CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 6, June 2007

CIMMYT helps build scientific strength in Turkey.

When you first meet Gul Erginbas and Elif Sahin standing side by side in an experimental wheat plot in Turkey, what stands out are the differences between them. One is dressed very traditionally, head and body covered, the other is in close-fitting denim jeans. It seems these two young postgraduate students could not be less alike. But when it comes to science the external differences disappear. These are two committed and talented young people who hope to make a difference in their own country. They are already making a difference for CIMMYT.

“I really depend on them,” says Julie Nicol, the CIMMYT soil-borne disease pathologist, based in Turkey. “We work in close collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and several universities. Both women have started working on their doctoral degrees, supervised by key university experts and myself. This is a highly effective way to build capacity in applied research both for Turkey and the world.” Having bright and committed students on the ground is also very beneficial to CIMMYT.

The Anadolu Research Institute at Eskisehir is one of Turkey’s oldest and most important agricultural research stations, especially for winter wheat breeding. It is about a three-hour drive east of the capital city, Ankara, on the broad and rolling Anatolian plateau. At this station CIMMYT (together with ICARDA and Turkey) works in winter wheat breeding and also in Nicol’s area of specialization, finding ways to reduce the threat to wheat from pathogens in the soil, the microscopic worms and fungi that cause damage underground long before the impacts are seen in the part of the wheat plant that is above the ground.

Both Sahin and Erginbas have supervisors at their own universities in Turkey but having a CIMMYT scientist like Nicol as a co-advisor really helps. “She brings us a global perspective and makes sure we work with care and precision,” says Elif. “And she really knows the field. It is easy to learn from her,” adds Gul. “With this experience, I hope I can contribute to science in Turkey in the future.”

Erginbas is just beginning work on a project to screen wheat for resistance to a disease called crown rot. It is caused by a microscopic fungus in the soil called Fusarium culmorum (related to but not the same as the Fusarium fungus that causes head blight in wheat) and can cause farmers serious loss of yield. Her first tests have been with plants grown in a greenhouse on the station. Later she will expand her work to the field and as part of her program will spend some time in Australia with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Since there is some evidence that the fungus that causes crown rot can survive for up to two years in crop residues, there is a great interest in this work as more farmers adopt reduced tillage and stubble retention on their land.

Sahin is focusing on an underground pest called the cereal cyst nematode, a tiny worm that can cause great damage to the root system of the plant. It can be responsible for losses of up to 40% of rainfed winter wheat in Turkey and there is evidence that the nematodes are very widespread in west Asia, North Africa, northern India and China. Sahin, funded by a scholarship from the Turkish funding body TUBITAK, is looking for sources of resistance to the pest.

These pathogens are especially damaging when wheat is grown under more marginal conditions, and so the work in Turkey that these two young students are doing may have its greatest impact where farmers struggle the most.

For more information: Julie Nicol, pathologist (j.nicol@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 2, February 2006

Kenyan farmers’ verdict is out: “Ua Kayongo is the best Striga control practice and we will adopt it.”

Farmers in western Kenya overwhelmingly favor imidazolinone-resistant (IR) maize seed coated with a low dose of this herbicide to kill Striga, a highly-invasive parasitic weed that infests 200,000 hectares of Kenya’s farmland and causes crop losses worth an estimated US$ 50 million each year. This was a key finding of a recent, independent study commissioned by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) to the Western Regional Alliance for Technology Evaluation (WeRATE; includes non-governmental organizations, farmer associations, and extension workers). Nearly 5,300 farmers in 17 districts of western Kenya evaluated eight recommended Striga management practices.

Farmers have dubbed the winning maize “Ua Kayongo”—literally, “kill Striga” in a mixed vernacular. In July 2005, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and private seed suppliers started to commercialize four hybrid varieties of Ua Kayongo in Kenya.

The maize’s herbicide resistance is based on a natural mutation in the crop. Its development into Ua Kayongo was through global cooperation involving CIMMYT; KARI; the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel; and BASF-The Chemical Company, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and BASF. In the new practice, Ua Kayongo seed is coated with BASF’s Strigaway® herbicide, which kills Striga seedlings below ground. This prevents them from fastening to the roots of maize seedlings, from which they suck away water and nutrients.

Farmers in the WeRATE evaluations were able to plant the new maize using their normal husbandry methods, including intercropping with legumes and root crops. “I’ve been pulling and burying Striga on my 5-acre farm for the past 17 years and the problem has only grown worse,” said Rose Katete, a farmer from Teso; “Ua Kayongo has provided the best crop of maize that I’ve ever grown!”

Katete’s observations bear out CIMMYT and partners’ findings from several years of field trials: “Under Striga-infested conditions, the new maize hybrids out-yield the checks by more than 50%, and provide near-total Striga control,” says Marianne Bänziger, Director of the CIMMYT Maize Program.

Over the next five years, the new Striga control package will be made available to farmers in Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi, and eventually, other countries of sub-Saharan Africa with a Striga weed problem.

For more information contact Fred Kanampiu (f.kanampiu@cgiar.org)

January, 2005

In recent years, CIMMYT’s collaboration with partners in the South Africa Development Community (SADC) has flourished in scope and strength to span research, training, and shared experiences with researchers, extension workers, farmers, seed companies, and four national universities. The various parties bring their strengths to this alliance, resulting in synergy and a fluid transfer of impact-oriented technologies and knowledge to smallholder farmers.

From the Ivory Tower to Farmers’ Fields

Mick Mwala’s friends have nicknamed him “Dr Mobile.” On any given day he can be found at any of three or more places: the lecture halls and laboratories of the Department of Crop Science at the University of Zambia (UNZA), interacting with his students at the CIMMYT-Zimbabwe research station, or in the field visiting smallholder farmers who host “baby” trials in farmer-participatory maize variety evaluations (popularly known as mother-baby trials ) throughout the SADC region. Occasionally, he will also call on the offices of local seed companies to chat about the varieties being tested in the field. The only way to reach Mwala on weekdays is via his mobile phone, hence the nickname.

