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Harnessing medical technology and global partnerships to drive gains in food crop productivity

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

Ulrich Schurr (left), of Germany’s Forschungszentrum Jülich research center and chair of the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN), and Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), are promoting global partnerships in phenotyping to improve critical food crops, through events like the recent International Crop Phenotyping Symposium. Photo: M.Listman/CIMMYT
Ulrich Schurr (L), of Germany’s Forschungszentrum Jülich research center and chair of the International Plant Phenotyping Network, and Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, are promoting global partnerships in phenotyping to improve critical food crops, through events like the recent International Crop Phenotyping Symposium. Photo: CIMMYT/Mike Listman

EL BATÁN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Global research networks must overcome nationalist and protectionist tendencies to provide technology advances the world urgently needs, said a leading German scientist at a recent gathering in Mexico of 200 agricultural experts from more than 20 countries.

“Agriculture’s critical challenges of providing food security and better nutrition in the face of climate change can only be met through global communities that share knowledge and outputs; looking inward will not lead to results,” said Ulrich Schurr, director of the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences of the Forschungszentrum Jülich research center, speaking at the 4th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium

One such community is the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN), chaired by Schurr and co-host of the symposium in December, with the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT.

Adapting medical sensors helps crop breeders see plants as never before

“Phenotyping” is the high-throughput application of new technology — including satellite images, airborne cameras, and multi-spectral sensors mounted on robotic carts — to the age-old art of measuring the traits and performance of breeding lines of maize, wheat and other crops, Schurr said.

“Farmers domesticated major food crops over millennia by selecting and using seed of individual plants that possessed desirable traits, like larger and better quality grain,” he explained. “Science has helped modern crop breeders to ‘fast forward’ the process, but breeders still spend endless hours in the field visually inspecting experimental plants. Phenotyping technologies can expand their powers of observation and the number of lines they process each year.”

Adapting scanning devices and protocols pioneered for human medicine or engineering, phenotyping was initially confined to labs and other controlled settings, according to Schurr.

“The push for the field started about five years ago, with the availability of new high-throughput, non-invasive devices and the demand for field data to elucidate the genetics of complex traits like yield or drought and heat tolerance,” he added.

Less than 10 years ago, Schurr could count on the fingers of one hand the number of institutions working on phenotyping. “Now, IPPN has 25 formal members and works globally with 50 institutions and initiatives.”

Cameras and other sensors mounted on flying devices like this blimp [remote-control quadcopter] provide crop researchers with important visual and numerical information about crop growth, plant architecture and photosynthetic traits, among other characteristics. Photo: Emma Quilligan/CIMMYT
Cameras and other sensors mounted on flying devices like this blimp provide crop researchers with important visual and numerical information about crop growth, plant architecture and photosynthetic traits, among other characteristics. Photo: E. Quilligan/CIMMYT
Many ways to see plants and how they grow

So-called “deep” phenotyping uses technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission and computer tomography to identify, measure and understand “invisible” plant parts, systems and processes, including roots and water capture and apportionment.

In controlled environments such as labs and greenhouses, researchers use automated systems and environmental simulation to select sources of valuable traits and to gain insight on underlying plant physiology that is typically masked by the variation found in fields, according to Schurr.

“Several specialists in our symposium described automated lab setups to view and analyze roots and greenhouse systems to assess crop shoot geometry, biomass accumulation and photosynthesis,” he explained. “These are then linked to crop simulation models and DNA markers for genes of important traits.”

Schurr said that support for breeding and precision agriculture includes the use of cameras or other sensors that take readings from above plant stands and crop rows in the field.

“These may take the form of handheld devices or be mounted on autonomous, robotic carts,” he said, adding that the plants can be observed using normal light and infrared or other types of radiation reflected from the plant and soil.

“The sensors can also be mounted on flying devices including drones, blimps, helicopters or airplanes. This allows rapid coverage of a larger area and many more plants than are possible through visual observation alone by breeders walking through a field.”

In the near future, mini-satellites equipped with high-resolution visible light sensors to capture and share aerial images of breeding plots will be deployed to gather data in the field, according to symposium participants.

Bringing high-flying technologies to earth

As is typical with new technologies and approaches to research, phenotyping for crop breeding and research holds great promise but must overcome several challenges, including converting images to numeric information, managing massive and diverse data, interfacing effectively with genomic analysis and bringing skeptical breeders on board.

“The demands of crop breeding are diverse — identifying novel traits, studies of genetic resources and getting useful diversity into usable lines, choosing the best parents for crosses and selecting outstanding varieties in the field, to name a few,” Schurr explained. “From the breeders’ side, there’s an opportunity to help develop novel methods and statistics needed to harness the potential of phenotyping technology.”

A crucial linkage being pursued is that with genomic analyses. “Studies often identify genome regions tied to important traits like photosynthesis as ‘absolute,’ without taking into account that different genes might come into play depending on, say, the time of day of measurement,” Schurr said. “Phenotyping can shed light on such genetic phenomena, describing the same thing from varied angles.”

Speaking at the symposium, Greg Rebetzke, a research geneticist since 1995 at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), said that the effective delivery in commercial breeding of “phenomics” — a term used by some to describe the high-throughput application of phenotyping in the field — is more a question of what and when, not how.

“It’s of particular interest in breeding for genetically complex traits like drought tolerance,” Rebetzke said. “Phenomics can allow breeders to screen many more plants in early generations of selection, helping to bring in more potentially useful genetic diversity. This genetic enrichment with key alleles early on can significantly increase the likelihood of identifying superior lines in the later, more expensive stages of selecting, which is typically done across many different environments.”

Moreover, where conventional breeding generally uses “snaphot” observations of plants at different growth stages, phenotyping technology can provide detailed time-series data for selected physiological traits and how they are responding to their surroundings—say, well-watered versus dry conditions—and for a much greater diversity and area of plots and fields.

Phenotyping is already being translated from academic research to commercial sector development and use, according to Christoph Bauer, leader of phenotyping technologies at KWS, a German company that breeds for and markets seed of assorted food crops.

“It takes six-to-eight years of pre-breeding and breeding to get our products to market,” Bauer said in his symposium presentation. “In that process, phenotyping can be critical to sort the ‘stars’ from the ‘superstars’.”

Commercial technology providers for phenotyping are also emerging, according to Schurr, helping to ensure robustness, the use of best practices and alignment with the needs of academic and agricultural industry customers.

“The partnership triad of academia, commercial providers and private seed companies offers a powerful avenue for things like joint analysis of genotypic variation in the pre-competitive domain or testing of cutting-edge technology,” he added.

On the final morning of the symposium, participants broke off into groups to discuss special topics, including the cost effectiveness of high-throughput phenotyping and its use to analyze crop genetic resources, measuring roots, diagnostics of reproductive growth, sensor technology needs, integrating phenotypic data into crop models, and public-private collaboration.

Schurr said organizations like CIMMYT play a crucial role.

“CIMMYT does relevant breeding for millions of maize and wheat farmers — many of them smallholders — who live in areas often of little interest for large-scale companies, providing support to the national research programs and local or regional seed producers that serve such farmers,” Schurr said. “The center also operates phenotyping platforms worldwide for traits like heat tolerance and disease resistance and freely spreads knowledge and technology.”

Improved maize offers new economic opportunity to Kenyan family

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Mbula and her son Kivanga shell the cobs of KDV2 maize, an early maturing drought tolerant variety.
Mbula and her son Kivanga shell the cobs of KDV2 maize, an early maturing drought tolerant variety. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – Millions of women across Africa continue to drive agriculture and for Francisca Mbula, a mother of five in her late 50s, her successful journey in farming is credited to her 30-year old eldest son Nzioka Kivanga. Mbula’s family lives in Machakos County, a semi-arid area situated in the eastern part of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, and like thousands of other families, they depend on small-scale rainfed farming, which remains a key livelihood even though it is adversely affected by climatic shocks.

Machakos, like several other counties in eastern Kenya, was badly hit with drought that ravaged various parts of the country during the October-December short rains.

