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Women in agriculture mechanization in Bangladesh

Written by Nur-A-Mahajabin Khan on . Posted in Features.

Agriculture mechanization in Bangladesh connects local manufacturers of machinery parts (which is mainly done by the country’s light engineering industry) and the operation of those machines, generally run by machinery solution providers. These two workforces are equally male-dominated. The reasons behind this are social norms, and family and community preconceptions, coupled with the perception that women cannot handle heavy machinery. But a deeper look into this sector shows us a different reality, where many women are working enthusiastically as part of agriculture mechanization.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is supporting women to work in light engineering workshops, and to become entrepreneurs by providing machinery solutions to farmers.

Painting her own dream

Rokeya Begum, 39, has been working in Uttara Metal Industries for three and half years, clearing up and assisting her male colleagues in paint preparation. All this time, she wanted to be the one doing the painting.

Begum was one of the 30 young women from Bogura, Northern Bangladesh, recently trained by CIMMYT through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Mechanization Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA). They learnt various aspects of the painting trade and related operational techniques, such as mixing colors, the difference between primer and topcoats, and health and safety in the workplace.

Now the focus is on job creation for women in the sector. CIMMYT has initiated discussions with established enterprises to recruit women as painters in their workshops, with all the benefits of their male counterparts.

Having completed painting training, Begum practices spray painting for an hour every day. Her employer is happy with her finished work and plans to promote her to the position of painter. Begum says, “I’m so happy to have learned a new technique — plus I really enjoy the work.” Her current pay of $12 per week will increase by 50% when she starts her new job.

Alongside training, this mechanization activity is working to create a decent and safe working environment for women, including adequate, private and safe spaces, such as bathrooms and places to take breaks.

Seedling of an entrepreneur

For the first time ever, in the last monsoon aman rice cultivation season, Kulsum Akter, 30, earned $130, by selling rice seedlings she had grown to be planted out by mechanical rice transplanters. Two years ago, Akter’s husband Md. Abdul Motaleb bought a rice transplanter with the assistance of a government subsidy from the Government of Bangladesh’s Department of Agricultural Extension. While he invested $5,000 in the machine, his skills in operating it were sub-par.

Supported by the USAID-funded Feed the Future Bangladesh Mechanization and Extension Activity, Motaleb was trained in mechanized rice transplanter operation by a private company, The Metal Pvt. Ltd.

Akter was in turn trained in special techniques for growing seedlings so they can be planted out using a rice transplanting machine. CIMMYT then provided technical and business guidance to this husband-and-wife duo, enabling them to embark confidently on a strong business venture. Key training topics included growing mat-type seedlings for machines, business management, cost-benefit analysis, product promotion and business expansion concepts. Motaleb went on to provide mechanical transplanting services to other farmers in the locality.

Meanwhile, Akter was inspired to take the lead in preparing seedlings as a business venture to sell to farmers who use mechanical rice transplanters. Akter invested $100 in the last aman season, by the end of which she had earned $230 by selling the seedlings in just one month. This success has encouraged her to prepare seedlings for many more farmers during the winter rice production season. “The training in rice transplanter operation and seedling preparation was a gift for us. I’m trying to get more women into this business — and I’m pretty optimistic about it,” Akter says. Through the Mechanization and Extension Activity, CIMMYT aims to create more than 100 women entrepreneurs like Akter who will contribute to the mechanization of agriculture through their work as service providers.

CSISA-MEA’s work increases women’s capacity to work in the agricultural mechanization sector and manage machinery-based businesses through technical and business training. Through opportunities like these, more women like Begum and Akter will be enabled to achieve self-sufficiency and contribute to the development of this sector.

Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia Mechanization Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA) is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Feed the Future initiative.

Cover photo: The CSISA-MEA project increases women’s capacity to work in the agricultural mechanization sector, therefore achieving self-sufficiency. (Abdul Momin/CIMMYT)

Farmer Anita Naik stands for a photograph next to her maize field. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)

It’s Rural Women’s Day, from dawn to dusk

Written by Nima Chodon on . Posted in Features.

Over 70% of rural women in India are engaged in agriculture. Women carry out a large portion of farm work, as cultivators and agricultural laborers, but in most cases they are not even counted and recognized as farmers. Millions of Indian rural women also carry the burden of domestic work, a job that is undervalued and unrecognized economically.

On the International Day of Rural Women, October 15, the focus is on their contributions to growing food and feeding families. The often invisible hands of rural women play a pivotal role in food security and sustaining rural communities.

Today, we have a glimpse at the daily life of farmer Anita Naik.

She hails from the village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state, surrounded by small hills and the lush greenery of Simlipal National Park.

Naik belongs to a tribal community that has long lived off the land, through farming and livestock rearing. Smallholder farmers like her grow rice, maize and vegetables in traditional ways — intensive labor and limited yield — to ensure food for their families.

Married at a young age, Naik has a son and a daughter. Her husband and her son are daily-wage laborers, but the uncertainty around their jobs and her husband’s chronic ill health means that she is mostly responsible for her family’s wellbeing. At 41, Naik’s age and her stoic expression belie her lifelong experience of hard work.

The small hours

Naik’s day begins just before dawn, a little past 4 a.m., with household chores. After letting out the livestock animals — goats, cows, chicken and sheep — for the day, she sweeps the house’s, the courtyard and the animal shed. She then lights the wood stove to prepare tea for herself and her family, who are slowly waking up to the sound of the crowing rooster. Helped by her young daughter, Naik feeds the animals and then washes the dirty dishes from the previous evening. Around 6:30 or 7 a.m., she starts preparing other meals.

During the lean months — the period between planting and harvesting — when farm work is not pressing, Naik works as a daily-wage worker at a fly ash brick factory nearby. She says the extra income helps her cover costs during emergencies. “[I find it] difficult to stay idle if I am not working on the farm,” she says. However, COVID-19 restrictions have affected this source of income for the family.

Once her morning chores are over, Naik works on her small plot of land next to her house. She cultivates maize and grows vegetables, primarily for household consumption.

Naik started growing maize only after joining a self-help group in 2014, which helped her and other women cultivate hybrid maize for commercial production on leased land. They were supported by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) maize intensification program.

Every year from June to October, Naik also work on this five-acre leased farmland, along with the other group members. She is involved from planting to harvest — and even in marketing.

“There are eleven women members in our self-help group, Biswa Jay Maa Tarini. Thanks to training, awareness and handholding by CSISA and partners, an illiterate like me is currently the president of our group,” said an emotional Anita Naik.

Anita Naik (first from left) meets with her self-help group Biswa Jay Maa Tarini in village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state. Together, they work on a five-acre lease land, where they grow maize commercially. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Anita Naik (first from left) meets with her self-help group Biswa Jay Maa Tarini in village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state. Together, they work on a five-acre lease land, where they grow maize commercially. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)

Not quite done yet

A little further away from her house, Naik has a small field where she grows rice with the help of her husband and son. After checking in on her maize crop on the leased land, Naik works in her paddy the rest of the day. She tends to her land diligently, intent on removing the weeds that keep springing up again and again in the monsoon season.

“It is back-breaking work, but I have to do it myself as I cannot afford to employ a laborer,” Naik laments.

Naik finally takes a break around 1 p.m. for lunch. Some days, particularly in the summer when exhaustion takes over, she takes a short nap before getting back to removing weeds in the rice fields.

She finally heads home around 4 p.m. At home, she first takes the animals back into their shed.

Around 6 p.m., she starts preparing for dinner. After dinner, she clears the kitchen and the woodstove before calling it a night and going to bed around 8 or 9 p.m.

“The day is short and so much still needs to be done at home and in the field,” Naik says after toiling from early morning until evening.

Tomorrow is a new day, but chores at home and the work in the fields continue for Naik and farmers like her.

Anita Naik lights up her wood fire stove to prepare food, at her family home in the village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Anita Naik lights up her wood fire stove to prepare food, at her family home in the village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)

Paradigm change

Traditionally farmers in and around Naik’s village cultivated paddy in their uplands for personal consumption only, leaving the land fallow for the rest of the year. Growing rice is quite taxing as paddy is a labor-intensive crop at sowing, irrigating, weeding and harvesting. With limited resources, limited knowledge and lack of appropriate machinery, yields can vary.

To make maximum use of the land all year through and move beyond personal consumption and towards commercial production, CIMMYT facilitated the adoption of maize cultivation. This turned out to be a gamechanger, transforming the livelihoods of women in the region and often making them the main breadwinner in their families.

