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USD 170 million research program to help maize farmers worldwide

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cimmyt-maize-farmersBold Initiative Tackles Hunger in Developing World

Washington, July 6, 2011 – The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)—the world’s largest international agriculture research coalition—today announced a USD 170 million global alliance and program to expand and accelerate research into maize, the preferred staple food source for more than 900 million people in 94 developing countries, including one third of the world’s malnourished children.

“This program aims to double the productivity of maize farms, while also making those farms more resilient to climate change and reducing the amount of land used for growing the crop,” said Carlos Perez del Castillo, CGIAR Consortium Board Chair.  “As a result, farmers’ incomes are expected to rise and their livelihood opportunities to increase, contributing to rural poverty reduction in developing countries.”

cimmyt-maize-plantingThe CGIAR applies cutting-edge science to foster sustainable agricultural growth that benefits the poor. The new crop varieties, knowledge and other products resulting from the CGIAR’s collaborative research are made widely available, at no cost, to individuals and organizations working for sustainable agricultural development throughout the world.

Under the research program, 40 million smallholder farm family members are expected to see direct benefits by 2020 and 175 million by 2030.  The program is expected to provide enough maize to meet the annual food demands of an additional 135 million consumers by 2020 and 600 million by 2030.

The program will be implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the International Institute of Tropic Agriculture (IITA).

The announcement came as the CGIAR celebrated its 40th anniversary at a ceremony in Washington attended by the President of the World Bank Group, as well as the heads of several of the 15 research centers that make up the CGIAR Consortium of International Agriculture Centers.

Inger Andersen, Vice President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, and Chair of the CGIAR Fund Council, said the first target group to benefit from the enhanced maize research program would be smallholder farmers who live in environments prone to stress and who have poor access to markets.

“Small holder farmers are among the most vulnerable people in developing countries.” she said. “They should be among the first we seek to help. Enabling these people to produce more and better maize quickly and reliably will help to ensure their well being, as well as that of their communities.”

Studies carried out by CIMMYT show that the demand for maize in the developing world is expected to double between now and 2050.

“This is a highly ambitious project to address world hunger,” said Thomas Lumpkin, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “It will take an enormous amount of work and cooperation between public and private sector institutions to meet the goals. The global challenges facing mankind are immediate and chronic; the time to act is now. Millions of lives depend on our ability to develop sustainable solutions to feed more people with fewer resources than ever before.”

The global alliance that will carry out the research program includes 130 national agricultural research institutes, 18 regional and international organizations, 21 advanced agricultural research institutes, 75 universities worldwide, 46 private sector organizations, 42 non-governmental organizations and farmer associations, and 11 country governments that will host offices dedicated to the program.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for sustainable development with the funders of this work. The funders include developing and industrialized country governments, foundations, and international and regional organizations. The work they support is carried out by 15 members of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector. www.cgiar.org – www.consortium.cgiar.org

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYTÂź (staging.cimmyt.org), is a not-for-profit research and training organization with partners in over 100 countries. The center works to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems and thus ensure global food security and reduce poverty. The center’s outputs and services include improved maize and wheat varieties and cropping systems, the conservation of maize and wheat genetic resources, and capacity building. CIMMYT belongs to and is funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) and also receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies.

See also:
Maize Global Alliance for Improving Food Security and the Livelihoods of the Resource-poor in the Developing World

Executive summary | Full document

The Quick Guide to the “New” CIMMYT

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Click here to see pdf version, 190KB
CIMMYT has developed a strategy for building on its core strengths to address the challenges of international agricultural research in the years to come: the need to bring about a real improvement in the livelihoods of the poor; the emerging biophysical, socioeconomic, and political constraints to agriculture in developing countries; the growing range of partners involved in research, extension, and development; and the changing financial landscape for public-sector research.The new strategy requires CIMMYT to change in important ways. The prospect of a “new CIMMYT” has generated much interest but also many questions, which this fact sheet attempts to answer.

1. Foundations of the new CIMMYT

CIMMYT’s recognized strength in maize and wheat improvement for developing countries, its experience in research on maize and wheat systems, and its broad network of partners, ranging from farmers to government ministers, are the foundations of the new CIMMYT. CIMMYT firmly believes that seed with characteristics valued by farmers—for example, drought tolerance or disease resistance—provides a safety net for poor farm households, enabling them to survive bad years, profit from good ones, and pursue more diverse livelihood strategies. But how that seed is developed, how it is integrated with resource conserving technologies, and how farmers’ options are influenced by policies, are fundamental issues that CIMMYT is addressing in the changes that are underway.

2. A mission that puts people first

CIMMYT’s mission continues to emphasize improved food security, the productivity and profitability of farming systems, and the protection of natural resources. However, the new mission statement highlights CIMMYT’s commitment to the poor and acknowledges the central role of CIMMYT’s partners in sharing knowledge, catalyzing innovation, and making an impact: CIMMYT acts as a catalyst and leader in a global maize and wheat innovation network that serves the poor in developing countries. Drawing on strong science and effective partnerships, we create, share, and use knowledge and technology to increase food security, improve the productivity and profitability of farming systems, and sustain natural resources.

