Blogs – Page 66

A signpost at the entrance to Farm Inputs Care Centre (FICA) in Masindi, Uganda. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)

Delivering improved maize seed against all odds

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 21, 2020. Posted in News.

As one of the pioneer homegrown seed companies in Uganda, Farm Inputs Care Centre (FICA) has become one of the leading players in the seed sector value chain. Since its inception in 1999, it has played a significant role in variety development and maintenance, seed production, and processing, packaging and marketing.

The close linkages it has maintained with partners such as National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO)’s National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCCRI) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have seen it acquire new hybrids for commercialization and production of early generation seed.

A FICA representative stands in front of a demonstration plot for one of the organization’s stress-tolerant maize varieties in Uganda. (Photo: Mosisa Worku/CIMMYT)

A unique opportunity for collaboration

Recurrent plant threats such as drought, pests and diseases — alongside the perpetual need to develop and foster better performing varieties in changing climatic conditions — has required partners to intensify efforts to tackle these challenges to bolster smallholders’ resilience. The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, for instance, ushered in the partnership between CIMMYT, FICA, national agriculture research systems, and other partners to develop and scale up well-adapted, drought-tolerant maize varieties among farmers in Uganda and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

“One of the unique features of the collaboration is that besides CIMMYT, there was a multi-stakeholder platform that would convene key seed sector players to discuss issues affecting the industry. Ultimately, this benefitted the farmers,” says FICA’s Chief Executive Officer Narcis Tumushabe.

This partnership continued during the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) initiative — which ran from 2016 to2020 — and now, in the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project, which launched in July 2020 with the ambition of fast-tracking the development of climate-resilient, higher-yielding, demand-driven, gender-responsive and nutritious maize and wheat varieties.

Tumushabe is happy that the hybrids delivered in the DTMA and STMA projects proved worthwhile against multiple stresses in farmers’ fields, offering reliable yields even in challenging conditions like drought or other stresses. Because of the diverse ecological zones in Uganda, it was essential to test the hybrids FICA accessed through the CIMMYT-NARO partnership across different ecological zones, ahead of commercialization. This has given farmers opportunities to choose the varieties that are suitable in their environment. The five varieties FICA chose to promote include Longe 9H — which produces about 700 metric tons annually — and WE 2114, WE 2115, WE 3106 and UH 5355, which cumulatively produce about 1,300 tons annually.

The WE 3106 variety has a strong stem and produces big cobs and Tumushabe notes that some livestock farmers prefer this variety as a good forage source for their livestock. Large-scale commercial farmers prefer WE 2114 due to the positioning of the ears at a uniform height, which makes it easy for harvesting using combine harvesters.

Additionally, FICA breeders have also developed impactful combination hybrids using CIMMYT and FICA lines and the company looks to double its annual production of certified stress-tolerant maize seed to 4,000 metric tons in the next five years. Currently, it enlists about 800 contract seed growers to support its seed multiplication efforts.

A FICA employee walks through a seed production field growing hybrid maize variety WE2114 in Masindi, Uganda. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT) — A FICA employee walks through a seed production field growing hybrid maize variety WE2114 in Masindi, Uganda. (Photo: Mosisa Worku/CIMMYT)

Surmounting monumental challenges for varietal turnover

Promoting new seed varieties, especially in a highly competitive market, is no mean task. With the seed delivery systems in sub-Saharan Africa mainly driven by the supply side, seed companies end up multiplying only the popular varieties that are already in high demand, explains Mosisa Worku Regasa, a seed systems specialist at CIMMYT.

“Consequently, these companies become reluctant to multiply new seed varieties due to deficient demand, thereby slowing down the rate of varietal turnover,” says Mosisa. “There is, however, a growing push for a demand-driven system.”

“Some avenues for cultivating a demand-led environment include investing a great deal of resources to better understand farmers’ preferences or product profiles, setting up numerous demonstration plots for newer, better-performing varieties closer to the farmers locations in addition to investing in other marketing and promotional activities.”

Still, the seed sector must confront other dynamics such as farmers that are captive of old albeit popular varieties.

“There are cases where, depending on the stage of a seed company’s development, the number of products that one can deliver in the right quality and appropriate maintenance level has to be limited or realistically managed,” Tumushabe explains.

“The seed company also ought to be sure that the new variety will be superior to existing varieties under farmers’ conditions. That is why one may find little excitement if the genetic gain of a new crop variety is not significantly high compared to the already known and available crop variety. This may make one wonder why an old variety continues to persist in the market.”

To create awareness and sustain the demand for its seed, FICA has established demonstration farms to showcase the performance of its stress-resilient maize varieties among farmers and engaged agro-dealers as last mile seed merchants. It is also during field days held at demonstration farms where the company obtains feedback on how to improve its breeding program, particularly from women smallholder farmers. Such efforts have helped raise the company’s share of stress-tolerant maize seed production to 70% of the total maize seed it produces, which indicates good progress in variety replacement.

Maize and wheat fields at the El Batán experimental station. (Photo: CIMMYT/Alfonso Cortés)

2020 Bӓnziger Award winners announced

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 21, 2020. Posted in News.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) congratulates the winners of the inaugural 2020 Bӓnziger Award.

The award is named for former CIMMYT Deputy Director General Marianne Bӓnziger, who retired in 2019 after 23 years in maize science and leadership, including as CIMMYT’s first woman to reach the Deputy Director General position. It recognizes the contribution of women to CIMMYT’s work and mission. Nominees must exemplify one or more of the core values of CIMMYT: teamwork, integrity, excellence and respect.

“Gender diversity is critical to the development of robust and impactful science,” said CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff, speaking at the virtual award ceremony during an all-staff CIMMYT end-of-year celebration on December 15.

“Research and administration have been demonstrated time and time again to be more effective and efficient when gender is considered, because women bring unique perspectives to conversations and decisions.”

The inaugural Bӓnziger Award received more than 50 nominations from across the organization’s offices in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Because of the high number of excellent candidates, the 2020 award committee selected two winners: Rahel Assefa and Kate Dreher.

Rahel Assefa is a project manager based in Ethiopia who has spent nearly five years supporting CIMMYT programs in eastern and southern Africa. In their nomination, her colleagues emphasized her “can-do” attitude and problem-solving skills as well as her positivity, maintained even when “deadlines are tight and tensions are high.”

