On 03 January 2013, 63-year-old Ghanaian-born maize breeder Strafford Twumasi-Afriyie succumbed to cancer, leaving a substantive legacy that includes the creation of the world’s most widely-sown quality protein maize (QPM) variety, Obatanpa. His demise represents a huge loss to family, friends, hundreds of colleagues and collaborators, and many thousands of farmers. A highly-committed and knowledgeable scientist, Twumasi is remembered by all for his kind, gentle demeanor and modesty, as well as for building strong partnerships.

Twumasi worked at the Crops Research Institute (CRI), Ghana, through much of his career. Following the completion of his MSc at the University of Guelph, Canada, in 1981, he returned to Ghana to serve with former CIMMYT maize physiologist Greg Edmeades as Joint Coordinator of the Ghana Grains Development Project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It was during this period and under the aegis of the GGDP that he used CIMMYT germplasm during the early 1990s to develop Obatanpa, which by 2005 was sown on more than half of Ghana’s maize area. With support from Sasakawa-Global 2000, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and CIDA, Obatanpa has been released in numerous countries of Africa, including Uganda where as “Nalongo” it is among the most popular maize varieties.

Twumasi joined CIMMYT in 1997 to develop maize varieties for African highland areas in a project supported initially by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany and later the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), CIMMYT, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), and CIDA. Releases from that effort are still gaining popularity in high-altitude zones of Ethiopia.

As a breeder in CIDAfunded research in Ethiopia beginning in 2003, Twumasi worked with EIAR to develop a QPM version of the hybrid BH660, which accounts for some 60% of seed sales in Ethiopia. These and other superior varieties developed are being promoted through the new “Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia” project that Twumasi was leading. “The National Maize Program recognizes the relentless work of Dr. Twumasi for small-scale farmers of Ethiopia in particular and Africa in general,” says Berhanu Tadesse, Ethiopia’s National Maize Research Coordinator.

Edmeades remembers Twumasi as scrupulously honest, slow to judgment but always fair, and one of nature’s true gentlemen. “He was not afraid to take risks as a scientist and promote QPM when many others declared it a lost cause,” says Edmeades. “As my counterpart in Ghana I very much enjoyed working with him and came to appreciate his wry sense of humor and his lovely smile.”

Twumasi’s mentorship and tutelage helped several maize researchers from the region develop as strong breeders in their own right. His academic background included a BSc in agriculture from the University of Ghana (1975) and a PhD in plant breeding from the University of Missouri, USA (1989).

The CIMMYT family extends its sympathies to Twumasi’s beloved wife, Veronica, his daughters Mame and Truelove, and his son Kwaku in this difficult time.

This article is cross-posted from the Feed the Future blog. Feed the Future is the United States Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. It supports country-driven approaches to address the root causes of hunger and poverty and forge long-term solutions to chronic food insecurity and undernutrition. Drawing upon resources and expertise of agencies across the U.S. Government, this Presidential Initiative is helping countries transform their own agriculture sectors to sustainably grow enough food to feed their people.

Feed the Future strategies for food security are designed not only to accelerate agriculture-led growth and reduce undernutrition, but also to encourage sustainable and equitable management of land, water, fisheries, and other resources. Feed the Future Intern Christopher Chapman asked CIMMYT’s conservation agriculture expert Bruno Gerard (pictured left) how climate change relates to agricultural development.

The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

Generating DH lines involves four major steps: (1) In vivohaploid induction; (2) haploid seed identification using morphological markers; (3) chromosome doubling of putative haploids; and (4) generating D1 (DH) seed from D0 seedlings. In vivo haploid induction is achieved by crossing a specially developed maize genetic stock called an “inducer” (as male) with a source population (as female) from which homozygous DH lines are developed.

What are tropicalized haploid inducers?
Adoption of DH technology by public maize breeding programs and small- and mediumscale enterprise (SME) seed companies, especially in developing countries, is limited by the lack of inducers adapted to the tropical/subtropical conditions. The CIMMYT Global Maize Program, in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics of the University of Hohenheim (UHo) now has tropical haploid inducers for sharing with the interested institutions under the terms outlined below.

The tropically adapted inducer lines (TAILs) developed by CIMMYT and UHo showed high haploid induction capacity (~8-10%) and better agronomic performance than temperate inducers, in trials at two CIMMYT experiment stations in Mexico. A haploid inducer hybrid developed using these TAILs revealed heterosis for plant vigor and pollen production under tropical conditions, while maintaining similar haploid induction rates (~8-10%). CIMMYT and UHo decided to share the seed and grant authorization for use of one of the tropicalized haploid inducer lines (one of the parents of a hybrid inducer) and the hybrid inducer to interested applicants, after signing of the relevant material transfer agreement (MTA) and with restrictions to protect the intellectual property rights of both institutions for the inducer lines.

Process of indenting for the tropicalized haploid inducers
Interested applicants should send a letter of intent or an expression of interest in the tropicalized haploid inducers. CIMMYT may seek more information, if required, and will share the relevant MTA template for signing by applicants. The general guidelines to obtain inducers for research use and commercial use are as follows.