3. A new approach to partnering

As indicated in the mission statement, CIMMYT will engage in more strategic partnering and networking to catalyze and effect change within rural communities. Some of CIMMYT’s activities will be outsourced to partners in the public and private sectors. CIMMYT will engage in more collaborative priority setting and implementation of research with its partners, including other CGIAR Centers.

4. A new approach to research

To better clarify and respond to local needs, the contributions of cropping systems researchers, social scientists, plant breeders, molecular biologists, and many other disciplines must be joined together. CIMMYT’s new research programs—Genetic Resources, African Livelihoods, Rainfed Wheat Systems, Tropical Ecosystems, Intensive Agroecosystems, and Global and Strategic Research—rely on multidisciplinary teams to work on research priorities identified with CIMMYT’s partners.

5. How the programs fit together

The new programs are part of a continuum that extends from the characterization and use of genetic resources, to the development of maize and wheat varieties for specific ecologies and regions, to the use of these varieties in systems research to address local needs, and finally to the resulting global information that enables CIMMYT to learn from its experience and improve its effectiveness.

The global program on Genetic Resources develops information and inputs—primarily specialized breeding materials and methods—that enable the ecoregional programs to do their work more rapidly and effectively. The program works on genetic traits that are identified as priorities by the eco-regional programs (for example, drought tolerance).

The eco-regional programs—African Livelihoods, Rainfed Wheat Systems, Tropical Ecosystems, and Intensive Agro-ecosystems—emphasize maize and wheat systems research to improve the livelihoods of the poor in their respective regions and ecologies, where the challenges and opportunities for making an impact are more likely to be similar. These programs are designed to ensure that the research agenda is driven by local needs.

The program on Global and Strategic Research synthesizes and communicates what is learned across all of CIMMYT’s research programs. It assembles, manages, and provides strategic knowledge and information for research (for example, data from the molecular to the field level), supports capacity building, provides information for setting research priorities, and assesses the impact of research.

6. Working globally

CIMMYT’s research leadership and management have been decentralized to permit the Center to work from a global rather than a central base. The research and management teams now comprise staff in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

7. Contact points

If you are accustomed to contacting a particular researcher with whom you have worked over the years, please continue to do so. If that researcher is no longer working on your particular area of interest, he or she will connect you with someone who is.

For global and eco-regional programs:

For information on a particular commodity or discipline:

To obtain seed:

Seed health and quarantine information:

Information on capacity building:

  • Contact the CIMMYT office in your region to learn about current and planned capacity building opportunities throughout the world.

A boost for maize in the State of Mexico

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 2, February 2008

feb09The State of Mexico borders the country’s capital, Mexico City—a potential market of nearly 20 million inhabitants—but farmers there have struggled to make a profit growing maize. CIMMYT is working to help them, as part of a new partnership between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Mexican Agriculture Secretariat (SAGARPA).

A mountainous entity in the geographical and cultural center of Mexico, the State of Mexico occupies what many would consider an envious position: it surrounds the country’s vibrant and populous capital, Mexico City, whose 18 million-plus population represents an attractive market for goods and services. Industries dominate the state economy, but many inhabitants outside urban areas practice farming, either to supplement their incomes or, in fewer cases, as their chief livelihood. Most of the state’s farmers have grown maize at one time or another, but few have made a profit on the crop, despite their proximity to a megalopolis.

feb08Years of low prices, until recently, for maize grain have discouraged farmers from investing in advanced practices or new varieties. “The state of Mexico accounts for ten percent of national maize production, but improved varieties occupy little more than a tenth of its maize area,” says CIMMYT maize researcher Silverio García. “And nearly all the maize they produce is white grained and ideal for local foods, but fails to meet market standards for large-scale, commercial tortilla production, feed or industrial uses.”

The state of maize

As part of a project launched in 2007 between the USDA and SAGARPA, CIMMYT is working with counterparts in the State of Mexico to increase the productivity and profitability of maize farming. Aims include a broad characterization of maize varieties—both local and improved—for traits of market value; breeding for market requirements; farmer-participatory improvement and testing of varieties; and food technology and nutrition research to guide the project and demonstrate potential impact.

“The focus is on value-added blue, white, and purple maize for food,” says CIMMYT maize breeder and project leader, Gary Atlin. “But partly in response to declining supplies and rising world prices of maize—driven at least in part by the biofuels boom in the USA—farmers are increasingly interested in yellow maize, and participants are developing and testing yellow grain maize suited for feed and industrial markets.”

feb06Atlin and Garcia recently led a workshop of 11 maize scientists from the Mexican National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP), Mexico State’s Institute of Agriculture, Livestock, Water, and Forestry Research and Training (ICAMEX), the Colegio de Postgraduados (a graduate-level agricultural research and learning institution), and CIMMYT to plan project activities. Participants contributed detailed information on varieties grown in the state, agreed on common software for managing and analyzing data from trials, and discussed ways to foster farmer participation.

Efforts are building on prior work by CIMMYT in Mexico to promote adoption of improved varieties in poorer regions, through crossing local varieties and improved populations to improve farmer-identified traits lacking in their varieties. CIMMYT has also worked with Mexican breeders to develop improved, yellow-grain varieties for several environments, including the Mexican highlands.