Rahel Assefa receives her certificate during the virtual award ceremony. (Photo: CIMMYT)

“The nominations for Rahel covered all bases — teamwork, integrity, excellence and respect,” explained Sarah Hearne, a maize molecular geneticist at CIMMYT and chair of the 2020 award committee. “She was praised for her openness, collaboration and support of colleagues, both in and outside of her immediate environment and program.”

“I am grateful to my colleagues for the recognition of my contributions to CIMMYT,” said Rahel Assefa. “It is nice to be awarded — even though it is not why we do what we do. I like my work and I enjoy my colleagues in Africa and at HQ, and more than anything I believe in teamwork and collaboration.”

Kate Dreher is a senior germplasm curator based at CIMMYT HQ in Mexico. Her award focused not only on her official duties but also on her charity and community-building work in larger the El Batan and Texcoco area — including leading the Charity Initiative and organizing countless gatherings and activities for staff, newcomers and visitors to CIMMYT HQ.

“Nominees told us that Kate goes extra mile to help others succeed, selflessly focusing on ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ and ensuring that the voices and needs of all in a team are heard — a fantastic example of empowering teams,” said Hearne.

“Her hard work, kindness and dedication not only apply to CIMMYT’s mission enhance the CIMMYT community as a whole, touching the lives of colleagues and those less fortunate within the communities where we work.”

Kate Dreher receives her certificate during the virtual award ceremony. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Dreher expressed that this recognition would encourage her to redouble her efforts to follow Bӓnziger’s example.

“I feel inspired when I see people trying to improve the well-being of others — at work and in life in general — and I feel uplifted by the countless daily examples that I see in the CIMMYT community of people trying to make a positive impact in the world,” she said. “I admire everyone who is motivated by this goal whether their actions have an immediate impact or will lead to positive outcomes many years in the future.”

Marianne Bӓnziger shared her appreciation for the fact that CIMMYT has installed the award in her name. Speaking at the ceremony, she reiterated the words inscribed on the plaques, and offered advice for all CIMMYT staff.

“The header of the award says ‘Diversity enriches every team. Women make CIMMYT stronger,’” she told ceremony attendees. “Let’s open our eyes to the contribution that diverse team members make: women and men, young and more experienced, staff in research and administration, staff from different nations.”

“This award celebrates excellence among women staff. It’s a call to everybody to find, celebrate and foster diversity; to find, celebrate and foster excellence. Diversity in views and contributions make us stronger, and life much more colorful.”

Women mill nixtamalized maize in Michoacan, Mexico. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Nixtamalization: An ingenious solution for healthier maize-based diets

Written by Steven M on December 21, 2020. Posted in Videos.

Some 500 years ago — in the wake of the cataclysmic encounter between European powers and the indigenous cultures of the Americas — people, ideas, goods and enormous amounts of biological material were sucked into an unprecedented planetary network of commercial circuits and flung around the globe. But the process was chaotic and often violent. People, ideas and other living things that had long commingled and coevolved were torn apart, and often sent hurtling down very different trajectories.

Among the many forms of plant life caught up in this global dispersion event was a curious grain developed over thousands of years in Mesoamerica: maize. Today it is the world’s most widely planted cereal crop — a cornerstone of the global industrial food system on the one hand and many local and regional agri-food systems on the other.

The thing is that to truly understand a crop you arguably must look beyond the plant itself and see it in relation to a variety of human agricultural, culinary and socioeconomic practices. But maize moved around the globe shorn of its complement of indigenous knowledge and practices. As a food archeologist Bill Schindler argues in a new video for Wired, this rupture has had enormous consequences for the health and well-being of maize-consuming communities up to the present.

The video, which borrows from an explainer produced by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), notes that for centuries maize producers and consumers in the Americas have processed maize using a technique called nixtamalization. This treatment — cooking and steeping dried maize kernels in an alkaline solution made with water and lime or wood ash — provides several nutritional and sanitary benefits, including: increased niacin and iron bioavailability, increased calcium and resistant starch content, and decreased mycotoxin contamination.

Maize-dependent diets that do not incorporate nixtamalization have historically contributed to outbreaks of pellagra and other nutrient deficiency-driven health problems. Today un-nixtamalized maize is used as the nutritionally-poor but chemically malleable basis for many hyper-processed foodstuffs thought to have contributed to the meteoric rise of diet-related disease since the 1980s.

Faced with this, Schindler asks: what if more of the world finally reunited maize with it’s indigenous processing techniques. Heat, water and lime — it might just be a solution to some pretty big problems.

How hybrid maize helps farmers get through dry spells

Written by Bea Ciordia on December 18, 2020. Posted in In the media.

Maize yields in sub-Saharan Africa are less than a third of what they are in the US—in large part because of drought. A new seed developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is helping farmers in Africa catch up with their counterparts elsewhere.

Breaking Ground: Gokul Paudel finds the best on-farm practices for South Asia

Written by Madeline Dahm on December 18, 2020. Posted in Features.

Gokul Paudel is an agricultural economist working to streamline farming practices in South Asia. He seeks to understand, learn from and improve the efficiency of on-farm management practices in a vast variety of ways. Although he joined the International Improvement Center for Wheat and Maize (CIMMYT) right after university, Paudel’s on-farm education started long before his formal courses.

“I was born in a rural village in Baglung district, in the mid-hills of Nepal. My parents worked on a small farm, holding less than half a hectare of land,” he says. “When I was a kid, I remember hearing that even though Nepal is an agricultural country, we still have a lot of food insecurity, malnutrition and children who suffer from stunting.”

“I would ask: How is Nepal an agricultural country, yet we suffer from food insecurity and food-related problems? This question is what inspired me to go to an agricultural university.”

Paudel attended Tribhuvan University in Nepal, and through his coursework, he learned about plant breeding, genetic improvement and how Norman Borlaug brought the first Green Revolution to South Asia. “After completing my undergraduate and post-graduate studies, I realized that CIMMYT is the one organization that contributes the most to improving food security and crop productivity in developing countries, where farmers livelihoods are always dependent on agriculture,” he explains.

Approaching the paradox

Paudel is right about the agriculture and food paradox of his home country. Almost two thirds of Nepal’s population is engaged in agricultural production, yet the country still has shockingly high numbers in terms of food insecurity and nutritional deficiency. Furthermore, widespread dissemination of unsustainable agronomic practices, like the use of heavy-tilling machinery, present similar consequences across South Asia.