In early 2012, through the CSISA project, CIMMYT began its sustainable intensification program in some parts of Odisha’s plateau region. During the initial phase, maize stood out as an alternative crop with a high level of acceptance, particularly among women farmers.

Soon, CIMMYT and its partners started working in four districts — Bolangir, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Nuapada — to help catalyze the adoption of maize production in the region. Farmers shifted from paddy to maize in uplands. At present, maize cultivation has been adopted by 7,600 farmers in these four districts, 28% of which are women.

CIMMYT, in partnership with state, private and civil society actors, facilitated the creation of maize producers’ groups and women self-help groups. Getting together, farmers can standardize grain quality control, aggregate production and sell their produce commercially to poultry feed mills.

This intervention in a predominantly tribal region significantly impacted the socioeconomic conditions of women involved in this project. Today, women like Anita Naik have established themselves as successful maize farmers and entrepreneurs.

See our coverage of the International Day of Rural Women.
See our coverage of the International Day of Rural Women.

Cover photo: Farmer Anita Naik stands for a photograph next to her maize field. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)

Wheat fields at CIMMYT's experimental stations near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora state, Mexico. (Photo: M. Ellis/CIMMYT)

Scientists bridge theory and practice to boost climate resilience in wheat

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Features.

With the past decade identified as the warmest on record and global temperatures predicted to rise by as much as 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels by 2050, the world’s staple food crops are increasingly under threat.

A new review published this month in the Journal of Experimental Botany describes how researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and collaborators are boosting climate resilience in wheat using powerful remote sensing tools, genomics and big data analysis. Scientists are combining multiple approaches to explore untapped diversity among wheat genetic resources and help select better parents and progeny in breeding.

The review — authored by a team of 25 scientists from CIMMYT, Henan Agricultural University, the University of Adelaide and the Wheat Initiative — also outlines how this research can be harnessed on a global level to further accelerate climate resilience in staple crops.

“An advantage of understanding abiotic stress at the level of plant physiology is that many of the same tools and methods can be applied across a range of crops that face similar problems,” said first author and CIMMYT wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds.

Abiotic stresses such as temperature extremes and drought can have devastating impacts on plant growth and yields, posing a massive risk to food security.

Harnessing research across a global wheat improvement network for climate resilience: research gaps, interactive goals, and outcomes.
Harnessing research across a global wheat improvement network for climate resilience: research gaps, interactive goals, and outcomes.

Addressing research gaps

The authors identified nine key research gaps in efforts to boost climate resilience in wheat, including limited genetic diversity for climate resilience, a need for smarter strategies for stacking traits and addressing the bottleneck between basic plant research and its application in breeding.

Based on a combination of the latest research advances and tried-and-tested breeding methods, the scientists are developing strategies to address these gaps. These include:

  • Using big data analysis to better understand stress profiles in target environments and design wheat lines with appropriate heat and drought adaptive traits.
  • Exploring wheat genetic resources for discovery of novel traits and genes and their use in breeding.
  • Accelerating genetic gains through selection techniques that combine phenomics with genomics.
  • Crowd-sourcing new ideas and technologies from academia and testing them in real-life breeding situations.

These strategies will be thoroughly tested at the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Network (HeDWIC) Hub under realistic breeding conditions and then disseminated to other wheat breeding programs around the world facing similar challenges.

One factor that strongly influences the success and acceleration of climate resilience technologies, according to Reynolds, is the gap between theoretical discovery research and crop improvement in the field.

“Many great ideas on how to improve climate-resilience of crops pile up in the literature, but often remain ‘on the shelf’ because the research space between theory and practice falls between the radar of academia on the one hand, and that of plant breeders on the other,” Reynolds explained.

Translational research — efforts to convert basic research knowledge about plants into practical applications in crop improvement — represents a necessary link between the world of fundamental discovery and farmers’ fields and aims to bridge this gap.

Main research steps involved in translating promising technologies into genetic gains (graphical abstract, adapted from Reynolds and Langridge, 2016). Reprinted under licence CC BY-NC-ND.
Main research steps involved in translating promising technologies into genetic gains (graphical abstract, adapted from Reynolds and Langridge, 2016). Reprinted under licence CC BY-NC-ND.

The impacts of this research, conducted under HeDWIC — a project led by CIMMYT in partnership with experts around the world — will be validated on a global scale through the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN), with the potential to reach at least half of the world’s wheat-growing area.

The results will benefit breeders and researchers but, most importantly, farmers and consumers around the world who rely on wheat for their livelihoods and their diets. Wheat accounts for about 20% of all human calories and protein, making it a pillar of food security. For about 1.5 billion resource-poor people, wheat is their main daily staple food.

With the world population projected to rise to almost ten billion by 2050, demand for food is predicted to increase with it. This is especially so for wheat, being a versatile crop both in terms of where it can grow and its many culinary and industrial uses. However, current wheat yield gains will not meet 2050 demand unless serious action is taken. Translational research and strategic breeding are crucial elements in ensuring that research is translated into higher and stable yields to meet these challenges.

Read the full study:
Harnessing translational research in wheat for climate resilience

Cover photo: Wheat fields at CIMMYT’s experimental stations near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora state, Mexico. (Photo: M. Ellis/CIMMYT)

In the last four decades, wheat blast has appeared in South America, Asia an Africa. (Video: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Taming wheat blast

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Features.

As wheat blast continues to infect crops in  countries around the world, researchers are seeking ways to stop its spread. The disease — caused by the Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum — can dramatically reduce crop yields, and hinder food and economic security in the regions in which it has taken hold.

Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other international institutions looked into the potential for wheat blast to spread, and surveys existing tactics used to combat it. According to them, a combination of methods — including using and promoting resistant varieties, using fungicides, and deploying strategic agricultural practices — has the best chance to stem the disease.

The disease was originally identified in Brazil in 1985. Since then, it has spread to several other countries in South America, including Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. During the 1990s, wheat blast impacted as many as three million hectares in the region. It continues to pose a threat.

Through international grain trade, wheat blast was introduced to Bangladesh in 2016. The disease has impacted around 15,000 hectares of land in the country and reduced average yields by as much as 51% in infected fields.

Because the fungus’ spores can travel on the wind, it could spread to neighboring countries, such as China, India, Nepal and Pakistan — countries in which wheat provides food and jobs for billions of people. The disease can also spread to other locales via international trade, as was the case in Bangladesh.

“The disease, in the first three decades, was spreading slowly, but in the last four or five years its pace has picked up and made two intercontinental jumps,” said Pawan Singh, CIMMYT’s head of wheat pathology, and one of the authors of the recent paper.

In the last four decades, wheat blast has appeared in South America, Asia an Africa. (Video: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

The good fight

Infected seeds are the most likely vector when it comes to the disease spreading over long distances, like onto other continents. As such, one of the key wheat blast mitigation strategies is in the hands of the world’s governments. The paper recommends quarantining potentially infected grain and seeds before they enter a new jurisdiction.

Governments can also create wheat “holidays”, which functionally ban cultivation of wheat in farms near regions where the disease has taken hold. Ideally, this would keep infectable crops out of the reach of wheat blast’s airborne and wind-flung spores. In 2017, India banned wheat cultivation within five kilometers of Bangladesh’s border, for instance. The paper also recommends that other crops — such as legumes and oilseed — that cannot be infected by the wheat blast pathogen be grown in these areas instead, to protect the farmers’ livelihoods.

Other tactics involve partnerships between researchers and agricultural workers. For instance, early warning systems for wheat blast prediction have been developed and are being implemented in Bangladesh and Brazil. Using weather data, these systems alert farmers when the conditions are ideal for a wheat blast outbreak.

Researchers are also hunting for wheat varieties that are resistant to the disease. Currently, no varieties are fully immune, but a few do show promise and can partially resist the ailment depending upon the disease pressure. Many of these resistant varieties have the CIMMYT genotype Milan in their pedigree.

“But the resistance is still limited. It is still quite narrow, basically one single gene,” Xinyao He, one of the co-authors of the paper said, adding that identifying new resistant genes and incorporating them into breeding programs could help reduce wheat blast’s impact.

Wheat spikes damaged by wheat blast. (Photo: Xinyao He/CIMMYT)
Wheat spikes damaged by wheat blast. (Photo: Xinyao He/CIMMYT)

The more the merrier

Other methods outlined in the paper directly involve farmers. However, some of these might be more economically or practically feasible than others, particularly for small-scale farmers in developing countries. Wheat blast thrives in warm, humid climates, so farmers can adjust their planting date so the wheat flowers when the weather is drier and cooler. This method is relatively easy and low-cost.

