May, 2004

In the next 25 years, a very large share of the additional wheat needed to feed the rising population in developing countries will come from intensive farming systems. It is more important than ever to learn how to reduce the impact of intensive agriculture on the environment while ensuring that those systems can supply much-needed food in the years to come.

One such system is the Yaqui Valley in northwestern Mexico, site of CIMMYT’s main wheat research station. “Because of its location—between the ocean and a mountain range—the Valley serves as an ideal laboratory for investigating the long-term effects of intensive farming on neighboring ecosystems,” comments David Lobell, a Stanford University researcher collaborating with CIMMYT. “These effects have regional implications—for example, for the Sea of Cortes and adjacent ecosystems—as well as global consequences, since they contribute to global warming and, ultimately, climate change.”

Remote sensing by NASA satellites, started in 1999 as part of the CIMMYT/Stanford University collaborative study, is a new way of studying farming activities in the Valley. Forty percent of the wheat produced in the developing world comes from irrigated environments resembling the environment in the Valley. Because of this similarity, investigations conducted in the Valley have applications far beyond it, particularly in the intensive production systems of South Asia, which feed billions of people.

The Latest Applications of Remote Sensing in the Valley

The Yaqui Valley can be thought of as a large experimental field, made up of individual farmers’ fields. These farmers can be divided into three groups. Some plant wheat too early, others plant it on time, and others plant it too late. During each cropping cycle, researchers use remote sensing to make thousands of observations across the whole Valley and determine how different sowing dates affect wheat yields. This procedure is more effective than establishing a trial specifically to test the effects of different planting dates at a research station.

Based on the resulting information, CIMMYT researchers have calculated that in bad years, when temperatures are high and water is scarce, late planting causes yield losses worth about US$ 10 million in the Valley. “This information comes just in time for wheat farmers, who can adjust their sowing dates and cope better with the intense drought we’ve had in the Valley for the past eight years,” says Ortiz-Monasterio.

In good years, when there is enough water and cool temperatures, the effect of late sowing on wheat yields is either negligible or nil. Nonetheless, data on when most farmers sow their wheat are potentially useful to decision makers, who, based on these data, could ensure that credit and irrigation water are available to producers when they are ready to plant.

Remote sensing is also being used for tracking nitrogen derivatives that are released into the atmosphere or leached into the soil with irrigation water. Currently several Stanford professors are leading teams that study the effect of irrigation water that flows from the Yaqui Valley into the Sea of Cortes, about 20 km away. They are observing the increases in the algae bloom and/or the plankton in the Sea, and so far the increases seem to coincide with the outflow of irrigation water from the Valley. If this finding is confirmed, recommendations need to be made to Valley farmers that would allow them to reduce their nitrogen fertilizer applications.

In years past, CIMMYT wheat agronomists have worked out strategies that could dramatically reduce the amount of fertilizer applied to wheat without affecting yields. For example, farmers could reduce nitrogen applications by more than 30% if they apply less fertilizer exactly at the time when the crop starts pulling nitrogen from the soil. Currently farmers apply nitrogen with irrigation water, weeks before wheat is actually sown. This practice causes nearly 35% of the nitrogen to be lost through gas emissions and leaching before the crop is even in the ground.

Sensing Plants’ Nutrient Needs

Another way of fine-tuning fertilizer applications is to use an electronic sensor that is held over the wheat crop by a technician walking through the field. The sensor detects which plants need fertilizer and allows farmers to apply the exact amount of nitrogen at the right time, thereby reducing waste and farmers’ production costs. But, most importantly, this practice would reduce the amount of unused nitrogen that leaches through the soil and into the Sea of Cortes with the outflow of irrigation water. “Because individual farmers cannot afford to have their own sensors, we envision that district representatives in the Valley could offer this detection service to farmers districts every crop cycle,” comments Ortiz-Monasterio.

For more information, contact Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio.

