EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Conservation agriculture techniques can help boost yields and profits for smallholder farmers in an intensively cultivated region of India while helping reduce the impact of agriculture on global warming, according to a new research report.

Hardy, high-yielding crop varieties can be resilient to erratic weather patterns caused by climate change, but agricultural intensification must be balanced with sustainable techniques to offset the effects of emissions caused by greenhouse gases.

As part of efforts to achieve agriculture-climate equilibrium, researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) studied basmati (scented) rice-wheat crop rotation systems in India’s Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains, seeking an optimal planting strategy to lower impact on global warming while increasing farm profits.

Overall, they evaluated six different combinations of tillage, residue management and green gram (mung bean) integration into rice-wheat rotations, comparing conventional tillage techniques with conservation agriculture techniques in a village in the northern state of Haryana, known as the basmati rice heartland of India.

“Through research we aimed to identify cropping systems in which greater yields could be achieved at lower production costs leading to higher profitability while minimizing soil and environmental trade-offs,” said M.L. Jat, a systems agronomist based in New Delhi with CIMMYT who worked on the project for more than five years.

“Our study concludes that two ways of managing crop rotation systems: zero tillage rice and zero tillage wheat planted in residue; and zero tillage rice, zero tillage wheat and green gram planted in residue in the rice-wheat systems of this region of India are agronomically productive, economically viable and beneficial for the environment in terms of soil health and greenhouse emissions,” Jat added, referring to the research paper in “Sustainability Journal” titled “Reducing Global Warming Potential through Sustainable Intensification of Basmati Rice-Wheat Systems in India.”

Specifically, scientists examined the best way to sustainably intensify crop production rotation systems to limit greenhouse gas emissions from soil, which include methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, while adding a third crop to the rotation.

Scientists wanted to help increase production by making use of a normally fallow season from May to July, which marks a pause between growing rice (July to November) and wheat (November to April). Rather than extending the rice and wheat growing seasons, to keep the soil healthy in such a continuous cereal-cereal rotation, they added green gram (mung beans).

By planting basmati rice using a direct seeding method instead of the conventional tillage (puddling) and transplanted method, methane emissions can be reduced by as much as 50 percent, scientists learned. However, reducing methane emissions in a conservation agriculture rice-wheat system is counterbalanced by increased nitrous oxide emissions. Their research concluded that by combining zero tillage and residue retention in the crop growing system, carbon is sequestered in the soil, helping to prevent greenhouse gas emissions.

“Given the dynamics and interdependence of the three greenhouse gases under different management systems, it’s important that all three are measured to determine overall global warming potential of the production system to quantify the mitigation co-benefits of conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification in basmati rice-wheat systems,” Jat said.

Sowing seeds without tilling or removing residue from the fields contrasted with general practice in the region where farmers typically use conventional agriculture techniques by tilling the soil and removing crop residue from field surfaces before planting.

Scientists determined that using zero tillage with residue retention techniques resulted in the lowest global warming potential. The percentage of Greenhouse gases (CO2-equivalent) released into the atmosphere (on a life cycle analysis basis that includes global warming potential from inputs, operations, emissions and soil organic carbon) was lower by approximately 8 tonnes per hectare per year.

Additional environmental benefits included improved soil health, eliminating residue burning and more efficient water use in fields planted with rice-wheat rotations where conservation agriculture techniques were used. The water use footprint was reduced by almost 30 percent in comparison with farms using conventional tillage systems.

Agriculture and climate change pose complex challenges for scientists trying to improve crop yields on smallholder farms in developing countries. Sustainable intensification based on conservation agriculture principles, including minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, economical and diversified crop rotations, is an important strategy to combat the negative impact of agriculture on the climate and other natural resources while improving the income of smallholder farmers.

Agriculture is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the energy sector. About 65 percent of farm-related emissions come from methane caused by cattle belching and soil treated with natural or synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, according to the World Resources Institute.

International development targets established by the U.N. climate change agreement aim to curb warming by keeping global temperature increases well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“If sustainable intensification practices are deployed on 26 million hectares of rice-wheat rotations in Asia, we have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to reducing global warming potential and mitigating the impact on the environment,” Jat said.

The study was co-funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change (CCAFS) and Bayer CropScience.