For research use by publicly-funded national agricultural research systems
Publicly-funded institutions interested in access to the haploid inducers for specific purposes (e.g., to develop DH lines for breeding programs) may send a letter of intent or expression of interest to CIMMYT. For eligible institutions, the haploid inducers will be provided free-of-charge by CIMMYT and UHo, after signing of a Research Use MTA. Commercial use of the inducers by institutions or others should be in accordance with a separate license agreement for commercial use (as given below).

For commercial use
Applicants may access the inducers for commercial use pursuant to signing of a Material Transfer and License Agreement with CIMMYT and UHo. Applicants shall pay UHo a one-time licence fee of USD 25,000 for provision of seed of two haploid inducers; these include one of the parents of a tropicalized haploid inducer hybrid and the haploid inducer hybrid itself. If applicants wish to access the other parent of the haploid inducer hybrid, an additional one-time licence fee of $10,000 will be payable to UHo.

Acknowledgments
Generous support for joint research on doubled haploids by CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim has come from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; SAGARPA, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.; USAID (US Agency for International Development); Dr. Dr. h. c. Herrmann Eiselen and the Foundation fiat panis, Ulm, Germany; the Tiberius Services AG, Stuttgart, Germany; Vilmorin Seed Company; DTMA (Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa) project.;MAIZE CGIAR Research Program; and the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) project under MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture).

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

 Maize Doubled Haploid Facility for Africa (3.17 MB)

The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

Generating DH lines involves four major steps: (1) In vivohaploid induction; (2) haploid seed identification using morphological markers; (3) chromosome doubling of putative haploids; and (4) generating D1 (DH) seed from D0 seedlings. In vivo haploid induction is achieved by crossing a specially developed maize genetic stock called an “inducer” (as male) with a source population (as female) from which homozygous DH lines are developed.

What are tropicalized haploid inducers?
Adoption of DH technology by public maize breeding programs and small- and mediumscale enterprise (SME) seed companies, especially in developing countries, is limited by the lack of inducers adapted to the tropical/subtropical conditions. The CIMMYT Global Maize Program, in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics of the University of Hohenheim (UHo) now has tropical haploid inducers for sharing with the interested institutions under the terms outlined below.

The tropically adapted inducer lines (TAILs) developed by CIMMYT and UHo showed high haploid induction capacity (~8-10%) and better agronomic performance than temperate inducers, in trials at two CIMMYT experiment stations in Mexico. A haploid inducer hybrid developed using these TAILs revealed heterosis for plant vigor and pollen production under tropical conditions, while maintaining similar haploid induction rates (~8-10%). CIMMYT and UHo decided to share the seed and grant authorization for use of one of the tropicalized haploid inducer lines (one of the parents of a hybrid inducer) and the hybrid inducer to interested applicants, after signing of the relevant material transfer agreement (MTA) and with restrictions to protect the intellectual property rights of both institutions for the inducer lines.

Process of indenting for the tropicalized haploid inducers
Interested applicants should send a letter of intent or an expression of interest in the tropicalized haploid inducers. CIMMYT may seek more information, if required, and will share the relevant MTA template for signing by applicants. The general guidelines to obtain inducers for research use and commercial use are as follows.

For research use by publicly-funded national agricultural research systems
Publicly-funded institutions interested in access to the haploid inducers for specific purposes (e.g., to develop DH lines for breeding programs) may send a letter of intent or expression of interest to CIMMYT. For eligible institutions, the haploid inducers will be provided free-of-charge by CIMMYT and UHo, after signing of a Research Use MTA. Commercial use of the inducers by institutions or others should be in accordance with a separate license agreement for commercial use (as given below).

For commercial use
Applicants may access the inducers for commercial use pursuant to signing of a Material Transfer and License Agreement with CIMMYT and UHo. Applicants shall pay UHo a one-time licence fee of USD 25,000 for provision of seed of two haploid inducers; these include one of the parents of a tropicalized haploid inducer hybrid and the haploid inducer hybrid itself. If applicants wish to access the other parent of the haploid inducer hybrid, an additional one-time licence fee of $10,000 will be payable to UHo.

Acknowledgments
Generous support for joint research on doubled haploids by CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim has come from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; SAGARPA, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.; USAID (US Agency for International Development); Dr. Dr. h. c. Herrmann Eiselen and the Foundation fiat panis, Ulm, Germany; the Tiberius Services AG, Stuttgart, Germany; Vilmorin Seed Company; DTMA (Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa) project.;MAIZE CGIAR Research Program; and the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) project under MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture).

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

In Central Mexico, Conservation Agriculture, a more sustainable way of farming, has evolved from being a handful of researchers and a few innovative farmers working off of an idea to a full-fledged network, a system of support and dissemination since its beginnings in 2010. But there are no roots in the historically poor and, at times, politically volatile, Southern States; states that could greatly benefit from a farming system saving labor while ensuring higher productivity. To change this, CIMMYT decided to implement the Conservation Agriculture system in the state of Chiapas with hopes that if things go well, it can act as a gateway to the region.