Kivanga is not in formal employment but a dedicated farmer. “Sometimes I see his lack of formal employment as a blessing, because without his hard work and zeal for farming I would not have learned about Drought Tego and KDV2 varieties that have changed my farming,” explained Mbula.

Both Drought Tego and KDV2 are modern improved varieties that are drought tolerant and offer better resistance to common maize diseases in this region. He started planting KDV2, an improved open pollinated variety, during March 2014 and a year later planted Drought Tego, an improved hybrid

A rear view of Kivanga’s new home, built from the income generated using improved maize varieties.
A rear view of Kivanga’s new home, built from the income generated using improved maize varieties. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT

“The KDV2 maize is very sweet and good for our Muthokoi meal made from maize and beans, because its grains are small so you don’t need a lot of beans. This helps a lot to cut costs,” said Kivanga. The two varieties are produced and marketed by the Dryland Seed Company (DLS) where Kivanga first learned and purchased at the company shop in Machakos in 2014.

KDV2 and Drought Tego’s yield success has brought many economic gains to Kivanga than he would have otherwise never earned planting traditional varieties. “I started building my house in 2013. It was very slow because I did not have cash to keep the construction going,” said Kivanga. “From the seven bags of KDV2 maize harvest I sold the extra five bags for 3,600 shillings (USD $36) each, which helped me to build up the house from the foundation to the walls.” The seven 90 kilogram (kg) bags of maize harvested from a 2 kg packet of KDV2 variety was four times more than what Kivanga and his mother would have harvested from their recycled local varieties.

When Kivanga got his harvest from Tego in September 2015, it surpassed his expectations. From the 2 kg packet of Drought Tego, Kivanga harvested ten 90 kg bags and another five bags from KDV2 in the same season.

Mbula holds a full cob from the Drought Tego variety, expected to provide her and her family a successful harvest.
Mbula holds a full cob from the Drought Tego variety, expected to provide her and her family a successful harvest. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT

“With this harvest I was able to plaster all the walls and buy iron sheets for the roofing,” Kivanga said while pointing at his nearly finished house, which he plans to finish in 2016 after the August harvest.

DLS has played a major role in supporting farmers’ access to improved seed by creating awareness about available varieties and their suitability based on agro-ecological zone and planting season.

“KDV varieties are early maturing, so we advise farmers to plant these varieties during the short rains and Drought Tego during the long rains since it is medium maturing,” said Jecinta Mwende, a sales representative at DLS. “This is a sure way of farmers getting higher yields.”

DLS is a key partner collaborating with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to produce and distribute improved stress tolerant varieties. In 2015 DLS produced 300 tons of its three varieties KDV2, KDV4 and Drought Tego, currently being sold to farmers. Another variety – SAWA – is the latest variety and its production started in 2016 as an introductory seed.

“The performance of the four varieties has been impressive even in our production fields, and we will have enough to distribute beyond the eastern region through the coming two planting seasons starting from October 2016,” added Ngila Kimotho, managing director of DLS Company.

Wheat rust poses food security risk for global poor, says DFID’s Priti Patel

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David Hodson, CIMMYT senior scientist (L), describes the challenges posed by wheat rust to Priti Patel, Britain's international development secretary, during the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting in London. Handout/DFID
David Hodson, CIMMYT senior scientist (L), describes the challenges posed by wheat rust to Priti Patel, Britain’s international development secretary, during the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting in London. DFID/handout

LONDON (CIMMYT) – International wheat rust monitoring efforts are not only keeping the fast-spreading disease in check, but are now being deployed to manage risks posed by other crop diseases, said a scientist attending a major scientific event in London.

Although initially focused on highly virulent Ug99 stem rust, the rust tracking system – developed as part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, an international collaboration involving Cornell University and national agricultural research programs – is also used to monitor other fungal rusts and develop prediction models with the aim of helping to curtail their spread.

“We appear to be looking at some shifts in stem rust populations with the Digalu race and new variants increasing and spreading,” said David Hodson, a senior scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), who showcased the latest research findings at the recent Grand Challenges meeting in London hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Our data reinforce the fact that we face threats from rusts per se and not just from the Ug99 race group – we are fortunate that international efforts laid the groundwork to establish a comprehensive monitoring system,” said Hodson, one of more than 1,200 international scientists at the gathering.

“The research investments are having additional benefits,” he told Priti Patel, Britain’s secretary of state for international development, explaining that the wheat rust surveillance system is now also being applied to the deadly Maize Lethal Necrosis disease in Africa.

“The learning from stem rust and investments in data management systems and other components of the tracking system have allowed us to fast-track a similar surveillance system for another crop and pathosystem.”

In a keynote address, echoed by an opinion piece published in London’s Evening Standard newspaper authored by Patel and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, Patel described the risks posed by wheat rust to global food security and some of the efforts funded by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) to thwart it.

“Researchers at the University of Cambridge are working with the UK Met Office and international scientists to track and prevent deadly outbreaks of wheat rust which can decimate this important food crop for many of the world’s poorest people,” Patel said, referring to collaborative projects involving CIMMYT, funded by the Gates Foundation and DFID

Patel also launched a DFID research review at the meeting, committing the international development agency to continued research support and detailing how the UK intends to deploy development research and innovation funding of £390 million ($485 million) a year over the next four years.

Wheat improvement work by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers was highlighted in the research review as an example of high impact DFID research. Wheat improvement has resulted in economic benefits of $2.2 to $3.1 billion per year and almost half of all the wheat planted in developing countries.

Scientists meet in Mexico to revolutionize ways of “watching” experimental plants

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

Photo: CIMMYT
Photo: CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Focusing on the rapid advance in technologies to observe and record plant growth using technologies such as drones and automated sensors, 200 world-class scientists from over 20 countries will gather in Mexico from December 13 to 15 for the 4th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium.

Aiming to make breeding for food crops faster and more effective, experts will share news on the latest tools to measure plant traits and, combined with cutting-edge genetics and statistics, sharpen their understanding of how crops adapt to the environment.

“The ‘phenotype’ is the observable physical traits and behavior of an organism” said Matthew Reynolds, distinguished scientist and wheat physiologist at the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) which, together with the International Plant Phenotyping Network, is organizing and hosting the event.

“In plant breeding, measuring crop traits in the field is largely prerequisite to genetic analyses,” Reynolds added. “A new generation of high-throughput phenotyping technologies based on remote sensing represents a giant step forward.”

DNA-based technologies such as molecular markers have immense potential to hone selection or provide useful information about target traits, according to Reynolds. “But now a revolution in plant phenotyping is taking place, using non-invasive technologies based on reflected light and near-light radiation from plant tissue, to assess the vigor and performance of crop trials,” he explained. “These developments promise to dramatically expand the scale and speed of phenotyping as well as the application of molecular tools in breeding.”

Bucking trends, boosting breeding gains

Trends suggest that crop breeding must gear up to feed a rapidly rising and more prosperous global population, but that breeding impacts are increasingly constrained by changing climates and new, more deadly crop diseases. “In the case of wheat, for example, yields must grow by at least 1.4 percent each year from now to 2030 to avoid critical food shortages, but since the 1990s, wheat’s yield growth rate has been far below that, at around 0.5 percent per year,” Reynolds said.

Emerging phenotyping technologies include automated or remote-controlled devices, such as field-level sensors, drone-mounted cameras or even satellites. As one example, experts from the John Innes Centre and the Earlham Institute in Britain will describe one such automated system they use to capture high-resolution data on crop growth, for plotting and analysis against detailed environmental data using cutting-edge models.

Interpreting plant images from remote sensors has proven a challenge. University of Nebraska scientists will present alternatives based on mathematical measurement and analysis of the volume of a plant’s silhouette and above-ground structure.

“In addition to learning from each other’s experiences, a half day is dedicated to drafting position papers on priority areas for future research,” Reynolds said. “Finally, a keynote talk and discussion will consider ways to harmonize the many phenotyping platforms that have emerged in recent years.”

Click here to view or download the book of abstracts of the event.