Mwala, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Zambia (UNZA), is among the many individuals who supply impetus to agricultural progress in the region. Since 2000, he has been allocating 30% of his time to providing regional leadership within CIMMYT’s southern African research agenda. “I advise national research and extension staff in 10 southern African countries, each of them leading a network among farmer and partner organizations to identify new maize varieties suitable to smallholder conditions,” he explains. Marianne Bänziger, director of CIMMYT’s African Livelihoods Program, sees Mwala’s secondment to CIMMYT as one approach to an extremely productive collaboration between an international agricultural research center and the present expertise of African universities, and Mwala concurs.

“Many universities had become ivory towers, with little actual connection to the development issues their research and training activities should address,” he says. His focus on CIMMYT has involved him in a highly relevant, cooperative effort allowing CIMMYT’s state-of-the-art science and technologies—such as new breeding approaches for drought tolerance, or GIS tools—to be utilized. “The experience has definitely cross-fertilized my approach to teaching at the university and equipped me with a developmental perspective towards training and research,” Mwala says. The expanse of collective knowledge is also shared among international agricultural research centers, national agricultural research systems (NARS), non-governmental and community-based organizations, church-based groups, schools, the private sector, and with individual smallholder farmers. In turn, CIMMYT has gained much from Mwala’s experience in capacity building and his intrinsic knowledge of southern Africa and its people.

New Challenges Add a New Dimension to Collaboration

For many decades, agricultural research institutions have grappled with how to design variety release systems that are more responsive to smallholder farmers’ needs. Farmers’ access to seed must be improved, especially for those who have to travel long distances. By partnering with institutions possessing broad and in-depth knowledge of the southern Africa region, its people, cropping systems, and technology transfer approaches, international centers such as CIMMYT are better able to deliver innovative science-based solutions for improved livelihoods.

A troubling phenomenon that Mwala has observed in the course of his work is the extremely high staff turnover rate in the region’s NARS. “It is not unusual for the staffing profile of an institution to completely change in a given year, and this presents a tremendous challenge to agricultural development,” he states. Bänziger estimates that half of the maize breeders in southern Africa leave their posts within three years, and she notes, “This is less time than is needed to identify a variety for release to farmers.” Staff trained in the 1980s are approaching retirement or have already done so

In addition, most staff joining NARS come only with a fresh BSc degree, and the experienced people are involved in management rather than research or have moved to greener pastures. In recent times, many succumb to illness, ranging from preventable diseases like malaria to terminal conditions like HIV/AIDs. Donor investments in graduate training have decreased to the extent that few universities in the region can maintain viable MSc programs.

To address these issues in a more coordinated fashion, Mwala, in collaboration with CIMMYT, obtained support from The Rockefeller Foundation in 2003 for MSc training of NARS scientists at the University of Zambia. Six scientists are completing their research projects at four international centers in the region—CIMMYT, ICRISAT, CIAT and IITA/SARNET —following a year’s course work at university.

Dibanzilua Nginamau, one of the Rockefeller-supported students, says, “I could never have done an MSc degree in plant breeding in Angola, because my country does not have a postgraduate program in that field. While at UNZA, I met colleagues from Zambia, Mozambique, and Tanzania who, like me, were breeders confronted with a tremendous responsibility and no postgraduate education.” The course work at UNZA coupled with his applied research at CIMMYT has equipped Nginamau with the skills, competence, and confidence to breed successfully for Angola’s needs. “I can now lead my own breeding program back home!” he says.

Gaining from this network are farmers, scientists, NARS, universities and their students, as well as organizations like CIMMYT. Building on relationships and working together is essential for smooth transfers of knowledge to the farmers. It is also more cost-effective. “Working together actually required fewer resources than if we had all gone down the path on our own,” Mwala concludes.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 5, August 2009

Farmers in northern Bangladesh are making money off maize thanks to training and support from CIMMYT and partners. A relatively new crop in Bangladesh, maize has been mostly grown for the poultry feed industry. But now agricultural entrepreneurs want to promote the crop for human consumption and farmers are starting to eat some of the maize they grow.

Rice is king in Bangladesh. But the fields are increasingly tall and yellow with maize as one heads north to the state of Patgram, which borders India. Farmers in the village of Ghonabari, known for its spicy food, have had remarkable success growing maize as a cash crop for the poultry feed industry.

“Maize is very well-suited to the country’s fertile alluvial soils and can be grown almost any time, except for during the rainy season,” says Enamul Haque, CIMMYT-Bangladesh cropping systems agronomist.

In Bangladesh, maize usually produces around over 5.5 tons per hectare but lots of farmers in Patgram say they are getting even higher yields—as much as 9.5 tons per hectare. Their secret? Many participated in CIMMYT’s whole family training (WFT) program to learn to grow the crop.

Agriculture is a family affair in Bangladesh, explains Haque. “Men, women, and children work as a team in the field and together decide at what price they will sell their crop,” he says. WFT offers an opportunity for the whole family to learn together with agricultural picture books that are complemented with simple explanations on how to plant and harvest maize. The maize WFT manual has minimal text in Bangla but the pictures make it easy to understand, even for farmers who can’t read. More than 30,000 WFT manuals have been distributed and several non-governmental organizations, private sector companies, and government departments have also copied and used the WFT manual for maize promotion in Bangladesh, says Haque.

CIMMYT partnered with a local corn milling company—Doyel Agro Industrial Complex Ltd. —to deliver WFT. Each participating farmer received 2 kilograms of hybrid seed at the end of the training. Farmers grow the maize and sell it to Doyel, which then dries, stores, and sells it for poultry feed.

Loans help break cycle of poverty

The 25 or so seated farmers talking to Haque all stand respectfully as Ershad Hossain Saju, the local representative of Doyel, enters the room. He and his wife (see photo above) gave farmers loans for agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, which help improve yields. By acting as guarantors, the Sajus gave the farmers a reasonable interest rate and saved them from having to give the bank a 20% bribe to get loans.

Their business suffered last year due to Avian flu and several cyclones, say the Sajus, adding that the price of maize also dropped. Despite the fact that only about 70% of farmers have paid them back for the loans, the two voice no regrets. “I feel I made a difference in the livelihoods of poor farmers, and this is what Allah my creator told me to do,” says Mr. Shaju.

