Features – Page 43

W4A Day One: Food security, consumer demand, and changing the way Africa sees wheat

Written by on October 8, 2012. Posted in Features.

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.

Participants from Sudan set up their posters before Day One at Wheat for Food Security in Africa

Wheat for Food Security in Africa – The Conference Begins Tomorrow!

Written by on October 7, 2012. Posted in Features.

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).

This photo comes from our new Flickr WHEAT collection - you can find it at http://to.ly/fKpy — This photo comes from our new Flickr WHEAT collection – you can find it at http://to.ly/fKpy

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.

Dow Jones Interview: Mexico’s CIMMYT to develop heat-tolerant wheat for South Asia

Written by on July 20, 2012. Posted in Features.

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)

Nutritionally-enhanced maize reaching Filipino farmers and families

Written by on July 20, 2012. Posted in Features.

Agricultural extension agents are getting seed of quality protein maize to the mountainous areas in the Philippines and encouraging smallholder farmers in its use. Widespread use of this nutritionally-enhanced maize can potentially help reduce rice dependency, improve child nutrition, and supply grain for inner city school meal programs.

Maize is not the first crop that comes to mind when one thinks about the Philippines, where rice paddies dominate the landscape. But a traveler to the nation’s mountainous regions will increasingly find maize crops there. Through public sector maize breeders and extension officers, upland farmers are beginning to sow the seed of an improved quality protein maize (QPM) variety. QPM looks, grows, and tastes like normal maize but contains higher levels of two essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan, for protein synthesis in humans and farm animals like pigs and poultry. Nutritional studies in Ethiopia have already demonstrated that QPM consumption can reduce or prevent stunted growth in young children whose diets are heavy in maize.

Where small is not always good, quality counts

geraldine-delphino The Philippine uplands are home to the poorest farmers and minority groups, for whom arable land is scarce and hunger a constant threat. The average family includes at least five children, and must survive on a farm homestead of only one hectare. Antonio Rodriguez is a 46-year-old farmer in Jose V. Dayao village outside of Naga City. He struggles to put food on the table for a family that includes
six children. “We own half a hectare of land and rent an additional two hectares,” he explains, “but it is not enough to support our family.” In a nearby village, farmer Geraldine Delphino and her husband must feed themselves and their five children from little more than half a hectare of land. “My husband and I are both farmers,” says Delphino. “He often works as a laborer on other farms. We sell whenever we have a surplus and buy white maize when we can.”

wilma-hurtada Wilma Hurtada, Food Science Professor at the University of the Philippines, Los Baños, has studied QPM and nutrition in children. “For families with limited land, limited resources, and a large family, the quality of the food they grow is very important,” she says.

Reaching farmers in the marginal areas
As in many developing countries, in the Philippines yellow-grained maize is grown mostly by large-scale commercial farmers for animal feed and non-food uses. White-grained maize is produced by smallholders and used for human foods, particularly in maize-dependent upland areas, according to Art Salazar, Principal Maize Breeder at the Institute for Plant Breeding (IPB), Los Baños. “It’s difficult to reach farmers with improved white maize cultivars,” says Salazar. “They live in the marginal areas, on the outskirts of economic activity.”

The IPB took QPM seed from CIMMYT, where this specialty maize was developed, and over four years adapted it to local conditions. A QPM variety was finally released by the National Seed Industry Council in 2008. “Now we have a variety which is high in lysine and tryptophan and which suits the climate of the Philippines and Filipino taste preferences,” says Salazar. “This was all done through conventional breeding and research collaboration with CIMMYT.”

efren-magulama To test and promote the white QPM with farmers and distribute seed, Salazar relies on the extension support of experts from diverse Philippine institutions. One is Efren E. Magulama, a maize breeder at the University of Southern Mindanao. “We work with about 20 farmers in Region XII Province of North Cotabato, Magpet Municipality, to introduce QPM into communities—mostly in the mountainous regions, which are difficult to reach,” says Magulama.

Farmer Marevic Fraile in Magpet Municipality, North Cotabato grows rubber, banana, coffee, and cocoa to sell, but grows maize for food. “We eat maize three times a day with every meal, mostly as grits,” Fraile explains. “We used to grow Tiniguib [a white maize variety popular in the Philippines], but when we switched to QPMour yields improved.”

Studies have shown that on average the QPM developed by the Filipino breeders yields 10% more than traditional white maize varieties. This is particularly important for its adoption by maize-dependent farmers, who are interested first and foremost in higher yields.

Homing in on nutrition
The nutritional advantages of QPM create opportunities to foster demand at some novel points in the food value chain, raising its interest for the farmers and seed producers. Salazar is working with Filipino health officials (in the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Health) and partners like Hurtada to introduce QPM grits into school meal programs in the poorest districts of Metropolitan Manila. “The national average of stunting in children in the Philippines is 29%; also 30% are energy deficient,” says Hurtada. “That’s just the national profile. When you go to the areas we’re targeting, you see a much higher incidence.”

The project aims to work with families whose parents have daily incomes under USD 1.20. “The children receive only about 980 calories a day,” says Hurtada. “They go to school without breakfast. When we ask how often they eat, they tell us one or two times a day.” The goal of the feeding program is to reach 1 million children, starting with 150 schools in Quezon City. “If we can do that, then we can really make a big impact on reducing malnutrition among children and general food security in the Philippines.”

“Instead of food aid, this initiative is developing a market for white maize farmers, improving nutrition for both farmers and school children, and contributing to the growth of the Filipino economy,” explained Salazar.

For more information: Michelle Defreese (m.defreese@cgiar.org)

Art Salazar Interview

art_salazar
Dr. Artemio Salazar is the Principal Maize Breeder at the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) in Los Baños, Philippines. He has been working on maize for the past 30 years, developing lines adapted to conditions in the Philippines from the germplasm sourced from indigenous farmers, local partners, and international organizations such as CIMMYT. He is the Deputy Director of the University of the Philippines’ Crop Science cluster in Los Baños.