Advice for India’s rice-wheat farmers: Put aside the plow and save straw to fight pollution

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

A suite of simple, climate-smart farming practices predicated for years by agricultural scientists holds the key to resource conservation, climate change and reduced pollution in South Asia.
A suite of simple, climate-smart farming practices predicated for years by agricultural scientists holds the key to resource conservation, climate change and reduced pollution in South Asia. Photo: CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Recent media reports show that the 19 million inhabitants of New Delhi are under siege from a noxious haze generated by traffic, industries, cooking fires and the burning of over 30 million tons of rice straw on farms in the neighboring states of Haryana and Punjab.

However, farmers who rotate wheat and rice crops in their fields and deploy a sustainable agricultural technique known as “zero tillage” can make a significant contribution to reducing smog in India’s capital, helping urban dwellers breathe more easily.

Since the 1990s, scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been working with national partners and advanced research institutes in India to test and promote reduced tillage which allows rice-wheat farmers of South Asia to save money, better steward their soil and water resources, cut greenhouse gas emissions and stop the burning of crop residues.

The key innovation involves sowing wheat seed directly into untilled soil and rice residues in a single tractor pass, a method known as zero tillage. Originally deemed foolish by many farmers and researchers, the practice or its adaptations slowly caught on and by 2008 were being used to sow wheat by farmers on some 1.8 million hectares in India.

Scientists and policymakers are promoting the technique as a key alternative for residue burning and to help clear Delhi’s deadly seasonal smog.

Burning soils the air, depletes the soil

“Rice-wheat rotations in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan account for nearly a quarter of the world’s food production and constitute a key source of grain and income in South Asia, home to more than 300 million undernourished people,” said Andy McDonald, a cropping systems agronomist at CIMMYT. “But unsustainable farming practices threaten the region’s productivity and are worsening global climate change.”

The burning of paddy straw is one example, according to expert studies. Besides triggering costly respiratory ailments in humans and animals in farm regions and urban centers like Delhi, burning rice residues depletes soil nutrients, with estimated yearly losses in Punjab alone of 3.9 million tons of organic carbon, 59,000 tons of nitrogen, 20,000 tons of phosphorus and 34,000 tons of potassium, according to M.L. Jat, a senior agronomist at CIMMYT, who leads CIMMYT’s contributions to “climate-smart” villages in South Asia, as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

The Turbo Happy Seeder allows farmers to sow a rotation crop directly into the residues of a previous crop—in this case, wheat seed into rice straw—without plowing, a practice that raises yields, saves costs and promotes healthier soil and cleaner air. Inset: Agricultural engineer H.S. Sidhu (left), of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), who has helped test and refine and the seeder, visits a zero tillage plot with Dr. B.S. Sidhu, agricultural commissioner of Punjab State. Photo: CIMMYT

Zero tillage: A lot to like

Traditional tillage for sowing wheat in northern India involves removing or burning rice straw and driving tractor-drawn implements back and forth over fields to rebuild a soil bed from the rice paddy, a costly and protracted process.

Zero tillage cuts farmers’ costs and provides better yields. By eliminating plowing, farmers can sow wheat up to two weeks earlier. This allows the crop to fill grain before India’s withering pre-Monsoon heat arrives — an advantage that is lost under conventional practices.

A 2016 study in Bihar state showed that farmers’ annual income increased by an average 6 percent when they used zero tillage to sow wheat, due both to better yields and savings in diesel fuel through reduced tractor use.

Zero tillage also diminishes farmers’ risk from erratic precipitation, according to Jat. “A new study in Haryana has shown that in wet years when conventionally-sown wheat fields are waterlogged, zero-tilled crops can produce 16 percent more grain.”

Environmental and climate change benefits include 93 kilograms less greenhouse gas emissions per hectare. “In the long run, retaining crop residues builds up soil organic matter and thereby reduces farming’s carbon footprint,” Jat explained.

Zero-tilled wheat also requires 20 to 35 percent less irrigation water, slowing depletion of the region’s rapidly-dwindling underground water reserves and putting money in farmers’ pockets by reducing their need to pump.

“It’s impressive that a single practice provides such a broad set of benefits,” said McDonald, who leads CIMMYT’s Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA).

Specialized seed planters sell slowly

Farmer awareness is growing, but putting aside the plow is not an easy proposition for some. In particular, zero tillage requires use of a special, tractor-mounted implement which, in a single pass, chops rice residues, opens a rut in the soil, and precisely deposits and covers the seed.

Development of this special seeder was first funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and led by Punjab Agricultural University, with contributions from CIMMYT and other organizations. The latest version, the Turbo Happy Seeder, costs $1,900 — an investment that many farmers still struggle to make.

“As an alternative, we’ve been saying that not all farmers need to own a seeder,” Jat observed. “Many can simply hire local service providers who have purchased the seeder and will sow on contract.” In Bihar and the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, the number of zero-tillage service providers rose from only 17 in 2012 to more than 1,900 in 2015, according to Jat.

Given New Delhi’s smog troubles, Haryana and Punjab policymakers are adding support to avoid burning rice straw. “The government of Haryana has taken a policy decision to aggressively promote the seeder for zero tillage and residue management and to provide 1,900 seeders on subsidy this year,” said Suresh Gehlawat, assistant director of agriculture for that state, in a recent statement.

On the horizon: Zero tillage for rice

As part of these efforts, CIMMYT scientists and partners are testing and promoting with farmers a suite of resource-conserving practices. These include precision land levelling, which saves water and improves productivity, as well as directly sowing rice into untilled, non-flooded plots.

“The practice of direct-seeded rice requires less labor, raising farmers’ profits by as much as $130 per hectare over paddy-grown rice,” said Jat. “Moreover, growing rice in non-flooded fields uses 25 percent less water and reduces the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas 200 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, by 20 kilograms per hectare.”

Agricultural biodiversity key to future crop improvement

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The CGIAR is one of the biggest suppliers and conservers of crop genetic diversity. CIMMYT's genebank contains around 28,000 unique samples of maize seed—including more than 24,000 landraces; traditional, locally-adapted varieties that are rich in diversity—and 150,000 of wheat, including related species for both crops. Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT.
The CGIAR is one of the biggest suppliers and conservers of crop genetic diversity. CIMMYT’s genebank contains around 28,000 unique samples of maize seed—including more than 24,000 landraces; traditional, locally-adapted varieties that are rich in diversity—and 150,000 of wheat, including related species for both crops. Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT.

NEW DELHI — Conserving and using agricultural biodiversity to create better crops can help meet several sustainable development goals and stave off further species extinctions, according to scientists at the first International Agrobiodiversity Congress.

About 75 percent of plant genetic diversity worldwide has been lost since the beginning of the 20th century and 30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.  Meanwhile, humans only consume about 1.5 percent of edible plants and only three of these – rice, maize and wheat – contribute nearly 60 percent of calories and proteins obtained by humans from plants. This huge loss in biodiversity due to environmental degradation caused by humans – what many scientists refer to as earth’s “sixth extinction”– is detrimental to global food security and the environment.

“Just a 7-10 percent loss of any major food crop would result in prices quadrupling,” says Howarth Bouis, founder of HarvestPlus and 2016 World Food Prize winner. “Non-staple food prices in India have [already] risen by 50 percent over the past 30 years.” A lack of agricultural diversity puts the world’s entire food chain at risk if a shock – such as increased instances of drought or crop diseases due to rising temperatures from climate change – were to destroy a particular type of crop.

As part of a global response to these challenges, researchers in collaboration with farmers are gathering seed to conserve and protect in genebanks across the world for future generations. These banks are the foundation of agriculture, food security and dietary diversity.

“We don’t know what scientists will need in 30 years,” says Marie Haga, executive director of the Crop Trust. “We need to conserve the entire spectrum [of seeds]. If it’s not being used right now, that does not mean it won’t be critically important in the future.”