My first experience with the technology dates back to June 2010, when Bram Govaerts, the head of CIMMYT’s Conservation Agriculture program in Mexico, picked me up outside of a bakery in Mexico City at five in the morning, so we could leave before traffic, some of the worst in the world, became too unruly. We arrived to the first field around seven and were met by a farmer’s eyes underneath a straw hat. At his side was a dog, which did not stray more than a few feet from the farmer, as he explained how rotating his crops had helped cut back on fertilizer use. Thoughtful crop rotation, an important part of Conservation Agriculture, can restore what the previous plant depletes, and thus helps cut down not only on fertilizer use, but also other chemicals, like herbicides, because weeds have more trouble surviving across the change from one crop to another.

Our next visit was to an idyllic field that seemed as if it had been untouched in the last 100 years, except for what looked like raised rows, known in Conservation Agriculture as “beds.” When you till too much, a lot of important nutrients are left loose and exposed to be washed away by rain or picked up by wind. Using special machinery to move the soil less and create these beds helps hold onto what makes soil, well, soil.

Fifty minutes later, we parked next to a crosshatch fence where a farmer waited with his family. A granddaughter held a rabbit that upon introduction hopped out of her hands and onto dried maize stalks, known as residues in Conservation Agriculture, covering the field. Leaving behind residues, which are really just part of what is grown, like stalks and stems, helps hold in moisture and protect old soil before decomposing into new soil. We traveled for thirty minutes more and met another farmer. One more hour and the next. And so on until we, dirt under our fingernails, arrived back in Mexico City just after midnight.

Two years later, what continues to resonate are the conversations with Bram. I see now that as we drove from unpaved road to stretched highway I heard his vision for what the young program would become in Mexico. A vision that today is a reality, spreading from Central Mexico to other Mexican states.

In August, I went to Chiapas to see these efforts. Late Friday night I arrived at the new office, where a storm had knocked out the power. The team and I made plans in the dark as we ate leftover sandwiches from a Conservation Agriculture training course earlier that day. The next morning we spoke with a farmer who adopted the technology after farming traditionally for over three decades, a result of having been inspired by the success of his son. We gave a silo to a farmer interested in a different storage option, and he told us how he had been waiting, how he had always believed in people like us as we explained Conservation Agriculture and MasAgro’s work over a cup of pozol made from maize he had sown.

Talking to the farmers taught me a lot about the importance of continuing to learn when faced with new practices. But what lingers more than the farmers are the people spreading this technology. The methods and benefits of Conservation Agriculture can make no difference without the people connecting to one another to explain them. To convince a farmer to go against tradition, against what most of his neighbors perceive as the right way to farm, and against how his parents grew the same crop. That is the real issue. And the team in Chiapas works to address this issue with a combination of skill and heart that is infectious.

As a celebration of one of the center’s most valued research partnerships, CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin gave a keynote address during the 13th Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI) Biennial Scientific Conference and Agriforum on 22 October 2012 at the institution’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference theme was “Agricultural Innovation System for Improved Productivity and Competitiveness in Pursuit of Vision 2030”, and there were more than 200 speakers and 60 exhibitors including CIMMYT, which was one of the event’s sponsors.

Chief guest and Kenyan Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Hon Gideon Ndambuki, said the conference reflected government aspirations for a forum to share breakthroughs in agricultural research by the national research systems and their partners. He challenged participants to “walk the talk” by adopting on their own farms the technological innovations discussed in the conference.

Ndambuki also lauded KARI’s efforts to supply drought tolerant crops for farmers in arid and semiarid lands. “This is especially crucial at this time when the whole world is going through the global phenomena of climate change effects,” said Ndambuki. “The seeds help farmers to adapt to these changes, have also become appropriate for areas that earlier had high rainfall, and help to demonstrate that the climate change effects are indeed real.”

Synergies for success

KARI director Ephraim Mukisira highlighted the excellent KARI-CIMMYT partnership and its importance to address challenges such as maize lethal necrosis and wheat stem rust. “The Ug99 disease on wheat is now getting under control with new varieties developed by KARI in partnership with CIMMYT,” said Mukisira, adding that resistant varieties have been released to farmers in this planting season.

In his keynote, Lumpkin called for applied science to tackle today’s food security challenges. “Only new technologies, including stress tolerant germplasm and appropriate agronomy, will help farmers produce more food,” he said. He also signaled the rising use of wheat in Africa, due to income growth and the demand for convenience foods as more women enter the workplace. “Africa will pay 12 billion dollars to import 40 million tons of wheat this year,” he said. “This heavy dependence on imports is making the region highly vulnerable to global market and supply shocks. Affected nations need to invest in wheat research and development.”