Islamabad (CIMMYT) — The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and along with local and national media recently toured agricultural initiatives led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC).

Yusuf Zafar, Chairman of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), highlighted the Agricultural Innovation Program’s (AIP) aim to improve farming practices and livelihoods in farming communities – especially for smallholders – across Pakistan.

Funded by USAID and led by CIMMYT, AIP has helped boost agricultural productivity by bringing new technologies to the sector while of sustainable practices, which has helped improve Pakistan’s overall economy, Zafar added. Agriculture is the largest sector of Pakistan’s economy, supporting half of the country’s labor force.

Muhammad Imtiaz, CIMMYT country representative in Pakistan and AIP project leader, briefed media representatives about the collaboration between USAID and CIMMYT along with the NARC and other partners. He highlighted key AIP successes, such as such as the introduction of new planting machineries and drip irrigation systems.

The tour also visited to maize fields at NARC where AIP initiatives in improved livestock, maize and wheat were showcased. AIP scholars – students who have completed their master’s degree in the U.S. with AIP funds – were also present and provided information on their experiences and accomplishments.

AIP will continue to scale out successful technologies, encourage innovation through national agricultural research systems and secure resources to combat climate change effects in agriculture.

Media coverage of the event:

• Visitors taking keen interest in the items displayed during a USAID-funded Agriculture Innovation Program (AIP) at NARC.
• USAID organizes media tour of agriculture based projects under AIP
• USAID arranges media briefing on AIP

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) – More farmers in Zimbabwe are demanding high-yielding, highly nutritious and drought tolerant provitamin A maize.

In Zimbabwe, nearly one in every five children under the age of five years are vitamin A deficient. These deficiencies can lead to lower IQ, stunting and blindness in children, and increased susceptibility to disease across all ages.  While vitamin A is available from a variety of sources, such as fruit, green leafy vegetables and animal products, these are often too expensive or unavailable to the more than 10 million people living in Zimbabwe’s rural areas.

Zimbabwe’s ZS242 – an orange provitamin A maize variety released on the market by the government in October 2015 – is particularly popular with farmers due to its nice aroma and good taste.  Consuming foods made from orange maize, which is rich in beta-carotene, can provide maize-dependent populations with up to half their daily vitamin A needs, according to HarvestPlus.

Orange vitamin A maize has been conventionally bred to provide higher levels of provitamin A carotenoids, a naturally occurring plant pigment also found in many orange foods such as mangoes, carrots and pumpkins, that the body then converts into vitamin A.

These varieties are also high-yielding, disease resistant and drought tolerant, presenting an opportunity for farmers to not only increase yields but also enhance the availability of vitamins and minerals for people whose diets are dominated by micronutrient-poor staple food crops.

Mary Sikirwayi, a farmer from Murewa District, Zimbabwe, bought provitamin orange maize seed during a seed fair organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in collaboration with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.

The maize grew and matured so fast that by the time her family wanted to try the fresh cobs for cooking and roasting, they had already started to dry. After harvesting the grain, she decided to make sadza, a porridge-like staple food consumed in Zimbabwe. When her family ate the sadza, everyone was so excited about the good taste and flavor of the food.

In addition to the good taste of the sadza from the provitamin A maize, Sikirwayi said the yield from the orange maize is more than five times higher than the national maize average yield. In the coming year, she plans to double the planted area of orange maize, due to its high demand both on the market and in her household.

CIMMYT and HarvestPlus have been working with Zimbabwe’s Department of Research and Specialist Services, Ministry of Health and Child Care, universities, seed companies, processors, retailers and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, to demonstrate the benefits of orange maize since 2012. The Zimbabwe government has expressed strong support for enriching the micronutrient content of plants and other crops, including maize.

JAWHAR, India (CIMMYT) – A new project is bringing sustainable technologies and practices to one-thousand villages in Maharashtra, India, the second most populous state in the country and an area that is particularly vulnerable to climate change effects like erratic rainfall, heat waves, sea water intrusion and other climatic risks.

Agriculture provides income for over half of Maharashtra’s population, yet productivity is severely affected by climate change and unsustainable agricultural practices that degrade soil quality. In 2015 alone 60 percent of villages in the state suffered drought affecting nearly nine million farmers.