The research also recommends that farmers rotate crops, alternating between wheat and other plants wheat blast cannot infect, so the disease will not carry over from one year to the next. Farmers should also destroy or remove crop residues, which may contain wheat blast spores. Adding various minerals to the soil, such as silicon, magnesium, and calcium, can also help the plants fend off the fungus. Another option is induced resistance, applying chemicals to the plants such as jasmonic acid and ethylene that trigger its natural resistance, much like a vaccine, Singh said.

Currently, fungicide use, including the treatment of seeds with the compounds, is common practice to protect crops from wheat blast. While this has proven to be somewhat effective, it adds additional costs which can be hard for small-scale farmers to swallow. Furthermore, the pathogen evolves to survive these fungicides. As the fungus changes, it can also gain the ability to overcome resistant crop varieties. The paper notes that rotating fungicides or developing new ones — as well as identifying and deploying more resistant genes within the wheat — can help address this issue.

However, combining some of these efforts in tandem could have a marked benefit in the fight against wheat blast. For instance, according to Singh, using resistant wheat varieties, fungicides, and quarantine measures together could be a time-, labor-, and cost-effective way for small-scale farmers in developing nations to safeguard their crops and livelihoods.

“Multiple approaches need to be taken to manage wheat blast,” he said.

The UN Food Systems Summit has arrived

Written by Marta Millere on . Posted in Features.

On September 23, 2021, the United Nations is convening a Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies in part on healthier, more sustainable and equitable food systems.

According to the UN, the term “food system” encompasses every person and every process involved in growing, raising or making food, and getting it into your stomach. The health of our food systems profoundly affects the health of our bodies, as well as the health of our environment, our economies and our cultures. When they function well, food systems have the power to bring us together as families, communities and nations.

As the world’s largest public agricultural research network, CGIAR has made invaluable contributions to global efforts to reach these 17 goals.  CIMMYT plays an important role in these efforts.

Throughout September, in recognition of the historic UN Summit, we are highlighting the impact of CIMMYT research to attain the SDGs, in collaboration with the broader CGIAR and development community.

From conservation agriculture to reaching women and marginalized communities, we hope these social media snapshots help you discover the vast experience, capacity and impact of our research.

Take action

Help us share CIMMYT’s social media messages for the Food Systems Summit.

CIMMYT’s social media toolkit for the Food Systems SummitRegister for the Food Systems Summit and join the conversation online using #FoodSystems4SDGs.

Follow CIMMYT on social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare.

Cover photo: Across the globe, maize and wheat make up a large part of human diets and are an integral element of a healthy and sustainable food system. (Photo: A. Cortés/CIMMYT)

Workshop owner Beyene Chufamo (left) speaks to CIMMYT researcher Abrham Kassa during a visit to Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Mechanization takes off

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Features.

In a small workshop in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, mechanic Beyene Chufamo and his technician work on tractor repairs surrounded by engines and spare machinery parts.

Established in Meki in 2019, Beyene’s workshop provides maintenance, repair and overhaul services for two-wheel tractors and their accessories, and it acts as a point of sale for spare parts and implements such as planters, threshers and water pumps. Beyene also works as a tractor operation instructor, providing trainings on driving, planter calibration and how to use threshers and shellers.

The city already had a well-established mechanics and spare parts industry based around four-wheel tractors and combine harvester hire services, as well as motorcycle and tricycle transportation services. But now, as market demand for two-wheel tractor hire services rises among smallholder farming communities and entrepreneurial youth race to become local service providers, business is booming.

A two-wheel tractor with an improved driver seat and hydraulic tipping trailer system sits in from of Beyene Chufamo’s workshop in Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A two-wheel tractor with an improved driver seat and hydraulic tipping trailer system sits in from of Beyene Chufamo’s workshop in Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Building a business

Beyene’s business has benefitted from support from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the German development agency GIZ since its formation. Beyene was initially trained as a mechanic through the Innovative Financing for Sustainable Mechanization in Ethiopia (IFFSMIE) project, which promotes small-scale mechanization in the area through demand creation, innovative financing mechanisms and the development of private sector-driven business. He went on to receive additional technical and business skills development training to enable him to run his own enterprise.

His ongoing association with the project and its new leasing scheme has helped Beyene establish connections with local service providers, while also improving his own skills portfolio. Currently, he helps maintain the smooth operation of machinery and equipment at CIMMYT project sites in Amhara, Oromia and Tigray. This involves everything from training other local mechanics and troubleshooting for service providers, to facilitating the delivery of aftersales services in project areas.

In addition to this, Beyene receives orders for maintenance, repair and overhaul services for two-wheel tractors and implements. He sources replacement parts himself, though the cost of purchase is covered by his clients. In some cases — and depending on the distance travelled — CIMMYT covers the transport and accommodation costs while Beyene services equipment from service providers and sources equipment from local distributors. When individual parts are not readily available, he often purchases whole two-wheel tractors from the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC) and breaks them down into individual parts.

Tools and spare machinery parts lie on the ground during at Beyene Chufamo’s workshop in Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Tools and spare machinery parts lie on the ground during at Beyene Chufamo’s workshop in Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The way forward for sustainable mechanization

“Mechanization take-off relies heavily on skilled staff and appropriate infrastructure to perform machinery diagnostics, repair and maintenance,” said Rabe Yahaya, a CIMMYT agricultural mechanization expert based in Ethiopia.

“Agricultural machinery should be available and functional any time a famer wants to use it — and a workshop can support this. Beyene’s work in Meki reflects the way forward for sustainable mechanization success in Ethiopia.”

Creating an agricultural machinery workshop from scratch was a challenging task, Rabe explained, but support and guidance from partners like CIMMYT and GIZ helped to make it happen. “Also, Beyene’s commitment and flexibility to travel to CIMMYT project sites anywhere and at any time — even on bad roads in difficult weather conditions — really helped him achieve his goal.”

A sign hangs on the entrance of Beyene Chufamo’s agricultural machinery workshop in Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A sign hangs on the entrance of Beyene Chufamo’s agricultural machinery workshop in Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Beyene is excited about how quickly the local two-wheel tractor market has grown in the past few years. He currently has 91 service providers as regular clients at CIMMYT project sites — up from just 19 in 2016.

Trends show that — with support from local microfinance schemes and the removal of domestic taxes on imported machinery — aftersales services will continue to evolve, and the number of service providers will rise alongside increased market demand for mechanization services, both at farm level and beyond.

With this in mind, Beyene aims to remain competitive by diversifying the services offered at his workshop and expanding his business beyond CIMMYT project sites. As a starting point he plans to hire more staff, altering his organizational structure so that each mechanic or technician is dedicated to working with a specific type of machinery. Longer term, he hopes to transform his workshop into one that can also service four-wheel tractors and combine harvesters, and establish a mobile dispatch service team that can reach more locations in rural Ethiopia.

For now, however, he simply remains grateful for CIMMYT’s support and investment in his business. “I am happy that I have been able to secure an income for myself, my family and my staff through this workshop, which has changed our lives in such a positive way.”

Cover photo: Workshop owner Beyene Chufamo (left) speaks to CIMMYT researcher Abrham Kassa during a visit to Meki, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)

A farmer shows maize growing in his field, in one of the communities in northern Nigeria which participated in the study. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)

Understanding decision support

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Features.

Given the very heterogeneous conditions in smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a growing policy interest in site-specific extension advice and the use of related digital tools. However, empirical ex ante studies on the design of this type of tools are scant and little is known about their impact on site-specific extension advice.

In partnership with Oyakhilomen Oyinbo and colleagues at KU Leuven, scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have carried out research to clarify user preferences for tailored nutrient management advice and decision-support tools. The studies also evaluated the impact of targeted fertilizer recommendations enabled by such tools.

Understanding farmers’ adoption

A better understanding of farmers’ and extension agents’ preferences may help to optimize the design of digital decision-support tools.

Oyinbo and co-authors conducted a study among 792 farming households in northern Nigeria, to examine farmers’ preferences for maize intensification in the context of site-specific extension advice using digital tools.

Overall, farmers were favorably disposed to switch from general fertilizer use recommendations to targeted nutrient management recommendations for maize intensification enabled by decision-support tools. This lends credence to the inclusion of digital tools in agricultural extension. The study also showed that farmers have heterogeneous preferences for targeted fertilizer recommendations, depending on their resources, sensitivity to risk and access to services.

The authors identified two groups of farmers with different preference patterns: a first group described as “strong potential adopters of site-specific extension recommendations for more intensified maize production” and a second group as “weak potential adopters.” While the two groups of farmers are willing to accept some yield variability for a higher average yield, the trade-off is on average larger for the first group, who have more resources and are less sensitive to risk.