Finally, Lumpkin cited KARI-CIMMYT collaboration to assess maize lethal necrosis in Kenya and to develop resistant varieties, and praised public-private partnerships in Kenya to generate, test, and deploy elite drought and low nitrogen tolerant maize varieties for smallholder farmers. Many farmers who visited a CIMMYT display at the event were keen to get new varieties for diverse ecological zones, underlining the importance of center partnerships with the seed sector.

Science for speedy breeding

KARI and CIMMYT are establishing a maize doubled haploid facility at the KARI Kiboko Station. A technology that renders homozygous inbred lines in a year, rather than through many years of self-pollination, its use by public maize breeding programs and seed companies in developing countries had been constrained by the lack of tropical/subtropical inducers. CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim have recently developed tropicalized haploid inducer lines and provided training in their use for African breeders. The doubled haploid approach will speed the delivery of improved maize varieties to farmers, and the Kiboko facility will play a key role, according to Lumpkin. “Through this important facility that will specially serve African institutions, we hope to generate at least 60,000 doubled haploid lines annually by 2016,” he said.

1. What kind of research do you specialize in?
My long-term research interest has been to enhance the genetic understanding of resistance to wheat rusts and to achieve durable resistance by developing high-yielding wheat germplasm that has adequate to near-immune levels of resistance based on diverse combinations of minor genes.

2. Why do you think it is important?
Wheat rusts are among the world’s most important diseases. A century of research and breeding effort has helped reduce the losses but new biotypes continue to emerge and cause significant losses. Use of minor gene combinations offers an unique opportunity to achieve long-term, or durable, resistance. This will protect wheat crops without the need of utilizing fungicides and thus enhance farmers’ income while protecting environment.

3. How did you get started in agriculture?
Although my grandparents were farmers and I enjoyed spending time in villages during vacations in my childhood days, my start in agriculture was accidental. When I was growing up in India most of my peers dreamt to become engineers, medical doctors, or civil servants. I was planning to become doctor and studied biology in school. To enter medical school, we had to go through competitive entrance tests. I missed the entrance test the first year as I was in bed for various months due to severe jaundice. So, I took the admission for agriculture, considering it to be relatively easy degree, to prepare for the medical entrance exam. However, when I realized that I was doing extremely well without putting much effort, I decided to stay with agriculture and give it my full effort. I started to set my own milestones during BS and MS programs and completed these degrees by establishing new records.

4. Your field has changed since you began your studies? What are some of the most important/exciting changes you’ve seen?
My PhD was in the area of genetics of rust resistance in wheat from the University of Sydney. This experience brought me to CIMMYT where I started as rust pathologist assigned to the bread wheat breeding program. Soon, I started to learn and contribute to wheat breeding while maintaining activities in wheat pathology and genetics. In other words, I was doing three jobs. This helped me integrate the three disciplines in a more effective manner. When biotechnology initiated at CIMMYT, I embraced it as a new tool and collaborated both with CIMMYT groups as well as outside partners to enhance my knowledge. Science is evolving continuously and, as breeders, we must be open to new science, and to using it where it can be applied more efficiently. Agriculture research and the CGIAR centers have had a roller-coaster ride during my career at CIMMYT. The need for good science, the need for solutions to enhance food production — especially considering climate change scenarios which project limited water availability and temperature stresses — will require serious efforts from scientists, policy makers, and farmers.

5. If you were a researcher just starting out, what would you pursue?
Any researcher starting must see what has worked and what can be done to make it better. Researchers can always contribute based on what they have learned or can learn. This is the way to move forward.

6. What are the most important/critical challenges facing food security/global hunger?
We have to recognize that science alone cannot solve all critical challenges facing agriculture. Implementation of policies to ensure efficient use of water, nutrients, and prices will be important to enhance productivity and profitability. I believe that sufficient food can be produced if there is a will and openness to adopt new technologies that are productive and sustainable.

7. What things/people inspire you to do your work?
Hard working people at all levels, who are ready to give what they have, inspires me a lot. At the end of the day the progress made in work is also inspiring to continue doing better and looking forward for the next day.

RustTracker.org provides up to date information on the status of wheat rust diseases worldwide. The dynamic, content rich site provides a single source of information for all global wheat rust monitoring activities. The data content and tools of RustTracker.org are unique, nowhere else can such rich content about the actual status of major crop pathogens be found.

RustTracker.org is directly linked to a state of the art data management system – the Wheat Rust Toolbox, developed by collaborators at Aarhus University – this drives a range of interactive visualization tools. Users can pull up dynamic survey maps or graph race frequency changes over time at the click of a button. Data from 37 countries is currently included in the system, but expansion is likely. For each country, up to date rust information and tools are available. Wheat rusts are global travellers, not respecting any political boundaries, so effective control often depends on advanced knowledge of important changes in distant regions. Wheat scientists, particularly in developing countries, now have instant access to the status of rusts not only in their own country, but in neighbouring countries and across continents. Sharing knowledge in this way should improve preparedness and control of new virulent rust races.

Initial development of RustTracker.org has focused on stem rust and the “Ug99” race group in particular. Current content reflects these efforts, but in the near future expanded content forboth stripe and leaf rust will be included.