In a rice-dependent country like the Philippines, how did you decide to become involved with maize breeding?
I completed my BSc in Agricultural Chemistry but soon became fed up of being around chemicals, so I shifted to agronomy. I really enjoyed working outdoors, being in the fresh air. I was approached by the first director of IPB in 1975 to be a part of the first technical staff of the Institute. I completed my PhD at Iowa State University in 1985. Now I realize I made the right choice because maize can and will help address nutritional needs and food insecurity issues in the Philippines.

How do you see maize playing a role in food security in the Philippines?
The Philippines should not be importing rice. 10% of rice importations could easily be filled by maize. If you could convince the equivalent of Filipinos to eat maize or a rice/maize blend, we would not have to import rice. We could eventually become a net exporter of rice. Importing rice does not make a lot of sense when there are maize substitutes. It aggravates social problems. If maize famers are poor, they will flock to the cities or become rebels. That has tremendous social costs. Investing in maize is a way to stem patterns of rural to urban migration.

What role do you see QPM varieties having in the Philippines?
Maize has been here all along for the past five hundred years or so. QPM can be a rally point for people to become interested in maize because it has a more balanced protein quality. If you can stimulate an increased interest in maize through QPM, half the problem would be solved.

You’ve also been involved in developing mills to produce maize grits and maize flour. What role do you see these playing in improving food security?
Crops are grown in the rural areas and they have to be milled. So they bring them down do the lowland areas to process them and bring them back up to the mountainous areas. The mills have to be cheap, efficient, and mobile. These mills (cost) only USD 1,500 and can be used with gasoline instead of electricity. 25 billion pesos of wheat flour are imported every year; that’s USD 500 million. If you substituted 20% of that with corn flour, you could recover the cost of USD 100 million. If you transmitted that to rural farmers, imagine what kind of impact that would have. Plus, the maize still retains its QPM properties, even when milled.

What is the role CIMMYT is playing in this initiative?
One thing is for certain, this project is not relying on foreign funds or institutions. This is a Filipino initiative. The germplasm which CIMMYT has been providing is already a big help. Collaboration of this kind can really help host countries. Funds should be sourced from government resources because it is sustainable. Funds should also come from the private sector. Then, it continues on and on. That is sustainable funding.

Creating an impact does not have to be an expensive proposition. If you can develop a technology and the host country can make full use of it, you can have a tremendous impact. When we started this, there was no foreign funding – only local funds in addition to CIMMYT germplasm and collaboration. A little research collaboration like the interaction between CIMMYT and IPB can go a long way.

Africa recruits research partners to secure its food

Written by on May 15, 2012. Posted in Features.

ACIAR’s Dr. John Dixon and Dr. Daniel Rodriguez of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, with farmers from Melkassa, Ethiopia

A maize – legume farm in Tanzania

Government extension officer Frank Swai, Tanzania

Farmer and single mother of four Felista Mateo, Tanzania

CIMMYT’s Dr. Fred Kanampiu, Tanzania

By Judie-Lynn Rabar and
Dr. Gio Braidotti

East African farmers are spearheading a research drive to intensify crop production of their most important staple foods. The farmers’ experiments with conservation agriculture and variety selection are part of a broader, 5-country push to stave off a looming food and soil-health crisis.

Kilima Tembo is a secondary school in the Karatu district in Tanzania’s rural highlands. Here, near the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangira National Park, agriculture is king and food security rests squarely on grains grown in the region’s maize–legume intercropping system.

So important is farming to the community that the school has an agriculture teacher and the school head, Ms Odilia Basso, has allowed the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to use school grounds to run field trials as part of a 5-country initiative to overhaul the maize and legumes supply chain—from farm to market.

That means breaking with a long-standing cycle of lifting production simply by bringing more land under the plough. The ecological consequences of that approach are catching up with farmers and their environment, but agricultural science is providing more sustainable alternatives to improve food security.

The research-based strategy is called SIMLESA—sustainable intensification of maize–legume cropping systems for food security in eastern and southern Africa. Launched in March 2010, the project is supported by the Australian Government through ACIAR.

Ambitious aims

A major objective is to introduce conservation agriculture techniques and more resilient varieties to increase the productivity and resilience of this vital cropping system. SIMLESA is aiming not only to increase yields by 30% from the 2009 average but also to reduce, by the same factor, risk from yield variability between seasons.

The Kilima Tembo Secondary School will help achieve these goals. The school is hosting the so-called ‘Mother Trial’—a long-term SARI field trial of conservation agriculture. This farming practice involves conserving ground cover between harvests to preserve soil moisture and, over a number of years, radically improve soil health and fertility.

Unlike 11 other farmer-led field sites established by SARI (the so-called ‘Baby Trials’), the Mother Trial is managed directly by the institute’s scientists, landing the school’s students with front-row seats on research and development activities designed to sustain a farming revolution.

Mr. Bashir Makoko, an agronomist working on the SIMLESA project, says students have the opportunity to learn about the project and its significance to the community at an open day with scientists and extension workers from SARI.

The socioeconomist running the trial, Mr. Frank Mbando, is encouraging student participation. He has arranged for data to be collected in ways that allow students to interact with technical staff. “Direct involvement in the project will equip the students with the information they need as potential farmers,” he says.

Household and regional impacts

Supporting these activities are partnerships that link farmers with a suite of national resources—extension officers, research centres and agricultural ministries—and international research centres.

Coordinating these linkages is Dr. Mulugetta Mekuria, from the South African regional office of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Also involved is the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Dr. Mekuria says SIMLESA was designed to have impacts at both the household and regional level.