The author recommended that decision-support tools include information on the riskiness of expected investment returns and flexibility in switching between low- and high-risk recommendations. This design improvement will help farmers to make better informed decisions.

Community leaders talk to researchers in one of the villages in norther Nigeria which took part in the study. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)
Community leaders talk to researchers in one of the villages in norther Nigeria which took part in the study. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)
Members of the survey team participate in a training session at Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)
Members of the survey team participate in a training session at Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)
One of the sites of nutrient omission trials, used during the development phase of the Nutrient Expert tool in Nigeria. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)
One of the sites of nutrient omission trials, used during the development phase of the Nutrient Expert tool in Nigeria. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)

Extension agents go digital

While farmers are the ultimate recipients of extension advice, extension agents are most often the actual users of decision-support tools. In another study, the authors provided ex ante insights on the potential uptake of nutrient management decision-support tools and the specific design features that are more (or less) appealing to extension agents in the maize belt of northern Nigeria.

Using data from a discrete choice experiment, the study showed that extension agents were generally willing to accept the use of digital decision-support tools for site‐specific fertilizer recommendations. While extension agents in the sample preferred tools with a more user‐friendly interface that required less time to generate an output, the authors also found substantial preference heterogeneity for other design features. Some extension agents cared more about the outputs, such as information accuracy and level of detail, while others prioritized practical features such as the tool’s platform, language or interface.

According to the authors, accounting for such variety of preferences into the design of decision-support tools may facilitate their adoption by extension agents and, in turn, enhance their impact in farmars’ agricultural production decisions.

Interface of the Nutrient Expert mobile app, locally calibrated for maize farmers in Nigeria.
Interface of the Nutrient Expert mobile app, locally calibrated for maize farmers in Nigeria.

Impact of digital tools

Traditional extension systems in sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, often provide general fertilizer use recommendations which do not account for the substantial variation in production conditions. Such blanket recommendations are typically accompanied by point estimates of expected agronomic responses and associated economic returns, but they do not provide any information on the variability of the expected returns associated with output price risk.

Policymakers need a better understanding of how new digital agronomy tools for tailored recommendations affect the performance of smallholder farms in developing countries.

To contribute to the nascent empirical literature on this topic, Oyinbo and colleagues evaluated the impact of a nutrient management decision-support tool for maize – Nutrient Expert — on fertilizer use, management practices, yields and net revenues. The authors also evaluated the impacts of providing information about variability in expected investment returns.

To provide rigorous evidence, the authors conducted a three-year randomized controlled trial among 792 maize-producing households in northern Nigeria. The trial included two treatment groups who are exposed to site-specific fertilizer recommendations through decision-support tools — one with and another one without additional information on variability in expected returns — and a control group who received general fertilizer use recommendations.

Overall, the use of nutrient management decision-support tools resulted in greater fertilizer investments and better grain yields compared with controls. Maize grain yield increased by 19% and net revenue increased by 14% after two years of the interventions. Fertilizer investments only increased significantly among the farmers who received additional information on the variability in expected investment returns.

The findings suggest including site-specific decision support tools into extension programming and related policy interventions has potential benefits on maize yields and food security, particularly when such tools also supply information on the distribution of expected returns to given investment recommendations.

The research-for-development community has tried different approaches to optimize fertilizer recommendations. In Nigeria, there are several tools available to generate location-specific fertilizer recommendations, including Nutrient Expert. As part of the Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa (TAMASA) project, CIMMYT has been working on locally calibrated versions of this tool for maize farmers in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania. The development was led by a project team incorporating scientists from the African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI), CIMMYT and local development partners in each country.

Next steps

Some studies have shown that dis-adoption of seemingly profitable technologies — such as fertilizer in sub-Saharan Africa — is quite common, especially when initial returns fall short of expectations or net utility is negative, producing a disappointment effect.

In the context of emerging digital decision-support tools for well-targeted fertilizer use recommendations, it remains unclear whether farmers’ initial input use responses and the associated economic returns affect their subsequent responses — and whether the disappointment effect can be attenuated through provision of information about uncertainty in expected returns.

Using our three-year randomized controlled trial and the associated panel dataset, researchers are now working on documenting the third-year responses of farmers to site-specific agronomic advice conditional on the second-year responses. Specifically, they seek to better document whether providing farmers with information about seasonal variability in expected investment returns can reduce possible disappointment effects associated with their initial uptake of site-specific agronomic advice and, in a way, limit dis-adoption of fertilizer.

Cover photo: A farmer shows maize growing in his field, in one of the communities in northern Nigeria where research took place. (Photo: Oyakhilomen Oyinbo)

New solutions for chopping fodder

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Features.

It is a laborious and time-consuming process: chopping plant matter by hand to feed to livestock. In Cox’s Bazar district, in eastern Bangladesh, it is common practice. A mechanized fodder chopper can do the job more quickly and efficiently — yet this simple but effective machine has not seen much use in the region.

To address this, a collaboration between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and aid organizations in the region is creating networks between farmers, agriculture service providers and the businesses that make and distribute the machines.

The Cox’s Bazar region is host to around 900,000 Rohingya refugees who were displaced from Myanmar. The influx of refugees has put a strain on resources in the region. This collaborative effort took place near the camps, in an effort to support capacity and economic development in the host communities nearby.

Though this collaboration has only been around for a few months, it has already seen early success, and received an award from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The award recognized the organizations’ “outstanding collaboration that contributed to increased and efficient livestock production through mechanization in the host communities impacted by the influx of Rohingya refugees.”

Mechanization and livestock collaboration

The project — funded by USAID — is a partnership between two existing efforts.

The first is Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia – Mechanization Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA), which aims to boost the country’s private agricultural machinery industry while supporting local farmers. This initiative supports the mechanization of agriculture in Bangladesh, through increased capacity of the private sector to develop, manufacture and market innovative new technologies. CSISA-MEA is implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement center (CIMMYT) in partnership with iDE and Georgia Institute of Technology.

The second is the Livestock Production for Improved Nutrition (LPIN) Activity, which works to improve nutrition and income generation among rural households in the region.

“We made a great collaboration with LPIN,” said Jotirmoy Mazumdar, an agriculturalist working with CSISA-MEA. “We’re very happy that our initiative helped us achieve this award. In this short time period, a new market opportunity was created.”

Nonstop chop

There are numerous benefits to using fodder choppers, according to Muhammad Nurul Amin Siddiquee, chief of party of LPIN. For one, having access to the choppers can save farmers around $7 (600 Bangladeshi taka) in labor costs per day, and reduce the amount of feed wasted by 10–15%. On average, a farmer can hand-chop 500 kg of forage or fodder each day, while the machines can process around 1,000 kg of the material per hour.

According to Siddiquee, giving chopped feed to livestock improves their productivity. One farmer’s herd of 17 crossbreed cows produced 115 liters of milk per day — he expects this to increase to 130 liters per day after feeding them fodder produced with a mechanized chopper.

“He can now save labor costs and four hours of his time per day by using the fodder chopping solutions,” he said, adding that the collaborative effort is “fostering increased livestock productivity and [farmer] incomes.”

However, Cox’s Bazar is far away from the center of Bangladesh, where most of these machines are produced. For example, there are more than 30 small engineering workshops in the more centrally located Khulna Division and they have cumulatively made 7,470 choppers.

“In Cox’s Bazar, it was almost impossible for those livestock farmers to get to know the chopper machines, and actually get access to them,” said Khaled Khan, team lead with iDE, who also aided in private-sector engagement.

So, the collaboration between CSISA-MEA and LPIN began connecting farmers and agriculture service providers with these fodder chopper producers and distributors. Moreover, it worked to increase knowledge of how to operate the machines among the farmers.

“Fodder choppers are an entirely new technology in Cox’s Bazar,” said Zakaria Hasan, CSISA team lead in the district.

Though it is still early days, the partnership has been met with a warm reception. Farmers and agriculture service providers cumulatively purchased 12 of the choppers within two weeks — each machine can support its owner and five other farmers — and three dealers are now selling the machines to meet farmer demand. In the region, 60 dairy farms are now purchasing chopped fodder for their livestock.

According to Khan, engaging the private sector in this project was essential. He explained that increasing the connectivity between the buyers and the sellers will help make the market larger and more stable.

“We found the perfect opportunity of supply and demand because their partners are demanding our partners’ service. The role of the private sector was the most important for the sustainability of this marriage of demand and supply,” Khan said.