New advancements in DNA-sequencing and phenotyping technologies have also created an opportunity to actively use the genetic information of these seeds that did not exist just a few years ago. Crop breeders can now more rapidly and effectively identify seeds that have traits like enhanced nutritional qualities, drought or heat tolerance, or disease resistances to create better crops that withstand challenges related to malnutrition, climate change, disease and more.

For example, in 2012 approximately 23 percent of Kenya’s maize production was lost due to an outbreak of the disease Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN). Thanks to the efforts of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other partners, there are now 13 hybrid varieties with tolerance to MLN – created in just four years.

Delegates to the congress also tackled issues regarding the effective and efficient management of genebanks, biosafety and biosecurity, intellectual property rights, access to germplasm, benefit sharing from use of germplasm, and farmers’ role in conservation of genetic resources and other related themes.

The Congress culminated with the adoption of “The Delhi Declaration on Agrobiodiversity Management” that recommended harmonizing multiple legal systems across countries to facilitate the safe transfer of genetic resources, developing and implementing an Agrobiodiversity Index to help monitor the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity in breeding programs, promoting conservation strategies for crop wild relatives and other strategies to strengthen agricultural biodiversity’s role in agricultural development.

Target for 10 million more climate-smart farmers in southern Africa amid rising cost of El Niño

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EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – El Niño may have passed, but food security in southern Africa will continue to deteriorate until next year, as farmers struggle to find the resources to rebuild their livelihoods. Currently, around 30 million people in southern Africa require food aid, expected to rise to 50 million people by the end of February 2017.

Two Zimbabwe-based scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) highlighted predictions that El Niño will become more frequent and severe under climate change, and that heat stress will reduce maize yields in southern Africa by 2050. Research centers, development agencies and governments must work together to respond to climate predictions before food crises develop, they said.

 

Q: What do climate predictions say and how do they inform CIMMYT’s work?

Comparing a new heat and drought-tolerant maize variety in Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/Johnson Siamachira
A new stress-tolerant maize variety compared in Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/Johnson Siamachira

Jill Cairns: Using climate projections we identified what future maize growing environments are going to be like, what traits will be needed for these environments and where the hotspots of vulnerability will be in terms of maize production.

We identified that heat stress is going to become a more important issue for maize in southern Zimbabwe, and southern Africa generally.

Previously we had no heat screening in the whole of Africa for maize breeding, and four years ago we set up heat screening networks. Through that we are starting to get maize varieties that do well under heat and drought.

This was meant to be for 2050, but now we have seen in this last El Niño that heat stress is a real problem. We actually have varieties now, thanks to the identification of the problem and the pre-emptive work towards it.

 

Q: What can be done for farmers in drought-stricken areas?

Drought in southern Africa caused by El Niño. CIMMYT/GIS Lab
Drought in southern Africa during El Niño. CIMMYT/GIS Lab

Christian Thierfelder: We have systems with adaptation qualities. For example, conservation agriculture increases water infiltration and maintains higher levels of soil moisture. So in times of dry spells, these systems can produce more, and live from the residual moisture in the soil.

Stress-tolerant maize is selected under drought and heat stress besides other biotic and abiotic stresses, and specifically adapted to such circumstances. We know that the varieties themselves can help farmers’ yields by 30 to 50 percent, but if you combine that with other technologies, and we have seen that this last year, you can have yield gains of over 100 percent with conservation agriculture and improved seed for example under drought conditions.

We have seen this year in Malawi, in communities that were heavily affected by El Niño, that we harvested almost two tons more maize per hectare in comparison to the conventional systems. I think this is a huge benefit that we really have to roll out.

 

Q: What can be achieved over the next five to seven years?

Christian Thierfelder: Our biggest aim is to improve and increase the resilience of farming systems. We are not looking at a single technology like drought tolerant maize or conservation agriculture in isolation, but looking at it more from livelihoods perspective and a farming systems perspective.

Besides technologies, we also need other climate-smart options and approaches that support farmers to respond to a changing climate. Farmers also need cash if they have failed in a drought year, and small loans or microfinancing will be critical to buy things from scratch and re-initiate farming.

We have the technologies, we have researched them and we know their impact on a small scale. What we want to do now is encourage public and private organizations, including seed companies, that work in that space to come together with us and jointly find solutions.

We as CIMMYT can only tackle a certain proportion of the farming system with our technologies and approaches. We have other CGIAR centers that specialize in legumes, cassava and livestock, and we partner a lot with international NGOs like Concern, Catholic Relief Services, CARE, World Vision, Total LandCare and the national agriculture research and extension systems to help us with scaling.

If we really come together now, if we have a coherent and joint multidisciplinary approach, I think in seven years’ time we will have reached many more farmers. We will target 10 million farmers practicing climate-smart agriculture in the next five to seven years.

Improved genetic analysis offers faster, more precise results to crop breeders

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CIMMYT representatives at IAC (L-R) Prashant Vikram, Ravi Singh, Cynthia O.R, Laura Bouvet, Sukhwinder-Singh, Martin Kroff, Kevin Pixley and Gilberto Salinas. Photo: CIMMYT
CIMMYT representatives at IAC (L-R) Prashant Vikram, Ravi Singh, Cynthia O.R, Laura Bouvet, Sukhwinder-Singh, Martin Kropff, Kevin Pixley and Gilberto Salinas. Photo: CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Researchers gathered last week at the International Agrobiodiversity Conference in New Delhi to improve global collaboration on harnessing genes in breeding that can help wheat withstand the effects of climate change.

Wheat is the most widely cultivated staple food in the world, providing 20 percent of the protein and calories consumed worldwide and up to 50 percent in developing countries. It is also particularly vulnerable to climate change, since the crop thrives in cooler conditions. Research has shown wheat yields drop 6 percent for each 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, and that warming is already holding back yield gains in wheat-growing mega-regions like South Asia.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) genebank serves as a vital source of genetic information and biodiversity. Breeders use this information to accelerate the development of wheat resilient to climate change by identifying varieties that display valuable traits like drought and heat-stress tolerance, which allow them to flourish despite stressful conditions.

However, all this genetic information is incredibly dense and requires filtering before breeders can efficiently use that information, according to Sukhwinder Singh, head of the wheat pre-breeding team at CIMMYT’s Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative.

“Using new genes to improve wheat, or any crop, is incredibly difficult because often along with the desired traits, come numerous undesirable traits,” said Singh. “That’s where pre-breeding comes in – we essentially purify this huge pool of good and bad traits by identifying useful genes, like heat tolerance, then make these traits available in a form that’s easier for wheat breeders to access and use.”

Pre-breeding is done through cutting-edge, cost-effective technologies that characterize the genetic information of CIMMYT’s wheat genebank. Using these tools, nearly 40 percent of the 150,000 seed samples of wheat in the bank have undergone high-throughput genetic characterization, a process that allows pre-breeders to rapidly identify desirable traits in the varieties.

A recent successful example of pre-breeding was highlighted in a report that genetically characterized a collection of 8,400 centuries-old Mexican wheat landraces adapted to varied and sometimes extreme conditions, offering a treasure trove of potential genes to combat wheat’s climate-vulnerability.

“Pre-breeding helps us better understand and gather more information on what genetic traits are available in CIMMYT’s wheat genebank, so researchers can have more access to a wider variety of information than ever before,” said Prashant Vikram, wheat researcher who is also working with the pre-breeding team at CIMMYT.

However, as new genomics tools continue to develop, capacity building for researchers is necessary to ensure the potential impacts of the genebank’s biodiversity is fully realized and equitably accessible, said Kevin Pixley, SeeD project leader and program director of CIMMYT’s Genetic Resources Program.

During the IAC partners, scientists, students, and stakeholders from across the globe provided feedback on SeeD and pre-breeding initiatives, while CIMMYT led discussions on how to build genebank biodiversity for future food security and sustainable development. Increasing partnerships and multidisciplinary projects for stronger impact were identified as key needs for future initiatives.