New “climate smart” practices are critical if farmers in Maharashtra are to survive future climatic shocks, improve productivity and maintain a healthy ecosystem. The state has the second largest tribal population in the country, with most of these communities inhabiting fringe forest settlements and degraded lands which have low productivity and high vulnerability to erosion, making it even more vital farmers adopt sustainable practices.

A Climate Smart Village Programme for the Tribal Regions of Maharashtra was launched  to promote these practices – such as zero-till farming, integrated nutrient and water management and proper harvesting and storage – targeting farmers across Maharashtra’s tribal belt.

The three-year project, launched in 2016, is being implemented across over 1,000 villages in the state. Last year, 100 primary villages were identified as most likely to adopt climate smart practices in Maharashtra’s three districts and chosen to implement sustainable agriculture practices. Farmers groups from each primary village will link for the last two years of the project with nine skilled-up villages – villages where at least one climate smart practice has been adopted – to share and help implement climate smart farming practices and techniques.

Large quantities of improved seed that are resilient to drought, heat and other stresses are also being provided to use alongside these practices, ensuring maximum yield.

A key aspect of the program is ensuring that the climate smart technologies being promoted are adapted to local conditions – it’s critical that these new tools can be used by small and marginal farmers at an affordable cost. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center through the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) are currently distributing different small scale farm machineries like fertilizer drills and threshers that are catered to farmer preferences, including women farmers in the 100 primary villages.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) advisories will also be provided to farmers to ensure they have access to real-time information on weather forecasts, pest and disease outbreaks, market intelligence and more. BISA in collaboration with IFFCO Kishan Sanchar Limited, a telecommunications company in New Delhi, will release a mobile based ICT service in 2017 to provide advisories to enrolled farmers. 4,000 farmers have been selected for the service this year. The service will be constantly monitored and upgraded as required to meet the needs of more than 50,000 farmers over the course of the project.

The final component of the project ensures that farmers are enrolled in crop insurance schemes, which is essential to protecting and reimbursing farmers should their crops fail under poor climate conditions. BISA enrolled 500 farmers for insurance from November 2016-March 2017 and in the process to enroll more farmers in the coming monsoon season during July-October of this year.

In early June, Shri Vishnu Savara, Minister of Maharashtra’s Tribal Development Office, chaired an event that brought delegates from across India to review the current progress of the project in Jawhar, Palghar District. The event was facilitated by BISA representatives including Senior Consultant Prakash Naik, Hub Coordinators Abhilash Gupta and Mahesh Maske, Executive Assistant Anu Raswant and Administrative Officer Manish Rai. The event was co-chaired by Shri R. G. Kulkarni, Commissioner of Maharashtra’s Tribal Development Office and Arun Joshi, CIMMYT Asia Regional Representative.

Savara emphasized the important impact climate smart agriculture coupled with improved seed can have on farm productivity across Maharashtra’s tribal areas, and new ability to adapt to future climatic shocks and extreme weather events.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) – Delegates at a conference in June called for a new focus and increase in investment to ensure eastern and southern Africa’s farming systems can withstand the impacts of climate change.

Africa is likely to be the continent most vulnerable to climate change, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Smallholders produce around 80 percent of all food in sub-Saharan Africa, and rely primarily on rainfall for irrigation – a source that is becoming scarcer and unpredictable under climate change. Farming is also often practiced in marginal areas like flood plains or hillsides, where increasing and more intense weather shocks cause severe damage to soil and crops.

Tanzania’s Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Charles Tizeba said during a conference on the future of the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Based Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project, an initiative led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), that a paradigm shift in agricultural development is needed to enable smallholder farmers, especially those in rural areas, to produce enough to feed themselves and to sell.

Sustainable agricultural practices, improved seed varieties, use of fertilizers and better infrastructure are all technologies and practices that have been successfully tested by SIMLESA and have the potential to be expanded across the region, said Tizeba. He also called on governments in eastern and southern Africa to develop agricultural agendas based on farmer needs and opportunities SIMLESA identified through the project’s research efforts.

Over 100 people representing different governments, research institutions, development agencies and the private sector gathered in Tanzania to participate in the taking stock on sustainable intensification research for impact in eastern and southern Africa conference. Since 2010, SIMLESA has successfully tested locally-adapted sustainable farming systems throughout eastern and southern Africa. The project began its second phase in July 2014 and will focus on expanding climate-resilient technologies and practices throughout the region.