“We want to establish a linkage between these two private entities. Our project’s job is to facilitate that, so that even after the project is over this networking continues in the future.”

Cover photo: Farmer Hosne Ara uses a mechanized fodder chopper to prepare feed for livestock in Bangladesh. (Photo: Ashraful Alam/CIMMYT)

Scientists from IPBB evaluate wheat infected with tan spot and wheat rusts in Kazakhstan. (Photo: IPBB)

Genome-wide association study puts tan spot-resistant genes in the spotlight

Written by Madeline Dahm on . Posted in Features.

Tan spot disease, caused by the fungus Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, may be less well-known than other pathogens of wheat such as rust and blast, but its potential to become a major threat to wheat-growing regions worldwide is a serious concern.

In Kazakhstan, one of the main wheat growing nations in Central Asia, farmers have struggled with tan spot epidemics since the 1980s. During epidemic years, Kazakh farmers have reported losing nearly half of their harvest to the disease.

A recent study published in Frontiers in Genetics has unlocked a promising new weapon against tan spot disease. Scientists at the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology (IPBB) in Kazakhstan and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) which found new sources of genetic resistance to tan spot disease.

“Bread wheat is the most important crop in Central Asia directly linked to food security. 45-60% of daily calories come from wheat,” said Alma Kokhmetova, Professor and Head of the Genetics and Breeding Laboratory at IPBB, who partnered with CIMMYT on this project.

Evaluation of tan spot disease resistance in a greenhouse. (Photo: IPBB)
Evaluation of tan spot disease resistance in a greenhouse. (Photo: IPBB)

Creative approaches to challenging, global issues

Global agriculture is repeatedly tested and threatened by emerging pests and diseases.

Fungicides and pesticides are not a one-stop, sustainable solution to controlling outbreaks. In addition to being unaffordable to much of the world’s smallholder population, they have also been found to have some negative environmental and health side effects. But crop breeders will argue that there is a more efficient path to resilience: through genetics.

For example, some wheat varieties are naturally resistant to diseases such as tan spot — it is in their DNA. If breeders can figure out what genes hold the code to tan spot disease resistance, in this case, they can cross and breed future varieties to be naturally immune to the disease. It is a much cleaner, cheaper and greener solution than dousing the world’s crops in fungus- and bug-killing chemicals.

A figure from the genome-wide association study shows novel genomic associations — especially here on chromosome 6A — that display resistance to both races of the tan spot fungus. (Figure: CIMMYT and IPBB)
A figure from the genome-wide association study shows novel genomic associations — especially here on chromosome 6A — that display resistance to both races of the tan spot fungus. (Figure: CIMMYT and IPBB)

Finding the needle in the haystack

Working together, CIMMYT and IPBB were able to find some important and novel genetic associations with resistance to tan spot for the two main races of the disease, race 1 and race 5, which are the most prevalent in Kazakhstan. The research centers assembled a panel with 191 samples of wheat having different levels of resistance from Kazakhstan, Russia and CIMMYT, through the International Winter Wheat Yield Partnership (IWWYP).

In order to conduct the genome-wide association study, the scientists used a genotyping platform called DArTseq to sequence the entries in the panel, a device that CIMMYT houses in its global headquarters in Mexico. The DArTseq method sequences the genome representations on the Next Generation Sequencing platforms and generates high-density single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) data in a cost-effective manner.

Using the SNPs generated by DArTSeq and the phenotypic scoring of resistance to tan spot at the seedling and adult plant stages in Kazakhstan, the scientists were able to mark genomic regions associated with resistance to the disease. Novel regions on chromosomes 3BS, 5DL and 6AL were all found to have some promising traits of resistance, especially 6AL, which appears to be superior in protecting plants from both of the races of the pathogen.

Tan spot, caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis on susceptible wheat cultivar Steklovidnaya 24. (Photo: IPBB)
Tan spot, caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis on susceptible wheat cultivar Steklovidnaya 24. (Photo: IPBB)
Tan spot-resistant wheat cultivar Tyngysh. (Photo: IPBB)
Tan spot-resistant wheat cultivar Tyngysh. (Photo: IPBB)

The next steps

This discovery of a new source of genetic resistance to tan spot is exciting to breeders, researchers, donors, national agricultural systems, seed companies and, ultimately, farmers both in and outside of Kazakhstan. Essentially, any country that struggles with race 1 and race 5 of tan spot disease will benefit from this discovery.

“For breeding purposes, 25 lines with the best allele combinations of novel and known genes identified in this study are currently being used in different crossing programs in Kazakhstan,” said Deepmala Sehgal, CIMMYT wheat geneticist. The next stage of this project will also be a collaborative effort with CIMMYT, where the results will be validated in other in genetic backgrounds.

“Once the results are validated, their sequence information will be updated in a genotyping platform called Intertek, which has been designed to assist breeders in genotyping their germplasm with gene-based markers,” added Sehgal

More impact together

“Thanks to the exchange of wheat materials between CIMMYT, Turkey and ICARDA (IWWIP), we have selected and produced disease-resistant advanced wheat lines. These wheat entries now are being evaluated in the different stages of the breeding process,” said Kokhmetova.

The early success of this study and partnership between CIMMYT and IPBB has led to another round of funding approved by the Kazakhstan government to bring this research to the next stage. Additionally, more projects that seek to find sources of genetic resistance to leaf rust and yellow rusts have recently been approved.

“Due to this previous successful collaboration done between IPBB and CIMMYT, two more projects have been funded to our national agricultural research system partner Professor Alma,” said Sehgal.

Although the story of tan spot-resistant wheat is still unfolding, major strides will continue to follow in the footsteps of this exceptional discovery.

Cover photo: Scientists from IPBB evaluate wheat infected with tan spot and wheat rusts in Kazakhstan. (Photo: IPBB)

Maize and wheat science to sustainably feed the world

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Features.

As the world turns its attention to the policy-shaping discussions during this week’s Pre-Summit of the UN Food System Summit, the need for science and innovation to advance the transformation of food, land and water systems is clear.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with its 50-year track record of impact, success and high return on investment, is essential to these efforts.

Our new institutional brochure, Maize and wheat science to sustainably feed the world, links CIMMYT’s mission, vision and excellence in science to the urgent needs of a world where an estimated tenth of the global population — up to 811 million people — are undernourished.

CIMMYT is also a crucial wellspring of response capacity to CGIAR — the largest global, publicly funded research organization scaling solutions for food, land and water system challenges.

View and download the new CIMMYT Brochure.

View and download the new CIMMYT Brochure.Maize and wheat science to sustainably feed the world explains why we do what we do in light of these challenges.

  • CIMMYT leads maize and wheat research for food systems that deliver affordable, sufficient, and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries.
  • Our research is focused on smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries and on improving the livelihoods of people who live on less than $2 a day.
  • CIMMYT science reaches them through innovation hubs, appropriate technologies, sustainable sourcing, and helps to address their needs and challenges through public policy guidance.

Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works for a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems.

Farmer Bhima Bhandari returns home after field work carrying her 7-month-old son Sudarsan on her back in Bardiya, Nepal. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Capturing a clearer picture

Written by Madeline Dahm on . Posted in Features.

A new guidance note shines a brighter light on the role of women in wheat-based farming systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and provides actionable recommendations to researchers, rural advisory services, development partners, and policymakers on how to support working communities more effectively and knowledgeably. The publication, Supporting labor and managerial feminization processes in wheat in the Indo-Gangetic Plains: A guidance note, is based on a literature review, including work by researchers at and associated with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Pandia Consulting.

“Feminization of agriculture is happening in wheat-based systems in South Asia, but these processes are under-researched and their implications are poorly understood. This guidance note, focusing on Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, highlights some of the commonalities and differences in feminization processes in each country,” said Hom Gartaula, gender and social inclusion specialist at CIMMYT, and one of the lead authors of the study.

This eight-page publication is based on research funded by the CGIAR Collaborative Platform on Gender Research, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT).

How great innovations miss critical opportunities by ignoring women

Even the most well-intentioned agricultural interventions can have external costs that can hinder economic development in the long run. The guidance note cites a study that reveals, during India’s Green Revolution, that the introduction of high-yielding varieties of wheat actually “led to a significant decline in women’s paid hired labor because wheat was culturally defined as suited to male laborers. Male wages rose, and women’s wages fell.” Importantly, most women did not find alternative sources of income.

This is not to say that the high-yielding varieties were a poor intervention themselves; these varieties helped India and Pakistan stave off famine and produce record harvests. Rather, the lack of engagement with social norms meant that the economic opportunities from this important innovation excluded women and thus disempowered them.