Drought- and heat-tolerant maize tackles climate change in southern Africa

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Appollonia Marutsvaka and Alice Chipato of Zaka District in Zimbabwe. If widely adopted, drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties could help farmers cope with drought and heat stresses. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT
Appollonia Marutsvaka (left) and Alice Chipato of Zaka District in Zimbabwe. If widely adopted, drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties could help farmers cope with drought and heat stresses. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

HARARE (CIMMYT) — “We are no longer sure when to prepare the land for planting or when to start planting. It’s pretty much gambling with nature,” complains 62-year old Appollonia Marutsvaka of Zaka district, Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. “Most of the time the rains are not enough for crop production. If the situation persists, then most of us who have small farms will sink deeper into poverty, because we depend on agriculture for our livelihoods.”

Most farmers in Zaka argue that they only get one good harvest every five to six years. Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for smallholder farmers.

It is estimated that maize yields in Zimbabwe and South Africa’s Limpopo Province will decrease by approximately 20-50 percent between now and 2045. This predicted decline will pose a major problem, as maize is the region’s main staple food. Low yields in this region are largely associated with drought stress, low soil fertility, weeds, pests, diseases, low input availability, low input use, and inappropriate seeds.

After years of work on maize improvements projects, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), made a bigger commitment to researching, supporting and getting drought-tolerant maize into the hands of smallholder farmers. To date, with substantial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, drought-tolerant varieties have been delivered to three million farmers across Africa.

“Given the accumulating evidence of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, there is an urgent need to develop more climate resilient maize systems. Adaptation strategies to climate change in maize systems in sub-Saharan Africa are likely to include improved seeds with tolerance to drought and heat stress and improved management practices,” says Jill Cairns, CIMMYT senior maize physiologist.

Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT senior maize breeder, with new experimental hybrid maize on display at the Chiredzi Research Station, Zimbabwe. Scientists here have developed new heat- and drought-tolerant maize varieties. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT
Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT senior maize breeder, with new experimental hybrid maize on display at the Chiredzi Research Station, Zimbabwe. Scientists here have developed new heat- and drought-tolerant maize varieties. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

CIMMYT, together with partners under the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), developed drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties through its breeding program in sub-Saharan Africa.

Heat tolerance was not previously a trait in African breeding programs. CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)’s work highlighted the importance of heat tolerance in future climates, and in 2011 CIMMYT started breeding for this trait. During the past year, the El Niño induced drought has demonstrated the need for maize which is also heat-tolerant. If CIMMYT had not started working on these varieties in 2011, it would have taken until 2021 to have a drought and heat tolerant maize variety.

A recent media tour of Zaka and Chiredzi districts in Zimbabwe, where CIMMYT conducted regional on-farm variety trials for the new climate-proof seed varieties, revealed that the new drought- and heat-tolerant maize is an important way of combating climate-change induced food shortages. Research carried out by CIMMYT revealed that under experimental conditions, the new varieties doubled maize yields when compared to the yields of commercial varieties.

Smallholder farmer Marutsvaka, who participated in the on-farm variety trials, says: “In the past, I harvested nothing as my crops were literally burnt by the scorching heat. During the 2015-2016 growing season, I realized almost 200 kilograms of white grain.” One of the challenges of these new maize varieties is the time taken between testing and seed availability on the market. For example, some of these new maize varieties would only be on the market during the 2018-2019 agricultural season.

The 2014 African Agriculture Status Report states that the vital food producers face a risk of being overwhelmed by the pace and severity of climate change. The authors called for the adoption of climate-smart agriculture that will help make crops more resilient to future extreme weather events.

Appollonia Marutsvaka shows off her drought- and heat-tolerant maize cobs harvested through a CIMMYT project. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT
Appollonia Marutsvaka shows off her drought- and heat-tolerant maize cobs harvested through a CIMMYT project. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

“For our farmers to be productive and ensure food security, we need to build resilience to help them mitigate the onset of climate change,” observed Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT senior maize breeder. “We are talking about a situation when the rain does not come at the right time or the length of the [growing] season is shortened as a result of drought and other stresses, such as heat.”

He added that helping small-scale farmers adopt climate-smart farming techniques would “prepare them for even more serious challenges in the future… this means we need both to adapt agriculture to climate change and to mitigate climate change itself.’’

However, getting a new strain of maize out of the research station is not the same as getting it to the fields. Creating a distribution chain in Africa has been a bigger challenge than inventing the product itself.

Gabriel Chiduku, a sales and marketing representative for Klein Karoo, a private seed company which introduced the CIMMYT developed seed of drought-tolerant varieties to Zaka farmers, told the farmers that the seed is readily available.

With the drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties, Zaka farmers are producing three tons per hectare of maize, up from less than a ton.

Combating spread of MLN in Africa poses unique but surmountable challenges, seed health specialist says

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Anne Wangui, a seed health technician at CIMMYT demonstrate DAS–ELISA method used for detecting MLN-causing viruses. B.Wawa/CIMMYT
Anne Wangui, a seed health technician at CIMMYT demonstrate DAS–ELISA method used for detecting MLN-causing viruses. B.Wawa/CIMMYT

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease poses a major concern to researchers, seed companies and farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of MLN is massive in the affected countries, especially at the household level for smallholder farmers who can experience up to 100 percent yield loss.

Concerted regional efforts through a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) over the past year have helped in prioritizing and targeting efforts to stop the spread of the disease  from the endemic to the non-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The project target countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda (currently MLN endemic), while Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are MLN non-endemic but important commercial maize seed producing countries where the project implemented extensive MLN surveillance efforts.

Determining exactly how the MLN causing viruses, which include maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and sugarcane mosaic virus, are transmitted in the field through insect-vectors, infected plants and seed lots, has made diagnosis a key element in the efforts to halt the spread of the disease.  If the viruses, in particular MCMV, the major causative agent, are introduced into a new area through contaminated seed and infected plants and not diagnosed and destroyed immediately, MLN can spread rapidly. Insect vectors in the field can play a significant role in transmitting viruses to the neighboring healthy maize fields.

In order to manage MLN at a regional level, partners in the project are developing harmonized diagnostic protocols to test, detect and prevent its spread through available mitigation measures. These were highlighted during the MLN Diagnostics and Management Project Review and Planning Meeting held in October, 2016 in Nairobi.

Monica Mezzalama, head of the CIMMYT Seed Health Laboratory  in  Mexico and a plant pathologist, shared her views on MLN testing and diagnostic methods that can be adopted to test maize plants and seed lots in the following interview.

Q: What is the role of diagnostics in managing MLN in Africa?

A: The role of sensitive, reliable, reproducible, affordable and standardized diagnostic tools is fundamental to the management of MLN in Africa. Only with an appropriate diagnosis tool, we can effectively detect and prevent further dispersal of the disease to the non-endemic areas through seed.

Q: What is the progress for detecting MLN in seed lots?

A: At the moment, detection in seed lots is still a weak link in the MLN management chain, although detection methods are available, such as ELISA and several versions of PCR, which are serological and molecular based, respectively, for the detection of MLN viruses. Extracting the pathogen from seed is more difficult than extracting it from leaf tissue, making it more time consuming to obtain clear and reliable results. Additionally, scientists are on the verge of resolving the significant issue of “sampling intensity,” which refers to the proportion of the seed sampled from the presented seed lots.

Q: What are some of the practices CIMMYT has adopted to ensure MLN-free seed production across regional centers in Africa?

A: Since 2013, CIMMYT has implemented several effective measures to ensure healthy MLN-free seed production and exchange. An aggressive strategy against the disease has been adopted at the main maize breeding station at Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization in Kiboko, by introducing a maize-free period of two months annually on the station as well as in the surrounding areas in close interaction with the farming communities in the neighboring villages. All this was possible thanks to the great collaboration between KALRO staff, CIMMYT colleagues, and the local farmers. This action taken for two consecutive years reduced drastically the incidence of MLN infected plants. In addition, a very thoughtful sensitization campaign was carried out, explaining how to effectively apply insecticide to control vectors, how to avoid the spread of the pathogen from one field to another by advising workers to change their clothes and shoes after working in an infected field. Also, management of planting dates has been implemented to avoid peaks of vectors populations or physically avoiding the arrival of the insects by planting according to the wind stream direction. In Zimbabwe, CIMMYT has also invested significant resources by establishing an MLN Quarantine Facility at Mazowe, near Harare to enable safe exchange of MLN virus-free breeding materials in southern Africa.