“We’re very excited about this project,” says García. “Trials in 2008 will involve experimental varieties that are crosses between improved and local materials, pre-commercial varieties in 20 or more environments in the state, and 40 on-farm demonstrations of commercially-available white and yellow hybrids to get farmers’ feedback.”

For information: Silverio GarcĂ­a Lara, maize breeder (s.garcia@cgiar.org)

Stress tolerant maize for enhanced food security and crop diversification

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Maize is grown as a staple crop often under highly variable, stress-prone conditions by some of the world’s poorest farmers.

flagstessThey often have few options other than to obtain their food and income from agriculture. Achieving food security is the incentive for many to allocate a disproportionately large part of their land to maize, leaving little area to other crops such as legumes or cash crops. Human malnutrition and soil degradation are frequent and few escape the “poverty trap.”

CIMMYT is already seeing successes in implementing innovative approaches that generate stress tolerant, nutritious maize strains with significantly increased productivity under such harsh conditions.

They permit farmers to produce more and healthier food on a smaller land area, leaving more labor and land for growing soil-replenishing legumes or cash crops. We are enhancing this pioneering work and deploying it to a wide range of stress environments worldwide.

Gap filler

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 3, March 2006

Triticale finds a niche in Bangladesh

“This is just what I was looking for,” says Al Mahmoud Hasan, a farmer near the town or Rangpur in Bangladesh. “I wanted a crop to fill the fallow gap between the rice crops.”

In Bangladesh rice is king, with farmers often growing two rice crops a year. Now, in a pilot project funded by the Danish development agency, Danida, a new crop is making its debut. The aim of the on-farm trials is to see if triticale can make a difference in the lives of Bangladeshi farm families who keep dairy cattle.

Triticale is a cross between wheat and rye that CIMMYT researchers and partners have improved and promoted over recent decades. It makes good animal fodder because its leaves and stem are high in protein. In Bangladesh triticale was virtually unknown. Cows can eat Napier grass when it is in season but feed mostly on a diet of dry rice straw, a poor quality fodder. CIMMYT researchers realized that even in the intense cropping system in Bangladesh, there might be room for triticale as a high-quality cattle forage, filling a gap in the cropping season and a gap in cattle diets.

During the rainy season virtually every farmer in Bangladesh grows aman or monsoon rice. Then during the dry season they usually grow another rice crop (called boro), wheat, or even tobacco. Triticale can fit that second crop niche. The idea is to plant triticale as early as possible after the rice harvest and then cut it at 30 days and again at 50 days. The green cuttings are used as fodder. When the crop does mature, the grain can be used to feed chickens or ground and combined with wheat flour for Chapatti, the standard flat bread of south Asia.

Rokeya Begum has cash and 20% more milk from triticale-fed cows.

Farmers who grow two full rice crops also have an option with triticale. That is because there is a 60 day fallow period between the two rice crops. It isn’t enough time for triticale to mature and produce grain, but it is long enough to produce good green fodder. That is exactly what Al Mahmoud Hasan is doing. He and his family were among 120 households participating in the trials throughout Bangladesh. He, his wife and his two oldest children received instruction in triticale cultivation as part of a whole family training system organized by CIMMYT and partners.

Participation and training has paid off for other farmers, including Rokeya Begum and her family. She sold her first triticale cut to neighbors and used the money to buy new clothes for an important religious festival. Mrs Begum also says her cows are giving 20% more milk on triticale than they did on a diet of rice straw.

The triticale seed for the trials came from CIMMYT in Mexico. The one-year pilot project is near its end and the data are not yet analyzed but reports from participating farmers are encouraging. Many like Mrs. Begum say their neighbors will buy seed from them for next season so they too can try triticale.

For further information contact Stephen Waddington (s.waddington@cgiar.org)

The call for maize mounts in Asia

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February, 2005

1AsiaThe demand for maize in Asia is expected to skyrocket in the next two decades, driven primarily by its use for animal feed. In the uplands of seven Asian countries, however, demand is also increasing in the farming households who eat the maize crops they grow. CIMMYT and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have recently completed a project promoting food and livelihood security for upland farmers in Asia who depend on maize for food and feed.

By 2020, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) estimates that demand for maize in all developing countries will surpass the demand for wheat and rice, with Asia accounting for over half of this growth. Responding to these predictions, teams of researchers visited farmers in the uplands of China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to discover ways in which maize technologies could improve livelihoods.

2Asia

To further develop maize improvement recommendations, national workshops and seven publications built upon the farmer surveys. Careful planning and appropriate procedures on the part of scientists and policy makers will ensure an easier transition as farmers face the oncoming demand. A clear message that emerged from the study in Vietnam, for example, was the need to help farmers apply sustainable practices to avoid degrading natural resources—particularly in fragile, marginal settings—as the demand intensifies.

These conclusions were drawn by researchers conducting rapid rural appraisals with farmers in commercial and semi commercial systems in the up- and lowlands of these seven countries. The second stage of fieldwork entailed more in-depth participatory rural appraisals in marginal, isolated areas and involved village leaders and groups of farmers. Details on the sociological, agro-economical, environmental, and technological aspects of maize production were assembled, and the resulting publications can be viewed, downloaded, or ordered here.