“The aim is to ensure food security through agricultural research, stronger economic institutions, partnerships, and capacity building,” he says. “We want to increase food security and incomes while driving economic development through improved productivity from more resilient and sustainable maize-based farming systems.”

To implement the program, Dr. Mekuria is using the ‘3-I Approach’, a research for development (R4D) strategy designed to enhance smallholder prosperity based on the principles of integration, innovation, and impact. “SIMLESA activities will focus on integrated cropping systems, the use of innovation platforms to test and promote promising practices, and ensuring positive and measurable impacts on food security, sustainability and farm household incomes.”

ACIAR is funding SIMLESA with $20 million in financial support. The centre has enlisted Australian expertise through Dr. Daniel Rodriguez, of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, and Professor John Howieson from the Institute for Crop and Plant Sciences at Murdoch University in Perth.

Positive experience

Ms. Felista Mateo, a 37-year-old farmer from Kilima Tembo village is already benefitting from participating in SIMLESA.

A single mother of four, Ms. Mateo supports her family with produce from her land, mainly maize and pigeon pea. Any surpluses, though small, are stored in granaries and either used domestically or sold to middlemen.

Following advice from government extension officer Mr. Frank Swai, she achieved yield gains that her neighbours are now attempting to duplicate. As her harvest increases, she plans to build a larger granary to store her surplus and sell more grain as a cash crop.

Traditionally, farmers have had no way of tracking the market and the middlemen who buy their produce have exercised control over prices. However, Ms. Mateo owns a mobile phone and since the inception of SIMLESA and its support network, she can now call an extension officer and check market prices. The result is greater bargaining power for the villagers when the middlemen come calling.

Averting food insecurity

More than 200 million people living in extreme poverty in the partner countries stand to benefit from SIMLESA.

Currently, the region is barely self-sufficient in grain, importing 10% of its needs—one quarter in the form of emergency food aid.
Maize is the main staple and legumes —primarily groundnut, pigeon pea and chickpea— are an important source of protein. Instead of a more prosperous future, however, the region is facing growth in demand for maize and legumes in the next 10 years. It is that trend towards food insecurity that SIMLESA is attempting to avert.

But it is not just on-farm practices that are targeted for innovation. Urban grain prices have remained stubbornly high following the global food crisis of 2007–08. But higher prices for consumers have not translated into higher prices for farmers. This has weakened incentives for farmers to increase food crop production, a state of affairs that SIMLESA is attempting to change.

CIMMYT’s Dr. Fred Kanampiu says that the SIMLESA project is aiming to achieve a ‘whole-chain’ impact. “Despite the multiple efforts underway with the researchers, the final focus should not be lost,” he says. “It is the farmer who is to be the end beneficiary of the research. The farmers’ lives should be improved, their pockets well-lined and their families well catered for.”

Of all the crops produced by farmers such as Ms. Mateo, it is pigeon pea that has an important role to play as a cash crop. Farmers are fond of this legume because it yields two harvests a year and there is a good export market to India. Pigeon pea retails up to TZS150,000 (about US$100) per 100 kilogram bag. On average, one acre (0.405 hectares) of land yields 300–400 kg of pigeon pea. Typically, 95% of the crop is sold.

In Karatu district some 15% of farmers live on less than a dollar a day. Mr. Makoko says the major obstacles to lifting their profitability are high inputs costs, low produce prices, lack of markets, and prolonged drought. By introducing pigeon pea or similar crops, and integrating the ‘whole-chain’ approach, these obstacles can be reduced or overcome.

Socioeconomist Frank Mbando, Tanzania.

Senior agronomist Tuaeli Mmbaga, Tanzania.

The way forward will include training farmers to provide them with further education on how to manage their land.”

–Tuaeli Mmbaga

Better varieties

While the main research thrust is on conservation agriculture, CIMMY T and ICRISAT are participating in accelerated breeding and performance trials that aim to introduce farmers to maize and legume varieties that yield well in good years and are resilient enough in the bad seasons to help reduce farmers’ risks.

Mr. Mbando is tracking impacts associated with the new varieties and says the farmers’ response to the studies has been positive.

“They suggested that breeders take into account farmers’ criteria when making selections, so a participatory approach will be used to evaluate varieties,” he says. “So far, farmers have indicated early maturity, pest and disease tolerance, high yields and marketability as the preferred traits. Variety registration and production will then also be stepped up to make the seed available in sufficient quantities.”

Partnership approach

Mbulu district, located about 50 kilometres from Karatu, is the next community targeted for SIMLESA activities in Tanzania, to start after the current crop has been harvested. At the SIMLESA inception meeting, farmers agreed to leave post-harvest residue on the ground in preparation for the trials. Field activities in the Eastern Zone districts of Gairo and Mvomero are expected to begin in the next growing season.

Ms. Tuaeli Mmbaga, the senior agronomist on this project, says that with support from extension officers, farmers will assess the technology both pre-harvest and post-harvest.

“The way forward will include training farmers to provide them with further education on how to manage their land,” she says. “This will include an Innovation Learning Platform in partnership with farm produce stockists, community leaders, and other stakeholders to ensure that more people become involved with the project.”

Crop modeling scientist Dr. Daniel Rodriguez, who leads the Queensland component of ACIAR’s SIMLESA program, is convinced that research to reduce food shortages in eastern and southern Africa could have many benefits for farmers, including in his native Queensland.

“Our scientists will be working to improve the resilience and profitability of African farms, providing access to better seeds and fertilisers to raise the productivity of local maize–legume farming systems,” Dr. Rodriguez says. “Together we may be able to help solve one of the greatest challenges for the developed world—eliminating hunger and poverty in Africa—while at the same time boosting legume production here in Australia.”

Building agricultural research capacity

ACIAR’s Dr. John Dixon says the emphasis of Australia’s direct involvement is on building capacity within the African agricultural research system.