At the meeting, Mr. Shaju listens as local farmers tell Haque how growing maize has helped change their lives. “I used to have a straw house, now my house is made from brick,” says one. “We use maize stubble in our cooking fire,” says another. “Land prices have gone up and it costs more to hire someone to work in your field,” says a third. This last change reflects local prosperity and can be difficult for farmers who are used to paying less for field laborers. But other changes suit the farmers just fine; around half have upgraded their bicycles for motorcycles. The faster transport means their children are able to attend a better school outside the village, and they themselves can travel for other business activities.

From poultry to people

Improved maize yields means there is more to go around, and the crop seems to be creeping into the diet of Bangladeshis, who live in one of the world’s poorest and most densely populated countries. During the food crisis, farmers say they noticed cobs missing from their fields as villagers were stealing maize to eat. Chapattis, the traditional flatbread, are usually made with wheat flour, but people are stretching their wheat flour by adding maize flour to put more chapattis on the table. Farmers in Ghonabari have also been popping maize kernels as a snack for their children, or grinding and cooking maize with sugar, spices, chili, and ginger. “Around 15% of maize in Bangladesh was consumed by people last year,” says Haque.

The area planted with maize has been expanding since the early 2000s, driven by demand from the poultry feed industry. There were around 137,000 hectares of maize planted in 2005-06, according to a CIMMYT report, which jumped to 179,000 hectares in 2006-07. “My goal is to only use locally-produced maize,” says Md. Mizanul Hoque Mizan, vice chairman of Doyel. His company currently uses Bangladesh-grown maize for about four months out of the year, after which it imports maize from neighboring countries to meet their business needs.

Maize likes it hot

Doyel is working with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) to promote white maize for people to eat. And as temperatures rise due to global warming, maize could help feed the country’s growing population. “Maize yields about three times what rice and wheat typically yield and can better withstand high temperatures,” says Haque. “With a population of 156 million people, we have a lot of scope for maize consumption in Bangladesh,” says Mizan.

For more information: Enamul Haque, CIMMYT-Bangladesh cropping systems agronomist, e.haque@cgiar.org.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 11, November 2005

Young Indonesian researchers are reaping the benefits of collaboration with CIMMYT and at the same time helping farmers in their country.

It could be a biotech laboratory almost anywhere in the world, but this one is the Indonesian Center for Agriculture Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development in Bogor, Indonesia. What makes it remarkable is that just ten years ago Indonesia had virtually no agricultural biotechnology capacity at all. At the lab benches, in standard issue white lab coats, two of Indonesia’s brightest students, each with a strong commitment to helping their country, are doing the painstaking work that molecular biology requires and their PhD supervisors demand.

Marcia Pabendon is doing a maize diversity study, using DNA fingerprinting to identify maize germplasm from diverse sources to use as parents in a breeding program to find resistance for downy mildew and drought tolerance. These are the two most serious production constraints for maize in Indonesia, where half of all maize is grown in dry land areas. By analyzing the DNA she can be sure male and female parents in the breeding program are not closely related, which is detrimental to the hybrids.

Mohamed Azrai wants to convert local maize varieties into quality protein maize, maize with higher levels of the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which occur at low levels in most maize and could result in protein deficiencies for anyone who relies heavily on maize in their diet. “I want my research to result in quality protein maize varieties that farmers will use,” he says. “Maybe quality protein maize can help solve the problem of protein malnutrition on my country.”

“This is the untold story of the quiet biotech revolution going on in maize breeding in Asia,” says CIMMYT’s Luz George. “It is a successful transfer of technology from CIMMYT to developing countries which has now found direct application in the work of national program maize breeders.”

It began with the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network, AMBIONET, which was funded by the Asian Development Bank and which George coordinated. K.R. Surtrisno, the Director of the biotech center in Bogor, says the capacity enhancement the network provided was vitally important. “The network has given us, through CIMMYT, genotype data and training in mapping. Now the government of Indonesia has made a commitment to support and improve our facility, just in time to do useful work for farmers.”

His thoughts are echoed by Marsum Dahlan, the head of the Breeding and Germplasm section of the Indonesian Cereals Research institute. “When AMBIONET came we thought not only to help farmers but also to create capacity,” he says. “This technology will help us, though we must still combine it with tests in the field.”

AMBIONET and the work with CIMMYT have proven very valuable to agricultural biotechnology in Indonesia. “Even though the AMBIONET program is over, we still maintain collaboration with CIMMYT,” says Surtrisno. That is good news for Indonesia and good news for promising young researchers like Mohamed and Marcia.

For further information, contact Luz George (m.george@cgiar.org).

May, 2004

Mzuzukuru and Sekuru may not be real people, but these two new faces will help teach extension workers and farmers about growing open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) in Zimbabwe.

In a brightly colored, cartoon-style booklet published in March 2004 by CIMMYT-Zimbabwe and Agricultural Research and Extension in Zimbabwe (AREX), these fictional characters examine maize and chat in the field about the benefits of OPVs.

“Young man, I’ve been watching your fields for some time,” the older Sekuru says at the beginning of the booklet. “Your maize is growing well. What’s your secret?” His query sets off a series of questions and explanations with Mzuzukuru, who relays how he grows a drought-tolerant, well-adapted OPV.

The booklet’s creators, Peter Setimela and Marianne Banziger from CIMMYT-Zimbabwe along with Xavier Mhike and Patience Nyakanda from the National Agricultural Research System in Zimbabwe (AREX), initiated the booklet after attending a workshop about successful community-based seed strategies. There they learned that many NGOs and extension workers did not know the difference between OPVs and hybrids, says Setimela.

In response to this lack of information, the group decided that a simple and entertaining picture book would be the best way to educate people about the issue. It could answer common questions in terms that are accessible for everyone.

The collaborators hope the booklet, titled “Improve Your Maize Harvests: Grow Certified Seed of Open-Pollinated Varieties,” educates extension workers, NGOs in seed distribution, and farmers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) about seed recycling and the differences between hybrids and OPVs.

Setimela would even like children to be able to understand the booklet, which uses non-technical language, and bring it to their parents. “It provides simple scientific information that non-scientists can understand and apply,” he says. “And now extension workers can pass the information on to farmers.”

