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

CIMMYT puts stem rust resistant seeds into partners’ hands for testing.

While the Global Rust Initiative (GRI) meeting in Alexandria focused on future strategy, preemptive work was well underway at CIMMYT as seeds of stem rust-resistant wheat lines were harvested and prepared for dispatch throughout the world. Ravi Singh, CIMMYT wheat scientist, explains, “This is a dynamic, ongoing process, as we constantly test and retest materials for resistance to stem rust while retaining desirable traits”.

On multiplication plots at CIMMYT’s El Batan headquarters in Mexico, workers have been harvesting wheat lines resistant to Ug99, the new, virulent strain of stem rust. These seeds are now ready to be sent to GRI partners across the area at risk. They will be grown at 30 experimental sites in countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Egypt, India and Afghanistan, and Mexico itself, to test for yield and adaptation to local conditions.

Researchers at CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), together with national partners, will use these trials to decide which lines to send to countries in larger amounts. In Ethiopia, where stem rust infection is already prevalent, ten lines are currently being multiplied on a larger scale, and tests with farmers will begin next year.

The resistant lines have been selected from thousands grown and artificially infected with Ug99 at Njoro in Kenya since 2004. These have included cultivars planted across the world and advanced breeding lines from CIMMYT and many other partners. Some 8-10% showed resistance to Ug99, of which a small number with traits such as high yield potential and resistance to other diseases were selected for multiplication.

CIMMYT is not only distributing existing stem-rust-resistant wheats, but is part of efforts to breed materials that will lead to the release of new varieties. A range of sources, particularly lines that have shown Ug99 resistance in Kenya over two years’ testing, are being used to enhance the diversity of stem rust resistance in elite germplasm and valued cultivars. Singh and his team aim to create wheats with durable resistance to Ug99, by ‘pyramiding’ several minor resistance genes.

CIMMYT is also distributing the first stem rust resistance screening nursery, consisting of seeds of some 100 resistant lines. These will be tested for local performance and used in crosses by national breeding programs and other GRI partners. In response to the urgency of the stem rust threat, CIMMYT staff have worked hard to bring this release forward from 2007.

Singh’s goal is to provide farmers with cultivars that are not only resistant to Ug99, but also superior in other traits such as yield potential, grain quality and resistance to other diseases. As he says, “Except in East Africa, the advantage of stem rust resistance is not yet visible. By incorporating rust resistance into the advanced germplasm that we have available, we can provide farmers with tangible livelihood benefits, and we will see a better rate of adoption.”

March, 2005

Now that all of CIMMYT’s new program directors have been officially installed, it is time to get acquainted with them, as well as their ideas and plans for the programs. This month we feature Rodomiro Ortiz, director of the Intensive Agro-Ecosystems Program.

What would it take for an accomplished scientist to move to Mexico? For Rodomiro Ortiz, director of the Intensive Agro-Ecosystems Program, all took was a new strategy for CIMMYT. In the new plan he saw a change and a challenge, and he knew that the Intensive Agro-Ecosystems Program could empower research to improve lives. “Science can really impact development—this program interests me because of the relevance it has on livelihoods.” Ortiz comes to CIMMYT, his fourth CGIAR Center, with much experience and a strong tradition for sharing science. “We want to encourage local production in ways that create wealth and reduce risk for farmers and both the rural and urban poor,” he says.

A source of food and income security for rural and urban households in Asia, North Africa, and Latin America, intensive agricultural systems feature large areas of maize and wheat, often accompanied by a combination of other crops. “A large number of the world’s poor live in densely populated, rural areas where their crops sustain local communities and neighboring cities, but they face many problems,” says Ortiz. Production limitations include unsustainable exploitation of water and soils, inefficient use of chemical inputs, and emerging or worsening disease and pest problems. Looking to the future, he says, “While continuing our success in wheat breeding, we want to enhance our maize research and pursue the science behind conservation agriculture.”

Balancing productivity with healthy cropping systems in key areas is a priority for this program. “Enhanced and sustained productivity will help improve human health and rural household food security, and natural resource management is an integral part of this goal,” recognizes Ortiz. With technology such as zero tillage and retained residues, systems can be both productive and ecologically sound. “Together with the Rice-Wheat Consortium, we’ve shared conservation agriculture with over 250,000 farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains who now are saving water and decreasing fuel use, all of this while increasing their yields,” he says. Ortiz would like to mirror this momentum in the Mediterranean littoral (coastal region), the Yellow River Basin, and northwestern Mexico, other focus areas for the program.

A Peruvian national, Ortiz holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in plant breeding and genetics and received his BSc and MSc degrees from UNALM (Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Peru). Having worked abroad in the USA, Nigeria, Denmark, India, and most recently in Uganda as director of Research-for-Development at IITA, he carries knowledge of 15 different food crops, maize and wheat included. This background has given him vast experience in cropping systems and management. Ortiz, with hundreds of publications to his name, loves intellectual discourse and discovering how old problems can be solved using innovative approaches. “This new strategic plan continues in CIMMYT’s tradition to excel serving the resource poor,” Ortiz says.

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

CIMMYT’s wheat quality lab expands and upgrades to meet growing demand of wheat for diverse food uses.

If you live in the Middle East or North Africa, you probably eat couscous. Chapati, a type of flat bread, accompanies meals in India. Many have noodles with meals in China. As varied as these foods are, they all come from wheat but require different characteristics to be considered of “good quality”—so that the wheat will mill and bake well for the desired preparation. CIMMYT works to provide farmers worldwide with wheat that will be valued in their area and has recently expanded capacity to meet growing demand, which for developing countries is nearing 300 million tons of wheat per year.