Q: Based on your experience with various diagnostic tools, what options would work for Africa’s seed companies and regulatory agencies to help detect MLN-causing viruses?

A: For detection of MLN viruses in green leaf tissue, I think immunostrips, ELISA and PCR techniques work very well and they can be adopted according to the level of specialization of the operator, infrastructure and financial resources available. As far as detection in dry seed is concerned, I think that at the moment the ELISA technique is the most reliable and affordable. PCR methods are available, but still some improvement needs to be done in the extraction of the viral RNA from the seed matrix.

Q: What factors do the relevant actors need to consider in the process of harmonizing diagnostic protocols across MLN-endemic and non-endemic countries?

A: Harmonization of protocols and procedures are needed not only for MLN, but also for effective design and implementation of phytosanitary aspects related to the exchange of commercial seed and vegetative material across borders. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task because of the number of actors involved, including national plant protection organizations, seed companies, seed traders, farmers, and policy makers. Nevertheless, the most important factors that, in my opinion, should be taken into consideration for consensus on harmonized protocols and where the efforts should focus on are: avoid the spread of the disease from country to country, and from the endemic to non-endemic areas within the same country; implement a well-coordinated and integrated package of practices for effective management of MLN in the endemic countries; reduce as much as possible economic losses due to the restriction on seed exchange; implement serious and effective seed testing and field inspections of the seed multiplication plots to prevent the incidence of MLN and for timely detection and elimination of infected plants.

View Meeting presentations  here

MLN Pathogen Diagnosis, MLN-free Seed Production and Safe Exchange to Non-Endemic Countries Brochure

Visit the MLN website for more information

The CIMMYT-led MLN Diagnostics and Management Project, funded by USAID East Africa Mission is coordinating the above work with objectives to: a) prevent the spread of MLN, especially Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus (MCMV), from the MLN-endemic countries in eastern Africa to non-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa; b) support the commercial seed sector in the MLN-endemic countries in producing MCMV-free commercial seed and promote the use of clean hybrid seed by the farmers; and c) to establish and operate a MLN Phytosanitary Community of Practice in Africa, for sharing of learning, MLN diagnostic and surveillance protocols, and best management practices for MLN control in Africa.

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First drought tolerant and insect resistant “stacked” transgenic maize harvested in Kenya

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A maize stem infested by the African stem borer that is predominant in the highlands. B.Wawa/CIMMYT
A maize stem infested by the African stem borer that is predominant in the highlands. B.Wawa/CIMMYT

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – Life has become more difficult in Kenya for the intrepid stem borer. For the first time, transgenic maize hybrids that combine insect resistance and drought tolerance have been harvested from confined field trials, as part of a public-private partnership to combat the insect, which costs Kenya $90 million dollars in maize crop losses a year.

Conducted at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) centers in Kitale and Kiboko in April and May, the experiments were managed by the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project, a collaboration led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).  The test crop successfully weathered intense, researcher-controlled infestations of two highly-aggressive Kenyan insect pests— the spotted stem borer and African stem borer.

The maize is referred to as “stacked” because it carries more than one inserted gene for resilience; in this case, genes from the common soil microbe Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that confers resistance to certain species of stem borer, and another from Bacillus subtilis that enhances drought tolerance.

Bt hybrid maize showed better resistance to the stem borer compared to the conventional commercial maize. F. Maritim/KALRO
Bt hybrid maize showed better resistance to the stem borer compared to the conventional commercial maize. F. Maritim/KALRO

First time maize resists two-pest attack

WEMA partners from KALRO, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), U.S. seeds company Monsanto and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) hope that, given the successful results of this experiment, they will soon be able to test the new maize in national trials.

“This is the first planting season of the stacked materials and, from the initial data, there was a clear difference between the plants containing the stem borer resistance traits and the conventional commercial maize grown for comparison, which showed a lot of damage,” said Murenga Mwimali, WEMA coordinator at KALRO.

The maize in the Kiboko experiment was infested with the spotted stem borer (Chilo partellus, by its scientific name), a pest found mostly in the lowlands. At Kitale, the scientists besieged the crops with the African stem borer (Busseola fusca), the predominant maize pest in the highlands. This was the first time that Bt maize had been tested in the field against Busseola fusca, according to Stephen Mugo, regional representative for CIMMYT in Africa and leader of the center’s WEMA team.

“From our observations, this is the first time that stacked Bt genes provided control for both Chilo partellus and Busseola fusca in maize,” Mugo said, adding that stem borers annually chew their way through 13.5 percent of Kenya’s maize, representing a loss of 0.4 million tons of grain.

“Losses can reach 80 percent in drought years, when maize stands are weakened from a lack of water and insect infestation,” he explained. Although the impact of the stem borer in the field often goes unnoticed because the insects sometimes destroy the plant from the root, the loss is significant for a country that depends on maize for food.

The new maize was developed using lines from Monsanto and CIMMYT-led conventional breeding for drought tolerance.

A Bt hybrid maize with resistance to the African stem borer and tolerant to drought harvested at Kitale research center, Kenya. B.Wawa/CIMMYT
A Bt hybrid maize with resistance to the African stem borer and tolerant to drought harvested at Kitale research center, Kenya. B.Wawa/CIMMYT

Seeking approval for widespread testing and use

Trial harvesting took place under close supervision by inspectors from the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) and the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), strictly in line with regulatory requirements for handling genetically modified crops in Kenya.

The NBA has given partial approval to KALRO and AATF for open cultivation of the stacked transgenic hybrid maize. Once full approval is given, the varieties can be grown in non-restricted field conditions like any other variety and the Bt maize can be tested in the official national performance trials organized by KEPHIS to test and certify varieties for eventual use by farmers.

“The data we are generating in this trial will support further applications for transgenic work in Kenya, particularly for open cultivation,” Mwimali said.

Promoting drought tolerant maize seed in southern Africa

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The orange maize was showcased at a seed fair in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. In addition to high yielding, disease resistant and drought-tolerant, the maize variety reduces farmers’ vulnerability to the effects of drought and other stresses, such as heat. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.
The orange maize was showcased at a seed fair in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. In addition to high yielding, disease resistant and drought-tolerant, the maize variety reduces farmers’ vulnerability to the effects of drought and other stresses, such as heat. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.

HARARE (CIMMYT) — In its continuing efforts to increase the productivity of maize systems in southern Africa, CIMMYT held seed fairs in two districts of Zimbabwe in September to promote the sharing of information and knowledge about new seed options for farmers and to encourage farmer-to-farmer information exchange.

At the seed fairs, which are like trade fairs, farmers, seed companies, government agencies and non-governmental organizations displayed seed and technological products. The idea of the seed fairs arose out of the problem of suitable dryland crop varieties for the climate in most parts of Zimbabwe.

The main aim of the seed fairs, held in Mutoko and Murewa districts in Mashonaland East Province, was to help smallholder farmers access information that would help them make informed decisions in coping with drought and climate change adaptation. This included awareness on various drought tolerant seeds, and a new variety of nutritious pro-vitamin A maize seed available on the market. Another focus of the seed fairs was to promote good agricultural practices, including sustainable intensification practices such as conservation agriculture.

Funded by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the seed fairs were attended by more than 1,400 smallholder farmers from the two districts, eight seed companies, traditional leaders, local government officials, non-governmental organizations and policy makers, as well as CIMMYT’s regional partners from Malawi, South Africa and Zambia. Regional participation is an important component of CIMMYT’s information exchange initiative.

The seed fairs helped establish linkages among farmers, seed companies, researchers, extension agents and agro-dealers. In addition, the seed fairs provided an important avenue for stakeholders to share critical information for informed decision-making at different levels. This has boosted the farmers’ confidence and increased the sense of ownership of their own activities.