“Conservation agriculture amounts to a substantial shift in farming practices for the region,” Dr. Dixon says. “But it stands to provide so many advantages—not just greater water-use efficiency and soil health but also opportunities to break disease cycles and improve livestock nutrition.”

These are long-term efforts that need to be adapted to many agro-climatically diverse locations, Dr. Dixon says. “So it is vital that the African agricultural research system is built up so that it can take lead responsibility for implementing innovation into the future.”

Maize farmers and seed businesses changing with the times in Malawi

Written by on May 15, 2012. Posted in Features.

In Malawi, farmers who have in the past few years witnessed crop failure due to poor rains are switching to two new drought tolerant maize varieties, and seed companies are changing their business models to keep up.

jun01 “The climate is changing, rainfall is decreasing and the weather is now dictating which varieties farmers grow and in turn which varieties seed companies produce,” says Dellings Phiri, general manager of Seed Co. Malawi, a leading southern African seed company.

He refers to two new drought tolerant maize varieties–ZM 309 and ZM 523–developed specifically for Malawi’s drought-prone areas with infertile soils by CIMMYT, Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and the Chitedze Research Station, through the Drought Tolerant maize for Africa (DTMA) project. The research was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The varieties were officially launched in March 2009.

“In Malawi, each adult eats 300 kilos of maize annually, and ZM 309 and ZM 523 will give farmers a boost in safeguarding their maize harvests from the increasing threat of drought,” says Wilfred Mwangi, associate director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and leader of the DTMA project.

First introduced by local extension agents to farmers in the drought-prone Balaka area through farmer-managed demonstration plots, these varieties have rapidly become popular among farmers, who have been impressed by their superior performance and accepted them. Compared to other popular commercially marketed varieties, farmers have found ZM 309 and ZM 523 to have higher yields, mature earlier, offer better resistance to common maize leafy diseases, and be better for pounding into flour. Locally, ZM 309 is known as Msunga banja, Chichewa for “that which takes care of or feeds the family,” while ZM 523 is Mwayi, which means “fortunate.”

Malawi supports for food security
In March 2009, farmers recommended ZM 309 for inclusion in Malawi’s Agricultural Input Subsidy Program, introduced in 2004 and credited with improving the country’s agricultural productivity and food security. Targeting smallholder farmers with access to land and other production resources, the program involves distribution of coupons for subsidized improved maize seed and fertilizer–one for a 100-kilogram bag of fertilizer and another for either 3 kilograms of standard seed or 2 kilograms of hybrid seed. In September 2009, Malawi’s President Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika endorsed ZM 309 saying, “ZM 309 will give Malawi farmers an advantage because it is high-yielding and drought tolerant. We welcome this research because it will help Malawi cope with climate change and improve food security.” The inclusion of ZM 309 in the subsidy program has seen the variety grown in six of the most drought-prone districts in Malawi, contributing to improved food security of thousands of farm families.

No more hungry months
One such family is that of Bamusi Stambuli, 63. Together with his wife Sagulani, they have they have 7 children and 5 grandchildren. In April 2010, Stambuli harvested nearly 1.8 tons of ZM 309 from his 0.6-hectare plot. “I will now be able to feed my family for a whole year,” says Stambuli proudly.

This year Stambuli will save at least USD 330 that he would have spent to purchase maize for his family. Farmers who grew ZM 309 obtained yields of 3.0 to 3.5 tons per hectare–twice those for the popular local varieties, Kanjelenjele and Kagolo.

In an area where locals rely on farming, fishing, basket-making, sale of firewood, and general trading, Stambuli’s success with ZM 309 is drawing many peers to his farm to buy ZM 309 seed.

Business as (un)usual
ZM 309 and ZM 523 are open pollinated varieties (OPVs), meaning farmers can save seed from one season and plant it for up to three subsequent seasons without punitive losses in yields or other desirable traits. Ordinarily, OPVs are not as attractive to commercial seed companies as hybrids, because with hybrids farmers have to buy and sow fresh seed every season or risk decreased performance of their crops. With ZM 309 and ZM 523 this is not the case. Seed Co. is changing its business model and investing in producing adequate amounts of both varieties to meet increased demand from farmers.

“We hope that from seeing the performance of ZM 309, farmers will be encouraged to start buying certified maize seed to boost production,” says Phiri.

Maize without borders: Reforming maize seed sector policies to meet farmers’ needs in Africa

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 10, October 2008

Senior policy makers from sub-Saharan Africa have recently made recommendations for policy actions to reform operations in the maize seed sector. At stake is better access for millions of small-scale farmers to affordable, quality seed of maize, the region’s food staple. CIMMYT is closely involved.

oct01 In the 2006-07 cropping season, 82 registered maize seed companies produced the bulk of just over 100,000 tons of improved maize seed that were marketed in the major maize producing countries of eastern and southern Africa (excluding South Africa) — enough to sow 35% of the maize land in those countries.

A recent CIMMYT study found that restrictive national policies, lack of credit opportunities, inadequate seed production capacities, insufficient numbers of recently released public sector varieties, and challenging marketing situations were the main reasons why maize seed sector growth is slow in many African countries. Worse, this situation contributes significantly to Africa’s poor food security and farm incomes.

“The good news is that we have today four times more seed companies than ten years ago and they have increased seed provision from 26% to 35% of the total planted maize area,” says CIMMYT socioeconomist Augustine Langyintuo. “Yet there is still a significant, unmet demand for seed, and this underscores the need for new policies that support efficient seed production, processing, and marketing.”