If research and data support the claim that conservation agriculture substantially improves crop yields, then why is the adoption of these practices so low? That is exactly what Paudel seeks to understand. “I want to help improve the food security of the country,” he explains. “That’s why I joined the agricultural sector.”

Paudel joined CIMMYT in 2011 to work with the Socioeconomics Program (SEP) and the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), providing regional support across Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

His work is diverse. Paudel goes beyond finding out which technological innovations increase on-farm yield and profit, because success on research plots does not always translate to success on smallholder fields. He works closely with farmers and policy makers, using surveys and high-tech analytical tools such as machine learning and data mining to learn about what actually happens on farmers’ plots to impact productivity.

Gokul Paudel holds up two bags of wheat crop-cuts in a farmer's field in India. (Photo: CIMMYT) — Gokul Paudel holds up two bags of wheat crop-cuts in a farmer’s field. (Photo: CIMMYT)

A growing future for conservation agriculture

Over the last two decades, the development of environmentally sustainable and financially appealing farming technologies through conservation agriculture has become a key topic of agronomic research in South Asia.

“Conservation agriculture is based on three principles: minimum disturbance of the soil structure, cover crop and crop rotation, especially with legumes,” Paudel explains.

Leaving the soil undisturbed through zero-till farming increases water infiltration, holds soil moisture and helps to prevent topsoil erosion. Namely, zero-till farming has been identified as one of the most transformative innovations in conservation agriculture, showing the potential to improve farming communities’ ability to mitigate the challenges of climate change while also improving crop yields.

Still, the diffusion rate of zero-tillage has remained low. Right now, Paudel’s team is looking at a range of factors — such as farmers’ willingness to pay, actual demand for new technologies, intensification under input constraints, gender-disaggregated preferences and the scale-appropriateness of mechanization — to better understand the low adoption rates and to find a way to close the gap.

Can farm mechanization ease South Asia’s labor shortage?

In South Asia, understanding local contexts is crucial to streamlining farm mechanization. In recent years, many men have left their agricultural jobs in search of better opportunities in the Gulf countries and this recent phenomenon of labor out-migration has left women to take up more farming tasks.

“Women are responsible for taking care of the farm, household and raising their children,” says Paudel. “Since rural out-migration has increased, they have been burdened by the added responsibility of farm work and labor scarcity. This means that on-farm labor wages are rising, exacerbating the cost of production.”

The introduction of farm machinery, such as reapers and mini-tillers, can ease the physical and financial burden of the labor shortage. “Gender-responsive farm mechanization would not only save [women’s] time and efforts, but also empower them through skills enhancement and farm management,” says Paudel. However, he explains, measures must be taken to ensure that women actually feel comfortable adopting these technologies, which have traditionally been held in the male domain.

Gokul Paudel records the total above-ground biomass of maize and other maize yield attributes in a farmer’s field in Kanchunpur, Nepal. (Photo: Ashok Rai/CIMMYT)

From farm-tech to high-tech

Right now, amidst the global lockdown due to COVID-19, Paudel’s field activities are highly restricted. However, he is capitalizing on an opportunity to assess years’ worth of data on on-farm crop production practices, collected from across Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

“We are analyzing this data-set using novel approaches, like machine learning, to understand what drives productivity in farmers’ fields and what to prioritize, for our efforts and for the farmers,” he explains.

Although there are many different aspects of his work, from data collection and synthesis to analysis, Paudel’s favorite part of the job is when his team finds the right, long-lasting solution to farmers’ production-related problems.

“There’s a multidimensional aspect to it, but all of these solutions affect the farmer’s livelihood directly. Productivity is directly related to their food security, income and rural livelihoods.”

A changing landscape

About 160 km away from where he lives now, Paudel’s parents still own the farm he grew up on — though they no longer work on it themselves. They are proud to hear that his work has a direct impact on communities like theirs throughout the country.

“Every day, new problems are appearing due to climate change — problems of drought, flooding and disease outbreak. Though it’s not good news, it motivates me to continue the work that I’m doing,” says Paudel. “The most fascinating thing about working at CIMMYT is that we have a team of multidisciplinary scientists working together with the common goal of sustainably intensifying the agricultural systems in the developing world.”

A researcher from the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) walks through a wheat field in India. (Photo: BISA)

Solving South Asia’s sustainability issues will require a systems approach to crop management

Written by Alison Doody on December 17, 2020. Posted in News.

New research by an international team of scientists, including scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), shows that adopting a portfolio of conservation agriculture and crop diversification practices is more profitable and better for the environment than conventional agriculture.

Reported last month in Nature Scientific Reports, the results of the study should encourage farmers and policymakers in South Asia to adopt more sustainable crop management solutions such as diversifying crop rotations, direct-seeding rice, zero tillage and crop residue retention.

Rice-wheat has for a long time been the dominant cropping system in the western Indo-Gangetic plains in India. However, issues such as water depletion, soil degradation and environmental quality as well as profitability have plagued farmers, scientists and decision makers for decades. To tackle these issues, researchers and policymakers have been exploring alternative solutions such as diversifying rice with alternative crops like maize.

“Climate change and natural resource degradation are serious threats to smallholder farmers in South Asia that require evidence-based sustainable solutions. ICAR have been working closely with CIMMYT and partners to tackle these threats,” said SK Chaudhari, deputy director general of the Natural Resource Management at ICAR.

In the study, CIMMYT scientists partnered with the ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), Swami Keshwan Rajasthan Agriculture University and Cornell University to evaluate seven cropping system management scenarios.

The researchers measured a business-as-usual approach, and six alternative conservation agriculture and crop diversification approaches, across a variety of indicators including profitability, water use and global warming potential.

Wheat grows under a systematic intensification approach at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) in India. (Photo: BISA)

They found that conservation agriculture-based approaches outperformed conventional farming approaches on a variety of indicators. For example, conservation agriculture-based rice management was found to increase profitability by 12%, while decreasing water use by 19% and global warming potential by 28%. Substituting rice with conservation agriculture-based maize led to improvements in profitability of 16% and dramatic reductions in water use and global warming potential of 84% and 95%. Adding the fast-growing legume mung bean to maize-wheat rotations also increased productivity by 11%, profitability by 25%, and significantly decreased water use by 64% and global warming potential by 106%.