Wheat farmers during a field day in Odisha, India. (Photo: Wasim Iftikar/CSISA)
Wheat farmers during a field day in Odisha, India. (Photo: Wasim Iftikar/CSISA)

A closer look at labor feminization and managerial feminization processes

The guidance note points out that it is not possible to generalize across and within countries, as gender norms can vary, and intersectionalities between gender, caste and other identities have a strong impact on women’s participation in fieldwork. Nevertheless, there seem to be some broad trends. The fundamental cross-cutting issue is that women’s contribution to farming is unrecognized, regardless of the reality of their work, by researchers, rural advisory services and policymakers. A second cross-cutting issue is that much research is lodged in cultural norms that reflect gender biases, rather than challenge them, through careful, non-judgemental quantitative and qualitative research.

In Bangladesh, women’s participation in agriculture is slowly increasing as off-farm opportunities decline, though it remains limited compared to women in the other countries examined. Hired agricultural work is an important income source for some women. Emerging evidence from work from CSISA and CIMMYT shows that women are becoming decision-makers alongside their husbands in providing mechanization services. Nevertheless, technical, economic and cultural barriers broadly constrain women’s effective participation in decision-making and fieldwork.

In India, agricultural labor is broadly feminizing as men take up off-farm opportunities and women take up more responsibilities on family farms and as hired laborers. Yet information derived from CIMMYT GENNOVATE studies cited in the guidance note shows that external actors, like rural advisory services and researchers, frequently make little effort to include women in wheat information dissemination and training events despite emerging evidence of women taking managerial roles in some communities. Some researchers and most rural advisory services continue to work with outdated and damaging assumptions about “who does the work” and “who decides” that are not necessarily representative of farmers’ realities.

Women in Nepal provide the bulk of the labor force to agriculture.  With men migrating to India and the Gulf countries to pursue other opportunities, some women are becoming de-facto heads of households and are making more decisions around farming. Still, women are rarely targeted for trainings in on-farm mechanization and innovation. However, there is evidence that simple gender-equality outreach from NGOs and supportive extension agents can have a big impact on women’s empowerment, including promoting their ability to innovate in wheat.

In Pakistan, male out-migration to cities and West Asia is a driving force in women’s agricultural involvement. Significant regional differences in cultural norms mean that women’s participation and decision-making varies across the country, creating differences regarding the degree to which their increased involvement is empowering. As in the other three countries, rural advisory services primarily focus on men. This weakens women’s ability to make good farming decisions and undermines their voice in intra-household decision-making.

Women in Nepal using agricultural machinery. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Women in Nepal using agricultural machinery. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Recommendations

Research should be conducted in interdisciplinary teams and mindsets, which helps design both qualitative and quantitative research free of assumptions and bias. Qualitative and quantitative researchers need to better document the reality of women’s agricultural work, both paid and unpaid.

National agricultural research systems, rural advisory services and development partners are encouraged to work with local partners, including women’s groups and NGOs, to develop gender-transformative approaches with farmers. Services must develop more inclusive criteria for participation in field trials and extension events to invite more women and marginalized communities.

Policymakers are invited to analyze assumptions in existing policies and to develop new policies that better reflect women’s work and support women’s decision-making in the agricultural sector. Researchers should provide policymakers with more appropriate and up-to-date gender data to help them make informed decisions.

These recommendations name a few of many suggestions presented in the guidance note that can ensure agricultural feminization process are positive forces for everyone involved in wheat systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. As a whole, acknowledging the reality of these changes well underway in South Asia — and around the world — will not just empower women, but strengthen wheat-based agri-food systems as a whole.

Cover photo: Farmer Bhima Bhandari returns home after field work carrying her 7-month-old son Sudarsan on her back in Bardiya, Nepal. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Hybrid seed production and marketing advances

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Features.

“My goal is to produce and sell 200 metric tons of hybrid maize by 2025,” says Subash Raj Upadhyaya, chairperson of Lumbini Seed Company, based in Nepal’s Rupandehi district.

Upadhyaya is one of the few seed value chain actors in the country progressing in the hybrid seed sector, which is at a budding stage in Nepal. He envisions a significant opportunity in the domestic production of hybrid maize seed varieties that not only offer a higher yield than open-pollinated varieties but will also reduce expensive imports. Leaping from one hectare to 25 hectares in hybrid maize seed production within three years, Upadhyaya is determined to expand the local seed market for hybrids.

Nepal has long been a net importer of hybrid seeds — mainly rice, maize and high-value vegetables — worth millions of dollars a year to meet the farmers’ demand, which is continuously rising. Although hybrid varieties have been released in the country, organized local seed production and marketing were not in place to deliver quality seeds to farmers. The hybrid variety development process is relatively slow due to lack of strong public-private relationships, absence of enabling policies and license requirements for the private sector to produce and sell them, lack of suitable germplasm and inadequate skilled human resources for hybrid product development and seed production. This has resulted in poor adoption of hybrid seeds, especially maize, where only 10-15% out of 950,000 hectares of Nepal’s maize-growing area is estimated to be covered with hybrid seeds, leaving the balance for seeds of open pollinated varieties.

This is where experts from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have stepped in to unlock the untapped potential of domestic maize production and increase on-farm productivity, which is currently around 2.8 metric tons per hectare. Aligning with the goals of the National Seed Vision (NSV 2013-2025), the USAID-funded Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project, implemented by CIMMYT, fosters private sector involvement in the evaluation, production and marketing of quality hybrid seeds to meet the growing domestic demand for grain production, which is currently being met via imports. In 2020, Nepal spent nearly $130 million to import maize grain for the poultry industry.

A graphic shows the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project’s innovations and intervention in hybrid seed. (Graphic: CIMMYT)

Teach a man to fish

Strengthening and scaling hybrid seed production of different crop varieties from domestic sources can be a game-changer for the long-term sustainability of Nepal’s seed industry.

Through the NSAF project, CIMMYT is working with eight partner seed companies and three farmers cooperatives to produce seeds of maize, rice and tomato. CIMMYT has played a vital role in making suitable germplasms and market-ready products of hybrids sourced from CGIAR centers available to the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and partner seed companies for testing, validation and registration in the country. But this alone is not enough.

The project also carried out the partners’ capacity building on research and development, parental line maintenance, on-station and on-farm demonstrations, quality seed production and seed quality control to equip them with the required skills for a viable and competitive hybrid seed business. The companies and farmer cooperatives received hands-on training on hybrid seed production and marketing coupled with close supervision and guidance by the project’s field staff assigned to mentor and support individual seed companies. CIMMYT’s NSAF project also provides financial support to selected hybrid seed business startups to enhance their technical and entrepreneurial skills. This is a new feature, as prior to the project starting nearly all of the seed companies were mainly involved in aggregating open-pollinated variety seeds from farmers and selling them with no practical experience in the hybrid seed business.

In 2018, CIMMYT, through the NSAF and Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) projects, and in close collaboration with NARC’s National Maize Research Program, engaged its partner seed company to initiate the first hybrid maize seed production during the winter season. Farmers’ feedback on the performance of the Rampur Hybrid-10 maize variety showed it could compete with existing commercial hybrids on yield and other commercial traits. As a result, this response boosted the confidence of seed companies and cooperatives to produce and market the hybrid seeds.

“I am very much motivated to be a hybrid maize seed producer for Lumbini Seed Company,” said a woman hybrid seed grower, whose income was 86% higher than the sale of maize grain from the previous season. “This is my second year of engagement, and last year I got an income of NPR 75,000 (approx. USD$652) from a quarter of a hectare. Besides the guaranteed market I have under the contractual agreement with the company, the profit is far higher than what I used to get from grain production.”

To build the competitiveness of the local seed sector, CIMMYT has been mentoring partner seed companies on business plan development, brand building, marketing and promotion, and facilitating better access to finance. As part of the intervention, the companies are now selling hybrid seeds through agro-dealers in attractive and suitable product packages of varied sizes designed to help boost seed sales, better shelf life and compete with imported brands. They have also started using attractive seed packages for selected open-pollinated rice varieties in a bid to increase market demand. Prior to the project’s intervention, companies used to sell their seeds in traditional unbranded jute bags which are less suitable to maintain seed quality.

AbduRahman Beshir, NSAF seed systems lead, gives an explanation on CIMMYT’s hybrid maize seed interventions during a field visit in Nepal. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Unite and conquer

Encouraging public-private partnerships for seed production is crucial for creating and maintaining a viable seed system. However, the existing guidelines and policies for variety registration are not private sector friendly, resulting in increased informal seed imports and difficulty to efficiently run a business. This draws attention to conducive policies and regulations patronage in research and varietal development, product registration, exclusive licensing, and seed production and marketing by the private sector.