In addition to CIMMYT and IFAD, the project involved collaboration with IFPRI, Stanford University, senior officials of national research programs, and ministries of agriculture.

Bug Havens Keep Maize Pest-Proof

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 12, December 2005

bugHavensAfrican maize farmers who will grow transgenic maize varieties resistant to one of the crop’s most damaging pests—the maize stem borer—learn that to keep borers at bay, some must survive.

Maize stem borers destroy approximately 12% of Kenya’s maize crop annually—losses valued at more than US$ 50 million. Under the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), CIMMYT, and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture have worked in partnership since 1999 to offer farmers maize varieties that resist borers. They are drawing this resistance from several sources, including maize landraces and experimental varieties and even a common soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The latter produces its own, natural insecticide: a protein that perforates borer larvae’s stomach lining, causing them to starve. There are several types of this protein and each is very selective, affecting certain species of borers but no other animals. Researchers have taken the gene responsible for the protein and put it into maize, thereby obtaining a plant that borers of the targeted species cannot safely eat.

The resistance from Bt is effective until, through a chance mutation, an individual borer emerges that can beat it. Borer offspring with the same mutation will eventually become more numerous than other borers, making the Bt-based resistance useless.

A safe haven for borers

Farmers in developed countries who grow Bt maize usually protect its effectiveness through use of “refugia”—fodders or cereal crops that foster the survival and reproduction of Bt-susceptible borers. IRMA recently sponsored a two-day workshop on refugia at KARI’s Kitale center. The 50 participants—19 researchers, and 17 extension staff, and 14 farmers from 9 districts of North Rift Valley and 2 neighboring districts—learned about the progress in the development of insect resistant maize and the importance of refugia.

“It’s not hard to find refugia for stem borers; the challenge is to find refugia that both work and are acceptable to farmers,” says KARI entomologist Dr. Margaret Mulaa, who organized the Kitale workshop, and leads the insect resistance management (IRM) component of the IRMA project. “The refugia species have to fit in with the farmers’ cropping systems.”

All workshop participants took to the field to evaluate and score potential crops and varieties that could be used as stem-borer refugia on farms. They ranked the top 5 each from among 15 sorghum and 18 grass varieties, and 4 maize varieties for their attractiveness as food, fodder, or refugia for stem borers.

Farmers lead the way scoring refugia

The farmers raced ahead of the other two groups, doing what comes most naturally to them: visually assessing the yield and disease resistance of the sorghum varieties; squeezing the sorghum grains between two fingers and tasting them to judge texture and flavor; splitting open maize and grass stalks to assess moisture content and borer damage; and examining fodder crops for yield, vigor, and traits like hairiness and moisture content—important indicators of palatability for livestock. “Bana grass yields well and is not too hairy, so my cows enjoy it,” said Philomen Berut, a farmer from South Nandi who has received two awards for the best livestock at the Kitale Agricultural show.

More than 26 different criteria were given for selecting the sorghum varieties, but the major ones were high yield, early maturity, tolerance to pests and diseases, short height (which helps plants resist lodging), and tolerance to bird damage.

And the winners?

All three groups ranked the ‘local brown’ and ‘local red’ sorghum varieties among the top five favorites. Four improved Napier varieties (Kakamega 1 & 2, Napier 16798 and 16837) were also ranked top by all three groups. The popular maize hybrid H614 was ranked among the best five refugia species for its stable yield, lush foliage, and good cobs.

Mulaa finds this type of information extremely important for developing an IRM strategy that farmers will actually use. “By understanding farmers’ choices and criteria early enough, the resistance management package that IRMA will introduce along with Bt maize will have the farmer’s hand in its design, making it more likely to succeed.”

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

CIMMYT Helps New Country Improve Productivity and Food Security

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June, 2004

timor_photo1After almost 450 years of foreign occupation, East Timor became the world’s newest country when it declared independence in May 2002. Facing a host of hurdles as it rebuilds destroyed towns and damaged infrastructure, one thing the country lacks is productive and well-adapted germplasm for major crops.

In response to this need, a project called Seeds of Life has been introducing, testing, and distributing improved germplasm to farmers on the island. The project, in which CIMMYT participates, aims to improve food security and build the capacity of Timorese scientists to resolve the agricultural problems that affect local livelihoods.

“Farmers have suffered from decades of unrest,” says Ganesan Srinivasan, a CIMMYT breeder and senior scientist involved in the project, which is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of East Timor. “Improved maize varieties will provide food and nutritional security for resource-poor farmers.”

timor_photo2Almost 800,000 people live in East Timor, which was once a Portuguese colony. The BBC estimates that about 25% of the population died during Indonesia’s occupation, which began after Portugal withdrew in 1975 and lasted until 1999. After citizens voted for independence, anti-independence militia killed hundreds of people and destroyed towns and already poor infrastructure.

Maize and rice are East Timor’s major staple food crops. Although maize covers the largest area of land planted to any crop, its productivity is low. Growing local varieties, some farmers produce less than 1.5 tons per hectare and 125,000 tons annually. Farmers face production constraints such as low soil fertility, frequent drought, a lack of improved varieties and fertilizer, northern leaf blight, and storage pests. Collaborators hope that replacing low-yielding local varieties with improved germplasm will increase productivity and lead to income generation.