For more information. Please contact: Dave Hodson. CIMMYT-Ethiopia. Email: d.hodson@cgiar.org

When food prices rise, people go hungry. Hunger leads to anger, social unrest, and protests such as those seen in 2008 and 2011 in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean.

The poor are most vulnerable to these price rises, as they spend a greater proportion of their earnings on food. However, contrary to popular belief, many of these people do not depend on maize, rice, or cassava – they grow and eat wheat.

In the developing world, wheat is the second most important food crop after rice. It is food for 2.5 billion people, and for more than 1 billion people living on less than $2 per day. In Egypt, for example, where more than 1 in 5 people live in poverty, wheat provides 35% of their daily calories, and almost 40% of their protein requirements.

Wheat also provides income for farmers in more than 80 developing countries, and CIMMYT believes that there is great potential for more countries to grow more, disease resistant and high yielding, wheat – without increasing the total land area under cultivation. CIMMYT strives to help developing countries to increase their wheat production at a rate that allows land to be freed for other crops. Through increased adoption of improved wheat varieties, better agronomic practices, and effective post-harvest storage, farmers and consumers in developing countries could develop sustainable food systems, become less dependent on imports, and more resilient against food price rises.

As so often happens at the end of conferences, I have to dash for a plane, so I’ll make it brief. You may have seen on our live twitter feed (#W4A) that today was a day for proposals and promises at the Wheat for Food Security in Africa conference. Participants from each country gathered together to discuss and present how they intended to move forward from these meetings.

Almost all the countries agreed that there is a need to initiate some form of ‘wheat task force’. This would act to liaise with governments, conduct research, and establish capacity building in the key areas of extension and technology adoption. Organizations such as these could also address the issues which have been raised so many times this week: smallholder farmers’ access to credit, inputs such as fertilizer, the correct agronomic practices for their region and efficiency within the value chain between researchers, extension workers, farmers, markets, millers, and consumers.

Participants also raised the issue of germplasm exchange. This needs to be made easier between countries, while making sure that IP rights are protected and the spread of diseases such as Ug99 prevented, which cannot be done without international collaboration. All participants indicated that they would be very willing to work together in the future and to convince others in their countries to work with their international partners. Linked to this, some argued that the involvement of the private sector is key if we are to promote the development of a profitable African wheat industry. For this too we need to develop sound and consistent IP practices.

Another major issue discussed was the current situation with wheat imports. Many African countries subsidize wheat imports so much that it is cheaper to buy wheat abroad than to grow it nationally. This, argued participants, is not a healthy or sustainable practice. Governments need to reduce subsidies to make wheat farming more attractive for producers and/or introduce a levy of e.g. $2/ton on wheat imports, and invest this money in wheat research to develop varieties and agronomic practices suitable for the region.

The conference concluded with the signing of a declaration which will be presented by the Minister of Ethiopia at the African Union Joint Conference of African Ministers of Agriculture and Ministers of Trade, 29 October – 2 November 2012, with the full support of conference participants and the Ministers of Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Burundi. The declaration “urgently recommends to include wheat as one of Africa’s strategic products” and stresses that policy options are proposed to “promote and develop domestic wheat production… and to scale-up investment to the national and international wheat value chain.”

In closing the conference, Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT Director General, concluded: “I am committed, CIMMYT is committed, ICARDA is committed, to improving wheat in Africa… African farmers want to change. They don’t want to be museums of ancient practices. They want to evolve, become more productive.” And this is the message that will be taken forward and presented to Africa as a continent.

It was another exhausting, but productive day at the Wheat for Food Security in Africa conference at Addis Ababa, culminating in a wonderful evening of traditional dancing and the Injera cuisine so typical of Ethiopia. In case you missed any of our live tweeting during the day (#W4A), here is a brief roundup of the main events. It would be impossible to describe everything that happened in one short post, but this was a day likely to produce impacts in the months to come.

After an official welcome by Tekaligne Mamo, State Minister of Agriculture and Advisor to the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Ethiopia, Bekele Shiferaw started proceedings by describing the main findings from a recently released paper entitled “The Potential for Wheat Production in Sub-Saharan Africa: Analysis of Biophysical Suitability and Economic Profitability”. Co-authored by CIMMYT and IFPRI, this report concludes that there is significant potential for profitable, competitive wheat production in Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda. This is something the minister agrees with: “Currently African countries import more than half of their wheat demand from abroad. At the same time, African countries have the proper environment and potential to produce wheat not only for their consumption but for export as well.” This potential increases even more if wheat prices continue to rise, added Shiferaw. However, as Norman Borlaug once said: “You can’t eat potential.”

For this reason, Day Four of the conference brought together not only breeders, socio-economists, union leaders, and center directors, but also Ministers from Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Burundi. The conference had so far discussed the potential  for growing wheat in Africa and the current constraints for doing so. Today gave the opportunity to look in depth at the needs of individual countries, and discuss how we can address these needs and make Africa more self-sufficient in wheat production, and thus more food secure.