“To make a wheat variety good for both the farmer and the eater, you need to consider yield, disease resistance, and quality,” says Roberto J. Peña, Head of Grain Quality at CIMMYT. Peña works with breeders at CIMMYT and national programs all over the world to test wheat quality. Traits such as yield and disease resistance are obvious at harvest, but examining quality traits such as starch content and elasticity require complex and time-consuming tests. These difficult tasks have become easier with a new laboratory and upgraded technologies.

To reduce the time it takes to screen for quality traits, CIMMYT has equipped a quality laboratory in Ciudad Obregon in northwestern Mexico, in addition to the lab at headquarters. Now thousands of wheat lines can be screened for quality immediately after being harvested in Obregon. CIMMYT wheat breeders can see the results before they plant the next round of wheat lines. Looking at desirable quality traits much earlier in the breeding process will save time, money, and plot size as it will be easier for breeders to plant only wheat with high quality and all of the other traits they are looking for.

Peña intends to make more use of techniques like near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) analysis and marker-assisted selection (MAS) to enhance the efficiency of quality testing. “By screening thousands of lines quite simply, we are able to have a clear vision of what wheat lines aren’t going to be useful—we’re implementing modern technologies for improving end-use and nutritional quality,” he says.

Near infrared spectroscopy can be used to evaluate grain texture, starch, protein, elasticity, and mineral content. By looking into these attributes it is possible to determine whether the environment or crop management influenced the quality—all of this without the effort of milling the wheat into flour, making dough, and finally baking it. When the tests are complete, the same grain can be planted and the breeder knows what to expect.

By using MAS data from CIMMYT’s molecular biology lab, Peña and his team can take a glimpse at a particular wheat line’s DNA to determine if particular genes are present or absent. They can also see what genes have a more relevant role in defining quality, as well as tell if wheat carries high or low levels of protein. For example, if wheat has high levels of protein, it will be more elastic. In the future, they hope to start testing for the presence of specific genes associated with milling efficiency and starch properties.

By continuing to select for quality, CIMMYT hopes to enable farmers to grow wheat for quality food, whether it be couscous, chapati, or sliced bread.

For further information, contact Roberto J. Peña (j.pena@cgiar.org).

April, 2004

Wheat is grown in about 70 countries, in environments that extend from the Arctic Circle to near the Equator, from sea level to elevations of 4,000 meters, and under very dry and very wet conditions. Wheat researchers may not know that their local growing environment shares key limitations with environments in other parts of the world. They may not know that another scientist, half a world away, is trying to solve the same problem.

A wide-ranging project between CIMMYT and Australian organizations is helping wheat researchers obtain and share information to develop better varieties more efficiently. The project’s tools for analyzing and sharing information will enable many more researchers to work together on common problems.

CIMMYT is working with the University of Queensland (UQ) and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to characterize growing environments and understand how different wheat lines grow there. (Wheat lines can be thought of as experimental, unfinished varieties.) Researchers are creating information tools—including mapping systems, wheat breeding simulation programs, and environmental simulations—that wheat researchers can use to develop more appropriate wheat varieties and production practices for a set of target environments. The project is supported by Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

One reason that CIMMYT and the Australian organizations can benefit considerably from each other’s research tools and partnerships is that Australian wheat growing environments resemble some important wheat-producing environments in developing countries.

Testing the Ground

Part of the information that powers the project comes from the International Adaptation Trial (IAT), which consists of seed of 80 spring wheat lines of bread wheat and durum wheat. Cooperators who receive the trial plant the seed according to specific instructions, collect data from planting to harvest, and return the data to CIMMYT. CIMMYT breeders Wolfgang Pfeiffer, Richard Trethowan, Maarten van Ginkel, and Tom Payne identified cooperator sites, emphasizing sites with low rainfall and susceptibility to drought. They worked with Australian breeders to choose the CIMMYT and Australian lines that were included in the trial.

The IAT contains broadly and specifically adapted lines. Information on the performance of broadly adapted lines indicates their stability across a range of environments and in the presence of various environmental stresses, including diseases, pests, and soil problems. Individual environmental stresses are identified through specifically bred lines called probe genotypes, which have comparative responses that reflect the presence or absence of a specific trait.

In the IAT, most of the comparative pairs have highly similar genetic backgrounds, except for the trait of interest. For example, the Australian lines Gatcher and Gatcher GS50A help detect root lesion nematode. Gatcher is vulnerable to the nematode, but Gatcher GS50A is not. In the presence of the nematode, Gatcher GS50A yields better than Gatcher—more than half a ton better. In the absence of the nematode, both lines yield about the same.

Simulating the Growing Environment

The project also uses extensive sets of weather, climate, and geographical data. Along with the information from the IAT, these data are used to model how wheat lines with particular characteristics are likely to perform in key locations around the world. Running a crop simulation module that works in all types of environments is difficult, says UQ postdoctoral fellow, Ky Mathews. Researchers need good data that cover long periods. Mathews has been using daily weather data, supplied by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from 1973 to the present for 20,000 locations. These data are supplemented with information from cooperators. She is also using an FAO soil map to identify the most likely soil types in different regions.

From the modeling and IAT results, researchers around the world gain a more detailed understanding of target environments. They can investigate stresses at a location based on the IAT probe lines, find data on other wheat-producing locations that have similar stress responses, and evaluate weather patterns and soil information that might indicate a line’s vulnerability or exceptional resistance to a stress. This information will help breeders to make more informed choices about the lines they request from each other, the crosses they make, the genes and traits they use, and ultimately which lines they release as varieties to farmers.