However, CIMMYT Principal Scientist and study co-author M.L. Jat cautioned against the allure of chasing one silver bullet, advising policymakers in South Asia to take a holistic, systems perspective to crop management.

“We know that there are issues relating to water and sustainability, but at the same time we also know that diversifying rice — which is a more stable crop — with other crops is not easy as long as you look at it in isolation,” he explained. “Diversifying crops requires a portfolio of practices, which brings together sustainability, viability and profits.”

With South Asia known as a global “hotspot” for climate vulnerability, and the region’s population expected to rise to 2.4 billion by 2050, food producers are under pressure to produce more while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and damage to the environment and other natural resources.

“Tackling these challenges requires strong collaborative efforts from researchers, policymakers, development partners and farmers,” said Andrew McDonald, a systems agronomist at Cornell University and co-author of the study. “This study shows this collaboration in action and brings us closer to achieving resilient, nutritious and sustainable food systems.”

“The results of this study show that one-size doesn’t fit all when it comes to sustainable crop management,” said PC Sharma, director of India’s ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (ICAR-CSSRI). “Farmers, researchers and policymakers can adopt alternative crop rotations such as maize-wheat or maize-wheat-mung bean, but they can also improve existing rice-wheat rotations using conservation agriculture methods.”

Farmer Tara Miah stands in his wheat field in Rajguru, Barisal, Bangladesh. (Photo: Ranak Martin/CIMMYT)

The past, present and future of agricultural research

Written by AFM Nazmul Alam on December 17, 2020. Posted in News.

On November 13, 2020, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) held a virtual meeting to update Bangladesh’s Minister for Agriculture Md Abdur Razzaque on their organizations’ ongoing research activities regarding the development of sustainable, cereal-based farming systems.

The purpose of this event was to inform influential stakeholders of the implications of the impending transition to One CGIAR for collaborative research activities in Bangladesh and how CIMMYT will continue its support to the its partners in the country, including the government and other CGIAR centers. The event was chaired by CIMMYT’s Director General Martin Kropff, who called-in from CIMMYT’s headquarters in Mexico, and Razzaque, who attended the event as a special guest. Around 21 participants from various government offices including the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) were in attendance.

Speaking at the event, Razzaque thanked CIMMYT for its support in increasing maize and wheat production in Bangladesh — as the main source of germplasm for these two crops — which has been crucial for assuring food and income security and helping the country reach towards the Sustainable Development Goals. He expressed his gratitude for CIMMYT’s help in mitigating the threats posed by pests and diseases, and supporting climate information services which have enabled farmers to avoid crop losses in mung bean, and he requested that CIMMYT to intensify its research on cropping systems, heat- and disease-tolerant wheat varieties, and the introduction of technologies and farming practices to sustainably increase production and reduce wheat imports.

Martin Kropff gives an overview of CIMMYT research in Bangladesh during a virtual meeting with stakeholders. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Timothy J. Krupnik, CIMMYT’s country representative for Bangladesh, guided participants through the history of CIMMYT’s engagement in Bangladesh from the 1960s to the present and outlined the organization’s plan for future collaboration with the government. In addition developing wheat blast-resistant varieties, exchanging germplasm and seed multiplication programs for disease-resistant varieties, Krupnik described collaborative efforts to fight back against fall armyworm, research in systems agronomy to boost crop intensity and the use of advanced simulation models and remote sensing to assist in increasing production while reducing farm drudgery, expensive inputs, water and fuel use, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

He also highlighted efforts to create a skilled work force, pointing to CIMMYT’s collaboration with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) on appropriate agricultural mechanization and USAID-supported work with over 50 machinery manufacturers across the country.

“This historical legacy, alongside world-class scientists and committed staff, germplasm collection, global impact in farmer’s fields, next generation research and global network of partners have made CIMMYT unique,” explained Kropff during his closing remarks, which focused on the organization’s research and collaboration on climate-smart and conservation agriculture, high-yielding, stress- and disease-tolerant maize and wheat variety development, value chain enhancement, market development, precision agronomy and farm mechanization in Bangladesh.

He expressed his gratitude towards the Government of Bangladesh for supporting CIMMYT as an international public organization in the country, thus enabling it to continue delivering impact, and for recognizing the benefits of the transition to a more integrated network of international research centers through One CGIAR, under which CIMMYT and other centers will strengthen their support to the government to help Bangladesh achieve zero hunger.

Jeffery Sachs gives a presentation in Kiev, Ukraine. (Photo: JDS)

No greater challenge

Written by Marta Millere on December 17, 2020. Posted in Features.

Amidst the transition to One CGIAR and COVID-19 lockdowns, the world’s leading maize and wheat research organization’s community found the time to slow down and weigh the successes and bottlenecks of this complicated year. More than 400 people spread across the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) 13 offices worldwide gathered for an all-staff virtual event to close 2020.

Aided by world-renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs’ vast experience in detangling global crises, sustainable development and poverty alleviation, staff reflected on the role they play within CGIAR and in helping CIMMYT increase its impact on nutrition security, poverty alleviation and a better world.

Connecting from his home in New York, Sachs urged CGIAR to see beyond the research priorities it set out to accomplish a half a century ago. With the 50^th anniversary of CGIAR in 2021, Sachs encouraged CGIAR to think about the research priorities for the next 50 years. “We’re confronting a probably more systemic and even more complex set of challenges in food in 2021, than perhaps was the case in 1971,” he said.

“We need to expand the research agenda beyond the still-important focus on improved yields and varieties to consider the food system holistically. Our goal is a global food system that enables healthy diets, sustainable land use, resilience to environmental change, and good livelihoods for farm families.”

“Our goal is a global food system that enables healthy diets, sustainable land use, resilience to environmental change, and good livelihoods for farm families.”

Albeit not as famous as its colleague organizations the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), CGIAR has been called “essential to feeding our future” by Bill Gates. Sachs echoed this sentiment and urged CGIAR to embrace its vital role in “achieving sustainable agriculture and healthy diets for all.”

The next 50 years

As CIMMYT moves into One CGIAR, it will capitalize on its over 50 years of experience, impact and expertise in genetic innovations, systems transformation and tools for resilient agri-food systems and fully embrace One CGIAR’s mission of delivering science and innovation that advance transformation of food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.