Australian agronomist Brian Palmer manages the project, which aims to improve farmers’ access to high quality seed, create a crop performance database for research to raise crop productivity, and increase the capacities of East Timorese institutions and staff in evaluation, production, and distribution of improved germplasm.

Scientists have been testing the adaptation of various lines of rice, maize, cassava, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peanuts that have been supplied by CIMMYT, IRRI, CIAT, CIP, and ICRISAT, which are the five CGIAR centers involved in the project. Researchers have identified and multiplied well-adapted varieties that are tolerant to pests, diseases, drought, and low soil fertility.

In the first phase of the project, which lasted from October 2000 to December 2003 followed by a six-month bridge phase, CIMMYT provided improved, stress-tolerant, high-yielding maize varieties to test in different agro-climatic conditions of East Timor. Scientists initially selected maize varieties using information from CIMMYT records, results from similar regions, and input from researchers. They tested several yellow open-pollinated varieties and a few white quality protein maize varieties, among others.

In their experiments, researchers found that yields were much higher when improved maize cultivars and fertilizer were used. During 2001–02, one variety yielded almost four tons per hectare. In the second and third years, CIMMYT maize varieties yielded around six tons per hectare, compared with two tons per hectare from the local variety that was used as the benchmark.

“Several yellow maize varieties resistant to downy mildew disease have been identified that have given double or triple the yield of local varieties,” says Srinivasan. In March 2004, in response to problems at several sites, they planted downy mildew disease resistant seed developed by the CIMMYT-Zimbabwe team.

Although it is difficult to identify varieties that are well adapted across East Timor’s diverse climatic and soil conditions, the project has already found several. During 2003–04, researchers received enough seed to evaluate selected varieties in yield trials, to use in on-farm tests, and to multiply to produce more seed. In addition to this, more seed from the five most promising varieties has been increased in India and will be shipped to East Timor.

The second phase of the project, lasting from three to five years, will focus on better village welfare by promoting farmer use of improved varieties and strengthening MAFF and other East Timor institutions. Challenges include building research capacity, creating a system to continuously screen and release varieties, establishing a good seed production and distribution system, and reducing post-harvest losses. Representatives from the five CGIAR centers, ACIAR, AusAID, East Timorese research organizations, and other partners will discuss plans for phase two in August 2004. They plan to support model farms, farmer demonstrations, seed production, germplasm management, and research on variety adaptation and crop agronomy.

They also hope that East Timorese researchers will be able to train at a location where CIMMYT multiplies seed. Because the few trained researchers with bachelor’s and master’s degrees hold important positions in the Ministry of Agriculture, it is difficult for them to train for an extended period of time. However, five researchers and extension workers from East Timor have received training at ICRISAT in India. Pending Ministry approval, CIMMYT may conduct a training course in East Timor in August about on-farm testing and seed production.

For information: Ganesan Srinivasan

Countering drought: Journalist / policy advisor Roger Thurow visits farmers in Machakos, Kenya

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countering-drought-noteThis growing season in south-central Kenya has been a good test for the new drought tolerant maize varieties being bred in Africa. This is a semi-arid area, but this year they can drop the semi. Farmers report only three short periods of rain since the February planting time.

“Without this seed, I’d have nothing. Nothing, like my neighbors,” says farmer Philip Ngolania. He sweeps his hand to direct the eye first to his maize and then toward a neighbor’s plot. Philip’s maize stalks, though looking thin and weak, have fairly uniformly produced large ears of corn. His neighbor’s maize is shriveled and dead, the stalks have toppled in their feebleness and there isn’t a cob to be found.  (See the entire writeup on the blog of the Global Agricultural Development Initiative)

Related stories:

  • Maize farmers and seed businesses changing with the times in Malawi
  • Study says drought tolerant maize will greatly profit African farmers
  • No maize, no life!

Earliest Mexican wheats supply latest useful traits

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 6, June 2008

jun05Centuries ago, Spanish monks brought wheat to Mexico to use in Roman Catholic religious ceremonies. The genetic heritage of some of these “sacramental wheats” lives on in farmers’ fields. CIMMYT researchers have led the way in collecting and characterizing these first wheats, preserving their biodiversity and using them as sources of traits like disease resistance and drought tolerance.

“I’d say to Bent: ‘Let’s look for the cemetery,’ ” recalls Julio Huerta, CIMMYT wheat pathologist, of his trips to villages in Mexico with his late colleague Bent Skovmand, CIMMYT wheat genetic resource expert. “And the sacramental wheats would be there, sometimes hundreds of types.”

The first wheat was brought to Mexico in 1523 around the area now occupied by Mexico City. The crop soon spread outside the central plateau with the help of Catholic monks: it traveled to the state of Michoacán in the 1530s with the Franciscans, while the Dominicans took wheat to the state of Oaxaca in 1540 and gave grains to the native inhabitants to produce flour for unleavened bread used during Roman Catholic religious ceremonies. “Still today, many church ornaments in Michoacán have wheat straw in them,” says Huerta.