David Nyameino, CEO of the Cereal Growers Association of Kenya, took to the floor with an impassioned speech outlining the key strategies we need to adopt if we are to make wheat a viable option for smallholder farmers. According to Nyameino, we need to develop wheat value chains into distinct geographic areas/hubs with the greatest profitability. In those areas, governments must provide farmers with affordable credit and inputs, information, know-how, mechanization, organization, and marketing, all in a comprehensive manner. Hubs must also be willing to include any smallholders who want to enter into profitable wheat production. According to Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT Director General, if we are to increase wheat production in Africa, we will have to involve a new type of farmer: a farmer that until now knew nothing about growing wheat.

Value chains and partnerships formed a key part of today’s discussions. “If you want to go far, go together,” quoted Nyameino. Ibrahim Adam Ahmed El-Dukheri, Sudan’s Minister of Agriculture, agreed: “We need regional cooperation and mainstreaming of food security strategies.” A participant from Tanzania added: “We need to improve the value chain to tap the genetic and environmental potential we have seen and to get money into the farmers’ pockets.” This issue was raised again in the final session by Joseph M. Made, Minister of Agriculture, Mechanization, and Irrigation Development, Zimbabwe. “We have great strengths in enhanced value chains, including storage and processing,” he said. “We need policies that enhance the value chain, to push the development of wheat. Without this value chain, or policies that support it, there is no wheat industry to talk about other than localized, home production,” added Made.

In the afternoon, panelists from Zambia, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tunisia, and a representative from the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) all agreed that the research priorities for wheat in Africa should focus on developing heat and drought tolerant, disease and pest resistant varieties. They also talked of the need to build capacity, especially in extension, in order to link farmers to markets, both domestically and abroad. In countries such as Sudan, the development of infrastructure is also a vital element, and El-Dukheri highlighted the five-year Agriculture Revival Program currently being implemented in Sudan to address such issues. Mechanization, land consolidation, and public-private partnerships also need to be put on the wheat agenda, according to participants.

It was clear from the discussions that food aid is not the answer. Odette Kayitesi, Minister of Agriculture for Burundi, explained that now her country asks donors to help them produce food themselves, rather than providing it in the form of aid supplies. The representatives from Ethiopia even expressed ambitious hopes that one day soon, they will become an exporter, rather than a nation dependent on imports and food aid.

Concluding the afternoon, Carlos Lopes, Head of the UN Economic Commission of Africa, pointed out that wheat is not currently on the agenda at a continental level. But this could be about to change. With assistance from key researchers from the conference, Ethiopia will present a proposal for developing wheat in Africa, with the full support of Sudan, Burundi, and Zimbabwe, at the African Union Joint Conference of African Ministers of Agriculture and Ministers of Trade during 29 October to 2 November 2012. It’s time to think of Africa as a wheat-grower.

After two days in UNECA, a trip to farmers’ fields, seed production sites, and wheat research platforms provided participants with some welcome fresh air and the chance to see the reality of wheat production in Ethiopia. The majority of participants went to observe and ask questions at bread wheat sites in Kulumsa, about 160 km south-west of Addis Ababa, while one busload went to see the durum wheat fields at Debre Zeit.

I went with the Kulumsa group, and our first stop was with farmer Negash Dino. He is currently working with the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture at Kulumsa, to grow two new, high-yielding bread wheat varieties (Kakaba and Atila). Dino plans to sell the seed he produces to his neighbors in order to help replace the old, poorly-performing varieties with these new lines. This year, Dino estimates that he will harvest 2 t of grain from 1.25 ha. These high yields are partly down to Dino’s improved agronomic pratices; working with the Kulumsa station has taught him the importance of good crop management, and Dino now plants his rainfed crop in rows and uses herbicide to control grass weeds, which are a big problem for the area.

Our next stop was at the Gonde Iteya Basic Seed Farm of the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE). Here they multiply seed for an incredible 27 crops, with a total of 79 varieties. They grow 13 varieties of bread wheat with the objective that farmers in the area have a constant and ready supply of quality, affordable seed. In addition, ESE is actively working to promote public-private partnerships and also provides training, consultancy, and technical advice in seed production, processing, and marketing. Currently, of the 4.7 million households farming in Ethiopia, just 600,000 use certified seed. Organizations such as ESE are hoping to increase this figure and therefore ensure dissemination of high-yielding varieties to more farmers in the country.

Finally, we visited the Kulumsa research station itself. Here we were welcomed by the Center Director, Solomon, who was delighted to show off his work to such a large group. We visited the Kulumsa wheat seed multiplication scheme, the international nurseries and irrigation ponds, and had presentations on breeding, pathology, and crop management. The interest of the participants was obvious from their large number of questions and attentiveness to all the presenters. They concluded that despite an early start, the trip had been well worth it.

After a long day in the heat of the Ethiopian sun, participants were rewarded with a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, a beautiful event showcasing the hospitable nature of our hosts here. Tomorrow things will hot up at UNECA as we welcome ministers, ambassadors, donors, and the delegates from earlier in the week to address the policy issues currently constraining wheat production in Africa.