Throughout 2020, COVID-19 and global conflicts have put an almost impossible pressure on already overwhelmed agricultural production, smallholders’ livelihoods and global supply chains. As with any system, it requires resilience for its long-term sustainability. “Of course, CGIAR’s central goal has been to anticipate the future needs of food production and areas of new resilience such as flood resilience or drought,” said Sachs.

“I would add [for its future strategy to also consider] resilience to social disruptions and disruptions to global supply chains, as we experience with COVID-19 but also with geopolitical tensions,” he advised.

Jeffery Sachs quoted at CIMMYT’s virtual event in December 2020. (Graphic: CIMMYT)

Keeping cereals in the equation

While diversification is important to human diets and the sustainability of agricultural production, we cannot afford to ignore the major cereals. Maize, rice and wheat provide a basic nutritional value, macro- and micronutrients that many people across the globe can afford and access.

Sachs asked CGIAR to look deeply at the question of poverty and food poverty, both in rural and urban areas. “CGIAR has more knowledge of how smallholders are living and how their lives are changing than any other research institution in the world. And I think your work can therefore give tremendous guidance on the overall fight against poverty and on the anticipation of increased urbanization in future years, as agriculture becomes more mechanized, and as smallholders or the children of today’s smallholders leave for urban areas in the coming generation.”

“CGIAR has more knowledge of how smallholders are living and how their lives are changing than any other research institution in the world. And I think your work can therefore give tremendous guidance on the overall fight against poverty.”

Sachs acknowledged the large and important task that CGIAR faces in its future. “All of this is incredibly difficult. […] I find the food system challenges to be the most complex of all of the sustainability challenges we face.”

He spoke of the task at hand with urgency and that there is no greater intellectual challenge than the transformation to sustainable agriculture: “The role of the CGIAR will be unique and indispensable in helping to guide us through those transformations. I think this is the indispensable time for the CGIAR to lay out its new research agenda for the next 50 years to be the one that helps us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.”

A farmer compares yellow and orange maize in Kwanza Sul, Angola. (Photo: Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT)

Crop variety guide for farmers

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 17, 2020. Posted in Publications.

As part of a rural resilience project in Zimbabwe, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has published a new guide to stress-tolerant crop varieties for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe.

The guide is a critical output of a project led by CIMMYT and the international humanitarian response agency GOAL, in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Government of Zimbabwe and other partners. With financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the project aims to reach 5000 smallholder farmers in target areas in the country.

Among the project components is the promotion of stress-tolerant seed and climate-smart agriculture practices to rural smallholders. With increasing threats of climate change and a decline in soil fertility, using these improved varieties and climate-smart practices is critical to help farmers adapt to external stresses.

To support variety adoption, a team of CIMMYT experts have identified suitable drought-tolerant and nutritious maize, sorghum and millet varieties. These will be promoted through “mother and baby” trials, designed to facilitate conversations among farmers, extension, and researchers, in these areas.

The new crop variety guide aims to help smallholder farmers in target areas make informed choices by providing critical information about the prioritized products and their maturity length, drought-tolerance, nutritional value, and pest and disease resistance. Direct linkages with private sector seed companies will ensure that farmers have access to this seed at affordable prices.

Implementing crop rotation between these best-suited, stress-tolerant varieties and climate-resilient cowpeas and groundnuts in a conservation agriculture system can improve food and nutrition security even under a variable climate.

Starting with good seed, and enhanced with improved agronomic practices, smallholder farmers have a greater chance of reliable yields and improved income.

Download the manual: Variety description: maize, sorghum, millet, cowpeas and groundnuts

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center works in Colombia to enhance grain quality

Written by Bea Ciordia on December 15, 2020. Posted in In the media.

Natalia Palacios, Maize Quality Specialist at CIMMYT, spoke about the center’s work in Colombia and the future of maize production in the program ‘Tierra de Sueños’ (Land of Dreams).

Listen to the episode here: https://www.rcnradio.com/colombia/el-centro-internacional-de-mejoramiento-maiz-y-trigo-trabaja-en-colombia-por-la-calidad

Wheat fields at Toluca station. (Photo: Fernando Delgado/CIMMYT)

“Historic” release of six improved wheat varieties in Nepal

Written by Marcia MacNeil on December 15, 2020. Posted in Press releases.

On December 11, 2020, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) announced the release of six new wheat varieties for multiplication and distribution to the country’s wheat farmers, offering increased production for Nepal’s nearly one million wheat farmers and boosted nutrition for its 28 million wheat consumers.

The varieties, which are derived from materials developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), include five bred for elevated levels of the crucial micronutrient zinc, and Borlaug 100, a variety well known for being high yielding, drought- and heat-resilient, and resistant to wheat blast, as well as high in zinc.

“Releasing six varieties in one attempt is historic news for Nepal,” said CIMMYT Asia Regional Representative and Principal Scientist Arun Joshi.

“It is an especially impressive achievement by the NARC breeders and technicians during a time of COVID-related challenges and restrictions,” said NARC Executive Director Deepak Bhandari.

“This was a joint effort by many scientists in our team who played a critical role in generating proper data, and making a strong case for these varieties to the release committee, ” said Roshan Basnet, head of the National Wheat Research Program based in Bhairahawa, Nepal, who was instrumental in releasing three of the varieties, including Borlaug 2020.

“We are very glad that our hard work has paid off for our country’s farmers,” said Dhruba Thapa, chief and wheat breeder at NARC’s National Plant Breeding and Genetics Research Centre.

Nepal produces 1.96 million tons of wheat on more than 750,000 hectares, but its wheat farmers are mainly smallholders with less than 1-hectare holdings and limited access to inputs or mechanization. In addition, most of the popular wheat varieties grown in the country have become susceptible to new strains of wheat rust diseases.

The new varieties — Zinc Gahun 1, Zinc Gahun 2, Bheri-Ganga, Himganga, Khumal-Shakti and Borlaug 2020 — were bred and tested using a “fast-track” approach, with CIMMYT and NARC scientists moving material from trials in CIMMYT’s research station in Mexico to multiple locations in Nepal and other Target Population of Environments (TPEs) for testing.

“Thanks to a big effort from Arun Joshi and our NARC partners we were able to collect important data in first year, reducing the time it takes to release new varieties,” said CIMMYT Head of Wheat Improvement Ravi Singh.