November, 2004

The Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project was launched in 1999 with the primary goal of increasing maize production and food security for African farmers through the development and deployment of improved maize varieties that provide high resistance to insects, particularly stem borers. To achieve this goal, KARI and CIMMYT scientists will identify conventional and novel sources of stem borer resistance and incorporate them into maize varieties that are well suited to Kenyan growing conditions and to farmer and consumer preferences. Major funding for the project is provided by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

A revised project plan for IRMA II, geared to better address regulatory issues related to Bt maize and to enhance project management, was released in October 2004, the culmination of months of intensive planning meetings and workshops. “In the course of implementation of IRMA II it became clear that the regulatory issues were not exhaustively covered in the original project plan,” explains IRMA Project Manager Stephen Mugo. The need to more thoroughly address regulatory issues (through the assembly of regulatory dossiers) emerged full force as field testing and eventual release of Bt maize in Kenya became more imminent.

In June 2004, consultant Willy De Greef provided IRMA parties with an overview of regulatory issues related to transgenic crops. At that special IRMA Steering Committee meeting, a working group was established to formulate and oversee IRMA II strategies for fulfilling regulatory regimens. Appointed to the group were B. Odhiambo (KARI), S. Mugo (CIMMYT), J.K. Ng’eno (MOA), and F. Nang’ayo (Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service [KEPHIS]). Dr. Simon Gichuki (KARI) was appointed to be the IRMA Project Internal Regulator.

To get the ball rolling, five scientists were designated to attend an intensive two-week course on regulatory issues and processes, conducted in August at Ghent University, Belgium. The scientists were involved in either IRMA II or regulatory processes: A. Pellegrineschi and S. Mugo (CIMMYT), M. Mulaa and S. Gichuki (KARI), and R. Onamu (KEPHIS). On the heels of the regulatory workshop, a two-day workshop to develop, plan and incorporate regulatory activities in the IRMA II project plan was held in Nairobi in September 2004. Twenty-one participants from seven institutions attended the workshop: KARI, CIMMYT, KEPHIS, National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and International Biotech Regulatory Services. The objectives of the meeting were to (1) update the status of Bt maize in IRMA project; (2) identify information needed for a dossier on Bt genes to be deployed by the project;(3) determine sources of the needed information and identify gaps to be filled through research; (4) determine activities needed to fill the gaps, including resources and assigning responsibilities; and (5) update the IRMA II project plan, specifically on regulatory issues. After agreeing on the components of a regulatory package, the team split up into working groups and identified the required information, and developed activities over time, including budgets and responsibilities. Subsequently, a small task group incorporated the regulatory strategies into the project plan and created a revised structure for IRMA II. Ten themes were recommended:

• Bt maize event, development of Bt source line, and human health safety assessment
• Development of conventional and Bt products and compositional analysis
• Environmental impact assessment
• Insect resistance management and contingency plans
• Regulatory issues and requirements
• IPR/licensing
• Seed production
• Market assessment and analysis
• Economic impact assessment
• Communication/promotion (public awareness, media relations, extension)

Each theme is interdisciplinary and involves a team of entomologists, biotechnologists, breeders, economists, communications experts, IP counsels, extension officers, policymakers, regulatory officials, and most importantly, Kenyan farmers. The first testing of Bt maize source lines will be in the biosafety greenhouse complex in 2004 and in the field in 2005. OPVs will be pre-released in 2010, with large-scale release in 2011. Hybrids will follow a year behind OPVs. In developing the project plan, probabilities of success and risks, and contingency measures were identified. Milestones were set, against which progress will be measured. These fall in four broad categories: (1) facilities and permits; (2) breeding; (3) environmental safety assessments; and (4) socioeconomic impacts. Dispersal of funds by Syngenta Foundation will take these milestones into account.