An exhausting, productive day on Day Two of Wheat for Food Security in Africa. Participants arrived bright and early for expert presentations and round-table discussions on abiotic/biotic stresses, market and seed systems, wheat systems and quality, and country outlooks.

After lunch things got really interesting as participants gathered to discuss the key constraints  for having profitable, productive wheat systems in Africa, and how we can overcome these. One rapporteur from each group presented the findings and these will be consolidated tomorrow before we present the findings to key policy makers, ministers, and donors on Thursday. Here are some things I learnt today…

We can do more if we act together

And this applies on so many levels. Farmers in Africa generally produce crops from very small parcels of land. This discourages large investments on their behalf, because they will never be able to get large returns from just a small area. Some scientists suggested that farmers should join together and farm larger plots. The same applies for inputs such as fertilizer and seed. One of the reasons these things are so expensive in Africa is due to the high transaction costs; if farmer cooperatives bulk-bought these inputs, they would be able to pass on the savings to the farmers themselves. At a national level, participants called for a strengthening of seed systems, and this includes encouraging the involvement of the private sector. Finally, as Hans Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, pointed out, whilst we have many regional agricultural organizations in Africa, such as ASARECA, CORAF, and CCARDESA, “they do not know each other”. If international trade, regulations, and wheat policies are to be improved, it is key that all these players work together.

A value chain is only as strong as its weakest link

Breeders work hard to develop new, disease resistant, high-yielding varieties, yet many farmers do not know about them, and the yield difference between experimental stations and farmers’ fields can be huge. This is not to say that farmers are at fault, or in fact that any one part of the value chain is. It comes back to the above point of working together. We need extension workers to inform farmers about new varieties and to disseminate the improved technologies for agronomy and farm mechanization. We need government support to fund these extension workers. We need policymakers to inform government of the needs of the agricultural sector. But as pointed out by Victor Kommerell, Program Manager for the WHEAT CRP, the research heads of national systems are policymakers, too. And it’s not just the politicians we want to influence and get their attention, it’s the millers, the seed companies, the grain traders, in fact, anyone with a vested interest in wheat should be listening to African researchers and learning about the huge market that exists on this continent.

There is a solution for wheat in Africa

It’s simple maths. Increased revenues and decreased production costs equal increased profits and greater incentives for growing wheat in Africa. Aside from the points mentioned above, it’s clear we need more research and knowledge, and for this knowledge to be shared between researchers, governments, extension workers, community leaders, farmers. Timely access to fertilizer is a major problem for Africa, but we could overcome this by increasing capacity in fertilizer production, assisting farmers with credit access, and ensuring that everyone who needs to use fertilizer knows exactly how much to use and when to apply it. Human capacity is also key and countries must invest in their own agricultural researchers and extension workers. And none of these things will be truly successful without effective communication at all levels.

With a whole day of discussions, it’s hard to do little more than scratch the surface in a 600-word blog. Hopefully you have a little insight into our progress in Addis Ababa,
and we’re looking forward to bringing you more updates from the conference on Thursday. Tomorrow you can still follow us as we go to the field – look for our twitter hashtag #W4A and join us as we visit research stations and farmers at Kulumsa and Debre Zeit. You can also read what other people have been saying about the conference; so far, we have had stories published on La Presse, Bloomberg, Reuters, Scientific American, Phys.org, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, and Times Live.

It’s day one at Wheat for Food Security in Africa, and Cobus Le Roux has just finished outlining the production, constraints, market, and future of wheat in Southern Africa. This morning participants enjoyed keynote speeches from Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere (IFPRI), Nicole Mason (Michigan State University), and Bekele Shiferaw (CIMMYT).

One of the key issues raised was just how much of their precious little foreign expenditure African countries must spend on imports. In 2010, over 12.5 US$ billion was spent to import 32 million tons of wheat to Africa. Many of this morning’s speakers posed the question: “What if that money was spent on wheat research instead? How much money would it take to improve wheat and agronomy so that that import bill is reduced or even eliminated?”

Food security was a buzzword on everyone’s lips this morning. Food aid does not imply food security, merely that people have enough to eat at that moment. But what about next year? What happens then? And what if the countries who supplied food aid this year are unable to do so next year? According to Kwadwo, food security is a right, not a priviledge. And the economics makes sense too; a woman who does not get enough, nutritious food during pregnancy is likely to give birth to an underweight, undernourished baby. If this baby does not get healthy food on a regular basis, particularly in the first two years of childhood, it is more likely to grow up to be an underweight, undernourished adult. This underweight, undernourished adult will not be as strong, not as able to work, more likely to get ill. We need healthy, strong adults if we are to create productive, prosperous countries. Whilst the high food prices in 2007/08 and 2010/11 caused shockwaves around the world, they produced some small benefit in propelling food security to the forefront of the global agenda.