The varieties are tailored for conditions in a range of wheat growing regions in the country — from the hotter lowland, or Terai, regions to the irrigated as well as dryer mid- and high-elevation areas — and for stresses including wheat rust diseases and wheat blast. The five high-zinc, biofortified varieties were developed through conventional crop breeding by crossing modern high yielding wheats with high zinc progenitors such as landraces, spelt wheat and emmer wheat.

“Zinc deficiency is a serious problem in Nepal, with 21% of children found to be zinc deficient in 2016,” explained said CIMMYT Senior Scientist and wheat breeder Velu Govindan, who specializes in breeding biofortified varieties. “Biofortification of staple crops such as wheat is a proven method to help reverse and prevent this deficiency, especially for those without access to a more diverse diet.”

Borlaug 2020 is equivalent to Borlaug 100, a highly prized variety released in 2014 in adbMexico to commemorate the centennial year of Nobel Peace laureate Norman E. Borlaug. Coincidently, its release in Nepal coincides with the 50^th anniversary of Borlaug’s Nobel Peace Prize.

NARC staff have already begun the process of seed multiplication and conducting participatory varietal selection trials with farmers, so very soon farmers throughout the country will benefit from these seeds.

“The number of new varieties and record release time is amazing,” said Joshi. “We now have varieties that will help Nepal’s farmers well into the future.”

CIMMYT breeding of biofortified varieties was funded by HarvestPlus. Variety release and seed multiplication activities in Nepal were supported by NARC and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through collaboration with ADB Natural Resources Principal & Agriculture Specialist Michiko Katagami. This NARC-ADB-CIMMYT collaboration was prompted by World Food Prize winner and former HarvestPlus CEO Howarth Bouis, and provided crucial support that enabled the release in a record time.

RELATED RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS:

Variability Study of Biofortified Bread Wheat Genotypes for Grain Zinc and Iron Concentration, Yield and Yield Associated Traits at Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Arun Joshi, Asia Regional Representative and Principal Scientist, CIMMYT

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT:

Marcia MacNeil, Communications Officer, CIMMYT m.macneil@cgiar.org.

ABOUT CIMMYT:

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.

ABOUT NARC:

Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) was established in 1991 as an autonomous organization under Nepal Agricultural Research Council Act – 1991 to conduct agricultural research in the country to uplift the economic level of Nepalese people.

ABOUT ADB:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. It assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.

Farmer Roba Shubisha harvests an improved maize variety in Yubo village, Wondo Genet, Ethiopia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Shining a brighter light on adoption and diffusion

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 15, 2020. Posted in News.

With almost all CGIAR centers represented in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is considered to be a hub for CGIAR research, and the organization has been a long-term partner to the Ethiopian government when it comes to agriculture. The partnership between CGIAR and the national partners is said to be an exemplary one, with CGIAR serving as the source of new technologies and innovations and national partners contextualizing these products within their own country context. This is believed to have brought impacts that serve the people on the ground.

A new report by CGIAR’s Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) indicates that CGIAR innovations have reached between 4.1 and 11 million Ethiopian households. The report — which assesses 52 agricultural innovations and 26 claims of policy influence — documents the reach of CGIAR-related agricultural innovations across the core domains of CGIAR research activity: animal agriculture; crop germplasm improvement; natural resource management; and policy research.

The study compiles comprehensive information on the past two decades of CGIAR research activities in Ethiopia. Using information from interviews with CGIAR research leaders, scientists, government officials, published studies and project documents, this ‘stocktaking’ exercise was used to identify the innovations which are potentially disseminated at scale. The study also employs novel data collection protocols and methods like visual aid protocols for identification of natural resource management innovations or DNA fingerprinting for crop variety identification for barley, maize and sorghum.

The study results show that although many innovations are being adopted by some farmers, only a few are reaching large numbers of households. The three innovations with the largest reach are soil and water conservation practices, improved maize varieties and crossbred poultry. The study also found out that there are synergies between innovations where households adopt two or more. For instance, a household which adopts CGIAR maize varieties is likely to also adopt recommended natural resource management practices.

This, according to the study, is the result of different categories of CGIAR research efforts — natural resource management and policy, crop breeding and livestock research, respectively. The scaling of these innovations can also be linked to supportive government policies, which in turn have been influenced by policy research, as indicated in the report.

A farmer walks through a maize field in Toga village, Hawassa, Ethiopia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

CIMMYT’s footprint

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has maintained a presence in Ethiopia for over 30 years and is committed to supporting long-term agricultural development in the country. As part of this effort, CIMMYT has contributed to an increase in maize and wheat production in Ethiopia, working with national partners to test and release improved varieties.

The maize breeding program started in 1988 through CIMMYT and EIAR collaboration and in 1993 BH-660 was released — the first hybrid maize variety derived from CIMMYT germplasm. According to the report, specific maize traits were researched through the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) projects, and since 2012 the Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project has aimed to develop varieties with higher protein content. Overall, 54 maize varieties have been released in Ethiopia since 1990, and 34 of these are thought to contain CIMMYT-related germplasm. It is also noted that, in the past 20 years ten drought-tolerant varieties and eight quality protein maize (QPM) varieties have been released.

In terms of geographical spread, the study highlights that improved maize varieties derived from CGIAR germplasm were highly adopted in the regions of Harar and Dire Dawa, which account for 81% of adopters overall. Adoption rates were also high in Tigray (79.3% of households), Amhara and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (63% of households), and Oromia (58.4% of households).

The other important crop in Ethiopia is wheat, which is grown by up to 4.8 million farmers in the country, according to the 2019 Central Statistics Authority (CSA) report. The SPIA document indicates that CGIAR innovations have played great role in the release and uptake of improved wheat varieties. The work of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), for instance, has resulted in the release of eight rust-resistant varieties derived from CIMMYT germplasm that are still under production. Of the 133 varieties released since 1974, CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) played a role in developing at least 80.

The report concludes that agricultural research carried out by CGIAR scientists and their national partners generates many new ideas for innovations that might help address pressing policy concerns. CGIAR’s contribution to Ethiopia’s agricultural development is complex and wide-ranging, and while some aspects cannot be accurately captured by survey data, this new source of adoption and diffusion data helps identify the scale and scope of CGIAR’s reach in Ethiopia.

