 Cozzarelli Prize, which recognizes outstanding articles published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). The paper was published as a joint research collaboration of Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and Nihon University.
The study identifies of a chromosomal region that regulates the biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) ability of wheat grass (Leymus racemosus), a wild relative of wheat. It also outlines the development of the world’s first BNI-enhanced wheat, through intergeneric crossing with a high-yielding wheat cultivar.
This research result is expected to contribute to the prevention of nitrogen pollution that leads to water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizer while maintaining productivity.
Best of the year
PNAS is one of the most cited scientific journals in the world, publishing more than 3,000 papers per year on all aspects of science. A total of 3,476 papers were published in 2021, covering six fields: Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Applied Biological, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Cozzarelli Prize was established in 2005 as the PNAS Paper of the Year Prize and renamed in 2007 to honor late editor-in-chief Nicholas R. Cozzarelli. It is awarded yearly by the journalâs Editorial Board to one paper from each field reflecting scientific excellence and originality. The BNI research paper received the award in the category of Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
The awards ceremony will be held online on May 1, 2022, and a video introducing the results of this research will be available.
CIMMYT has collaborated with JIRCAS on BNI-enhanced wheat research since 2009, with funding from Japanâs Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. CIMMYT is one of the founding members of the BNI Consortium, established in 2015.
The CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat (WHEAT) and Maize (MAIZE) co-funded BNI research since 2014 and 2019 respectively, until their conclusion at the end of 2021.
BNI research has been positioned in the âMeasures for achievement of Decarbonization and Resilience with Innovation (MeaDRI)â strategy of Japanâs Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and was also selected as one of the ministryâs âTop 10 agricultural technology news for 2021.â
Jai Prakash Rajaram (left) receives the Padma Bhushan Award on behalf of his late father, Sanjaya Rajaram, from the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. (Photo: Government of India)
The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, presented the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award for Science & Engineering (Posthumous) to the relatives of Sanjaya Rajaram. The award was received by Rajaramâs son and daughter, Jaiprakash Rajaram and Sheila Rajaram, at a ceremony in New Delhi, India, on March 28, 2022.
The Padma Awards, instituted in 1954, are one of India’s highest civilian honors. Announced annually on the eve of Republic Day, January 26, they are given in three categories: Padma Vipbhushan, for outstanding and distinguished service; Padma Bhushan, for distinguished service of the highest order; and Padma Shri, for distinguished service.
The award seeks to recognize achievement in all fields of activities and disciplines involving a public service item.
Padma Bhushan Award diploma and medal. (Photo: Courtesy of Jai Prakash Rajaram)
Sanjaya Rajaram, who passed away in 2021, was a 2014 World Food Prize laureate and former wheat breeder and Director of the Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Among his many accomplishments, he personally oversaw the development of nearly 500 high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties. These varieties, which have been grown on at least 58 million hectares in over 50 countries, increased global wheat production by more than 200 million tons, benefiting hundreds of millions of resource-poor people who rely on wheat for their diets and livelihoods.