To actualize the milestones and objectives, a new project management structure was developed. Under the new scheme, an Executive Committee (EC) composed of KARI, CIMMYT, Syngenta Foundation, MOA, and The Rockefeller Foundation directors, and CIMMYT African Livelihoods Program director was established with overall responsibility for the project. The position of Project Manager was instituted and given overall responsibility for the projects day-to-day activities and oversight, and reporting to the EC. An advisory board of experts from the public and private sectors will be appointed by the EC to provide expertise in their respective areas and to monitor progress on the project plan. A project management team, composed of the 10 project theme leaders, will hold quarterly meetings and report monthly to the project manager.

The five-year budget for the project is approximately USD 6,670,000. Although the Syngenta Foundation will be the principal development partner, The Rockefeller Foundation will provide support for seed issues. Other potential donors will be approached to provide support for one or more of the specific outputs of the project. Collectively, these development partners, together with those involved with IRMA I, and especially the farmers of Kenya, will work to ensure that the products needed by the farmers of the nation and sub-Saharan Africa actually reach them.

In a determined effort to shield consumers against food price volatility, the government of Ecuador has renewed its investment in food crop research, including a vigorous program to restore wheat production and reduce the nation’s perilous dependence on imported grain.

The mild irony of putting on a festival to release a drought-tolerant wheat variety after days of unseasonably rainy weather was not lost on Esteban Falconí and Jorge Coronel of Ecuador’s National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIAP). They could not have imagined a more fitting demonstration of the “crazy climate” that has emerged in recent years, altering the long-established weather patterns that govern the cropping season.

In the days before the variety launch, held on 15 July in the Saraguro area of Loja Province, Falconí, who leads INIAP’s cereals program, and Coronel, who heads up the program’s work in southern Ecuador, worried about the bad weather’s real and immediate consequences. Occurring at harvest time (which should have been accompanied by clear skies and intense heat), it threatened to spoil the grain in experimental plots and wreak havoc on farmers’ harvests of wheat, barley, and other crops. The rain also posed a hazard to INIAP’s carefully orchestrated release event.

As luck would have it, the morning of the event, the rains ceased and the harsh Andean sun shown brightly, not only reducing the risk of crop damage but also ensuring that researchers, farmers, political leaders, and other invitees could fittingly celebrate the official arrival of the new wheat, INIAP Vivar 2010 (named after scientist Hugo Vivar). It is among the first products of a campaign launched in 2008 to renew Ecuador’s diminished wheat production.

A posthumous tribute Deviating just this once from their custom of naming wheat varieties after Ecuador’s highest mountains, researchers dubbed their latest release ‘INIAP Vivar 2010’ in honor of the late Hugo Vivar. He worked as a barley breeder for 16 years with the International Center for Agriculture in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which posted him at CIMMYT to serve the Latin American region. Subsequently, CIMMYT employed Vivar for another 9 years. A native of Ecuador’s Loja Province, Vivar spent brief periods during his childhood at the family farm in Saraguro. One of the farmers attending an event held to release the new wheat variety recalled that her mother had been one of his playmates. As a scientist, Vivar returned to Saraguro often, helping design a long-term project in collaboration with INIAP, which confronted with remarkable success problems that have kept agricultural productivity low and rural poverty high in this remote mountainous region.

Having tested Vivar for several years in their own plots, farmers attending the event knew that it would bring higher yields of good-quality grain and offer a buffer against increasingly common drought, another sign of the crazy new climate.

A hole in the food basket
Planted in small plots on steep mountain slopes, Saraguro’s wheat and barley crops appear in the distance like yellow stamps stuck on huge crumpled sheets of green and brown paper.

Against that backdrop, INIAP’s release event celebrated both a new agricultural technology and southern Ecuador’s vibrant rural life. Speeches, displays, and an outdoor banquet drew attention to the new wheat as well as to the region’s rich popular culture, passionate politics, deep religious faith and hard-working people.

Despite the event’s local flavor, it had far-reaching repercussions, including creating public awareness (partly through mass media coverage) of a new technology that represents concrete and rapid progress in an ambitious plan to revive Ecuador’s wheat production.