Read the full report: Shining a brighter light: Comprehensive evidence on adoption and diffusion of CGIAR-related innovations in Ethiopia

About the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment

The Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) is an external, impartial panel of experts in impact assessment appointed by the System Council and accountable to it. SPIA is responsible for providing rigorous, evidence-based, and independent strategic advice to the broader CGIAR System on efficient and effective impact assessment methods and practices, including those measuring impacts beyond contributions to science and economic performance, and on innovative ways to improve knowledge and capacity on how research contributes to development outcomes

Agriculture for Peace: A call to action to avert a global food crisis

Written by Ricardo Curiel on December 14, 2020. Posted in News.

Norman Borlaug teaches a group of young trainees in the field in Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)

50 years ago, the late Norman Borlaug received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for averting famine by increasing wheat yield potential and delivering improved varieties to farmers in South Asia. He was the first Nobel laureate in food production and is widely known as “the man who saved one billion lives.”

In the following decades, Borlaug continued his work from the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), a non-profit research-for-development organization funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the governments of Mexico and the United States.

CIMMYT became a model for a future network of publicly-funded organizations with 14 research centers: CGIAR. Today, CGIAR is led by Marco Ferrroni, who describes it as a global research partnership that “continues to be about feeding the world sustainably with explicit emphasis on nutrition, the environment, resource conservation and regeneration, and equity and inclusion.”

Norman Borlaug’s fight against hunger has risen again to the global spotlight in the wake of the most severe health and food security crises of the 21^st Century. “The Nobel Peace Prizes to Norman Borlaug and the World Food Programme are very much interlinked,” said Kjersti Flogstad, Executive Director of the Oslo-based Nobel Peace Center. “They are part of a long tradition of awarding [the prize] to humanitarian work, also in accordance with the purpose [Alfred] Nobel expressed in his last will: to promote fraternity among nations.”

During welcome remarks at the virtual 50-year commemoration of Norman Borlaug’s Nobel Peace Prize on December 8, 2020, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, warned that “for the first time in many years since Borlaug defeated hunger in Southeast Asia, millions of people are at risk of starvation in several regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

According to CIMMYT’s Director General Martin Kropff, celebrating Norman Borlaug’s legacy should also lead to renewed investments in the CGIAR system. “A report on the payoff of investing in CGIAR research published in October 2020 shows that CIMMYT’s return on investment (ROI) exceeds a benefit-cost ratio of 10 to 1, with median ROI rates for wheat research estimated at 19 and for maize research at 12.”

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Department echoed the call to invest in Agriculture for Peace. “The Government of Mexico, together with the Nobel Peace Center and CIMMYT, issues a joint call to action to overcome the main challenges to human development in an international system under pressure from conflict, organized crime, forced migration and climate change,” said Martha Delgado, Mexico’s Under Secretary of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.

Norman Borlaug sits on a tractor next to field technicians in Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The event called for action against the looming food crises through the transformation of food systems, this time with an emphasis on nutrition, environment and equality. Speakers included experts from CGIAR, CIMMYT, Conservation International, Mexico’s Agriculture and Livestock Council, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Food Programme (WFP), among others. Participants discussed the five action tracks of the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit: (1) ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all; (2) shift to sustainable consumption patterns; (3) boost nature-positive production; (4) advance equitable livelihoods; and, (5) build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses.

“This event underlines the need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation in the situation the world is facing today,” said Norway’s Ambassador to Mexico, Rut Krüger, who applauded CIMMYT’s contribution of 170,000 maize and wheat seeds to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. “This number reflects the global leadership position of CIMMYT in the development of maize and wheat strains.”

Norman Borlaug’s famous words — “take it to the farmer” — advocated for swift agricultural innovation transfers to the field; Julie Borlaug, president of the Borlaug Foundation, said the Agriculture for Peace event should inspire us to also “take it to the public.”

“Agriculture cannot save the world alone,” she said. “We also need sound government policies, economic programs and infrastructure.”

CIMMYT’s Deputy Director General for Research and Partnerships, and Integrated Development Program Director Bram Govaerts, called on leaders, donors, relief and research partners to form a global coalition to transform food systems. “We must do a lot more to avert a hunger pandemic, and even more to put the world back on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.”

CIMMYT’s host country has already taken steps in this direction with the Crops for Mexico project, which aims to improve the productivity of several crops essential to Mexico’s food security, including maize and wheat. “This model is a unique partnership between the private, public and social sectors that focuses on six crops,” said Mexico’s Private Sector Liaison Officer Alfonso Romo. “We are very proud of its purpose, which is to benefit over one million smallholder households.”

The call stresses the need for sustainable and inclusive rural development. “It is hard to imagine the distress, frustration and fear that women feel when they have no seeds to plant, no grain to store and no income to buy basic foodstuffs to feed their children,” said Nicole Birrell, Chair of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees. “We must make every effort to restore food production capacities and to transform agriculture into productive, profitable, sustainable and, above all, equitable food systems worldwide.”

Maize germinates inside a greenhouse in Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Improved metrics for better decisions

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 14, 2020. Posted in News.

By adopting best practices and established modern tools, national agricultural research systems (NARS) are making data-driven decisions to boost genetic improvement. And they are measuring this progress through tracking and setting goals around “genetic gain.”

Genetic gain means improving seed varieties so that they have a better combination of genes that contribute to desired traits such as higher yields, drought resistance or improved nutrition. Or, more technically, genetic gain measures, “the expected or realized change in average breeding value of a population over at least one cycle of selection for a particular trait of index of traits,” according to the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding (EiB)’s breeding process assessment manual.

CGIAR breeders and their national partners are committed to increasing this rate of improvement to at least 1.5% per year. So, it has become a vital and universal high-level key performance indicator (KPI) for breeding programs.

“We are moving towards a more data-driven culture where decisions are not taken any more based on gut feeling,” EiB’s Eduardo Covarrubias told nearly 200 NARS breeders in a recent webinar on Enhancing and Measuring Genetic Gain. “Decisions that can affect the sustainability and the development of organization need to be based on facts and data.”

Improved metrics. Better decisions. More and better food. But how are NARS positioned to better measure and boost the metric?

EiB researchers have been working with both CGIAR breeding programs and NARS to broaden the understanding of genetic gain and to supply partners with methods and tools to measure it.