To date, a total of 268 and 378 maize and legume on-farm participatory variety selections were conducted by SIMLESA, where best performing maize and legume varieties that met farmer preferences were selected and scaled up by partner seed companies. The project has influenced over 235,000 farmers who adopted at least one sustainable intensification technology or practice.

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff called for the adoption of “climate-smart agriculture” that will make crops more resilient to continuing extreme weather events.

“For our farmers to be productive and ensure food security, we need to build resilience to climate change…we need to invest in new agricultural innovation now,” said Kropff.

Andrew Campbell, ACIAR chief executive officer, said climate change has already had a powerful negative effect on agriculture and food security for the world’s most vulnerable, and that these effects will become even worse in the future.

“It’s critical to integrate research into development initiatives,” said Campbell. “In this regard, SIMLESA’s work, in partnership with national agricultural research systems, becomes even more critical.”

At the project level, SIMLESA will aim to scale its sustainable intensification technologies to 650,000 farm households by 2023 in eight target countries through different partnership arrangements.

Many of the speakers at last week’s event said smallholder farmers must be part of discussions on climate change and food security as they are often among those most touched by the impacts of climate change, and they play an integral role in global agriculture systems.

To achieve the best results, SIMLESA will channel its experiences and lessons learned since its inception in 2010 and scale out its work through shared analysis, common research questions and learning through the monitoring, evaluation and learning portfolio, communications and knowledge sharing and a lean project management structure.

SIMLESA’s positive assessment of conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification in the region suggests that policies that strengthen national and local institutions, build infrastructure for sustainable farming, improve financial investment in agriculture and increase access for innovative private investors, play a key role in alleviating poverty and food insecurity in the region.

The Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Based Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project was launched in 2010. Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), SIMLESA aims to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farming communities in Africa through productive and sustainable maize–legume systems and risk management strategies that conserve natural resources. It is managed by CIMMYT and implemented by partners in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. 

In this report CIMMYT gratefully acknowledges 50 years of contributions from staff, partners and funders, and describes continued efforts to create a food- and nutrition-secure future through sustainable and climate resilient maize and wheat farming systems and improved varieties.

NAIROBI (CIMMYT) – Climate change’s impact in eastern and southern Africa has driven many farmers to seek new planting techniques that maintain or increase crop production, despite fewer resources.

The World Bank forecasts show that climate change will push Africa to surpass Asia as the most food insecure region in the world, inhabiting up to 50 percent of undernourished people globally in 2080. Variations in temperature and precipitation, coupled with prolonged droughts and floods during El Nino events is predicted to have a devastating impact in the region where 95 percent of all agriculture is dependent on rainfall.

Farmers in eastern and southern Africa are already feeling the impacts of climate change, and changing the way they make a living because of it through new agricultural adaptation strategies.

Sustainable practices like growing two or more crops among each other, or intercropping, have become popular with smallholder farmers in Africa who often plant multiple crops. When used in combination with improved seeds with traits like drought or disease resistance, these farmers are able to have successful harvests despite challenges imposed by climate change.

Knowing how to manage an intercropping system is vital to its success. Cereals and legumes in an intercrop system must have different growth habits and rooting patterns to reduce competition for nutrients, light and water.

According to Leonard Rusinamhodzi, an agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), farmers also need to reduce herbicide use in intercropping systems.

“It’s difficult to apply selective herbicides in systems with both narrow and broad leaf crops,” said Rusinamhodzi, who is working with farmers to apply the best fertilizer practices to their intercropped plots. “Maize will require mostly nitrogen, phosphate and potassium basal fertilizer, while legumes will require mostly phosphate and potassium, and micronutrients such as zinc and boron. Proper rates and proportions for all fertilizers and nutrients is crucial to ensure both crops are properly nourished.”

Another major consideration of intercropping is arrangement of crops in the field. A common approach is to alternate one row of maize with one row of a legume, but in Kenya, two rows of a legume alternating with two rows of maize is preferred. This arrangement, known as the MBILI system (mbili meaning “two” in Kiswahili) in Kenya, reduces competition between the maize and legumes, which leads to higher yield for both crops.