In 2007 Langyintuo led the above-mentioned study to characterize seed providers and bottlenecks to seed supplies in eastern and southern Africa. A total of 117 representatives from seed companies, national research programs, and CBOs/NGOs participated, and information was gathered on the seed sectors in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In July 2008, more than 60 senior policy makers from agriculture ministries, private seed companies, seed trade associations, and regional trade blocs from 13 sub-Saharan African countries met in Nairobi, Kenya and recommended ways to improve farmers’ access to seed of improved drought tolerant maize varieties through specific policy actions to enhance the production, release, and marketing of these varieties. They agreed with the findings of the 2007 seed sector study.

Understanding the hurdles

The main findings were that investment capital requirements and a shortage of qualified staff hinder the growth of small, local seed companies that have emerged over the past decade, according to Langyintuo. “The costs of setting up and running an office, recruiting and retaining qualified personnel, and procuring and operating production, processing, and storage facilities are beyond what many local businesses can afford, and access to operational credit is limited or nil,” he says.

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Up to 60% of a seed company’s operational budget goes into seed production. Seed companies, therefore, need affordable credit over the mid-to-long term to produce enough seed to meet farmers’ needs. Marketing seed is also costly. “Most companies rely on third-party agents such as agro-dealers, large retail stores, NGOs, or the government to retail most of their seed,” says Langyintuo. “The majority of the agro-dealers lack funds to purchase seed, and so must take it on consignment, forcing companies to retrieve unsold seed at cost. The dealers are normally not knowledgeable enough about the seed they sell to promote it effectively, and some of them have also been known to adulterate seed with mere grain.”

Other hurdles identified include cumbersome varietal release, registration, and seed certification regulations, as well as a weak producer base, slow access to the best germplasm, uncompetitive prices in local grain markets, low adoption rates of improved varieties, restrictions on cross-border trade in seed, and poor infrastructure (such as bad roads and inadequate storage facilities).

Policy actions needed

To get farmers the seed they want will involve a range of players in the maize seed sector and calls for specific policy actions. Participants in the July 2008 meeting identified ways in which governments and international centers like CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) can assist and support current seed companies to improve their seed outputs and profits.

“The government is supporting the maize seed sector through initiatives such as increasing investments in agricultural research and extension, training of agro-dealers, and developing the National Seed Industry Policy,” confirms Kenya’s Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Japheth Mbiuki.

“Seed companies would benefit from access to a wider range of improved maize varieties, good seed production sites, affordable inputs, and training in effective business practices,” adds Langyintuo. CIMMYT normally distributes its experimental varieties freely to everyone, but granting companies some degree of exclusivity in their use would facilitate branding and promote sales. This would have to be tailored to specific country and company contexts, according to Langyintuo.

Maize seed without borders

No country is an island, and with increasing regional integration of economies around the world, it makes sense that the region should move as one in developing its maize seed sector. Regional trade blocs such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) are key. “Specific actions and commitments by national governments include dedicating increased funds (at least 10% of their national budgets) for agricultural development and harmonization of regional seed regulations,” says Ambassador Nagla El-Hussainy, COMESA Assistant Secretary General. “This will improve rates of variety release, lower costs in dealing with regulatory authorities, increase trade in seed of improved varieties and, ultimately, adoption by farmers.” In East Africa, for instance, the national seed policies of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are at various stages of development and are set to be harmonized soon.

“Effective trade and risk management strategies that buffer seed supply within countries are needed to stabilize and increase maize production in the region,” says Marianne Bänziger, CIMMYT Global Maize Program Director. “These will mitigate the impact of drought and national production fluctuations, which are some of the harsh realities that farmers and consumers face.”

“Where applicable, carrying out the distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) tests alongside national performance trials (NPT) could speed up varietal releases,” adds Langyintuo. “Farmers’ awareness of the usefulness and availability of new varieties can be raised through improved extension message delivery, widespread demonstrations, and better retail networks.”

According to Richard Amoussou, an Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture in Benin: “The links between (community-based) seed producers and seed companies should be strengthened through contracts. This will ensure that quality seed is produced and sold to seed companies, who must finally distribute the seed to the farmers, thus improving their access.”

“Streamlining the seed sector will directly benefit the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers and result in more and more affordable food for consumers – significant in the current global food crisis,” concludes Bänziger. She says this is crucial, given the twin challenges of the global food price crisis and more frequent droughts due to climate change.

For more information: Augustine Langyintuo, socioeconomist (a.langyintuo@cgiar.org)

Formula for success

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 2, February 2007

feb11 Breeding knowledge combined with cutting-edge laboratory analysis will produce maize rich in vital nutrients.

“The link between agriculture and nutrition is surprisingly under-explored,” says Kevin Pixley, who manages the Biofortified Maize for Improved Human Nutrition project at CIMMYT. “Agricultural approaches can contribute to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies, more cheaply and sustainably than food supplements.” The effect is potentially far-reaching: maize is the preferred staple food of more than 1.2 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. However, maize-based diets, particularly those of the very poor, often lack essential vitamins and minerals. Over 50 million people in these regions are vitamin A deficient, which can lead to visual impairments, blindness and increased child mortality.

Pixley’s project aims to develop varieties of maize that combine high provitamins A, iron and zinc contents with superior agronomic qualities, and disseminate them in partner countries in Africa and Latin America. It is part of HarvestPlus, an international, interdisciplinary program to alleviate nutritional deficiency through breeding micronutrient-enriched staple foods.

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The white maize eaten in much of sub-Saharan Africa contains no provitamins A, while standard yellow maize varieties contain about 2 micrograms per gram (µg/g)—still insufficient in a diet dominated by maize. The good news is that there is substantial genetic variation in maize for concentrations of provitamins A. The project has been screening hundreds of maize samples, looking for and then using those with the best provitamins A content. The team has now reached the HarvestPlus program’s intermediate target for maize of 8 µg/g with its current best experimental materials; scientists anticipate producing materials with the ultimate target of 15 µg/g within the next few years by using cutting edge lab tools to help select the best materials for breeding.