CIMMYT supports the Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (SEAN), an umbrella body with more than 2,500 members, to promote the private sector’s engagement in the seed industry and foster enabling policies essential to further unlock Nepal’s potential in local hybrid seed production and distribution. Together, CIMMYT and SEAN have facilitated various forums, including policy dialogues and elicitations on fast track provision of R&D license and variety registration by the local private seed companies. These are vital steps to realize the targets set by NSV for hybrid seed development and distribution.

To further enhance linkages among seed sector stakeholders and policy makers, CIMMYT, in coordination with NARC’s National Maize Research Program, organized a high-level joint monitoring field visit to observe hybrid maize seed production performance in April 2021. As part of the visit, Yogendra Kumar Karki, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, accompanied by representatives from the National Seed Board, National Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, NARC, Seed Quality Control Center and SEAN, interacted with seed grower farmers and seed companies on their experiences.

The trip helped build a positive perception of the private sector’s capability and commitment to contribute to Nepal’s journey on self-reliance on hybrid seeds. “The recent advances in hybrid seed production by the private sector in collaboration with NARC and NSAF is astounding,” said Karki, as he acknowledged CIMMYT’s contribution to the seed sector development in Nepal. “Considering the gaps and challenges identified during this visit, the Ministry will revisit the regulations that will help accelerate local hybrid seed production and achieve NSV’s target.”

In continued efforts, CIMMYT is also partnering with the government’s Prime Minister Agricultural Modernization Project (PMAMP) maize super zone in the Dang district of Nepal to commercialize domestic maize hybrid seed by partner seed companies. This will enable companies to invest in hybrid maize seed production with contract growers by leveraging the support provided by the PMAMP on irrigation, mechanization and maize drying facilities.

“Our interventions in seed systems integration and coordination are showing very promising results in helping Nepal to become self-reliant on hybrid maize seeds in the foreseeable future,” said AbduRahman Beshir, seed systems lead for the NSAF project. “The initiative by the local seed companies to further engage and expand their hybrid seed business is an indication of a sustainable and viable project intervention. The project will continue working with both public and private partners to consolidate the gains and further build the competitiveness of the local seed companies in the hybrid maize seed ecosystem.”

Nepal’s seed industry is entering a new chapter that envisages a strong domestic seed sector in hybrid seed, particularly in maize, to capture a significant market share in the near future.

Breaking Ground: Fatima Camarillo invests in education

Written by Madeline Dahm on . Posted in Features.

It was clear to Fatima Camarillo Castillo from a young age that her future was in agriculture. She grew up on a farm in a small village in Zacatecas, Mexico, and recalls working in the fields alongside her father and siblings, helping with the harvests and milking the cows. And every year, her family ran into the same issue with their crops: droughts.

“Sometimes the harvest was okay, but sometimes we didn’t have any harvest at all,” says Camarillo. “For us that meant that, if we didn’t have enough harvest, then for the whole year my mother and father struggled to send us to school.”

But they did send her to school, and instead of escaping the persistent challenges that agriculture had presented her family in her young life, she was determined to solve them. “After elementary school we had to leave the farm to continue our education,” she explains. “I knew about all the challenges that small farmers face and I wanted to have an impact on them.”

To this day, Camarillo believes in the power of education. Her schooling took her all the way to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), where she is now not only a researcher, but an educator herself. After her extensive study of plant breeding, genetics and wheat physiology, Camarillo gained a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a PhD from Texas A+M University.

She was a part of CIMMYT’s fellowship program while pursuing her doctorate, and she joined the organization’s wheat breeding team shortly afterward. Camarillo now splits her time between wheat research and organizing the training activities for CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program (GWP) wheat improvement course.

Fatima Camarillo analyzes durum wheat in the field at CIMMYT’s experimental research station in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)

A special legacy

CIMMYT’s wheat improvement course is an internationally recognized program where scientists from national agricultural research programs (NARS) from around the world travel to CIMMYT Headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico, and then to Ciudad Obregón, for a 16-week training. Participants observe an entire breeding cycle and learn about the latest technologies and systems for breeding.

“A crucial component of having an impact on farmers is establishing good relationships with national programs, where all the germplasm that CIMMYT develops is going to go,” says Camarillo. “But at the same time, these partners need training. They need to know what is behind these varieties and the process for developing them, and we try to keep them updated with the vision, the current technologies and the breeding pipeline.”

The organization’s university-focused training programs are also special to Camarillo for many reasons, having participated in one of them herself. In fact, her first ever exposure to CIMMYT was through the annual Open Doors day which she attended during her first year of university, watching the breeders and scientists that would eventually become her colleagues give talks on germplasm development and distribution.

The courses also give students a chance to see all how their theoretical education can be applied in the real world. “When you are in graduate school you care a lot about data analysis and the most recent molecular tools,” says Camarillo. “But there is something else out there, the real problems outside. By taking the breeding program course you understand these challenges and situations.”

Camarillo remembers being struck by the thought that something that happens in a research station in Mexico can have an impact on the whole world. “CIMMYT cares about how other countries will adopt new varieties, it’s not just about developing germplasm for the sake of it,” she explains. “We’re interested in how new varieties are going to reach the farmers who need them, and for that, training is essential.”

“At the end of the day, these researchers are the ones who will help us evaluate germplasm. If they’re well trained, the efficiency of the whole process will increase.”

Fatima Camarillo (standing, third from the right) in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, with participants on the GWP’s 2019 training program. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Keeping an eye on the breeding pipeline

With one foot in education and the other in research, Camarillo has a unique perspective on CIMMYT’s strategy for bringing tools and findings out of the lab, and towards the next step in the impact pathway. A key part of her work involves helping to research physiological traits by developing new tools to increase phenotyping efficiency in the breeding pipeline.

In particular, she is working on a project to develop high-throughput phenotyping tools, which use hyperspectral sensors and cameras to measure several traits in plants. This can help reflect how the plant is responding to different stresses internally, and helps physiologists and breeders understand how the plant behaves within a specific environment, and then quickly integrate these traits into the breeding process.

“Overall it increases the efficiency of selection, so farmers will have better materials, better germplasm, and more reliable yield across environments in a shorter period of time,” says Camarillo.   

Sharing the recipe for success

Camarillo’s role in both breeding and training speaks to CIMMYT’s historic and proven strategy of working with national programs to effectively deliver improved seeds to the farmers who need them. In addition to developing friendships with trainees from around the world, she is helping CIMMYT to expand its global network of research and agriculture professionals.

As a product and purveyor of a great agricultural education, Camarillo is dedicated to it passing on. “I think we have to invest in education,” she says. “It is the only path to solve the current problems we face, not only in agriculture, but in every single discipline.”

“If we don’t invest and take the time for education, our future is very uncertain.”

Mapping the way to lower nitrous oxide emissions

Written by Steven M on . Posted in Features.

Like many issues besetting contemporary agri-food systems, the question of nitrogen use appears to yield contradictory problems and solutions depending on where you look. Many parts of the globe are experiencing the environmental consequences of excessive and inefficient use of nitrogen fertilizers. Elsewhere nitrogen-poor soils are a hindrance to agricultural productivity.

Addressing these seemingly contradictory issues means ensuring that nitrogen is applied with maximum efficiency across the world’s croplands. Farmers should be applying as much nitrogen as can be taken up by their crops in any given agroecology. Apply more, and the excess nitrogen leads to nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions — a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) — and other environmental degradation. Apply less, and agricultural potential goes unmet. Given the twin challenges of global climate change and the projected need to increase global food production over 70% by 2050, neither scenario is desirable.

Maize and wheat agri-food systems are at the heart of this dilemma. These staple crops are critical to ensuring the food security of a growing population. They also account for around 35% of global nitrogen fertilizer usage. Tackling the problem first requires an accurate accounting of global N20 emissions from maize and wheat fields, followed by quantification of mitigation potential disaggregated by region. This is the task undertaken by a recent study published in Science of the Total Environment and co-authored by a team of researchers including scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

“Spatially explicit quantification of N2O emission and mitigation potential helps identify emission hotspots and priority areas for mitigation action through better nitrogen management consistent with location-specific production and environmental goals,” says Tek Sapkota, CIMMYT’s climate scientist and review editor of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s sixth assessment report.