The recent webinar, co-sponsored by EiB and the CIMMYT-led Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project, highlighted tools and services that NARS are accessing, such as genotyping, data analysis and mechanization.

Through program assessments, customized expert advice, training and provision of services and resources, EiB researchers are helping national partners arrive at the best processes for driving and measuring genetic gains in their programs.

For example, the EiB team, through Crops to End Hunger (CtEH), is providing guidelines to breeders to help them maximize the accuracy and precision, while reducing the cost of calculating genetic gains. The guidelines make recommendations such as better design of trials and implementing an appropriate check strategy that permits regular and accurate calculation of genetic gain.

A comprehensive example at the project level is EiB’s High-Impact Rice Breeding in East and West Africa (Hi-Rice), which is supporting the modernization of national rice programs in eight key rice-producing countries in Africa. Hi-Rice delivers training and support to modernize programs through tools such as the use of formalized, validated product profiles to better define market needs, genotyping tools for quality control, and digitizing experiment data to better track and improve breeding results. This is helping partners replace old varieties of rice with new ones that have higher yields and protect against elements that attack rice production, such as drought and disease. Over the coming years, EiB researchers expect to see significant improvements in genetic gain from the eight NARS program partners.

And in the domain of wheat and maize, AGG is working in 13 target countries to help breeders adopt best practices and technologies to boost genetic gain. Here, the EiB team is contributing its expertise in helping programs develop their improvement plans — to map out where, when and how programs will invest in making changes.

NARS and CGIAR breeding programs also have access to tools and expertise on adopting a continuous improvement process — one that leads to cultural change and buy-in from leadership so that programs can identify problems and solve them as they come up. Nearly 150 national breeding partners attended another EiB/AGG webinar highlighting continuous improvement key concepts and case studies.

National programs are starting to see the results of these partnerships. The Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO)’s highland maize breeding program has undertaken significant changes to its pipelines. KALRO carried out its first-ever full program costing, and based on this are modifying their pipeline to expand early stage testing. They are also switching to a double haploid breeding scheme with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), in addition to ring fencing their elite germplasm for future crosses.

KALRO has also adopted EiB-supported data management tools, and are working with the team to calculate past rates of genetic gains for their previous 20 years of breeding. These actions — and the resulting data — will help them decide on which tools and methods to adopt in order to improve the rate of genetic gain for highland maize.

“By analyzing historical genetic gain over the last 20 years, it would be interesting to determine if we are still making gains or have reached a plateau,” said KALRO’s Dickson LIgeyo, who presented a Story of Excellence at EiB’s Virtual Meeting 2020. “The assessment will help us select the right breeding methods and tools to improve the program.”

Other NARS programs are on a similar path to effectively measure and increase genetic gain. In Ghana, the rice breeding program at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have developed product profiles, identified their target market segments, costed out their program, digitized their operations, and have even deployed molecular markers for selection.

With this increased expertise and access to tools and services, national breeding programs are set to make great strides on achieving genetic gain goals.

“NARS in Africa and beyond have been aggressively adopting new ideas and tools,” says EiB’s NARS engagement lead Bish Das. “It will pay a lot of dividends, first through the development of state-of-the-art, and ultimately through improving genetic gains in farmers’ fields. And that’s what it’s all about.”

A member of a women farmers group serves a platter of mung bean dishes in Suklaphanta, Nepal. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)

Best of 2020: Editors’ picks

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on December 14, 2020. Posted in Features.

COVID-19 didn’t slow us down! In 2020, our editors continued to cover exciting news and events related to maize and wheat science around the world. Altogether, we published more than 250 stories.

It is impossible to capture all of the places and topics we reported on, but here are some highlights and our favorite stories of the year.

Thank you for being a loyal reader of CIMMYT’s news and features. We are already working on new stories and campaigns for 2021. Sign up for our newsletter and be the first to know!

The cereals imperative of future food systems

The 2019 EAT-Lancet Commission report defines specific actions to achieve a “planetary health diet” enhancing human nutrition and keeping resource use of food systems within planetary boundaries. With major cereals still supplying about one-third of calories required in the proposed diet, the way they are produced, processed, and consumed must be a central focus of global efforts to transform food systems. This article from our annual report argues three main reasons for this imperative.

Cereals matter. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Explainer: What is conservation agriculture?

Farmers are increasingly adopting conservation agriculture practices. This sustainable farming method is based on three principles: crop diversification, minimal soil movement and permanent soil cover.

Field worker Lain Ochoa Hernandez harvests a plot of maize grown with conservation agriculture techniques in Nuevo México, Chiapas, Mexico. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)

Massive-scale genomic study reveals wheat diversity for crop improvement

A team of scientists has completed one of the largest genetic analyses ever done of any agricultural crop to find desirable traits in wheat’s extensive and unexplored diversity.

A new study analyzing the diversity of almost 80,000 wheat accessions reveals consequences and opportunities of selection footprints. (Photo: Eleusis Llanderal/CIMMYT)

Reaching women with improved maize and wheat

The new AGG project aims to respond to the climate emergency and gender nexus through gender-intentional product profiles for its improved seed varieties and gender-intentional seed delivery pathways.

Farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize cobs in Malawi. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Safeguarding biodiversity is essential to prevent the next COVID-19

Experts share their insights on the link between biodiversity loss and emerging infectious diseases.

Forests in the land of the Ese'eja Native Community of Infierno, in Peru's Madre de Dios department. (Photo: Yoly Gutierrez/CIFOR) — Forests in the land of the Ese’eja Native Community of Infierno, in Peru’s Madre de Dios department. (Photo: Yoly Gutierrez/CIFOR)

Seeing is believing

At demonstration farms, Kenyan farmers discover the stress-tolerant maize varieties they were looking for.

A seed company representative explains to farmers the merits of the variety on this plot. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)

Battling devastating viral diseases, also in plants

Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) has taught us that intensive efforts to keep human and plant diseases at bay need to continue beyond the COVID-19 crisis. We interviewed B.M. Prasanna, director of the Global Maize Program at CIMMYT and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), to discuss the MLN success story, the global COVID-19 crisis, and the similarities in the challenge to tackle plant and human viral diseases.

We had a similar conversation with Hans Braun, Director of the Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, who taled to us about the need for increased investment in crop disease research as the world risks a food security crisis related to COVID-19.