Huerta and Skovmand went on sacramental wheat-gathering expeditions in 19 Mexican states. “Many people thought we were just collecting trash,” he says. “But we wanted to collect sacramental wheats before they disappeared. I’m not that surprised that some have very valuable attributes for breeding programs.”

Farmers in Mexico and elsewhere face water shortages and rising temperatures due to climate change. CIMMYT scientists are looking to sacramental wheats as one source of drought-tolerance. Field trials at the center’s Cuidad Obregón wheat research facility show some sacramental wheats have better early ground cover, quickly covering the soil and safeguarding moisture from evaporating. Others have enhanced levels of soluble stem carbohydrates which help fill the wheat grain even under drought, while some show better water uptake in deep soils thanks to their deep roots.

As farmers gain access to improved varieties or migrate to cities, sacramental wheats are disappearing from fields. With the hope of conserving these rare and valuable varieties, Huerta and Skovmand started collecting them in 1992, collaborating with the Mexican National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP) and supported by the Mexican Organization for the Study of Biodiversity (CONABIO). Their efforts were not in vain—10,000 samples from 249 sites in Mexico were added to the CIMMYT germplasm bank, and duplicate samples deposited in the INIFAP germplasm bank.

Only the strongest survive

The deep volcanic soils of Los Altos de Mixteca, Oaxaca, and the dry conditions in some parts of Mexico were not ideal for growing wheat. “If the wheats didn’t have deep roots and it didn’t rain, they were dead,” says CIMMYT wheat physiologist, Matthew Reynolds. The wheat genotypes that survived for centuries were perhaps the ones with drought-tolerance traits for which farmers selected. “Say the farmer had a mixture of sacramental wheats that looked reasonably similar—similar enough that he could manage them but diverse enough to adapt to local conditions,” explains Reynolds. “One year certain lines would do better than others and the farmer might harvest just the best-looking plants to sow the next year.”

jun01

Sacramental wheats often grew in isolated rural areas, meaning that some never crossed with other varieties, leaving their genetic heritage intact. They are often tall and closely adapted to local conditions, according to Huerta, and farmers who still grow them say they taste better than modern varieties.

Reynolds is combining the old and the new—crossing improved modern cultivars with sacramental wheats to obtain their drought-tolerance attributes. “We now have several lines that are candidates for international nurseries,” he says. “They’ll go to South Asia and North Africa, and will be especially useful for regions with deep soils and residual moisture.”

Old wheats come back in style

In 2001, a new leaf rust race appeared on Altar 84, the most widely-grown wheat cultivar in Sonora State, Mexico. The CIMMYT wheat genetic resources program immediately looked for sources of resistance in the germplasm bank. The durum collection of sacramental wheats from Oaxaca, Mexico, proved extremely useful: all but one displayed minor gene or major gene resistance to the new leaf rust race, confirming that sacramental wheats are a valuable breeding resource.

CIMMYT researchers are still unlocking the potential of sacramental wheats. “We started to characterize them for resistance to leaf and yellow rust, and the collections from the state of Mexico for wheat head scab and Septoria,” says Huerta. We were surprised to find many, many resistant lines. “But until we finish characterizing all of them, we won’t know what else is there.”

For more information on sacramental wheats: Julio Huerta, wheat pathologist (j.huerta@cgiar.org) or Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist, ( m.reynolds@cgiar.org).

Partners for life: CIMMYT and maize researchers in eastern Africa

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 1, January 2008

jan02CIMMYT’s partnerships on maize in eastern Africa hark back to the 1960s, when the center was launched. Formal networking since that time with researchers and extension workers, policy makers, non-government organizations, seed companies, millers, and farmers have culminated in successful breeding and dissemination teams and promising new varieties rated highly by farmers. Awards to teams in Tanzania and Ethiopia recently highlighted the value of these partnerships.

During a travel workshop, CIMMYT and national scientists observing maize breeding and dissemination activities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda jointly selected the recipients of the two awards, one for the best regional technology dissemination team, led by the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), Tanzania, and one for the best regional maize breeding team for drought tolerance: the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)-Melkassa Research Centre.

“The awards recognize the products of long-term collaboration and team-building in the region, oriented towards the rapid development, release, and scaling-up of locally adapted, stress tolerant, and nutritionally enhanced maize varieties,” says Wilfred Mwangi, leader of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, which was launched in 2006 and which sponsored the awards. “We hope the awards will encourage result-oriented team approaches, such as those we pursue in the DTMA project.”

Ethiopia’s outstanding breeders

Dr. Aberra Deressa, the Ethiopian State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Guest of Honor, presented the special award to the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR) team in Melkassa for work that resulted in the release of five new drought tolerant maize varieties since 2000. In on-farm and on-station tests for yield and agronomic performance at 14 moisture-stressed locations, the new varieties out-yielded leading maize cultivars by more than 30%. Farmers particularly preferred one variety, Melkassa-2, for its white seed and intermediate maturity, so seed of the variety was multiplied on farmers’ fields and distributed to the community.

“The Melkassa team also produced and sold basic seed of the five varieties to Ethiopian maize seed producers, including the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise, which then produced certified seed,” says Alpha Diallo, CIMMYT regional maize breeder who collaborated with the Ethiopian team on the development and identification of these varieties. “The varieties have since been promoted through field demonstrations and field days.”