It will also help them to solve shared problems. Preliminary results indicate that root lesion nematode is found at IAT sites in Ecuador, Bangladesh, India, and Mexico. Breeders can see from project maps that they experience the same challenges. “Before, we could never map the nematode sites around the world,” says Mathews. “That had never been done.”

Many Products

The project has several outputs, such as a global prediction model for flowering that defines global planting dates, a database of weather and soil data, a tool that extracts phenotypic data over the Internet from CIMMYT’s large database, and data summary tools. One tool, called QU-Cim, simulates CIMMYT’s bread wheat breeding program.

“The IAT also provides an ‘adaptation filter’ that increases the usefulness of data that CIMMYT and its partners have collected for decades in wheat breeding environments all over the world,” says CSIRO crop adaptation scientist Scott Chapman. For example, the breeders who discover a Boron problem can use CIMMYT’s historical data to identify locations where CIMMYT lines have performed well despite the presence of Boron and use these lines to develop tolerant varieties.

Mathews thinks it is important that cooperators get the project results so they can see the bigger picture. “I would like the breeders around the world to be able to have the tools to interrogate locations around the world to make better decisions about their breeding programs,” she says.

Despite the challenges, CIMMYT wheat researchers believe that the project has demonstrated tremendous potential for adding value to local and global wheat breeding research. CIMMYT is seeking funds to extend this work to more of the world’s important wheat-producing environments.

September, 2004

The introduction, testing, and promotion of bed planting technologies in Kazakhstan is one aspect of a project between CIMMYT and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation. Partners also aim to create a regional network in Central Asia and to identify, multiply, and promote high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties that will increase productivity and profitability in farmers’ fields.

At first, some traditional farmers told farmer Alexander Merzlikin he was wasting his time experimenting with planting on raised soil beds. New technologies might seem risky to poor farmers who are afraid of losing yields. Merzlikin, who began farming in 1996 to feed his family, bites off the end of a green wheat stalk he is holding, chews it, and spits it out. These cautious farmers have short-term goals, he says, while he is looking to the future and to a sustainable harvest.

“They’re afraid to takes risks,” says Merzlikin, a former driver with light blue eyes, a sunburned face, and gray buzz-cut hair who lives near Almaty, Kazakhstan. He is wearing a yellow and red baseball cap and a blue striped polo shirt with sweatpants. “When land is the only source of income, you have to be sure.” He wants to show cautious farmers that planting with CIMMYT is fruitful, he says.

Merzlikin is excited about the results he has seen after growing wheat on permanent beds for three years. Making fewer passes with machinery in the field saves him almost 50% in fuel, he says. Also, his yields increased from about 2 tons per hectare to almost 4 tons per hectare in 2003. With bed planting, farmers might plant about half as many seeds as they would with conventional planting. In 2002, the project bought five bed planters from Turkey, and five more are being engineered and manufactured in Almaty. Merzlikin says the bed planting furrows allow for even water distribution, help prevent lodging, and make the usually difficult and labor-intensive process of water channeling unnecessary.

Increasing Productivity and Profitability

Merzlikin’s experience with beds is just one aspect of the project “Regional Network for Wheat Variety Promotion and Seed Production,” a collaboration between CIMMYT and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). Participants are aiming for a regional network in Central Asia to identify, multiply, and promote high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties. As part of this, they have encouraged communication and collaboration in variety testing among breeders. At institutes in Central Asia, CIMMYT provided training for researchers and breeders, along with courses on agronomy and farm management. Farmers, agronomists, and administrators also attended field days where they learned about new varieties and soon-to-be available technologies. In 2003, 250 participants from 22 countries attended the first Central Asian Wheat Conference, which helped establish and strengthen links between scientists in the region and around the world. Also, the 40 scientists from Central Asia who have had training in wheat breeding and agronomy at CIMMYT’s headquarters in Mexico since 2000 currently contribute to the development and adoption of new varieties and technologies in their home countries.

Promoting Varieties and Seed

In collaboration with regional research institutions, project partners supported the testing of 5,750 experimental varieties between 2002 and 2003. Of those, they selected 790 that are tolerant to lodging and resistant to stem rust, which is the most common disease in the region. A small number of those varieties have already been released for farmer use.

One of the project’s objectives was to strengthen regional institutions that work on wheat breeding, research, and seed production. The partners helped establish private seed companies and supported the creation of a company that provides consulting services to farmers, sells seed, tests and promotes technologies, and submits varieties for official testing. Working with the project and bed planting technologies, this company supported five small-scale farmers in 2003 and 10 farmers in 2004, and it will support 15 farmers in 2005.

Driving a Road Far from Poverty

Economist Toni Rogger, who is funded by the German Development Agency and GTZ to work on the project’s poverty alleviation component, would like to get an overall picture about the constraints farmers in the region are facing and provide information to combat these problems. He also hopes that farmers see the benefits of new technologies and would like them to become more aware of all the components of farming, from A to Z, from soil to sales.

Merzlikin, who has an education in mechanics, epitomizes awareness. He found out that bed planting could be a cost-saving option while attending a CIMMYT-organized course that taught farmers how to calculate production costs. He and two partners combined each of their four hectares with land rented from other people to farm a total of 200 hectares. Even some cautious farmers have asked Merzlikin to help them introduce bed planting on their land, he says. For example, one poor farmer who needed a crop that would be easy to grow independently wanted to grow wheat instead of tobacco. Merzlikin helped him cultivate bed planting and says the resulting wheat looks good.