In the booklet, the younger Mzuzukuru corrects common misconceptions about differences between hybrids and OPVs. For example, although planting recycled hybrid seed causes lower yields, he says, farmers can recycle OPV seed for one or two seasons without much yield loss. He also clarifies that while hybrid seed is suitable for productive fields, OPVs are better for poorer fields.

Mzuzukuru also explains that maize varieties can mix when they grow near each other. To keep a variety pure, farmers should plant certified seed that is recommended for that area, isolate the crop from other varieties, inspect the field before flowering, and remove any dissimilar plants. He says that certified OPV seed is produced under strict guidelines to avoid contamination.

Setimela says the predominance of hybrid seed on the market in southern Africa has led to the dearth of knowledge about OPVs. Most farmers in the SADC region have limited access to improved seed and end up recycling seed that has been exhausted after many years of planting. This practice can perpetuate low yields and food insecurity. However, Setimela expects the trend to change as many NGOs and farming communities have become interested in new stress-tolerant OPVs that were developed in southern Africa.

Picture books can be very effective teaching tools, according to CIMMYT maize breeder Kevin Pixley. In Bangladesh, he saw flipcharts about activities such as seed production that paired the local language with cartoon-type drawings to use in farmer discussions. Pixley understood the message through the drawings, even though he could not understand the words.

“The temptation is to make it too complicated, and also the temptation is to do it from the scientists’ perspective,” says Pixley, who thinks the best strategies are developed with farmer input. “Unless you involve farmers in developing the messages, you’re not going to end up with something that is as good as it should be.”

The OPV booklet will soon be available in other languages. The national maize breeder in Mozambique is going to translate it into Portuguese, and the head of Zimbabwe’s crop breeding institute wants it translated into Shona and Ndebele. It may be translated into other southern African languages, as well. Feedback on the OPV booklet will help everyone revise it to improve its effectiveness.

At the booklet’s end, Mzuzukuru and Sekuru shake hands, just as they do at the beginning. Extension workers and farmers will probably share Sekuru’s final conclusion: “Thanks for your advice!”

For more information, contact Peter Setimela

Link to the booklet (in PDF format 846KB):
“Improve Your Maize Harvests: Grow Certified Seed of Open-Pollinated Varieties”

November, 2004

CIMMYT’s External Program and Management Review (EPMR) is underway. Seven members of the EPMR came to El Batán from 22-26 November to commence the meetings and evaluations, which will be continued in its main phase from 14-25 February 2005. The fifth review of this kind for CIMMYT, it is the single most important mechanism by which a CGIAR center’s science and management achievements are assessed. Under the microscope for this process are CIMMYT’s mission and strategy within the CGIAR system, its scientific significance and quality, management effectiveness, and impact of activities.

Initial discussions were on governance and began in October, when three of the review members met with the Board at their last meeting. During the November meetings, many of the reviewers met with research and discipline program members in person, over the phone or via video links. On the agenda were topics such as maize and wheat breeding, natural resource management, and economics. The results of the review will be presented to the CIMMYT Board 14-18 March 2005, and then to the Science Council from 4-8 April 2005. Panel members are:

Chair: Don Marshall (Australia) – wheat breeding and biotechnology
Peter Goertz (Germany) – maize breeding and biotechnology
Shu Fukai (Japan) – natural resources management
Eugenio Cap (Argentina) – economics
Maureen Robinson (USA) – governance
Edward Sayegh (Lebanon) – management and finances

Just outside Mexico City, a group of farmers who grow maize and other crops using sewage water are adopting cutting-edge conservation agriculture techniques to save on irrigation and reduce their costs.

Geraldo Gálvez Orozco is a man with wrinkles as deep as his voice and hair that is decidedly neither gray nor white. After concluding his 40-year career as a math professor Gálvez went looking for a new challenge and found it in farming.

Gálvez is a 79-year-old Hidalgo native who has been farming in the Mezquital Valley for 15 years. The valley is nestled in the rolling mountains of southwest Hidalgo State, situated 60 kilometers north of the country’s capital, Mexico City. It is a region known for many things; the Mezquital trees that canvas its hills, an arid climate, and surprisingly, a thriving agricultural sector. Despite the region’s parched soils—the Mezquital Valley receives an average of only 527 mm of rainfall each year— about half of the valley’s residents are farmers.

Putting waste to work

Since 1789, Hidalgo’s farmers have relied heavily on an unusual form of irrigation—wastewater from Mexico City. The valley’s farmers use the sewage water, referred to as ‘aguas negras’ or black water, to irrigate 563 square kilometers of grain. It is the largest wastewater-irrigation system in the world.

Using sewage water to irrigate food crops may raise the suspicions of some, but 10% of the world’s crops are irrigated using some form of sewage, according to the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Farmers in India, China, Pakistan, Jordan, and Israel apply the practice. Wastewater is spiked with nutrients or ‘natural fertilizers’, so crops are enriched without the added cost of fertilizer. Precautions are taken to ensure the crops irrigated by the aguas negras are of the highest quality. By Mexican law, farmers can only use sewage water to irrigate cereal and fodder crops. Maize and alfalfa are the most popular.

Adopting in the face of change

Today, the farmers of the Mezquital Valley are facing change. Within the next two years, the black water irrigation supply will decrease due to a new government initiative to purify Mexico City’s wastewater and reuse it within city limits.

To reduce their water use and maintain their soils, farmers in Hidalgo are switching from traditional agriculture practices to an innovative way of farming that is used extensively in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the USA.

From arithmetic to agronomy

Gálvez started experimenting with conservation agriculture-based practices eight years ago when he heard of its benefits from a fellow farmer. He began by trying zero-tillage, a practice whereby crops are seeded directly into field residues without plowing, and a key proponent of resource-conserving farm practices. Today, on the three-hectare farm where Gálvez grows maize and oats, maize husks and cobs litter the ground. Husks and cobs that assure any curious passer-bys that Gálvez indeed practices conservation agriculture, as leaving crop residue is another foundational principle.

“Since switching to conservation agriculture, I have noticed a small increase in my yields compared to what I used to produce under irrigation, but I don’t do it for the yields. Living in a climate like this, keeping my soils in good condition is my number one priority,” Gálvez says, “that’s why I practice conservation agriculture.”