“We have enjoyed great support for capacity building from CIMMYT over many years,” said Dr. Aberra Deressa. “We consider CIMMYT to be part of our national maize program and recommend this model for adoption by other partners.”

The miller’s tale: Better nutrition and more cash

The award-winning multidisciplinary team from Tanzania comprised breeders, agronomists, socio-economists, seed producers (including farmers), and millers, and was led by the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) in Arusha. Maize flour in eastern Africa is used mostly to make the starchy staple food known as ugali, and maize provides the bulk of inhabitants’ energy and protein in Tanzania. Three new varieties for which the Tanzanian research team received the Technology Dissemination Award are quality protein maize (QPM) varieties, which looks and performs like normal maize, but whose grain provides higher levels of lysine and tryptophan—amino acids essential for growth in humans and farm animals.

Tanzania’s promotion of QPM for milling is helping to increase the demand for QPM seed among farmers. Two millers, Nyirefami Limited and the Grain and Flour Enterprise, are producing QPM ugali flour. They hope eventually to replace conventional maize flour to satisfy the country’s growing appetite for QPM ugali and improve its nutritional well-being. “The Dissemination Team Award recognizes efforts that bring all the necessary players together—from breeders to NGOs to seed companies, and even millers, involving farmers along the way, to get the (QPM) technology to consumers,” says Dennis Friesen, CIMMYT maize agronomist for eastern Africa.

Farmers: From on-lookers to leaders

CIMMYT has supported partners in applying participatory approaches to evaluate new cultivars systematically and cost-effectively under resource-poor farmers’ conditions, as well as giving farmers a voice in determining whether any maize cultivar will become available on the market. In the case of the three QPM varieties in Tanzania, farmers particularly liked one for its superior yields, good tip cover, and greater resistance to the regionally-serious disease, maize streak virus.

Dr. Jeremiah Haki, Tanzania’s Director of Research and Training, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, has commended CIMMYT for promoting farmer participation. “The farmer is often left out in both variety development and dissemination; no wonder they do not find the resultant varieties as being appropriate to them and worth adopting,” says Haki. “Through our partnership with CIMMYT, seed companies, NGOs and farmer groups, we have placed strong emphasis on working with farmers. The result is good varieties which have a strong farmer acceptance.”

Support that enables research collaboration to lead to impact in farmers’ fields

Research and development activities that enabled these teams to succeed and bring new maize varieties to farmers have taken place via multiple projects, most recently supported by agencies including CIDA-Canada, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Rockefeller Foundation, BMZ-Germany, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. This and other work in the region has been executed by CIMMYT in collaboration with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), as well as public, private, NGO and CBO partners, according to Friesen. “The projects are mutually supportive,” he says. “They share complementary outputs and activities integrated in a consolidated framework, to develop and promote new varieties that tolerate drought and low soil fertility, resist pests and diseases, and offer better nutritional quality.”

And the final word

Isaka Mashauri from TanSeed, one of the recipients of the Tanzania team award, calls the success of these partnerships “of paramount importance.”

“Thank you very much for the award,” he says. “It greatly excited and motivated us to register more new and better maize varieties and hybrids in coming years, and to reach more farmers with new maize technologies.”

For more information: Wilfred Mwangi, project leader, DTMA (w.mwangi@cgiar.org), or Dennis Friesen, maize agronomist (d.friesen@cgiar.org)

Wheat with enhanced water productivity and appropriate quality profiles

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Nearly half the wheat cultivated in developing countries is grown under resource-poor, rainfed conditions.

flagwheatSome of the poorest and most disadvantaged wheat farmers live in areas with less than 350 mm annual rainfall and their livelihoods often depend solely on income from wheat production. Moreover, in these areas wheat is a staple food, providing around half the daily caloric requirement, and also constitutes an important source of fodder for livestock.

The growing scarcity of water in irrigated areas is increasing the pressure to apply and use water more effectively, as well as driving the need for water-efficient germplasm. CIMMYT will enhance its focus on the development of wheat germplasm with enhanced input use efficiency.

Water use efficiency (or drought tolerance) is a highly complex trait genetically, but CIMMYT is well positioned to address this issue. Effective conservation agriculture practices will further enhance the value of water use efficient wheat cultivars. Finally, suitable grain quality is an increasingly important requirement for farmers who move beyond subsistence farming to surplus-based farming. CIMMYT will work with partners, applying its considerable experience in assessing and improving industrial quality and other key quality traits.

The maize with the beans inside: QPM gathers a following in Kenya

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 8, August 2006

aug02Farmers of the village of Kathaka Kaome in Embu district near Mount Kenya are saying that quality protein maize (QPM) is as nutritious as Githeri—a local dish made from maize and beans.

At a farmer field day on 24 July 2006, Samuel Kinyua Mwitari, the chairperson of Nthambo Murimi Mwaro (Nthambo’s Best Farmer) Self-help Group, has turned out in his best pinstripe suit. He stands next to his plot of maize plants—with husks pulled back revealing mature, full, healthy cobs—to tell the 180 farmers present all they need to know about quality protein maize (QPM).