“To renovate a bicycle is an unnecessary job,” says the translator quizzically, uncertain if the expression the farmer used makes sense in English. Merzlikin thinks that because research and experiments have proven the success of certain farming methods, farmers do not need to reinvent the wheel to improve yields. He waves and chops his hands for emphasis as he talks. “I already knew when I was a driver that science was good and that scientists would help and give advice,” he says.

Farmers in developing countries typically lose 20-30% of their crop due to poor grain storage facilities. Through a project with roots in Central America, African maize farmers are adopting metal silos to protect their families’ food supply and source of income.

Six mouths are a lot to feed so Pamela Akoth, a 39-year-old Kenyan farmer and mother to half a dozen children, doesn’t want any weevils or borers—two of the most common post-harvest pests—nibbling at her grain supply. Akoth grows maize on 0.7 hectares in Homa Bay, western Kenya. In the past, she stored her grain in a traditional granary: a structure built with mud, branches, and cow dung that allows free entry to the maize weevil and the larger grain borer, the two most damaging pests of stored maize in Africa. Infestation starts in the field and continues after harvest when grain is stored. Losses of 10-20% are reported three months after storage, and this goes up to more than 50% after six months.

On the advice of the Catholic Diocese of Homa Bay and with help from a subsidy program—the Agriculture and Environment Program (AEP) of the Diocese of Homa Bay helps needy farmers to acquire metal silos by providing interest-free loans—Akoth purchased a metal silo able to store 20 bags (1,800 kilograms) of maize; roughly what her land yields. Made of galvanized metal, the silo is airtight, so it keeps out insects and suffocates any that might have snuck in with the stored grain. “I am happy that since I started using the silo I don’t experience any loss of grain,” Akoth says. “I have enough to feed my family and even some left over that I can save and later sell, when there is a shortage in the market.”

Akoth is one of many farmers who has benefited from the Effective Grain Storage Project. Supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the generous unrestricted contributions CIMMYT receives, this effort aims to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa through effective on-farm storage technologies, like metal silos. Participants are promoting the silos and training artisans who build and sell them. “The focus of the project is to ensure that farmers use only well-fabricated, high-quality metal silos,” says Fred Kanampiu, CIMMYT agronomist and former project head. “We are training artisans who will make and sell these silos.”

Local manufactureres cash in on silo demand
The Effective Grain Storage Project has supported two artisan workshops in Homa Bay and Embu, with a total of 37 artisans trained. One of these is Eric Omulo Omondi, a 23-year-old metal worker based in Homa Bay. Along with 29 other artisans, he attended a free training workshop on metal silo construction in 2009. Since then, Omondi has made 15 metal silos and his average monthly income has tripled.

“I was lucky enough to have been selected by the diocese as one of the artisans to be professionally trained,” Omondi says. The training exercise was facilitated by CIMMYT, who contracted a skilled artisan from Central America. There and in South America and the Caribbean, the POSTCOSECHA program (also funded by SDC) had launched the use of metal silos for storing maize grain, significantly reducing post-harvest losses among more than 300,000 families.

To date, the current project is responsible for the construction of 146 silos across Kenya and Malawi. Two strong local partners, World Vision International in Malawi, and the Catholic Dioceses of Embu and Homa Bay in Kenya, host training sessions and promote metal silo use. In Malawi, metal silos have been used since 2007, initially supplied by a private company contracted by the government to distribute silos throughout the country. “Over the past few years, farmers have recorded high maize harvests, and now even request silos of a 7.5 ton capacity,” says Essau Phiri of World Vision-Malawi.

In Mchinji District, Central Malawi, artisan Douglas Kathakamba has benefited from the CIMMYT-World Vision collaboration. He launched his metal works business making ox-carts, door and window frames, and bicycle ambulances, but has found even greater profit since 2007 by building metal silos. As a result of silo income, he has set up a new workshop, sent his five children to school, and even covers the costs of university studies for two adopted children.

From sacks to sheet metal
Douglas is now an ardent supporter of the metal silo and receives many customers through referrals. He also educates rural farmers. In Kachilika Village of northern Malawi, he has recently worked with a farmers’ club that had never heard of metal silos. The 25 members store their grain communally and, after Douglas constructed and donated a silo to them, commissioned him to build four more. With the proceeds from increased grain sales, the members now pay for children’s schooling and purchase items such as clothing, domestic products, and farm inputs for the next season.

“Before the introduction of silos, we were using sacks and nkhokwe (the traditional granary), but we were not able to save much,” says Andrew Kasalika, the club chairman. “Now, we can say that our lives have changed.”

A particularly dedicated safe storage advocate in Kenya is Sister Barbara Okomo, a former Homa Bay teacher and current principal of St. Theresa’s Girls’ Secondary School in Kisumu, roughly a two hour drive from Homa Bay. Since she started working with the Diocese’s Agriculture and Environment Program (AEP), Okomo has had artisans fabricate 40 metal silos at her schools, which include 10 at her current school. The silos are made on-site to cut costs and make it easier for potential adopters.

“I have used the silos for several years now, and I am convinced that this is the best method to store grain,” Sister Barbara says. “With other storage methods, we would lose up to 90% of our stored grain—now we lose nothing.” Schools have been early adopters of metal silos because many grow and store grain year-long to feed their students.