The plan forms part of this country’s decisive response to the global food price crisis of 2008. Across the developing world, the crisis showed how quickly food security can deteriorate, aggravating the plight of millions of poor and reflecting fundamental weaknesses in the global food system which had been overlooked for years.

In Ecuador, the crisis revealed one gaping hole in an otherwise sturdy basket of staple foods. The country is self-sufficient in rice and produces abundant supplies of beans, cassava, maize, and potatoes. However, Ecuador imports nearly all of its wheat for bread, which figures importantly in the diets of rural and urban consumers alike.

“When wheat prices spiked in 2008, Ecuador’s government cushioned the blow by temporarily subsidizing imported wheat at great cost,” explains Julio César Delgado, INIAP’s director general. Well aware of the flaws in such a policy, he says, government policy makers, at the prompting of president Rafael Correa, sought INIAP’s help in formulating a plan to revitalize wheat production and reduce the country’s excessive dependence on the international wheat market.

Resilient wheat for a rugged environment

INIAP itself had suggested such action many times before, but the message had always fallen on deaf ears. Shaken by the 2008 food crisis, the government took the initiative this time, setting out realistic goals and providing about USD 4.3 million over 5 years for intensified wheat research and promotion.

The central aim of the new initiative is to expand Ecuador’s wheat area to about 50,000 hectares, enough to satisfy at least 30% of domestic demand. That would be up from just 3% currently covered by local production. This assumes that farmers will adopt new varieties and apply adequate quantities of fertilizer, for which they will receive credit on reasonable terms.

“A major challenge will be to produce and provide enough improved seed,” says Walter Larriva, director of an INIAP experiment station near the city of Cuenca. The new funding will help, and so will INIAP’s years of experience in helping establish farmer seed production groups, he explains.

Less than two years after the 2008 decision to renew Ecuador’s wheat research and production, INIAP is already releasing improved varieties, including Vivar for southern Ecuador and San Jacinto (released later in July, along with a new barley variety) for the country’s central and northern zones. Those are the first wheat varieties to be released in Ecuador since the early 1990s, when Cojitambo became available. Much of the country’s limited wheat area is planted to that and older varieties.

Vivar is far more resilient than its predecessors under rugged conditions, offering a consistent yield advantage of about 80%. Based on a line developed by CIMMYT and named Berkut, it was introduced into Ecuador during 2003. Vivar’s good tolerance to drought probably comes from a line in its pedigree that resulted from crosses made at CIMMYT between domesticated wheat and related wild species. The excellent performance of the new variety bodes well for INIAP’s initiative to reduce Ecuador’s dependence on imported wheat, but it could generate further benefits as well.

One of the farmers present at the release, Patricio Ordóñez, describes how he invested extra income from improved wheat in the production of high-value tropical fruits. Ordóñez is one of more than a dozen community leaders trained under a project carried out jointly by INIAP and CIMMYT in Saraguro from 1995 to 2008, with the aim of reducing rural poverty through more diverse and sustainable agricultural systems.

A renaissance of research results
INIAP was able to release Vivar and San Jacinto so soon after the start of the new national wheat initiative for two reasons. One was CIMMYT’s unswerving support for local wheat research even during its time of relative dormancy in Ecuador. If that service had ceased, INIAP’s new wheat team would have been forced to start essentially from scratch, adding many years to the process of variety development.

Just as important was the government’s decision in the wake of the food crisis to thoroughly refurbish INIAP’s research infrastructure as well as to hire and train dozens more scientists and technicians.

“Many years of neglect,” says Delgado, “had left our facilities in a poor state and had undermined the ability and motivation of our scientists to deliver results.” As director general, Delgado’s main achievement was to restore what he refers to as “la mística del trabajo” (or work ethic), leading to a renaissance of research results, as demonstrated by Vivar and other new varieties.