The breeding work at CIMMYT is focusing on increasing the concentration of provitamins A in maize. Open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) are being developed using popular varieties grown in partner countries and source materials high in provitamins A. In addition, the project team is developing inbred lines and hybrids with high provitamins A content, based on elite African and Mexican germplasm, which will be freely available to partners for use in producing their own enriched hybrids or OPVs. Providing source materials to other programs is a key part of the project, particularly to key partners Brazil, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala and Zambia, where their performance is tested in local agro-environments.

This work to generate enhanced maize lines relies on accurate measurements of the micronutrient contents of breeding materials at every stage. Therefore, a major aspect of the project has been experimenting with techniques for analyzing carotenoids (which include provitamins A), iron, and zinc.

Carotenoids are a particular challenge to work with, as they are very sensitive to both light and oxygen, making samples vulnerable and difficult to store. Maize scientist Natalia Palacios and her team have adapted and implemented protocols for analyzing carotenoid content using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), in collaboration with others in the HarvestPlus network. HPLC is very precise, but it is also expensive and time-consuming.

The team has therefore taken delivery this month of new equipment to measure near-infrared reflectance (NIR). This infrared technique is both accurate and rapid. Collaboration with the International Potato Centre (CIP) has shown that different carotenoid compounds can successfully be differentiated using NIR. The next step for the team is a big push to build on this work. “For us it is a great challenge, and an opportunity to support and enhance the breeding work by providing more and faster information at a lower cost,” says Palacios. The team believes that NIR will multiply their screening potential dramatically: last year they worked at full capacity to analyze 2,000 samples, but with NIR they hope to analyze up to 10,000 per year.

The team will also explore the potential of NIR to measure iron and zinc. Unfortunately, natural variability for iron content in maize is very limited and may be insufficient to breed iron-rich lines, and to an extent the same is true for zinc. However, iron deficiency is an extremely important global problem: it is estimated that nearly three billion people are iron deficient. The team will therefore focus on increasing the bioavailability of iron in maize—i.e. selecting maize with greater amount of iron that can be absorbed by human consumers, rather than with greater absolute amount of iron.

The ultimate goal is to reduce micronutrient malnutrition among maize consumers by providing micronutrient-rich maize varieties that farmers will want to grow and consumers will want to eat.

We’re breaking new ground working on the biofortification of maize,” says Pixley. “This is exciting science.”

For more information, Kevin Pixley, Associate Director, Global Maize Program (k.pixley@cgiar.org)

The wheat rust threat

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 10, October 2006

oct06 Global Rust Initiative tackles a clearly present danger.

When wheat scientists and policy makers convened in Alexandria, Egypt earlier this month, one might have been forgiven for thinking that a war was afoot. And it is. Scientists are launching an offensive against wheat stem rust, an old foe of farmers that is threatening resurgence.

Words like ‘emergency’, ‘disaster’, ‘catastrophe’, and ‘devastation’, were used at the meeting to paint a picture of the havoc that epidemics of the fungal disease, also known as black rust, could precipitate on the world’s food security and economy. “This is a global threat…,” CIMMYT Director General Masa Iwanaga told the First International Workshop of the Global Rust Initiative (GRI), 9-11 October. “The risk of a stem rust epidemic in wheat in Africa, Asia and the Americas is real, and must be averted before untold damage and human suffering is caused,” said Mahmoud Solh, Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Preliminary field evidence from Kenya indicated that many more varieties of wheat could be threatened by rust than previously thought.

The GRI—a consortium coordinated by CIMMYT and ICARDA that involves agricultural research institutes from 30-plus countries—will use scientific knowledge and global cooperation as its primary ammunition to fight the disease. Tactics will include worldwide surveillance for virulent strains of the stem rust fungus Puccinia graminis (‘trap nurseries’—small fields where wheat known to be susceptible to the new disease has been planted) have been positioned in at-risk countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia); zeroing in on resistance genes and using these in breeding programs; and accelerated seed multiplication and dissemination of the new, resistant breeds. “We basically have to replace all the wheat in the world,” says GRI Coordinator, CIMMYT wheat scientist Rick Ward.

It is no mean task; farmers and breeders select wheat varieties for their high yield, robustness against pests and diseases, but also properties such as grain color, maturity period, and bread making quality, and the GRI’s work will have to keep these in mind. Furthermore, preferences vary by region, often depending on the form in which the wheat arrives at the table. Seed delivery will also need to be addressed.

Infection with the fungal disease first appears as deep orange pustules on young wheat stems, and without prompt intervention with fungicides, farmers’ fields are converted into a tangled mass of black stems with shriveled grain. Severe infections can lead to total crop failure. A new variant of the fungus, Ug99, has established itself in bread wheat farmers’ fields in Kenya and Ethiopia, and resource-poor smallholders who cannot afford fungicides are quickly losing the battle against stem rust.

Until new, resistant varieties are in the hands of farmers, Ward says part of the GRI’s resources will be directed towards an aggressive regimen of fungicides to suppress stem rust hot spots before they spread. “A stem rust epidemic is much like a bush fire; if it’s not contained, it becomes exceedingly difficult to stop,” he says.

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Researchers at the Alexandria meeting were relieved to hear that GRI-coordinated screening of twelve thousand wheat cultivars has yielded a handful of potential Ug99-resistant candidates. This positive news came from researchers at Njoro, a high-altitude research station of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), and the Melkasa station of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). The promising varieties are being fast-tracked for multiplication and release to farmers. Ward announced that the GRI will now use molecular breeding, which reduces the breeding process by several years, as a routine.

Even with modern breeding and communication technologies, the GRI’s success will hinge on the spirit of global cooperation to overcome blights that threaten the world’s food security.