To save you need to spend
A challenge for African farm households is the initial costs of a silo. They are relatively cheap—in Homa Bay, a three-bag silo costs about USD 74 and a 20-bag silo USD 350—and with an effective lifetime of more than a decade, the silos more than pay for themselves, in terms of food security and surplus grain savings. But the average monthly cash income of a Homa Bay farmer ranges from USD 40 to 130. This means that family heads often have to choose between providing basic needs and investing in the silo. “Without support from the Diocese, I wouldn’t have been able to buy a silo,” says Akoth. Representatives of Equity Bank have met with stakeholders in Homa Bay to discuss micro-finance opportunities that would allow many more farmers to purchase metal silos. Micro-financing would also help more artisans enter the emerging silo industry, as current investment capital costs are high.

“Metal silos bring food security to the poor,” says Tadele Tefera, the current EGS project coordinator. “Not only what farmers harvest, but more importantly, what they store over seasons, could make a difference in their livelihoods.”

A recent (June 2010) news feature on metal silos, aired in Kenya, gives testimonials on the success of the silos from local users.

Further information: Tadele Tefera, Project Coordinator, Effective Grain Storage (t.tefera@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 1, January 2009

They draw fierce criticism from environmental groups, are hailed by some companies and scientists as a solution to global hunger, and chances are you’ve eaten them. Released commercially more than a decade ago, genetically modified (GM) crops and food products still cause controversy. In an attempt to set the record straight and generate productive discussion, the Science Museum in London recently hosted a debate on the pros and cons of GM technologies in the context of the global food price crisis. Rodomiro Ortiz, CIMMYT scientist and director of resource mobilization, took part with viewpoints from a science and development perspective.

Centers like CIMMYT and its partners in developing countries have achieved enormous success using conventional breeding methods to improve maize and wheat varieties. Farmers in developing countries grow seed derived from these efforts on nearly 100 million hectares worldwide, which has increased yields and helped lower the price of main staple crops.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 8, August 2007

Faster, cheaper, more efficient: gift from DuPont helps CIMMYT scientists look for genes in wheat and maize—and gives breeders an affordable tool to help select the best.

A quiet revolution is taking place in CIMMYT’s biotechnology labs. The team has just received a new generation of genotyping machines. These semi-automated work-horses will make it much easier to determine whether breeding lines contain specific useful genes. It is hoped that this will help maize and wheat breeders—through a process known as marker-assisted selection (MAS)—to make breeding more effective and get crop varieties with valuable traits to poor farmers more quickly.

Traditionally, the only way to find out whether the offspring from a particular cross have inherited useful characteristics, such as drought tolerance, disease resistance, or grain quality, has been to grow them in the field and evaluate the adult plants. MAS can speed up the breeding process, since it makes it possible to track the presence of desired genes in every generation. This does not bypass the need for field evaluation, but can greatly improve the efficiency of the process. “Field screening takes time, space, and resources, and our capacity is limited,” explains CIMMYT maize breeder Gary Atlin, “but with MAS we could use resources more effectively, zeroing in on the best lines to test in the field and filtering out those that haven’t inherited the characteristics we need.”

When researchers want to find out whether a particular line of wheat or maize has the useful version of a gene (for example, disease resistance rather than disease susceptibility), they use nearby, identifiable sections of DNA known as markers, labeled with a fluorescent dye. Different versions of markers and genes are called alleles. DNA that is close together on the chromosome tends to stay together over generations, so a specific allele of a marker will be routinely inherited alongside the desired allele of a nearby gene. Using the new capillary electrophoresis genotyping machines, the sample is forced along a narrow capillary tube under the influence of an electric current. A laser at the end of the tube detects the different alleles of the fluorescent markers, indicating to the scientist whether the sample contains the allele they want.

The two ABI 3700 machines have been generously donated to CIMMYT by DuPont through its Pioneer Hi-Bred seed business, reflecting a fruitful collaborative relationship of more than a decade’s standing. Until now, CIMMYT has run most of its marker-assisted selection work on manual, gel-based electrophoresis apparatuses. In addition, analyses of genetic relationships between different wheat or maize lines have been run on older ABI genotyping machines, including two based on the previous, much slower generation of gel-based machines. The new machines can handle many more samples—96 each at a time—but it’s the savings in hands-on time that makes the real difference. “There’s no comparison,” says Marilyn Warburton, Head of CIMMYT’s Applied Biotechnology Center. “It will take us ten minutes to load one of these new machines, whereas it takes about four hours to make and load a manual electrophoresis gel.”

As well as being much quicker and less labor-intensive, capillary electrophoresis makes it possible to test for more than one marker and run more than one sample at once in each tube. By using different colors of fluorescent dye for each sample, markers for each can be distinguished, like teams of runners wearing different-colored jerseys. For maximum efficiency, scientists can also set up groups of samples to run at slightly different times, like runners set off in a staggered start. CIMMYT will even be able to develop a new type of marker, known as SNPs, which allow numerous traits to be tested simultaneously, providing more information per sample.

All of this means that the new machines have a much higher throughput capacity, and can process many more samples for the same labor input, drastically reducing the per-sample cost—currently the major constraint on use of MAS. “If MAS were significantly cheaper, I would certainly use it in maize breeding,” says Atlin. “Effectively, it lets you quickly transfer the genes you want into improved varieties. If you’re doing a backcross between a donor with a desired trait and an improved parent with good agronomic performance, you’re trying to select for one characteristic from the donor, but against all its other genes. With a number of markers, MAS makes it possible to determine exactly which progeny combine the desired gene from the donor with the good genes from the other parent. You can get results in two generations, compared to four or five normally.”

The challenge for MAS is finding genes with substantial effects, especially for complex traits such as drought tolerance in maize. Atlin believes such genes are still to be found. “In the past, donors with a single useful gene or trait but otherwise poor agronomic qualities were very difficult to use in breeding, as they introduced so much bad material. We can get rid of that useless material through MAS. That opens up the field to look for useful genes in a wider range of parents. And genotyping technology is getting cheaper and better at finding genes all the time.”