According to Fermín Hernández Méndez, a graduate of CIMMYT’s conservation agriculture-certification course and a technician with the Mexican subsidiary of Monsanto, ASGROW seed company, Gálvez isn’t the only farmer in Hidalgo changing his ways. “In Hidalgo, conservation agriculture is a revolution,” said Hernández, “Farmers are adopting the practice because they know that a change is coming— a change that is most likely going to strain their soils.”

For soil’s sake

It can be seen in the Mezquital Valley, as well as around the globe, that farmers who have practiced traditional agriculture for generations are adopting conservation agriculture. This is because today, more than ever before, global changes are threatening agriculture and food security worldwide.

Climate change, drought, soil degradation, and a rapidly growing populace are taking effect, and traditional farming practices can’t keep up. In the face of this adversity, farmers are switching to sustainable farming practices –practices that use fewer resources, facilitate healthy, nutrient-rich soils, and improve farmers’ yields.

Conservation agriculture is a forward-thinking way of farming based on three principles: minimum soil movement, covering the soil surface with crop residues and/or living plants, using crop rotations to avoid the build-up of pests and diseases. These principles are widely adaptable and can be used for a variety of different crops in varied soil types and environments.

Sustainable and beneficial

Mezquital Valley farmers receive record yields due to their nutrient-rich irrigation system. Farmers in Mexico’s highlands – where crops rely on precipitation alone – are not so lucky, but because of conservation agriculture’s water-saving benefits, these farmers have produced acceptable yields in dry years when neighboring fields withered. During the 2009 drought in the Central Highlands, farmers who practiced conservation agriculture harvested up to 125% more maize than those who farmed the traditional way.

Other attractive benefits of conservation agriculture are its cost and labor savings. Reducing or eliminating plowing allows farmers to sow and fertilize a field in a single sweep, rather than multiple passes. Decreasing machinery use saves time, fuel, money, and wear and tear on machinery.

Combining higher yields with lower costs, conservation agriculture allows farmers in rainfed areas to earn more and save more. This meant an average net return that was almost twice as high as the earnings of traditional practitioners. The average net return of Mexican highlands farmers who practice conservation agriculture was more than 800 USD per hectare compared to the approximate 400 USD per hectare that conventional highlands farmers reaped. It is no secret that conservation agriculture is putting more money in farmers’ pockets and more food in mouths around the world.

A smooth transition

Although the benefits of conservation agriculture are numerous, its adoption worldwide faces hurdles. One is the competition for crop residues, which often have great value as forage. Also, farmers are skeptical about shifting from the traditional farming method, including tillage, which they and their peers have practiced for generations.

As a conservation agriculture-certified technician, Hernández works to help smooth the transition. “It’s nothing more than a question of culture,” he replied, when asked why some farmers are hesitant to adopt the new principles. “It’s not that they don’t believe us or think we mean ill, it’s simply that they are afraid of change.”

Yet these hurdles begin to appear less daunting as farmers face rising temperatures, sky-rocketing fuel prices, and looming water shortages, not to mention mounting demands to grow more food grains locally, rather than importing them. To help farmers, researchers are exploring and promoting flexible ways to apply conservation agriculture. For instance, they suggest that farmers keep a minimum of 30% ground cover year-round. The remaining residues can be used or sold as forage. The new system also opens opportunities for more diversified cropping, including growing fodder crops, which can provide additional income for farmers.

Patience paying off

“I’m not worried for myself, I have all I need. I am worried for my children. The land needs to stay healthy and fertile for the future generations,” Gálvez says as his shoes, one step behind his wooden cane, crunch through the corn husks and stalks that blanket his fields. The air is dry and the sun is searing, yet Gálvez’s crops seem at home in their arid environment.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 6, June 2007

A new experiment, using precision water control, gives hard data about the gains that can be made growing wheat under zero-tillage conditions.

This was a classic showdown. On the right one hundred wheat lines (from the 14th and 15th International Semi-Arid Wheat Yield Trials) planted in the conventional way on tilled soil. On the left an identical one hundred wheat lines, but this time planted without tillage into the residue of a zero-tilled sorghum crop (the field had previously been tilled normally). The objective? To determine which cropping method would give the best results under different water conditions. Biggest yield wins.

When the team at the CIMMYT experimental station near Obregón in northwest Mexico planted the two identical sets of seeds, they had high hopes that they would find significant differences. This relatively straightforward experiment was designed by CIMMYT rainfed wheat breeder Yann Manes. It took advantage of the fact that it rarely rains during the growing season at Obregón, so precision irrigation could be used to simulate various rainfall conditions. Manes expected the zero-tillage field would give higher yields when there was water stress but he needed to prove it. “The stubble from the sorghum should help the soil retain water,” says Manes. “But this was the real test. No one had actually done the zero-tillage face off under different but carefully-controlled water conditions on a large set of wheat varieties.”

The two plots were divided into three strips, each one receiving a different, carefully-controlled amount of water. They used what the Obregón teams calls “the dinosaur”, a fifty-meter-long, three-armed machine that can deliver water precisely to each growing row, simulating rainfall. One set of plants in each plot received a normal amount of water (320 mm). The middle strip was water-stressed, receiving a reduced amount of water (175 mm), and the last strip in each plot was grown under drought-like conditions, receiving only 105 mm of water during the whole growing season.

As the wheat approached maturity, some differences started to appear in the two plots. Manes was pretty excited. “You can see there is a difference in biomass,” he says. “Look here to the left, in the drought-stressed wheat on the zero-tillage side there is more than in the same strip on the right.”

But biomass and yield are not the same thing. What if the wheat plants under zero-tillage conditions just made bigger leaves and stalks but did not have larger or more grains in their spikes? The team had to wait until each strip was harvested and the results from all the lines, all the strips, and both plots were computed.

 

What the team found was that under normal rainfall conditions there were no appreciable differences in yield between the two plots. This reflects what has been seen in long-term trials of various tillage practices run in Obregón; that the advantage of zero over normal tillage starts to show only after four or five years. But under water stress conditions, it was a totally different story. Under both reduced-water conditions and simulated drought there was an average yield advantage of between 8 and 9% to the wheats on the zero-tillage side. Zero-tillage wins, plows down.