For more information contact r.ward@cgiar.org
www.globalrust.org

CIMMYT Sows Second Field Trial of Promising Transgenic Drought Tolerant Wheat

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

March, 2005

noticias8 In March, CIMMYT scientists continued their pursuit of drought tolerant wheat with the second field trial of transgenic lines carrying the DREB gene, given to CIMMYT by Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). The gene, obtained from Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of wild mustard, exhibited considerable promise in its initial field trial in 2004, and in earlier greenhouse trials (see September 2004 E-news). The project is funded by Australia’s Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and is led by CIMMYT cell biologist Alessandro Pellegrineschi.

noticias9 This second trial narrows the focus of investigation to four transgenic lines and uses a larger plot to ensure better control and analysis. It will also expose the experimental lines and control plants to both watered and drought conditions to determine their respective performance.

“In a few months when we get the results, we will follow the physiologists’ lead and see if this might be useful for producing hardy wheat for farmers in climates prone to drought,” says Pellegrineschi. He is particularly interested in identifying the promoter gene that switches on the drought response.

For further information, contact Alessandro Pellegrineschi (a.pellegrineschi@cgiar.org).

Millennium Village Celebrates Harvest

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 9, September 2005

millenium1 CIMMYT maize helps villagers quadruple their yields.

The excitement was palpable—and with good reason. “The last time we saw maize like this was in the 1970s!” said Euniah Akinyi Ogola, holding her freshly harvested maize cobs—each as long as her forearm—as the 5,000 residents of Bar Sauri village in western Kenya celebrated their maize harvest.

Euniah is a villager in the world’s first ‘millennium village’ of the UN’s Millennium Project. The village hopes to show that with modest investment and support, it is entirely possible to pull people out of hunger and poverty and set them on the road to prosperity. One of the first steps in the five-year process is to end hunger by improving the village’s agriculture.

With the drying up of state subsidies for small farmers in the 1980s and changes in agricultural programs in the 1990s, many Kenyan villages suffered a downward spiral in maize production. When the village project started in 2004, most farmers in Sauri were harvesting well under a ton of maize per hectare, insufficient to see a household from one crop to the next. The shortage of maize—the main staple food—coupled with malaria and HIV-Aids, effectively stymied Sauri villagers’ chances for a better life.

millenium2

To address the biting hunger Pedro Sanchez, co-chair of the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force, and his team introduced two maize hybrids to the village. Planted on all 300 hectares of village, both varieties were developed by CIMMYT’s Africa Maize Stress (AMS) project funded by IFAD, SIDA, BMZ, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

“We were looking for the best maize varieties available in Kenya,” says Sanchez, who did not want to take any chances when selecting the maize for the village. In addition to the new maize seed, the villagers received fertilizer and were shown the proper way to plant and tend their maize. Hard work and good rains completed the picture, leading to a bumper crop of four tons per hectare that astonished the villagers, project staff, and observers worldwide.

At the recent harvest festival, UNICEF Executive Director Anne Veneman and Professor Jeffry Sachs, UN Special Envoy on the millennium development goals (MDGs), both praised the success of the village. Sachs said the project would now work with the villagers to construct safe storage facilities for their current and future harvests and start planting more vegetables and other high-value crops.

Alpha Diallo, leader of the AMS project, says he was thrilled that the CIMMYT varieties met the MDG challenge: “The hybrids are high yielding, but are also able to resist diseases and other environmental stresses, thanks to our targeted, long-term breeding efforts,” he says.

For further information, contact Alpha Diallo (a.diallo@cgiar.org).

Danish Environment Ministers and Parliamentarians Visit CIMMYT

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

March, 2004

Denmark’s Minister for the Environment, Hans Chr. Schmidt, and members of the Environment Committee of the Danish Parliament came to CIMMYT on 4 March for a briefing on the role of agriculture and research in development, the conservation and study of genetic diversity, the potential of biotechnology, and biosafety issues. They were accompanied by Søren Haslund, Ambassador of the Government of Denmark to Mexico. During their visit they were joined by Lisa Covantes, representative of Greenpeace-Mexico.

The briefing ended with a short tour of CIMMYT’s laboratory, greenhouse, and genebank facilities. In the laboratory, researchers described how biotechnology tools increasingly facilitate the study and use of genetic resources. As one example, they presented a “maize family tree” developed on the basis of genetic analyses that assess the extent to which maize varieties and races from throughout the world are genetically similar or quite distinct. The visitors saw transformed maize and wheat plants growing in the biosafety greenhouse. In CIMMYT’s genebank, where some of the world’s largest collections of maize, wheat, and related species are held in trust for humanity, the visitors learned how these genetic resources are used to develop new varieties. They heard about CIMMYT’s work in Mexico to understand how traditional farmers manage maize diversity on the farm, and then visited one of the cold storage vaults where seed is kept.

Denmark is a world leader in its strong and thoughtful commitment to reducing poverty in developing countries through economic growth and environmentally sustainable development. The visit of the Danish delegation provided a welcome opportunity to exchange views on the role of public agricultural research for development.

The visiting members of the Environment Committee of the Danish Parliament included Eyvind Vesselbo, Mogens Nørgård Pedersen, Torben Hansen, Jørn Dohrmann, Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, Keld Albrechtsen, Helge Mortensen, Lone Møller, Jacob Buksti, Inger Bierbaum, Jens Vibjerg, Helga Moos, Søren Gade, Gudrun Laub, Freddie H. Madsen, and Inger Støjberg.

1) From left to right: Eyvind Vesselbo, Minister Schmidt, and Director General Iwanaga
2) Minister Schmidt and Eyvind Vesselbo in the briefing room
3) Visiting the biotech lab
4) Visiting the genebank

Leaf Rust Resistance Breeding Reaps Great Benefits

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

August, 2004

leaf Every 1990-term US dollar invested in CIMMYT’s wheat genetic improvement over the past 40 years has generated at least 27 times its value in benefits from leaf rust resistance breeding in spring bread wheat alone, according to a recent CIMMYT study entitled “The Economic Impact in Developing Countries of Leaf Rust Resistance Breeding in CIMMYT–Related Spring Bread Wheat.”