In wheat, the hunt for useful markers at CIMMYT is more advanced. “We’re working with new markers to select for nematode resistance, leaf and stem rust resistance, boron tolerance, Fusarium resistance, and grain quality,” says Susanne Dreisigacker, CIMMYT wheat molecular biologist. “Our current work is all gel-based, which means running tests sample by sample and marker by marker. Being able to run many samples at the same time will make a huge difference.”

For more information: Marilyn Warburton, molecular geneticist (m.warburton@cgiar.org)

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

At an agricultural research station in Kenya, ingenuity, improvised tools, and a small group of talented, dedicated researchers and technicians using good science, are on the front line of the battle to prevent a potential multi-billion dollar crop disaster for the world.

Peter Njau has a look of concern on his face and a sense of urgency in his voice. “Be very gentle,” he says. “You don’t have to separate each seedling from the others.” Njau, KARI-Njoro’s wheat breeder, is teaching technicians at the Njoro Agriculture Research Centre of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to transplant thousands of extremely delicate winter wheat seedlings. The seedlings have been kept in a cool environment to simulate a temperate winter and now they are ready for what they will interpret as springtime.

The technicians are using a new transplanting method for the very first time. It should be more efficient but the team only has one chance to get it right. All day they have been preparing the plot, wetting it down and cooling the soil using a new sprinkler irrigation system; making small furrows in the damp soil and putting in beads of fertilizer; carefully marking and labeling the location for each plant. The transplanting has to take place just before sunset so the seedlings will have cool soil and a cool night to start establishing their young root systems. Any mistake and they will die and the opportunity to test them for resistance to the new stem rust will be lost until the next season.

Speed and precision are vital since the airborne fungus that was discovered in Uganda in 1999 has now spread beyond the African continent. It is following a path that will take it to the great wheat growing areas of south Asia where farmers grow wheat eaten by a billion people. In the last great stem rust outbreak in North America in 1954, the fungus destroyed as much as 40% of the spring wheat crop.

The Njoro station is in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, not far from the city of Nakuru and very close to the Equator. The new stem rust spores have been present in the air at the station for at least three years, making it the perfect location for testing wheat to see if it can resist the fungus. Called Ug99, the new stem rust is such a large threat to wheat around the world that scientists dare not transport the spores themselves to other test locations. Instead as part of the CIMMYT-ICARDA Global Rust Initiative, which also includes national partners like KARI and the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research (EIAR), the world’s wheat comes to East Africa. Similar work is being conducted at several sites in Ethiopia by EIAR. “We are committed to work with international partners to fight the looming threat of stem rust,” says Dr. Bedada Girma, leader of EIAR’s Stem Rust Task Force.

Njau works for KARI and manages both his KARI assigned research as well as the GRI wheat nurseries (plots of different wheat plants) at the station. In one area the team grows three different kinds of wheat that are known to be easily infected with Ug99. The three wheats mature at different times so there is always a source of infection to challenge the wheat being tested. An adjacent field has over 3,000 samples of spring wheat in nurseries designed to confirm what appears to be resistances found in previous seasons. Those nurseries also include CIMMYT and KARI breeding populations from which breeders hope to extract high performance, Ug99 varieties for Kenya and the world.

Not far from the plots, inside a small building, sheets of polyethylene shroud a makeshift innoculum chamber. Plastic garbage bags act as blinds to keep the room dark. On the floor are two old plastic spray bottles for water to keep the leaves of the host wheat plants damp. It is here where the fungus is grown and multiplied for use later on test plants. “We improvise a lot here,” says Miriam Kinyua, the Director of the station and overall coordinator of Kenya wheat research, including GRI activities. “The world needs this work to be done.” She also expresses gratitude to the Canadian International Development Agency for providing funding that let the station put in a good irrigation system. “We can now grow wheat in the off season and ensure that if the rains fail, our testing won’t,” she says. She is also pleased that the research station is now connected to the rest of the world via a satellite dish and the internet, another result of the CIDA contribution. New contributions from USAID are adding to the support for GRI work in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

Back at the transplant plot each group of seedlings is hand watered. Early the next morning the team will put small tree branches in the ground around the plot as stakes to hold up some old canvas sheets. The canvas will shade the fragile seedlings from the hot equatorial sun for another three days. Perhaps under the flapping canvas is a seedling that holds the key to durable resistance to the Ug99 fungus.

For more information Rick Ward, Coordinator, Global Rust Initiative (r.w.ward@cgiar.org)

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

Improved maize makes a big difference in the lives of smallholder farmers on the slopes of Mt Kenya.

It’s 4:00 am and still pitch-black on the farm of Consolata Nyaga, but she is already busy at work. With nothing but the dim light of an oil lamp to guide her she carefully milks her two cows to be ready for the buyer who passes her house just before 5:00 every morning. She will get about a dollar for the three liters of milk, a profitable start to what will be a very long working day.

The milk cows are a very small part of her “garden”; a hectare and a quarter of land. She also grows some coffee, bananas, and beans. But what makes her farm work is the half hectare of improved maize she grows every season.

Consolata is a widow living alone, but her maize, a variety released by Kenya based on material from CIMMYT and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), feeds her and gives her the cash to put her 10 children through school. “This season I had thirteen bags” she proclaims. “Because it is my cash crop, I must sell and send the children to school.”