A map shows global hotspots for nitrogen emissions linked to maize and wheat production. (Graphic: Tesfaye et al./CIMMYT)

A model approach

Researchers compared N20 emissions estimates produced using four statistical models (Tropical N2O model, CCAF-MOT, IPCC Tier-1 and IPCC Tier-11). They also compared the models’ estimates against actual emissions as recorded at 777 globally distributed points. While all four models performed relatively well vis-à-vis the empirical measurements, the IPCC Tier-II estimates showed a better relationship to the measured data across both maize and wheat fields and low- and high-emissions scenarios.

Researchers found that, for both maize and wheat, emissions were highest in East and South Asia, as well as parts of Europe and North America. For maize, parts of South America also appeared to be emissions hotspots. In Asia, China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines were major emitters for both crops. Researchers also observed that China, along with Egypt, Pakistan and northern India have the highest excess nitrogen application (i.e., nitrogen in excess of what can be productively taken up by crops).

Trimming the excess

Specifically identifying hotspots of excess nitrogen application is important, as they represent promising areas to target for emissions reductions. For a given region, the volume of emissions may be a factor simply of large areas under maize or wheat cultivation coupled with of high levels of nitrogen usage. However, farmers in such regions may be not have much room to reduce nitrogen application without affecting yield. And reducing the area under cultivation may not be desirable or viable. Where the rate of excess nitrogen application is high, however, reducing the rate of application and increasing the efficiency of nitrogen use is a win-win.

A farmer in Ethiopia prepares to spread UREA fertilizer by hand in his field after the sowing of wheat. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The researchers estimate that a nitrous oxide emission reduction potential of 25-75% can be achieved through various management practices, such as the 4Rs, which stand for the right source, right timing, right placement and right application rate. Not only would such a reduction drastically reduce N2O emissions and lessen other environmental impacts of maize and wheat production, it would represent a significant cost savings to farmers. Improved efficiency in nitrogen application can also have positive effects on crop yield.

“Promoting integrated nitrogen management approaches through the right policies, institutional supports and good extension systems is essential to improving the use efficiency of nitrogen in order to meet food security, climate action and other sustainable development goals,” says Sapkota.

Kindie Tesfaye, a CIMMYT scientist and one of the authors of the paper, adds, “The policy importance of the study is that the estimated mitigation potentials from global maize and wheat fields are useful for hotspot countries to target fertilizer and crop management as one of the mitigation options in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).”

A view from above

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Features.

Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been harnessing the power of drones and other remote sensing tools to accelerate crop improvement, monitor harmful crop pests and diseases, and automate the detection of land boundaries for farmers.

A crucial step in crop improvement is phenotyping, which traditionally involves breeders walking through plots and visually assessing each plant for desired traits. However, ground-based measurements can be time-consuming and labor-intensive.

This is where remote sensing comes in. By analyzing imagery taken using tools like drones, scientists can quickly and accurately assess small crop plots from large trials, making crop improvement more scalable and cost-effective. These plant traits assessed at plot trials can also be scaled out to farmers’ fields using satellite imagery data and integrated into decision support systems for scientists, farmers and decision-makers.

Here are some of the latest developments from our team of remote sensing experts.

An aerial view of the Global Wheat Program experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico (Photo: Francisco Pinto/CIMMYT)

Measuring plant height with high-powered drones

A recent study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science validated the use of drones to estimate the plant height of wheat crops at different growth stages.

The research team, which included scientists from CIMMYT, the Federal University of Viçosa and KWS Momont Recherche, measured and compared wheat crops at four growth stages using ground-based measurements and drone-based estimates.

The team found that plant height estimates from drones were similar in accuracy to measurements made from the ground. They also found that by using drones with real-time kinematic (RTK) systems onboard, users could eliminate the need for ground control points, increasing the drones’ mapping capability.

Recent work on maize has shown that drone-based plant height assessment is also accurate enough to be used in maize improvement and results are expected to be published next year.

A map shows drone-based plant height estimates from a maize line trial in Muzarabani, Zimbabwe. (Graphic: CIMMYT)

Advancing assessment of pests and diseases

CIMMYT scientists and their research partners have advanced the assessment of Tar Spot Complex — a major maize disease found in Central and South America — and Maize Streak Virus (MSV) disease, found in sub-Saharan Africa, using drone-based imaging approach. By analyzing drone imagery, scientists can make more objective disease severity assessments and accelerate the development of improved, disease-resistant maize varieties. Digital imaging has also shown great potential for evaluating damage to maize cobs by fall armyworm.

Scientists have had similar success with other common foliar wheat diseases, Septoria and Spot Blotch with remote sensing experiments undertaken at experimental stations across Mexico. The results of these experiments will be published later this year. Meanwhile, in collaboration with the Federal University of Technology, based in Parana, Brazil, CIMMYT scientists have been testing deep learning algorithms — computer algorithms that adjust to, or “learn” from new data and perform better over time — to automate the assessment of leaf disease severity. While still in the experimental stages, the technology is showing promising results so far.

CIMMYT researcher Gerald Blasch and EIAR research partners Tamrat Negash, Girma Mamo and Tadesse Anberbir (right to left) conduct field work in Ethiopia. (Photo: Tadesse Anberbir)

Improving forecasts for crop disease early warning systems

CIMMYT scientists, in collaboration with Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Cambridge University and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), are currently exploring remote sensing solutions to improve forecast models used in early warning systems for wheat rusts. Wheat rusts are fungal diseases that can destroy healthy wheat plants in just a few weeks, causing devastating losses to farmers.

Early detection is crucial to combatting disease epidemics and CIMMYT researchers and partners have been working to develop a world-leading wheat rust forecasting service for a national early warning system in Ethiopia. The forecasting service predicts the potential occurrence of the airborne disease and the environmental suitability for the disease, however the susceptibility of the host plant to the disease is currently not provided.

CIMMYT remote sensing experts are now testing the use of drones and high-resolution satellite imagery to detect wheat rusts and monitor the progression of the disease in both controlled field trial experiments and in farmers’ fields. The researchers have collaborated with the expert remote sensing lab at UCLouvain, Belgium, to explore the capability of using European Space Agency satellite data for mapping crop type distributions in Ethiopia. The results will be also published later this year.

CIMMYT and EIAR scientists collect field data in Asella, Ethiopia, using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data acquisition. (Photo: Matt Heaton)

Delivering expert irrigation and sowing advice to farmers phones

Through an initiative funded by the UK Space Agency, CIMMYT scientists and partners have integrated crop models with satellite and in-situ field data to deliver valuable irrigation scheduling information and optimum sowing dates direct to farmers in northern Mexico through a smartphone app called COMPASS — already available to iOS and Android systems. The app also allows farmers to record their own crop management activities and check their fields with weekly NDVI images.

The project has now ended, with the team delivering a webinar to farmers last October to demonstrate the app and its features. Another webinar is planned for October 2021, aiming to engage wheat and maize farmers based in the Yaqui Valley in Mexico.

CIMMYT researcher Francelino Rodrigues collects field data in Malawi using a UAV. (Photo: Francelino Rodrigues/CIMMYT)

Detecting field boundaries using high-resolution satellite imagery

In Bangladesh, CIMMYT scientists have collaborated with the University of Buffalo, USA, to explore how high-resolution satellite imagery can be used to automatically create field boundaries.

Many low and middle-income countries around the world don’t have an official land administration or cadastre system. This makes it difficult for farmers to obtain affordable credit to buy farm supplies because they have no land titles to use as collateral. Another issue is that without knowing the exact size of their fields, farmers may not be applying to the right amount of fertilizer to their land.

Using state of the art machine learning algorithms, researchers from CIMMYT and the University of Buffalo were able to detect the boundaries of agricultural fields based on high-resolution satellite images. The study, published last year, was conducted in the delta region of Bangladesh where the average field size is only about 0.1 hectare.

A CIMMYT scientist conducts an aerial phenotyping exercise in the Global Wheat Program experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: Francisco Pinto/CIMMYT)

Developing climate-resilient wheat

CIMMYT’s wheat physiology team has been evaluating, validating and implementing remote sensing platforms for high-throughput phenotyping of physiological traits ranging from canopy temperature to chlorophyll content (a plant’s greenness) for over a decade. Put simply, high-throughput phenotyping involves phenotyping a large number of genotypes or plots quickly and accurately.

Recently, the team has engaged in the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) to implement new high-throughput phenotyping approaches that can assist in the identification and evaluation of new adaptive traits in wheat for heat and drought.

The team has also been collaborating with the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project, providing remote sensing data to improve genomic selection models.

Cover photo: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV drone) in flight over CIMMYT’s experimental research station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: Alfredo Saenz/CIMMYT)