Spring bread wheat covers about two-thirds of the developing world’s wheat area, and almost 80% of that area was sown to CIMMYT-related semidwarf varieties in 1997. Using the data on the composition of varieties sown that year, the study estimated the economic impact of CIMMYT’s efforts to develop leaf rust resistant spring bread wheat varieties since 1973.

Puccinia triticina is currently the most widespread rust in the world. The development of durable genetic resistance to this rust has been a plant breeding objective since the early 1900s and a priority of CIMMYT’s wheat breeding program since its inception. Although gene manipulation has brought about more stable patterns of resistance, rust still causes yield losses in many wheat-producing areas.

The rust pathogen can mutate into new races and then infect previously resistant varieties. Researchers cannot estimate productivity maintenance by yield gains, as they do with productivity improvement. Instead, they must estimate the yield losses that would have occurred without the resistant varieties and research investment.

C.N. Marasas, working at the Agricultural Research Council in South Africa at the time of the study, and M. Smale from the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute conducted the research along with CIMMYT wheat geneticist and pathologist R.P. Singh.

They applied an economic surplus approach adjusted for maintenance research and a capital investment analysis to estimate the returns on CIMMYT’s investment in wheat genetic improvement. The results suggest an internal rate of return of 41%. Allowing for discount factors, the net present value was US$ 5.36 billion (in 1990 dollars), and the benefit-cost ratio was 27:1.

The study emphasizes the importance of maintenance research in crop breeding programs. CIMMYT’s work in leaf rust resistance has made substantial economic impacts in developing countries, where farmers use mainly resistant varieties, not fungicide, to control leaf rust. Findings show that wheat yield increases over the years have been due in part to yield potential protection through disease resistance breeding.

For more information: Dr. Ravi Singh

New boost for maize-legume cropping in eastern and southern Africa

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

maize-esa CIMMYT has entered into a collaborative research program to increase household and regional food security and incomes, as well as economic development, in eastern and southern Africa, through improved productivity from more resilient and sustainable maize-legume farming systems. Known as “Sustainable intensification of maize-legume cropping systems for food security in eastern and southern Africa” (SIMLESA), the program aims to increase productivity by 30% and reduce downside risk by 30% within a decade for at least 0.5 million farm households in those countries, with spill-over benefits throughout the region. In addition to CIMMYT, the program involves the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the national agricultural research systems of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, as well as the International Center for Research for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa, the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation Queensland, and Murdoch University in Western Australia. “The demand for maize in the region is expected to increase by at least 40% over the next ten years; and the demand for legumes by 50%,” says CIMMYT socioeconomist, Mulugetta Mekuria, who is leading the center’s efforts under the program. “Seasonal variability causes wide swings in food crop yields, including maize and legumes. This program will play a crucial role in reducing farmers’ risk and the vulnerability of farm households.” Work is being funded with Aus$ 20 million from the Australian Government, and forms part of the Government’s new, four-year Food Security through Rural Development Initiative.

For more information: Mulugetta Mekuria, socioeconomist (m.mekuria@cgiar.org)
For interviews and media support: Mike Listman, corporate communications (m.listman@cgiar.org)

See also official announcements from ACIAR and AusAid

CIMMYT celebrates 2012 World Water Day

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

DT-farmer Many of us often underestimate the importance of water on our daily lives – that is until the taps run out of water or the well runs dry. For farmers, their lives are intimately connected to the abundance or lack of water. Many farmers in the developing world produce crops which are dependent on unpredictable patterns of rainfall. For these farmers, water is not only a resource, but truly the source of life.

Many of us often underestimate the importance of water on our daily lives – that is until the taps run out of water or the well runs dry. For farmers, their lives are intimately connected to the abundance or lack of water. Many farmers in the developing world produce crops which are dependent on unpredictable patterns of rainfall. For these farmers, water is not only a resource, but truly the source of life.

When there is a lack of rain, it’s not only the crops that suffer, but farmers’ livestock, incomes, and livelihoods are put in jeopardy. In periods of drought, children are often the most vulnerable segment of the population. Children often suffer from malnutrition, stunting, and starvation as the result of drought, causing long-term effects on their health and well-being.

Episodes of drought have occurred with increasing intensity and frequency in recent months. The drought in the Horn of Africa – which began in July 2011 – has been called the worst drought in the region in over 60 years. The lack of food and grain has resulted in the tripling of prices in some areas. Millions of people continue to suffer from extreme hunger, starvation, and in some areas, famine. The current drought in Mexico has been called the worst drought in 70 years. As a result, farmers have lost over a billion dollars worth of crops since the drought began in October 2011. The effect of these severe droughts will be seen for years to come.

As we reflect on World Water Day, let us not only recognize how important water is to our everyday lives, but also acknowledge those who are developing more efficient solutions for water usage. Today, over 70 percent of the water used globally goes towards agriculture. How we use water for farming is one of the most important issues to address in the management of global water consumption.

In response to this challenge, our scientists are working to develop crops that can produce higher yields with less water. Our agronomists are working to develop systems which conserve water through the management of soils. Our researchers are developing systems which better utilize and apply agricultural inputs – such as pesticides and fertilizer – so that fewer chemicals enter our water sources.

We are all interconnected. Lack of water in one area also impacts other regions through the elevation of food prices, availability of staple foods, and competition for resources. As the world’s population expands to 9 billion – each of us have to take responsibility to address and reflect on how we utilize water. Today, let’s remember just how vitally important water is to our lives, to our planet, and to our future.

We reflect on how important water is for all of us, particularly its role in agriculture, and present a slideshow of CIMMYT images.