CIMMYT promotes the adoption of intercropping and other sustainable agriculture techniques through participatory farmer evaluations (PFEs) eastern and southern Africa. PFEs allow farmers to assess crops at demonstration plots and compare a range of improved seed products against local and traditional seed.

In Makueni County, Kenya, where most farmers grow cereals and legumes together, on-station intercropping trials comprising five drought tolerant maize varieties, six bean varieties and six pigeonpea varieties were set up in 2016 and replicated on several smallholder farmers’ plots. In 2017, the Participatory Evaluation and Application of Climate Smart Agriculture – PEACSA – project invited farmers to score and rate the performance of the crop varieties planted right before harvest time through a PFE.

By comparing crop performance, smallholder farmers are able to see first-hand that when used in combination with improved seed, sustainable techniques like intercropping are key to successful yields and quality seed. Because of this PFEs also create awareness of new products while simultaneously delivering detailed technical knowledge in a more convincing, hands-on manner.

About PEACSA:

Participatory Evaluation and Application of Climate Smart Agriculture (PEACSA) is a flagship project of the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), in collaboration with different agricultural research organizations, including CIMMYT. Through the PEACSA project a variety of best-bet CSA practices are applied at both on station and on farm levels, in an effort to test and evaluate appropriate technologies to increase agricultural productivity and enhance food security. With participatory evaluation, uptake and adoption of new technologies, especially improved seed varieties, is greatly increased because farmers take stock of the traits that matter to them. Cob size, kernel type, and length of maturity are just some of the characteristics farmers can rate in a participatory evaluation exercise.

About DTMASS:

Led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) project works in six countries in eastern and southern Africa to produce and deploy affordable drought tolerant, stress resilient, and high-yielding maize varieties for smallholder farmers. In 2016, DTMASS conducted PFEs in Mozambique and Zambia in collaboration with partners, and aims to conduct dozens more in 2017, across all project target countries.

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) – The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has grown 150 tons of renewed, improved maize seed that will be sent to Haitian farmers to help jump-start the country’s seed sector, improve local food security and decrease malnutrition. This will be the largest seed shipment to any country in CIMMYT’s history.

In 1998, CIMMYT, together with the Organization for the Rehabilitation of the Environment, introduced a new quality protein maize variety in Haiti. Named “Hugo” for CIMMYT maize breeder Hugo Córdova, the variety grew well under the island’s agro-ecological conditions and can decrease malnutrition and stunting among children that consume it. The product of decades of maize research in Haiti and Latin America, Hugo quickly became a favorite among farmers, but over time lost its genetic purity due to a lack of certified seed production and yields began to drop.

Now, CIMMYT is working to help Haiti build their seed sector from the ground up, from developing improved seed to replace old varieties to providing capacity development at every level of the maize seed value chain, with incredible results.

Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the lowest maize yields in the continent, and roughly 50 percent of the population is undernourished. These conditions have been exacerbated by a crippling earthquake in 2010, what is emerging as a longstanding drought, and devastating Hurricane Matthew in 2016 that affected 2 million people. According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Haiti cannot achieve economic growth and national stability if food security is not addressed.

However, improving food security in Haiti is complicated by the fact that there are no formal seed companies, said Alberto Chassaigne, maize seed system specialist at CIMMYT.

“Farmers often sell their entire crop at harvest, leaving nothing for the next season, forcing them to plant simple maize grain that they buy from local markets rather than certified seed, drastically reducing yield over time,” said Chassaigne.

In 2015, CIMMYT launched the Mayi Plus initiative with the support of USAID-Haiti Feed the Future (FTF) to identify the most promising varieties for the future of maize farming in Haiti. The project would also work to produce a “renewed” Hugo to farmers in Haiti with greater genetic purity and yield, and provide capacity development to Haitians in the production and processing of seed of these improved varieties. This renewed Hugo, known as “Hugo Plus,” can produce up to seven tons per hectare, in comparison to traditional varieties currently planted in Haiti that produce on average less than one ton per hectare.

Through a systemic series of maize trials, scientists also found that new CIMMYT germplasm is already available that outperforms any other maize available in Haiti in both irrigated and rain-fed conditions.  These resilient varieties, named “Mayi Plus I” and “Mayi Plus II” are currently under multiplication to be introduced to Haitian farmers as soon as possible.