“By bringing multiple stakeholders together, the fairs helped stimulate information sharing networks that are beneficial to all stakeholders,” said Peter Setimela, CIMMYT senior seed systems specialist. He added: “Planting wrong seeds lowers harvests and threatens food and nutritional security of the smallholder farmers. In our breeding for stress tolerance, we have tested and evaluated maize varieties from different areas of Zimbabwe under local conditions, incorporated various desirable traits and developed suitable varieties for local climatic conditions.”

Mutoko and Murewa districts were selected as the first beneficiaries of this information dissemination initiative. The fairs sought to build on progress achieved in the CIMMYT on-farm trials conducted in the two districts under a different project – Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa.

Although the main focus was drought tolerant and pro-vitamin A maize, other crop seeds such as finger millet, pearl millet, sorghum, beans, Bambara nuts, pumpkin and ground nut, were also exhibited by farmers.

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) research officer Irenie Chakoma (extreme right) and CIMMYT research associate Angeline Mujeyi are inundated by requests for information from smallholder farmers at the Mutoko seed fair. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) research officer Irenie Chakoma (extreme right) and CIMMYT research associate Angeline Mujeyi are inundated by requests for information from smallholder farmers at the Mutoko seed fair. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.

The farmers were given space to exhibit their own seeds. This was critical in providing an avenue for farmers to exchange seeds that are not marketed through the formal systems but which farmers like. The objective of these demonstrations was to revive local seed varieties, share information on them and acknowledge that these crops thrive in local conditions, and that they could contribute to food and nutritional security.

Mutoko smallholder farmer Anna Chirere, who actively participated in the seed fair, said: “We now know that knowledge is power. So we are going to copy this knowledge from our fellow farmers and seed houses here present.”

CIMMYT plans to make the seed fairs an annual event. This would help the farmers to continue learning from one another and enhance cooperation among the community members. Maize seed on exhibition was drought-tolerant and also included the newly released pro-vitamin A maize that is orange in color, hence the name ‘orange maize’.

In Zimbabwe, nearly one in five children under the age of five is vitamin A deficient. This deficiency can lead to lower IQ, stunting, blindness, increased susceptibility to diseases and higher health risks to mothers – and their infants – during childbirth. According to the World Bank, malnourished children are more likely to drop out of school, and have lower incomes as adults, reducing overall economic growth.

Thokhozile Ndhlela, CIMMYT maize breeder, said many people in rural Zimbabwe cannot afford expensive vitamin A-rich foods such as yellow, orange and red pigmented fruits, dark leafy vegetables, or animal products such as milk, eggs, liver and cheese.

Pro-vitamin A maize, when eaten as a staple, could provide half of the average daily requirement of vitamin A for women and children. In addition to its nutritional benefits, pro-vitamin A maize is bred to yield higher than conventional varieties and is disease resistant and drought tolerant.

Ndhlela said there were 11 varieties of the pro-vitamin A maize in southern African, six of which were already in commercial production in Zambia after a successful launch of an initial three hybrids in 2012.

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About The Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). The organization also works with a wide network of ACP-EU public and private sector bodies as well as international organizations around the world. CTA’s mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and support sound natural resource management through information, communication and knowledge management, multi-stakeholder engagement, capacity-building and empowerment of agricultural and rural development organizations and networks in ACP countries.

Growing more with less: Improving productivity, resilience and sustainability in Africa

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HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) – “Rain patterns have changed tremendously,” says Dyless Kasawala, a smallholder farmer in Kasungu district, Malawi. “It’s different from the old days when you would be sure of a great harvest after the rains.”

For more than three decades now, life has not been easy for Kasawala and thousands of other smallholder farmers in this harsh, dry environment. Kasawala’s story is common throughout eastern and southern Africa. Observations by smallholder farmers confirm scientific evidence that shows climate change is occurring at an alarming rate, and could leave 50 million people in the region hungry by 2050.

CIMMYT technician Herbert Chipara inspects maize devastated by drought in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT
CIMMYT technician Herbert Chipara inspects maize devastated by drought in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/P. Lowe

From 1900 to 2013, droughts killed close to one million people in Africa, with economic damages of about $3 billion affecting over 360 million people. Such droughts are a clear sign of the high yield variability that impedes escape from poverty and hunger for millions of Africans. Climate change could also result in a 40 percent increase in the number of malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, according to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa must become resilient to climate change effects like variable and severe drought and rainfall to ensure future food security. Practicing sustainable farming techniques can help small-scale farmers adapt to these challenges.

Across the world, more farmers are beginning to practice sustainable intensification (SI), which offers the potential to simultaneously adapt farming systems to climate change, sustainably manage land, soil, nutrient and water resources, improve food and nutrition security, and ultimately reduce rural poverty.

In practice, SI involves such conservation agriculture (CA) practices as minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and the use of crop rotation to simultaneously maintain and boost yields, increase profits and protect the environment. It contributes to improved soil function and quality, which can improve resilience to climate variability. The cropping systems CIMMYT promotes can be labelled as climate-resilient, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Husband and wife farmers Elphas Chinyanga (right) and Rita Gatsi tend their conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Pindukai village, Shamva district, Zimbabwe. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT
Husband and wife farmers Elphas Chinyanga (right) and Rita Gatsi tend their conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Pindukai village, Shamva district, Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/P. Lowe

“We received little rain this year, but we’ll still have enough food,” says Kasawala, who is participating in a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which aims to increase farm-level food security and productivity through SI.

Kasawala was one of the first farmers to practice sustainable intensification in her district in 2010. She has managed to improve soil fertility in her fields, increase her maize yield and improve her household food security.

“Farmers have a number of technological options, but ultimately they have to make informed decisions on which technologies to adopt,” said Eric Craswell, co-chair of CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project steering committee. Such farmers as Kasawala who practice CA through SIMLESA participate in on-farm trials, which compare CA to conventional farming practices, test different levels of herbicide use and maize-legume crop rotations.

Maize farmers participating in SIMLESA are increasing yields and profits through sustainable intensification by increasing rotating and intercropping their maize with legumes. Above, smallholder farmer Lughano Mwangonde and sustainable intensification farmer in her conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Balaka district, Malawi. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT
Maize farmers participating in SIMLESA are increasing yields and profits through sustainable intensification by increasing rotating and intercropping their maize with legumes. Above, smallholder farmer Lughano Mwangonde and sustainable intensification farmer in her conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Balaka district, Malawi. CIMMYT/J. Siamachira

According to SIMLESA’s project leader Mulugetta Mekuria, there is evidence that shows new drought-tolerant maize varieties when coupled with SI bring even greater benefits to farmers. For example, combining elite drought-tolerant maize with direct seeding systems can improve the performance of maize by more than 80 percent. Now, nearly 650 maize and legume varieties, approved by farmers and selected by over 40 local seed companies, are being commercially distributed in the five SIMLESA countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania).

Zero tillage – a CA practice that directly sows seeds into unplowed soil and the residues of previous crops – has helped farmers cut planting time in half, allowing them to engage in other economic activities.

“Sustainable intensification is the only option to feed the extra two billion people by 2050, when resources are limited,” said John Dixon, principal advisor/research and program manager for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)’s Cropping Systems and Economics program. ‘’Now is the time to scale-up by taking our research to farmers through extension, non-governmental organizations and farmers’ associations.”

Through 2018, CIMMYT will focus on bringing sustainable intensification to even more farmers throughout eastern and southern Africa. Collaborative work with farmers, extension agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and agribusiness is expected to improve maize and legume productivity by 30 percent and reduce expected yield risk by 30 percent in about 650,000 rural households over a period of 10 years.

CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) with strong collaboration from National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and a wide range of private, university, public sector and non-governmental organizations. It aims at increasing farm-level food security and productivity in the context of climate risk and change.

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Changing the conversation surrounding food and agriculture with Tamar Haspel

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MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) — A few hands jabbed into the air. Tamar Haspel, a columnist for the Washington Post, had asked a room of more than 1,000 scientists, researchers, economists and agriculture experts a simple question: “Who here has changed their mind on an issue in the past year?”