Samples taken during the crop cycle confirmed that zero-tilled soil held moisture better than conventionally-tilled soil in this experiment. The data also gave other interesting insights into how different wheats respond to drought conditions as well as to the cropping practice, and Manes says that opens the door to a whole new line of research—determining whether you get different results in breeding when you make your selections from zero-tillage rather than conventional plots.

The work was done in collaboration with CIMMYT’s agronomy team led by Ken Sayre, who analyzed the soil samples, and with Jose Crossa, from the Crop Research Informatics Laboratory (CRIL), who did the statistical analysis.

Manes cautions that this is just one season of data. He intends to repeat the experiment again next year, and in the meantime former CIMMYT breeder Richard Trethowan is doing a similar experiment in Australia.

Manes cautions that this is just one season of data. He intends to repeat the experiment again next year, and in the meantime former CIMMYT breeder Richard Trethowan is doing a similar experiment in Australia.

“I think next season the results might be even better,” says an optimistic Manes. “The soil will have had another year of zero-tillage, with more organic residue available to hold water. At least that is what I would expect. Of course, I won’t know until I try it.”

For more information: Yann Manes, rainfed wheat breeder (y.manes@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 2, February 2006

The CIMMYT-convened Rice Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains (RWC) reaches out to the poorest of the rural poor in India’s Bihar state.

Mrs. Lal Muni Devi and her family live in a windowless, single-room, thatched roof house in the village of Azad Nagar, half an hour’s drive from the city of Patna in Bihar state in India, in the impoverished eastern section of the vast Indo-Gangetic Plains. Most farms here are small and almost all farmers grow two crops a year; rice during the wet, monsoon season, and wheat on the same fields during the dry winter. The RWC conducts farmer-managed trials and demonstrates practices that conserve soil quality and water and cut farmers’ production costs. These include direct seeding of wheat and rice without previously cultivating the soil—a practice known as zero-tillage. In the case of rice, this involves the radical measure of growing it on dry land; that is, without flooding fields or puddling the soil.

But there’s a catch: Devi is not a farmer. She and her family are among the landless poor who cannot directly benefit from the new, resource-conserving practices that are starting to make a difference for smallholder farmers in her community. In fact, what little income she and her family earn comes from selling their labor to the farmers. They prepare the land for rice, for example, and transplant the rice seedlings from nurseries to the paddies. They also weed the wheat fields and harvest the crops, all by hand.

Providing opportunities for people like Devi is one part of an RWC project being implemented in partnership with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in the district. “The landless are typically the core rural poor”, says Olaf Erenstein, CIMMYT socioeconomist in South Asia. “But they are relatively invisible, difficult to reach, and often forgotten by agricultural research and development organizations. The challenge is to provide them with significant income-generating options by building on their skills and the limited assets they command.”

Devi’s house is lit only by small kerosene lamps. Inside, balls of wheat straw hang on twine from the roof. Oyster mushrooms grow on each ball, thriving in the relatively dark and damp interior of the house. There is a market for them in the nearby city and wheat straw is plentiful. The spores are readily available and, at 50 rupees a bag (the equivalent of about US$ 1.20), not expensive. The economics are good and the mushrooms don’t require much labor.

“I’ve just sold my first kilo and received 250 rupees,” she smiles, happy at the prospect of having cash for household needs. In Azad Nagar, women have formed a self-help group and are all growing the mushrooms, a proficiency they acquired through the project

This is the first season and the group represents a small, pilot initiative, but the impacts are already being felt. “Now we have tasted the delicacy ourselves, the oyster mushrooms, for the first time,” Devi says. The women recognize new bonds among themselves in their community and control the money they earn. “I need to buy some new clothes for the family,” Devi says. “And if there is something left, I want to buy some jewelry.”

For more information contact Olaf Erenstein (o.erenstein@cgiar.org)

June, 2005

Farmers talk: The human face of CIMMYT wheat I’m helping to select for CIMMYT wheat on my farm, which has actual production conditions. This way I have the opportunity to see with my own eyes how varieties perform and then I can choose the good ones. This year there are 160 different wheat lines on my farm—I can see the good ones and so can other farmers.” -Viktor Surayev, Kazakh farmer “Our wheat looks better than our neighbor’s crops, probably due to the new wheat we planted.” -Shodi Mirzobedov, Tajikistan “A lot of people say good things, but CIMMYT says and does good things. They don’t just show and talk about the technologies. They do more than just demonstrate them in the field, they get down on the ground, get under the planters, and change and adjust the adapted planting units.” -Darynov Auezkhaz, Kazakhstan Farmers Union “Previously we had no linkages with agencies or persons to obtain knowledge or information. We used to grow only the old varieties—we sowed the same seed for ten years! Now we are looking to diversify and intensify farming to get more cash.” -Anil Singh, farmer from Karhat Village, eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, who has launched a successful seed enterprise using CIMMYT-derived wheat varieties. In participatory varietal selection in several villages of Nepal, the choice of both men and women farmers was the recently released, CIMMYT-derived variety BL-1473. Farmers like the one here liked its ability to stand up under a full head of grain, the large, white grains it produces, its abundant straw yield, and its rapid growth. As a result, Nepal’s public seed enterprise is hastening production of BL-1473 to make the seed available to farmers.

A new study reports on the extensive use and benefits of CIMMYT wheat.

The advantage is clear: the use of CIMMYT wheat creates enormous benefits for those who grow them. Even by conservative estimates, every US $1 invested in wheat research by CIMMYT generates at least US $50 for those involved in growing CIMMYT-related wheats. According to the publication, Impacts of International Wheat Breeding Research in the Developing World, 1988-2002, farmers sowed CIMMYT-improved varieties on 62 million hectares in 2002.

“This report reaffirms the major contributions of CIMMYT wheat around the world, including areas of smallholder, resource-poor farmers,” says John Dixon, director of CIMMYT’s Impacts Targeting and Assessment Program. Farmers in developing countries yield 14 million more tons of wheat per year because of international wheat breeding research. In addition, 80% of wheat grown in developing countries has CIMMYT wheat in its family tree.