Segundo Ceballos, who worked in INIAP’s barley and wheat plots for more than four decades, is very happy about the new varieties and the wheat research revival. For they vindicate years of struggle to keep a central pillar of his country’s food security from falling.

For further information: Hans Braun, director, global wheat program (h.braun@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 8, August 2008

Work by CIMMYT with researchers, extension workers, policymakers, and farmers in Bangladesh for nearly four decades has helped establish wheat and maize among the country’s major cereal crops, made farming systems more productive and sustainable, improved food security and livelihoods, and won ringing praise from national decision makers in agriculture, according to a recent report published by CIMMYT.

“CIMMYT is one of the leading centers of the CGIAR …working in Bangladesh since the early 70s…initiating multi-dimensional work for varietal improvement, improved crop management, conservation of natural resources, and human resource development,” says Dr. Md. Nur-E-Elahi, Director General, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, citing the center’s contributions to the development of high-yielding maize and wheat varieties, wheat-rice and maize-rice systems, whole-family training, small-scale farm mechanization for conservation agriculture, and triticale (a wheat-rye hybrid) for fodder. “CIMMYT’s contributions to agricultural research and development in Bangladesh are highly recognized.”

Building capacity among scientists and farm families More than 140 Bangladeshi wheat and maize scientists and extensionists have taken part in courses at CIMMYT-Mexico or come as visiting scientists in crop breeding, agronomy, pathology, cereal technology, experiment station management, seed production, economics, heat stress, and resource conserving practices. Dozens of scientists from Bangladesh have also attended conferences or international workshops organized by the center and partners. Finally, joint efforts in crop, soil, and water management research over the last 20 years have added to expertise in Bangladesh.More often than not, women and children contribute substantively to farm activities, so CIMMYT and the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) developed and refined a whole-family-training approach that has boosted adoption of improved cropping practices. “We’ve reached over 27,000 women and men farmers on maize and wheat production, and around 700 small-scale dairy farmers,” says Anton Prokash Adhikari, CIMMYT-Bangladesh Administrator. Follow-up studies in 1996 among a randomly-selected subset of families who attended training sessions showed a 90-100% adoption of improved practices. After training, maize farmers adopted a range of improved production practices, planting the crop on more land and raising grain yields by 0.8 tons per hectare. “This type of training has raised the quality of farming in Bangladesh,” says Adhikari.

With an average of over 1,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, Bangladesh is among the world’s most densely-populated countries, and nearly two-thirds of its people work in agriculture. The country furnishes a case study for the future of farming in developing countries: as a result of intensive cropping rotations, every square centimeter of arable land is used 1.8 times a year, and resources are stretched beyond what is normally considered “sustainable.” A recent report on CIMMYT efforts in Bangladesh gives an interesting account of how, through broad partnerships and sustained research for farmers, an international agricultural center can help improve farmers and consumers’ lives.

Joint work brings food and windfalls

“The last quarter century of work by a small team of dedicated CIMMYT staff and their colleagues in Bangladesh national programs has brought improvements in local and national income, food security, human nutrition, and well-being,” says agronomist Stephen Waddington, who worked for CIMMYT in Bangladesh during 2005-2007. “This is easily seen by any visitor to Bangladesh, where nowadays many otherwise poor people regularly have wheat chapattis for their breakfast, a glass of milk from triticale fodder-fed cows for their lunch, and maize-fed chicken, eggs, or fish for their dinner.”

Bangladesh emerged on the map of significant wheat-growing countries in the 1980s, according to Waddington. “Wheat became the second major cereal after rice, contributing to food security and human nutrition, and improving the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers and urban consumers,” he says. “Nineteen of the twenty-four wheat varieties released in Bangladesh carry CIMMYT lines in their backgrounds.” Much crop management and soil research for wheat was conducted in joint Bangladesh Wheat Research Center (WRC)-CIMMYT programs.