Four tons of renewed Hugo were produced in 2015, 2.7 tons of which were produced in Haiti.

In the winter cropping season of 2016-2017, CIMMYT produced 150 tons of renewed Hugo seed in Mexico to send to Haiti, 50 percent more than the 100 tons they had planned to send. “This is the largest seed shipment ever sent by CIMMYT,” said Arturo Silva Hinojosa, leader of the International Maize Improvement Consortium in Latin America. “An additional 15 tons of seed will be harvested in Haiti, up from 0-3 tons in previous years.”

20 of the 150 tons of renewed “Hugo Plus” have already arrived in Haiti, where they will be sold to farmers at affordable prices in “agricultural input boutiques” established by FTF and partners. The remaining 130 tons will be used by CIMMYT and FTF to develop a strategic seed reserve in Haiti that will serve as a backup in case of natural disasters so that the country has immediate availability of seed stock for re-planting. The CIMMYT team in Haiti is currently working to find the best locations to store the strategic maize seed reserve.

To ensure that the genetic purity of renewed Hugo and other improved maize varieties will be maintained, CIMMYT is providing capacity development to help start Haiti’s seed sector from scratch. Project partners identified entrepreneurs interested in establishing a seed enterprise, and CIMMYT has been providing these entrepreneurs with in-depth training in seed processing and marketing, guidance on the infrastructure for a seed processing plant, and contacts throughout the world of equipment appropriate for Haitian conditions.

In addition, CIMMYT established a two-week course in seed production and seed processing with a FTF partner to train 13 Haitian technicians, who will now be able to train other Haitians interested in working in the country’s maize seed sector. A training manual is being prepared in French and Creole, and replication workshops will be conducted in target food security corridors of USAID in Haiti.

“This improved seed, and a self-sustaining seed sector capable of producing and marketing it, can contribute towards improved foreign exchange savings and will create local employment,” said Huntington Hobbs, former leader of strategic planning and research coordination for CIMMYT’s MasAgro project. “Increased maize production will bolster Haiti’s economy by providing feed for emerging industries in poultry and egg production, as well as the main staple of Haitian food security.”

CIMMYT researchers returned to Haiti in early June to advise seed companies on the installation of a seed processing plant, as well as to supervise trials and evaluations of new varieties and coordinate trainings in Haiti with trainers trained last February in Mexico.

In order to introduce local farmers to the new Hugo Plus maize variety and recognize CIMMYT’s contribution to Haiti’s food security through the Mayi Plus project, the USAID-Haiti Feed the Future Chanje Lavi Plante (CLP) project held a special event on June 21, 2016. The event was attended by farmers, agricultural input store managers and local partners, as well as staff from the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture and USAID who thanked CIMMYT for the recent 20 ton seed shipment.

“Hugo Plus is the result of many years of applied research work of CIMMYT in Haiti, and is a valuable alternative to the current varieties available in Haiti with such low yields,” said Micheal Wyzan, head of the office of economic growth and development at the Haiti mission of USAID. “We highly appreciate the fruitful collaboration between CIMMYT and the CLP project that allow farmers to increase their maize yields in the region.”

In his address to the audience, Alain Thermil, main liaison of Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture with USAID, stated that, “CIMMYT is a very important organization in the world, and it is vital to Haiti that we establish and maintain a close relationship with CIMMYT.”

Jean Robert Estime, director of the CLP project in Haiti, agreed. “Through CIMMYT interventions, good quality seed is now available to farmers in Haiti. We are very grateful to CIMMYT, a great international organization with a mandate to do research on maize and wheat worldwide that is doing very important work in Haiti.”

ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Farmers in Pakistan are eagerly adopting a nutrient-enhanced wheat variety offering improved food security, higher incomes, health benefits and a delicious taste.

Known as Zincol and released to farmers in 2016, the variety provides harvests as abundant as those for other widely grown wheat varieties, but its grain contains 20 percent more zinc, a critical micronutrient missing in the diets of many poor people in South Asia.

Due to these benefits and its delicious taste, Zincol was one of the top choices among farmers testing 12 new wheat varieties in 2016.