Because this report documents the successful adoption of modern wheat lines, policy-makers will be able to assess progress and set priorities for future research investment. Its conclusions support those found in two earlier studies, and the coverage extends to include many countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, more than 75% of wheat marketed by private companies has CIMMYT ancestry. Widespread adoption of CIMMYT lines reflects the extensive use of partnerships and networks with other breeding programs to reach farmers with relevant varieties. This adoption and the subsequent higher on-farm yields generate enormous benefits for farmers, enhancing their food security and livelihoods (see box)—a central part of CIMMYT’s mission.

Check out our website to order this publication and click here to view a research summary of this report. (PDF)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 11, November 2005

CIMMYT-Nepal makes progress against a disease in wheat that disguises itself as drought.

CIMMYT and partners in Nepal have identified new sources of genetic resistance to a disease that makes wheat plants looks as though they have been through a drought. The symptoms of foliar blight result from fungal infections, either spot blotch or the less well-known but related tan spot. These pathogens dry the wheat plant and shrivel grain. In the warm areas of South Asia, that appearance can lead farmers to blame drought rather than an infection. By “knowing the enemy,” as CIMMYT partner Ram Sharma puts it, it is easier to win the fight against the disease.

CIMMYT pathologist Etienne Duveiller and Sharma, who have both done work on the pathogens, have found an effective method to select for resistance: finding wheat with a heavy grain weight, early maturity, and resistance to both pathogens. Wheat that carries these three traits together makes for wheat with higher resistance. Through regional collaborative trials in South Asia, they have bred and identified wheat lines that look promising. While better than anything previously seen in the area, these wheats can still suffer up to 35% yield losses—and have a huge impact on resource poor farmers who grow their wheat for food, as most do in Nepal.

When the temperature soars to 26-28°C, however, no wheat can resist the disease. This is why it is so important to find wheat that matures early to avoid the abrupt rise in temperature accompanied by hot winds in late March and April. This becomes difficult as most farmers in the region are delayed planting wheat as they wait for their rice harvest to finish and the paddies to dry up.

In addition to genetic resistance, solutions can come in the form of good management. Surface seeding, when seed is broadcast on the mud directly after the rice harvest, allows earlier planting and gives the wheat crop a jump start on the heat. Crop rotation and soil nutrients are important because healthy soils help the crop resist the disease. Also, Duveiller and Sharma have found that wheat is better able to withstand the disease with proper soil moisture.

The CIMMYT-Nepal team expects that these new sources of resistance, coupled with good management practices, will limit the destructiveness of this disease. They know it can be done—foliar blight has already been substantially reduced in areas of South Asia such as Bangladesh through better wheat varieties. The challenge is to sustain progressive control of this threat across the warm wheat growing areas of South Asia.

For further information, contact Etienne Duveiller (e.duveiller@cgiar.org) or Ram Sharma (sharmar@cimmyt.exch.cgiar.org).

June, 2004

The densely populated Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia is highly dependent on agriculture and extremely poor, but significant tracts of agricultural land is under-used. Can it be made productive?

In the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains, more than 300 million people live on less than 35 million hectares. They depend on that land for food, employment, and income. Most farm households produce rice in rotation with wheat, but to reduce the risk of losses in a region where the climate can seesaw from extreme drought to heavy flooding in the same year, they also plant a variety of other crops. A lack of tillage options and appropriate planting techniques has been a major obstacle for these under-used but potentially productive lands.

Farmer management practices and environmental and social conditions all contribute to land under-use and low productivity. Heavy rains, residual moisture from the last crop, poor drainage systems, insufficient irrigation water, alkaline or saline soils, and a lack of alternative cropping practices often make it challenging for farmers to plant winter season crops on time or plant any crops at all.. Some conditions simply exacerbate the problem. For example, in Uttar Pradesh, an estimated 1.2 million hectares are not used because of a high buildup of salts.

In India, the impoverished Ballia District in Uttar Pradesh is representative of conditions throughout the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains. Most land is used for the main economic activity: agriculture. The farming community comprises small-scale and marginal agricultural enterprises that support a large number of landless laborers. Ninety percent of the population lives in rural areas. Cropping systems anchored by rice and wheat occupy most arable land.

Mapping and Understanding Land Use Patterns

A recently completed study by Parvesh Chandna and colleagues used remote sensing and GIS methodology to estimate and map the area of under-used land in Ballia District. The study, “Increasing the Productivity of Underutilized Lands by Targeting Resource Conserving Technologies – a GIS / Remote Sensing Approach,” was sponsored by the Asian Development Bank as one component of the project on “Sustaining the Rice Wheat Production Systems of Asia.” It is a collaboration between CIMMYT and the Rice-Wheat Consortium.

Chandra and his colleagues incorporated satellite images from four different dates that showed land-use patterns in farmers’ fields over time. The time-series satellite data helped to identify areas sown to wheat / barley and rice and to distinguish land in different ways, such as land that was planted late, left fallow, was waterlogged, or was saline. Using GIS tools, researchers aligned the images within the same geographic coordinates to accurately overlay spatial layers such as administrative boundaries. They also looked at in situ field observations and soil samples to ensure that satellite-derived information was accurate.

Chandna and his colleagues estimated that the area of under-used land during 2001-02 was about 76,000 hectares, or 27% of the cultivable area. Late planting was a big problem, particularly with wheat. Experiments have shown that timely wheat planting could increase production by up to one ton per hectare on average, with no additional inputs or changes. In Ballia, this practice could potentially increase wheat production by as much as 75,000 tons. Using these methods, researchers accurately and cost-effectively characterized five major land types that are not reaching their full potential.

More Appropriate Practices

More efficient use of land and other resources could turn one of the poorest regions of South Asia into a granary and help meet future requirements for food and income, but only if researchers know which farmers need which kinds of technology. Information from the Ballia study will allow researchers to match land-use characteristics with agricultural technologies and make land more productive.

Traditional tillage practices often delay planting in excessively wet or waterlogged soils, and sub-optimal management practices often fail to capitalize on limited water resources. Resource-conserving technologies such as zero tillage, surface seeding, and bed planting could help increase production and reduce costs on under-used land throughout the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Zero or reduced tillage for growing wheat after rice has been catching on fast in the region and is helping farmers increase productivity and reduce fallow land area. This crop planting system causes minimal soil disturbance by eliminating preparatory tillage such as plowing or harrowing. The reduction in land preparation time permits timely sowing of winter season crops, plus it allows optimal use of available soil moisture. There are also significant cost reductions and environmental benefits through reduced diesel consumption.