With climate change, enter maize and alternative crops

After playing a crucial role in Bangladesh agriculture, wheat production has declined in recent years, due chiefly to higher temperatures that hamper grain filling and incubate wheat diseases. But maize has become increasingly popular, partly in response to rising demand from the poultry sector for feed. “Last year farmers produced 1.3 million tons of maize, and output and interest are growing ,” says Enamul Haque, Senior Program Officer for CIMMYT-Bangladesh. “Maize fits well in Bangladesh’s climate, soils, and intensive farming systems.”

Again, CIMMYT has helped in a big way, providing improved maize lines adapted to local conditions, offering expertise in hybrid-based maize breeding and crop management research, helping to promote dialogue on enabling policies that foster productivity and effective markets. “Six out of the seven maize hybrids released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, in recent years contain CIMMYT maize lines, and there is significant use of CIMMYT maize by emerging private breeding companies,” says Haque.

Finally, in recent years, triticale has become a source of high-quality green fodder for small-scale dairy producers during the cool, dry, winter season. “Dual-purpose fodder and grain triticale can produce 7 to 12 tons per hectare of fresh fodder, and as much as 2 tons per hectare of grain for poultry feed or for chapattis,” says Haque. All triticale varieties sown in Bangladesh come from CIMMYT.

Mechanization and resource-conserving practices

Within the last decade or so, agriculture in Bangladesh has become highly-mechanized: 8 of 10 farmers use two-wheel tractors, which are more apt for their small and scattered land holdings than the four-wheel variety. Since 1995, Haque has worked with the WRC and local organizations to promote a varied set of implements for reduced, more efficient tillage and seeding. One key aim has been to enable farmers to sow wheat or other crops directly after rice harvest in a single day—instead of after two weeks of back-breaking, fuel-hungry plowing—thus saving money and allowing the new crop to mature before the pre-monsoon heat shrivels the grain.

“To date thousands of farmers have adopted a small, two-wheel tractor-driven implement that tills, seeds, and covers the seed in a single pass,” says Haque. “This reduces turn-around between crops by 50%, cuts costs 15-20%, saves 30% in irrigation water and 25% in seed, and improves fertilizer efficiency—all this, as well as increasing yields by 20%, for wheat.” Owners of the single-pass seeding implement often hire out their services, earning USD 1,000-2,000 a year and each helping 20-100 other farmers to obtain the above-mentioned benefits. In addition, the reduced tillage implement and practices help address labor shortages that constrain farm operations at peak times, and are opening lucrative opportunities for machinery manufacturing and repair businesses.

For the future, CIMMYT staff are testing and promoting with researchers and farmers the use of permanent, raised beds and straw retention systems that can increase yields as much as 50% in intensive, wheat-maize-rice cropping sequences. Future activities of CIMMYT-Bangladesh will also focus on strengthening wheat and maize breeding programs, system-based research and resource-conserving practices, and the use of maize as food, fodder, and feed. “We’d also like to do more capacity building, study soil health and nutrition, and better disseminate useful technologies to farmers and extension agents,” Haque says, “but much depends on the resources available.”

Extensive partnerships key to past and future success

“CIMMYT has worked with national programs, NGOs, the private sector, farmers, donors, and policy planners,” says Md. Harun-ur-Rashid, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, and Director General, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute. “These joint programs have accumulated an impressive array of achievements and benefits.”

In addition to the key partners cited above, CIMMYT has worked with agricultural universities in Bangladesh, the Department of Agricultural Extension, the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, the Soil Resource Development Institute, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the Bangladesh Chashi Kollan Samity, the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, Deoel Agro Industries Complex Ltd., and the Mahbub Engineering Workshop at Jamalpur. IRRI; ILRI; ICRISAT; IFDC; FAO; Murdoch University, ACIAR, and CSIRO, in Australia; Cornell University, Texas A&M University, Winrock International, and the Helen Keller Foundation, USDA, in the USA.

For more information: Enamul Haque, Senior Program Manager, CIMMYT-Bangladesh (e.haque@cgiar.org)

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

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)