“I would eat twice as many chappatis of Zincol as of other wheat varieties,” said Munib Khan, a farmer in Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi District, Punjab Province, Pakistan, referring to its delicious flavor.

Khan has been growing Zincol since its release. In 2017, he planted a large portion of his wheat fields with the seed, as did members of the Gujar Khan Seed Producer Group to which he belongs.

The group is one of 21 seed producer associations established to grow quality seed of new wheat varieties with assistance from the country’s National Rural Support Program (NRSP) in remote areas of Pakistan. The support program is a key partner in the Pakistan Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Over the 2016 and 2017 cropping seasons, 400 tons of seed of Zincol has been shared with farmers, seed companies and promotional partners,” said Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative in Pakistan and a wheat improvement specialist.

Zincol resulted from the CIMMYT’s “biofortification” breeding research, focused on enhancing nutrient levels in the grain of key food crops. Scientists develop biofortified crops using diverse genetic resources, including wheat landraces and wild relatives with the genetic potential to accumulate zinc in the grain.

Genes for enhanced grain zinc content from those sources are crossed into adapted, high-yielding varieties, over repeated cycles of selection involving many thousands of plants.

“One year after the release of Zincol, wheat farmers on more than 320 hectares are sowing the variety,” Imtiaz said.

He also noted that 15 tons of Zincol seed was shared free of charge for testing with 600 farm families in Sukkar District, Sindh Province, through an initiative of World Vision-Canada and HarvestPlus, a CGIAR research program dedicated to the study and delivery of biofortified foods.

Wheat: Vehicle for enhanced nutrition

Pakistan produces more than 25 million tons of wheat a year. The country has an annual per capita consumption averaging around 124 kilograms — among the highest in the world and providing over 60 percent of inhabitants’ daily caloric intake. The staple wheat-based foods are chappatis or a flat bread baked on the walls of large, cylindrical clay ovens.

Particularly in remote areas of Pakistan, human diets too often lack essential micronutrients such as zinc. According to a 2011 nutrition survey, 39 percent of children in Pakistan and 48 percent of pregnant women suffer from zinc deficiency, leading to child stunting rates of more than 40 percent and high infant mortality.

Zinc deficiency is also known to cause diarrheal disease, lower respiratory tract infections, malaria, hypogonadism, impaired immune function, skin disorders, cognitive dysfunction and anorexia, according to the World Health Organization.

“Given its role as a key food staple, wheat with enhanced levels of zinc and other micronutrients can contribute to better nutrition,” said Velu Govindan, a CIMMYT wheat breeder who specializes in biofortification and helped develop Zincol.

“Zincol also carries the genetic background of NARC 2011, a popular, high-yielding Pakistan wheat variety that resists wheat stem rust, a deadly disease that threatens wheat worldwide,” Govindan added.

As part of AIP and HarvestPlus, as well as with numerous public and private partners and farmer seed production groups in Pakistan, CIMMYT is leading the extensive evaluation, distribution and seed production of Zincol, said Krishna Dev Joshi, a former CIMMYT wheat improvement specialist who worked on the project.

“With modest resources and limited amounts of seed, we tested and promoted Zincol over the last two years in Balochistan, Punjab, and Sindh, covering 15 districts and engaging nearly 700 farmers,” Joshi explained.

Joshi said farmer seed producers and private seed companies were able to provide another 100 tons of seed in 2016, enough to sow more than 2,500 hectares in 2017 and over half a million hectares in 2018.

“Zincol reached farmers nine years after the initial breeding cross in 2007, several years more quickly than is the norm in Pakistan, partly because it was tested simultaneously in national and provincial trials,” Joshi added. “Zincol is part of a suite of new, micronutrient-enhanced wheat varieties bred by CIMMYT and partners for use in South Asia, a region whose inhabitants consume 100 million tons of wheat each year.”

For India, Govindan and partners created a new biofortified wheat variety using synthetic parents crossed onto WH1105, a CIMMYT-derived high-yielding variety grown in India’s Northwestern Plain Zone. The new variety out-yields other popular varieties by as much as 8 percent and has a 20 percent higher zinc content, as well as good resistance to yellow rust disease. Another new Indian variety, Zinc Shakti, has a 40 percent greater grain zinc content and is being marketed by the private sector and spread via farmer-to-farmer seed sharing.