Furrow-irrigated raised bed planting technology allows farmers to intensify crops and saves costs on irrigation water. Farmers use the raised beds to grow crops and the furrows, where they sometimes plant an intercrop, for irrigation. In addition to being highly water-efficient, research has shown that bed systems offer major advantages for saline or sodic soils.

The simplest zero tillage option is surface seeding. Farmers just spread seed on excessively wet soil, on top of crop residues and without any land preparation. The practice is especially suitable for areas that have fine soils and poor drainage or where land preparation is difficult. An evaluation of soil moisture and seeding at the correct time is critical to its success. Surface seeding allows timely sowing in areas where planting machinery is not available, and it saves costs on labor, fuel, and tillage. Even the poorest farmers can adopt this practice.

These technologies could raise productivity in a sustainable manner and improve livelihoods for resource-poor farmers. However, effective promotion requires a well-organized database with information about the distribution of land types and problematic areas. Thanks to this study, scientists have a clearer picture of the problems, their location, and their relative importance. They have a much better idea of where technologies should be targeted to improve land use in a sustainable way for poor communities in the Eastern Indo Gangetic Plains. There are currently plans to scale-up the methodologies developed in this pilot study to cover an expanded area.

For information: Parvesh Chandna

December, 2004

Saving grain from hungry pests can significantly improve the food security and livelihoods of farm households in the developing world’s poorest areas.

Even if poor farmers have a good maize harvest, many who live in humid environments and do not have effective storage containers face significant grain losses in the following months. Grain can suffer 80% damage and 20% weight loss within six months after harvest in Mexico’s harsh tropical environments, where grain-damaging insects thrive, according to CIMMYT entomologist David Bergvinson. “Two major pests in Africa—maize weevil and larger grain borer—can consume as much as 15% of a harvest in a few months,” says Bergvinson. Working on reducing storage losses is one way that he and other CIMMYT scientists target impoverished areas, increasing food security and allowing farmers to enter grain markets when prices are favorable.

Participatory Breeding to Foil Weevils

There are several ways to lessen grain damage. Farmers can remove infested grain and thoroughly clean storage facilities to eliminate insects before storing new grain. Improved grain storage technologies, such as silos, also help. Finally, scientists can breed maize to be more insect resistant with tighter husks or harder kernels. “With resistance as an inherent part of seed, farmers can cut back on the use of noxious pesticides,” says Bergvinson.

Working to breed hardier maize, Bergvinson crossed farmers’ varieties in Mexico with insect-resistant and drought-tolerant CIMMYT varieties and returned the seed to farmers for planting in mid-2004. Researchers also planted these crosses on farms near CIMMYT research stations to evaluate their performance, to make controlled pollinations, and to compare farmers’ selections with their own. “Our ultimate goal is to increase the genetic diversity of landraces with resistance to production constraints identified by farmers,” says Bergvinson. Farmers most often asked for drought and weevil resistance to be added to their landraces.

Targeting Peaks of Poverty

Bergvinson and his associates are working with 54 farmer varieties for lowland tropical areas of Mexico and 36 for higher altitudes (1,200-1,800 meters above sea level). It is in many of these hill zones where poverty and maize-bean subsistence farming go hand in hand. The methods applied could have relevance for smallholder maize farmers in other parts of Latin America and in Africa.

In preparation for extending their efforts to reach more of the poor, the researchers have also sampled farmer varieties in eight Mexican locations identified in a recent CIMMYT study (see Maps Unearth New Insights for Research to Help the Poor) as having a high concentration of the poor. “We’re working with farmers in these areas to improve their varieties for traits they identify, such as resistance to storage pests and, in hill zones, stronger roots and stems so that plants don’t fall over in strong winds,” Bergvinson says. The researchers are also taking care to maintain other traits that farmers value. One example in lowland areas is the long husks that farmers remove and sell as wrapping for the popular Mexican dish known as “tamales.” In some communities, husks for this purpose are worth more than the grain (see Rural Mexico and Free Trade: Coping with a Landscape of Change).

Global Science to Protect Grain

Bergvinson belongs to a worldwide community of researchers applying science at all levels to develop pest-resistant maize. “A small but noticeable renaissance in the use of resistant varieties to minimize storage losses is taking place worldwide, especially for ecologies where storage infrastructure doesn’t exist,” says Bergvinson. He says researchers have made significant progress in understanding the biochemical, biophysical, and genetic bases for resistance, among other things to ensure the traits satisfy consumer demands. Such traits are being “mapped” using DNA technology to confirm their role in resistance and to identify the genes involved. “The real potential of this technology will be felt in developing countries,” Bergvinson explains. “The resistance is packaged in the seed and designed to ensure that farmers have the option to recycle seed, a practice common to small-scale farmers.”

For more information: d.bergvinson@cgiar.org

In a recent New York Times article, journalist Justin Gillis reports on the planet’s looming threat of climate change, agriculture’s monumental challenge, and how CIMMYT is working diligently to mitigate these global hurdles.

The article, which appeared in the 05 June 2011 print edition, reports from CIMMYT’s Ciudad Obregón station where wheat variety testing takes priority. As one of the four staple crops that constitute most human calories, wheat production is crucial to ensuring global food security; a task that is becoming more difficult amid growing populations, a changing climate, and the depletion of natural resources, according to Gillis.

“There is just such a tremendous disconnect, with the people not understanding the highly dangerous situation we are in,” CIMMYT’s deputy chief Marianne Banzinger told Gillis.

Furthermore, food shortages do not just affect the population going to bed hungry. Gillis states that food shortages can and do lead to political unrest, citing past turmoil in Haiti and the recent political destabilization in Arab countries. But not all hope is lost, as many agricultural scientists and experts believe that sustainably increasing global agricultural production is feasible.

“It may be possible to make more productive and resilient in the face of climate change,” Gillis reports. “But how?” you might be wondering – through the introduction of new agronomical techniques and new varieties resistant to climate strains, such as heat and water stress, and new pests.

Read the entire article available on nytimes.com.