Five other farmers, including the Group’s Secretary, Susan Njeru, are also on hand to inform farmers from Kathaka Kaome and neighboring villages about the new maize and its nutritional benefits. “Personally, I won’t be planting any other maize!” she declares. “And I want to advise everybody to plant QPM for the betterment of their families.”

Embu is among the first four districts in Kenya’s Central Province to host QPM promotion trials. The districts lie on the moist upper and dry lower slopes of Mt. Kenya, where maize is a major dietary staple. Inhabitants boil whole dry kernels with beans to make githeri, a popular local dish. But the price of beans and other pulses has climbed steadily in recent years, and diets in poorer households are increasingly maize-based. Serious protein malnutrition is now common in weaning babies, whose staple is maize porridge.

Quality protein maize grain contains enhanced levels of the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan, along with other characteristics that make more of its protein useful to humans or farm animals. It has 90% of the nutritive value of milk, and can stem or reverse protein malnutrition. Resource-poor farmers who cannot afford supplements can use QPM in swine or poultry feeds to increase the animals’ growth and productivity.

The QPM varieties being promoted—products of 30 years of research involving CIMMYT maize breeders and others—are indistinguishable from normal maize in appearance, and mill and store just as well. Does QPM taste better than normal maize? At the recent field day in Embu the farmers said they preferred the taste, texture, and appearance of githeri made with the QPM.

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The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is supporting the development and deployment of locally adapted QPM, in a project led by CIMMYT agronomist Dennis Friesen. “The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute has been our main partner in adapting QPM to local environments and identifying farmer-preferred cultivars,” says Friesen. “We are also working with the Catholic Relief Services, which has strong grassroots linkages, the Catholic Diocese of Embu, and the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, to promote QPM on the ground.”

The QPM dissemination work fits the aims of the Catholic Diocese of Embu, according to CDE chief extension officer, John Namu Munene: “We at the diocese realize we have a responsibility to participate in efforts that improve the lives of our people.” Addressing farmers at the field day, he praised QPM: “Even without beans, with this maize your githeri is full of protein.”

Johnson Irungu, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) officer overseeing the dissemination project, says he is happy with the acceptance of QPM among farmers, but is quick to add that seed availability will be critical to sustaining the momentum. The QPM trait is recessive—meaning that if the maize is planted close to non-QPM varieties and is fertilized by their pollen, the quality trait will be lost. Farmers must therefore buy certified QPM seed each season or avoid sowing nearby or at the same time as neighboring, non-QPM maize fields. Embu Self-Help Group members are well-versed in this special requirement and advise fellow farmers on how to preserve the trait. As Susan Njeru explained to a group of farmers: “If you want to recycle QPM you have to harvest the cobs that you will use for seed from the center of your field, and keep them separate.”

CIMMYT has supported two local seed companies, Western Seed Company and Freshco Ltd, with training in QPM seed production and quality assurance, essential for sustainability. They are producing seed of an extra-early, drought-tolerant, open-pollinated QPM variety and two QPM hybrids for sale starting in 2007. Both companies sent their representatives several hundred kilometers to Embu to attend the field day.

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

Simple Screening for a Complex Problem

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February, 2005

oldBlackMagicA CIMMYT research team is using an old but effective technique to get a head start on some very advanced crop science. Their aim is to breed high yielding maize that also resists infection by a dangerous fungus. As part of a USAID-funded project, the team uses ultraviolet or black light to identify maize that inhibits Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that produces potent toxins known as aflatoxins.

The fungus is particularly widespread in maize-growing regions of Africa, and the aflatoxins it produces can cause health problems in those who ingest it in high doses. By starting with elite maize varieties, those that already cope well in drought and high temperatures, and that resist damaging insects, the project hopes to produce a “package deal” for farmers: maize lines can survive these conditions and resist Aspergillus flavus.

No continent is immune from the Aspergillus problem. During 1988-1998, losses from aflatoxin damage in the US exceeded USD 1 billion. The United States has set an upper permissible aflatoxin level of 20 parts per billion in food, and the European Union has even stricter tolerances. A carcinogen, aflatoxin was recently linked with the deaths of more than 50 people who consumed contaminated grain in Kenya. A study in West Africa found a strong association between aflatoxin levels in children’s blood and stunted growth. “There is no easy quick-fix to this problem,” says Dan Jeffers, CIMMYT researcher overseeing the project, “but when a solution is found, everyone wins.”

By collaborating with scientists in the US, CIMMYT is better able to accomplish its goal of helping resource-poor farming households who consume their own maize. “We want to combine useful traits that will lessen the incidence of aflatoxin in the crop,” says Jeffers. “By crossing maize varieties that already are drought tolerant with those that resist Aspergillus, commercially viable and attractive lines should emerge.” This holistic approach will provide better varieties to collaborators and eventually to farmers.

The kernels vibrate as they shuffle down the tray of the light box. Healthy kernels appear faded under the black light, but the infected grain glows. Jeffers and his team will use the fluorescence data to choose the maize lines that show the least amount of fungal infection. “The most promising materials will then be used in further studies to look at aflatoxin levels,” Jeffers says.