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Tamar Haspel, Washington Post columnist, addresses the crowd during her keynote speech at the CIMMYT 50 conference.

Haspel, author of “Unearthed,” a column in the Washington Post newspaper that focuses thematically on the intersection between food and science, was delivering a keynote address at a three-day conference hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to celebrate the nonprofit’s 50th anniversary.

Haspel’s speech urged those in the science-agricultural industry to take a closer look at opinions unlike their own and to have constructive conversations in hopes to improve and change the current public conversation about agriculture.

Q: When did you first start writing about food, science and agriculture?

I’ve been writing about food for 20 years, really focusing on nutrition and health, but about five years ago my husband and I moved from New York City to Cape Cod (Massachusetts) and we started raising livestock, growing food and fishing. We even started a commercialized farm and because of that I know what it’s like to lose 80 percent of a crop. It behooves anybody who writes about growing food to stay connected to the idea that it has to come from somewhere and to understand the hard work and risk.

Q: What is the key message you try to push at conferences?  

The thing that I increasingly believe to be most important and really push is to get people who disagree in the same room. The best thing in the world is to be proven wrong – it means you won’t make the same mistake again. In agriculture there are so many issues people disagree on. Take the green revolution, for example, it is widely discussed within the scientific community with people on both sides of the argument giving compelling statements. Both sides may not have equal truth to them, but certainly there is some truth on both sides. I think we have to engage with people who don’t see the world the way we do, especially in the agricultural community. We have an urgent problem right now trying to feed a growing population. It’s very important we get past these stupid disagreements.

Q: Why do you think your message is received so well by scientists?  

I personally think that scientists are in the business of trying to find out what’s true. If you present something that resonates with them and they think they haven’t thought about it before it brings them some happiness. I know that for me, coming to grips with the fact that I’m an imperfect decision maker helped me and I thought that this message would resonate well within the scientific community.

Q: When did you first realize you were an imperfect decision maker?

I read “The Righteous Mind” five years ago and it was very compelling and persuasive. It completely changed the way I think about my opinions. It made me extremely careful when canvassing information and made me much more tolerant of opinions I disagree with, even if they are beyond the scientific pale.

I don’t think you can go out in the world and credibly say that genetically modified crops are dangerous to eat. But I do think the people going out in the world saying that are among the most concerned about our food system. I would love to have a constructive conversation with those people. We need people who care because honestly the road to an environmentally unfriendly food system is consumers who do not care.

We seek sources of information that share our values and confirm our views. So I say find the smartest person who disagrees with you and listen.

View Haspel’s presentation delivered at CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary conference here.

Weeding out the losses: Striga challenges in Kenya

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Striga at root, and germinating. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT
Striga at root, and germinating. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT

SIAYA, Kenya (CIMMYT) — Every planting season presents a different kind of challenge for smallholder farmers, and for those in Siaya’s Alego sub-county in Western Kenya, the nightmare of a recurring crop-killing weed is all too real. Known by its local name kayongo, the Striga weed is one of the leading causes of crop loss, a significant dent to farmers’ livelihoods and major hindrance to food security in the area.

Over 20 million hectares (ha) of crop land in sub-Saharan Africa is Striga-infested, resulting in a whopping $ 1 billion in annual yield loss, affecting more than 100 million people. Over 1.4 million ha of East Africa’s farmland is affected by Striga, with over 340,000 ha of farmland affected in Kenya alone.

Striga, also referred to as “witch weed,” damages the crop long before it appears above ground, adding to its destructive qualities, further complicating its management. This parasitic weed attaches itself to the roots of host plants – usually cereals like maize and sorghum – then extracts essential nutrients and moisture meant for growth, causing stunted growth and crop loss. Once above ground, the Striga flower produces between 50,000-200,000 seeds, which are released into the soil and triggered to germinate when close to potential host crop roots. In the absence of host crops, the seeds remain dormant in the soil for over 20 years, only to attack in subsequent maize planting seasons when conditions become favorable.

Early signs of Striga infestation in maize include folded leaves and wilting, even when there is sufficient soil moisture. Ironically, the appearance of Striga’s beautiful purple flowers at full bloom signals the impending death of the affected maize plant.

Striga is especially prevalent in low soil fertility environments where insufficient use of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, and cereal mono-cropping is evident. Kenya’s lake region is most affected, with at least nine species of Striga been reported in the country and Striga hermonthica – considered the most lethal of them all – is widespread in densely populated regions.

For decades, hand weeding or pulling has been practiced as a method for Striga control, however this is very labor intensive, translating to huge costs for the farmer, and is not minimally effective since damage is caused at the root of the plant.

“I learned about intercropping from an extension agent and decided to try it out on a small plot, before planting in the larger plot,” Hellen Owino shares, adding, “I think I’m now ready to plant on the larger piece of land. Even though some Striga plants emerge, I’m able to weed them out before they flower, and my yield is not severely affected.” Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT
“I learned about intercropping from an extension agent and decided to try it out on a small plot, before planting in the larger plot,” Hellen Owino shares, adding, “I think I’m now ready to plant on the larger piece of land. Even though some Striga plants emerge, I’m able to weed them out before they flower, and my yield is not severely affected.” Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT

So, what hope is there for farmers in Striga-prone areas?

Inter-cropping, which is the simultaneous planting of two or more crops in the same field, is one of the most widely practiced Striga control measures.

“Unlike cereal roots, legume roots do not stimulate weed growth, so even though Striga seeds will remain in the soil, growth will not occur,” according to Leonard Rusinamhodzi, an agronomist with The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), who says that growing legumes alongside maize reduces the emergence of Striga.

“On the other hand, legumes like cowpea are called trap crops because they stimulate growth of Striga, but the weed has no roots to attach to, and subsequently dies. Legumes also fix nitrogen into soils, a deterrent for Striga, which thrives in low nitrogen environments,” says Rusinamhodzi.

Two years ago, Hellen Akinyi Owino, a farmer and mother of six had given up on maize farming following consistent poor yields from her Striga-stricken farm. Even when the rains stopped mid-season, she expected to harvest up to eight 90-kilogram bags from her 0.8 ha plot, but with Striga choking up her crop, she just harvested just one bag. With her family’s livelihood in jeopardy, Owino was forced to seek alternative income generating activities. She stripped her plot of all maize and Striga plants, and put up a tree nursery instead, from which she makes money selling seedlings.

“I am a maize farmer first, so I had to figure out a way to get back to it while reducing losses from Striga,” Owino shares, adding, “I learned about intercropping from an extension agent and decided to try it out on a small plot, before planting in the larger plot.” For two years now she has planted beans alongside maize, consistently applying organic fertilizer, and stuck to a regular weeding schedule.

Striga flowered. Photo: CIMMYT/ James Njeru
Striga flowered. Photo: J. Njeru/CIMMYT

Another even more effective solution to Striga is planting herbicide-resistant maize.

StrigAway™, or Ua Kayongo as it is known in Western Kenya, is described on Feed the Future’s Partnering for Innovation website as an Imidazolinone-Resistance (IR) maize technology package, comprising conventionally bred herbicide resistant maize varieties and Imazapyr seed treatment, an herbicide seed coating.

Since herbicide is applied to the seed coat, the recommended effective dose for controlling Striga is low, which is both environmentally friendly and affordable. Moreover, the herbicide dissipates easily from the soil before the next planting season, without any effect on subsequent crops.

However, if farmers were to recycle the seed, they would need to coat it again with the herbicide to control Striga, a practice which is neither feasible nor advisable at the farm level. Another challenge to uptake is that the IR maize starts off poorly, often looking as if it is nitrogen deficient, and may discourage farmers from taking up IR technology.

CIMMYT and partners’ efforts towards Striga management include both good agronomic practices and promotion of herbicide-resistant maize. So far, 12 herbicide resistant varieties have been released in East Africa, and seven hybrids released in Kenya and Tanzania. On-farm experimental trials give farmers first-hand experience of how these varieties perform, and hope that the lethal weed will be contained.

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