Producing more wheat could help African countries achieve food security. Everyone at the conference is in agreement that demand for wheat in Africa is increasing. Traditionally in Africa, wheat has been the food of the rich; but now that incomes are on the rise, wheat is being eaten also by the traditionally lower- and middle-classes. An increasingly urban population is demanding more processed food, requiring less preparation time; this food is generally wheat-based, such as bread. And whilst the price of wheat is on the rise, the increase has not been as dramatic as for some other staple crops, meaning that it is becoming an ever more attractive option for consumers.

“So,” asked Bekele, “There is obviously a big demand for wheat in Africa – what can we do about the supply?”

And that is the question we are here to answer, starting this afternoon with presentations on the current wheat situation in different parts of Africa and round-table discussions addressing many aspects of wheat production, constraints, and the value chain in Africa. This is not an opportunity for a jolly to Addis Ababa – the participants are here to do a job. We are here to influence and improve the future of wheat in Africa, and that is no small task.

Tomorrow there will be more specific discussions on the things currently constraining African wheat production: abiotic and biotic factors, wheat markets and seed systems, and wheat quality. You can follow all the action on twitter using #W4A, or check back here tomorrow for a full summary.

Here in Addis Ababa, excitement is building as more than 200 participants arrive and register for the conference on Wheat for Food Security in Africa, organized by CIMMYT, the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR).

Tomorrow the Director Generals of the three organizations will welcome the diverse array of participants – researchers, policymakers, Ministers, journalists, and more – before the Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, H.E. Ato Teferra Derbew, takes to the stage for the official opening address. We will also have the pleasure of welcome remarks from the African Union representative, H.E. Mrs. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace. Then, it will be down to business in the form of keynote speeches and updates on the states of wheat production in North, East, South, and West Africa.

Some of the participants will have an early start tomorrow, as they must get to the conference center to hang their posters. Over 100 African researchers are being sponsored by the conference; they will all have to display a poster or give a presentation, and all participants will receive a book of the abstracts from the sponsored researchers.Now that the rainy season appears to have come to an end, participants will be able to experience Ethiopia at its most green and beautiful when they take a trip to either Debra Zeit or Kulumsa Research Station on day 3. Days four and five will be more policy oriented and discussion based. If you can’t be at the conference itself, we’ll keep you up to date on everything as it happens.

To stay connected, whether you are at the conference or not, follow us on twitter using the #W4A hashtag. There will also be regular updates on the WHEAT Facebook page. And of course, daily summaries on this blog. But why wait until the end of the day? Get involved on Facebook, give us your feedback on twitter, and discuss with your friends, colleagues, and family how we can improve the future of wheat research and production in Africa.

SINGAPORE- -The Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, or CIMMYT has embarked on an ambitious program to develop a new heat tolerant, improved variety of wheat that can grow in higher temperatures experienced in South Asian farms, a top scientist said in an interview.

This is significant amid predictions that as much as 25% of South Asia’s wheat crop can be lost to higher temperatures by 2050, due to global warming.

“Wheat is highly susceptible to global warming and we are just starting a new project to tackle the situation by developing new varieties, particularly for South Asia,” Etienne Duveiller, Associate Director of Global Wheat Program at CIMMYT said on the sidelines of the World Sustainable Agriculture Congress here.

CIMMYT is the leading global body for research in wheat and corn. Its ‘Mexican Dwarf’ wheat seeds used by India in the 1960s had propelled the Green Revolution that made the country self-sufficient in wheat after years of imports.

There is scope to increase annual wheat yields in Bangladesh and Eastern India to five metric tons a hectare from below three tons now, Mr Duveiller said, adding there is also scope to improve production in many parts of Punjab and Haryana where current yields are already around five tons.

Low yield in Eastern India shows what heat can do to the wheat crop as even a temperature difference of just one degree above normal can reduce output by up to 10%, he said.

Mr. Duveiller said CIMMYT plans to develop wheat varieties that can be planted in South Asia as early as October, instead of the usual end-November or December. This will ensure flowering in late February when temperatures are still low, instead mid-March when they start rising.

October plantings, however, imply that temperature will be higher at the time of sowing. Scientists are now researching how best to change the physiology of the plant and identify genes that can help the crop adapt to this situation, he said.

A major advantage of early planting of wheat in South Asia is that it can tap on the residual moisture from the June-September monsoon season and reduce the pressure on ground water that is used in irrigation. It also raises the prospect of a shorter-duration third crop between the summer and winter planting seasons.

Mr. Duveiller said CIMMYT recently tied up with Indian government to establish the Borlaug Institute of South Asia as research on such varieties needs to be conducted under local conditions. The research centers will be in Ladhowal in Punjab; Pusa in Bihar and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. The three different locations will represent India’s western, eastern and central regions which have different soil and climatic conditions.

Apart from developing better seeds, the institute will also introduce better agronomic practises such as zero tillage or direct seeding to reduce cost and retain stubs from the previous crop rather than burning them, to save vital soil nutrients, he said.

Sameer Mohindru, sameer.mohindru@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 11, 2012 23:02 ET (03:02 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.