Neighbors are curious and come to field days on her farm to learn about the maize, which is not only a higher yielding variety but is also quality protein maize (QPM), meaning it has enhanced levels of the essential nutrient amino acids, lysine and tryptophan.

This is a part of Kenya where maize is not only a staple; it is the food people want to eat. Farmers store it inside their homes rather than in outside bins to prevent theft. “Actually any family that has no maize, has no food,” says Father Vincent Ireri, the Development Coordinator of the Diocese of Embu. “And anytime, even when we say as a country we have no food or there is famine, the implication is that there is no maize.” Ireri leads a team that works in conjunction with Catholic Relief Services, with farmers in the district to demonstrate the advantages of the new maize varieties.

CIMMYT and KARI have been working in this area to help farmers with maize varieties that are more drought-tolerant and insect resistant and under proper management give higher yields. Much of the work in this area has been funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Consolata and the community group of which she is the treasurer have been quick to adopt the improved materials. Life seems to revolve around maize on Consolata’s small farm. In fact when she comes back from selling the milk each morning she immediately settles down to a hot mug of uji—a maize meal porridge. At midday she starts to prepare for the evening meal. She puts a mixture of maize and beans, called githeri, to boil on the cooking fire and then heads to her last unprepared field with a large hoe. No animal-drawn plow, just the power of one energetic maize farmer.

“Ah no! Let me tell you, if you eat potatoes and cabbages and eat rice, you cannot have energy to dig,” she says. “Yes, maize has got very big energy. You see somebody like myself after 56 years cannot dig unless you eat something good!”

Four hours later, and after a trip to the market to sell a bag of maize, dinner is ready. Neighbors, friends, and relatives have stopped by to enjoy the feast as the sun sets.

“Whenever, if I miss maize, I feel as if I am losing somehow,” Consolata says. “Maize is good. Maize is my favorite thing. And I like it. Yes.”

You can read more about the adoption of quality protein maize in the Embu district in the August E-news article The maize with the beans inside: QPM gathers a following in Kenya.

For more information contact Dennis Friesen (d.friesen@cgiar.org)

May, 2005

Kenya broke historic agricultural ground in a protected field on May 27 when it sowed its first transgenic maize seeds into local soil. Supported by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and the Rockefeller Foundation, this experiment is the first of its kind in the region. The Bt maize plants that sprout will be resistant to stem borer, an insect that drills into the maize stalk and causes significant losses to Kenyan harvests.

“Stem borers destroy some 400,000 tons of maize in Kenya each year, nearly equal to the nation’s annual imports of the crop,” says Dr. Romano Kiome, Director of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). By growing the Bt maize plants, farmers won’t have to worry about the pest or have to apply pesticide to counteract the destruction. “This is part of an innovative approach to help Kenyan farmers fight the insect pests, and it translates into increased food security and incomes,” Kiome says.

The field trials are being undertaken as part of the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) Project, a joint research project of KARI and CIMMYT. The goal is to verify the results from trials held at a biosafety greenhouse, which was officially opened in June of 2004. Researchers will now be checking to see how the transgenic maize holds up under field conditions

The trials will serve two purposes, according to IRMA Project Manager and CIMMYT maize breeder Stephen Mugo. First, they will be used to determine the effectiveness of various transgenic Bt genes against common Kenyan stem borers. Second, the plants will be crossed with Kenyan maize lines as part of a breeding process that will produce Bt maize varieties adapted to Kenyan growing conditions. The project is also developing stem borer resistant varieties using conventional breeding.

These trials are conducted in strict accordance with the terms proscribed by the Kenyan plant health regulatory body KEPHIS and the KARI and National Biosafety Committees, Mugo stresses. The open quarantine site where the confined trials are being held was built to their specifications and includes many biosafety and security measures to ensure that pollen, seed, or plant materials do not escape the trial area or cross inadvertently with maize not included in the experiment.

For further information, contact Stephen Mugo (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

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

Techniques from maize may make better wheats.

Wheat farmers do not want their crop to fall over before the grain can be harvested. This condition, lodging, happens when grain weight becomes too heavy for the plant to support, bending the whole plant and limiting yields. In high yielding systems where farmers are able to input nitrogen fertilizer and water, the grain spike gets heavy and the plant can fall over. Big wheat spikes and resistance to lodging are both CIMMYT wheat breeding goals.

David Bergvinson specializes in insect pests in maize, where lodging is also a constraint and insects can exacerbate the problem by damaging a plant’s root system. Scientists have developed several techniques to measure the strength of the roots in maize. Bergvinson decided to try a maize technique on wheat.

“Variety is the spice of life,” says Bergvinson, regarding his shift from maize to wheat for this experiment, “Often we take for granted established techniques within our own crop of research without looking beyond to see how these can be applied to address important issues in other crops.”

With wheat breeder and colleague Richard Trethowan, Bergvinson used an electronic balance or scale to measure the strength of the crown, where the roots branch out into the soil, by pulling vertically on the plant until it is uprooted. In addition, they tested the stem toughness at the base of the plant.

In this literally ground-breaking experiment, Bergvinson and Trethowan hypothesize that wheat which performs well, that is takes the most force to uproot it, should also resist lodging. So far, they have tested fifty wheat lines at three of CIMMYT’s wheat stations in Mexico, all with different environmental and soil conditions. Next season, they hope to confirm the results with further tests at CIMMYT’s field station near Ciudad Obregon.

Although the results are not final, synthetic wheats, bred from durum wheat and wild relatives of wheat, appear to have stood up well in both tests. Synthetics are also known for their ability to withstand drought stress. Wheat lines known to fall prey to lodging performed poorly in the tests, indicating that this relatively straightforward measurement can potentially be used to screen and eliminate lodging susceptible wheats in the breeding program.

April, 2004

Visiting family farms in Punjab this month, US Ambassador to India Dr. David C. Mulford learned how conservation agriculture benefits farmers and the local economy.

For four years, farmer Tara Singh and his family have experimented with zero tillage and bed planting, two techniques promoted by the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains. After meeting with Singh and other farmers, Ambassador Mulford said he was “impressed” to see that the techniques “work in fields and farmers are using them to their advantage.” The techniques have potential to conserve water, improve the quality of the soil, reduce the use of fuel in farming, and improve weed control.

Singh and his family run an intensive and complex farming operation that highlights the pressures and opportunities that are transforming agriculture in this region. Water, especially for agriculture, will become increasingly scarce. Demanding new markets for horticultural crops are emerging. Farmers cannot predict how increasing competition and changing export markets might affect their production of rice and wheat, which are India’s traditional staples but also potentially valuable exports.

On half of the farm, Singh grows rice and wheat in rotation. Wheat covers the ground from November to May, and then rice is planted. On the other half of his land, he has diversified production considerably. After growing rice in the monsoon season, he produces lettuce, broccoli, mustard, and tomato in winter. In spring, Singh’s fields are planted to leeks, bitter gourd, cucurbits, tomatoes, radishes, onions; and mint. Most of these crops are grown in combinations or as relays. Some are grown on raised beds to leave the soil undistributed and to make weed and water control much easier.

Singh’s experimentation is helping researchers to learn how conservation agriculture and diversification might benefit smaller farms with fewer resources.

Ambassador Mulford and others at the field visit discussed some of the challenges and concerns shared by farmers and researchers, such as the need for appropriate field equipment for conservation agriculture, the effects on local labor markets, the role of equipment manufacturers, and the need to cope with large amounts of crop residue without plowing and burning. Despite the challenges, the projected benefits of conservation agriculture are promising. In 2002, researchers at Australia’s Centre for International Economics calculated that the increased use of zero-tillage techniques promoted by the Rice-Wheat Consortium offered a gain of 1.8 million Australian dollars per year to the Indian economy.

The Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains was founded in 1994 by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Its goal is to improve the productivity of rice- and wheat-based farming while protecting natural resources. The Consortium receives support from the governments of Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, and USA, as well as from the Asian Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and World Bank. Partners include five CGIAR international agricultural research centers, numerous advanced research institutes, equipment manufacturers, NGOs, and farmer groups. CIMMYT is currently the convening CGIAR Center for the Consortium’s work.

Ambassador Mulford was accompanied in the field by his wife and by Embassy staff, including Drs. Larry Paulson and Chad Russell; several farmers from Jalbera Village; Dr. Amjer Singh (Director), Er. B.S. Sidhu (Jt Director), Tarsem Singh (Chief Agriculture Officer), all of the Department of Agriculture, and S.K. Ahluwalia (Deputy Commissioner), Punjab Government; and Dr. Raj K. Gupta and other staff working with Rice-Wheat Consortium. The Ambassador and his delegation also met with the Vice Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University and with the Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab.

September, 2004

CIMMYT maize breeders Dave Beck and Hugo Cordova organized and led a seed production course on 6-14 September at CIMMYT headquarters in El Batan, Mexico. The course, entitled “Production of High Quality Seed with an Emphasis on Quality Protein Maize,” was funded in part by the Mexican national organization SAGARPA.

This was the first seed course in which Beck and Cordova targeted mainly small seed companies from Mexico. They hosted 38 participants from universities, the public research sector, private companies, farmer associations, and other institutes involved in maize seed production. Seed courses of this type are offered about once a year at CIMMYT headquarters and several times a year at outreach offices, particularly in Africa.

Beck says he hopes to have an impact on small-scale farmers. “We’re trying to balance our training course between the formal and informal seed sectors with the principal goal of getting more improved seed into the hands of small-scale farmers,” he says. “I hope that participants gain a better understanding of the key aspects involved in quality seed production and that they can walk away with new, practical ideas on how they can technically improve the quality of the seed they’re producing.”

The course focused on quality protein maize (QPM), which some participants were learning about for the first time. Beck wants participants to see that QPM products developed by CIMMYT and partners are competitive with commonly used varieties. “This is an important step in the chain of getting materials to farmers,” says Beck. “We can develop excellent varieties, but if they’re not quality produced in sufficient quantities, our breeding research work is going to have minimal impact.”

The course covered technical issues and field aspects relating to quality seed production. Course instructors included CIMMYT staff members and a professor from the Colegio de Postgraduados, Montecillo, Mexico. They discussed post-harvest handling, seed conditioning, technology transfer, marketing, and seed distribution, among other topics. Participants visited fields at El Batan and at CIMMYT’s Agua Fria research station in the state of Veracruz, where they looked at seed production blocks, breeding work, and demonstration blocks.

“The participants were really impressed with what they saw at the field level,” says Cordova. “We know that QPM can alleviate hunger and malnutrition in the coming years, so we are promoting the use of this germplasm.”

Many participants wanted to know more about marketing seed. Because the private sector often keeps knowledge about producing genetically pure seed confidential, Beck stresses the importance of assisting small seed companies, the public sector, and farmer associations. Cordova says information provided in the course will hopefully help small companies compete better with big ones.

Beck hopes that the course will help strengthen relationships with CIMMYT collaborators, many of whom sent participants to the course. He also envisions that the participants will build relationships with each other and find opportunities to work together.

For more information: David Beck or Hugo Cordova