Wheat researcher with Green Seeker at Wheat Research Institute Sakrand, Sind Province, Pakistan. Photo: Sarfraz Ahmed
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Pakistani and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) scientists are working with wheat farmers to test and promote precision agriculture technology that allows the farmers to save money, maintain high yields and reduce the environmentally harmful overuse of nitrogen fertilizer.
Wheat is planted on more than 9 million hectares in Pakistan each year. Of this, 85 percent is grown under irrigation in farming systems that include several crops.
Farmers may apply nearly 190 kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer per hectare of wheat, placing a third of this when they sow and the remainder in one-to-several partial applications during the crop cycle. Often, the plants fail to take up and use all of the fertilizer applied. More precise management of crop nutrients could increase farmers’ profits by saving fertilizer with no loss of yield, as well as reducing the presence of excess nitrogen that turns into greenhouse gases.
Precision nutrient management means applying the right source of plant nutrients at the right rate, at the right time and in the right place. CIMMYT is working across the globe to create new technologies that are locally adapted to help farmers apply the most precise dosage of fertilizer possible at the right time, so it is taken up and used most effectively by the crop.
CIMMYT and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) have developed the application “urea calculator” for cell phones. In this process, a Green Seeker handheld crop sensor quickly assesses crop vigor and provides readings that are used by the urea calculator to furnish an optimal recommendation on the amount of nitrogen fertilizer the wheat crop needs.
National partners observe the Green Seeker at work at Rice Research Institute, Kala Shah Kaku, and Punjab, Pakistan. Photo: Abdul Khalique
Tests with the crop sensor/calculator combination on more than 35 farmer fields during 2016 in Pakistan results showed that 35 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare could be saved without any loss in grain yield. This technology is being evaluated and demonstrated in Pakistan as part of the CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), supported by the United States Agency for International Development in collaboration with Pakistan partners.
CIMMYT recently began work in four provinces of Pakistan, providing Green Seekers and training to AIP research, extension and private partners. Fifty-five specialists in all took part in training events held at the Wheat Research Institute Sakrand, Sind Province; the Rice Research Institute KSK, Punjab Province; and the Model Farm Service Center, Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Training and new partnerships will help national partners to demonstrate and disseminate sustainable farming practices to wheat farmers throughout Pakistan.
Farmer Bida Sen prepares rice seedlings for transplanting in Pipari, Dang. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT
El BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Wheat, rice, maize, pearl millet, and sorghum provide over half of the world’s food calories. To maintain global food security under climate change, there is an increasing need to exploit existing genetic variability and develop crops with superior genetic yield potential and stress adaptation.
Climate change impacts food production by increasing heat and water stress among other environmental challenges, including the spread of pests, according to a recent study published by researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). If nothing is done to currently improve the crops we grow, wheat, maize and rice are predicted to decrease in both tropical and temperate regions. Wheat yields are already slowing in most areas, with models predicting a six percent decline in yield for every 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperature.
While breeding efforts in the past have traditionally focused on increasing yield rather than survival under stresses, researchers are now working to use existing genetic diversity to create varieties that can withstand extreme weather events with yield stability in both “good” and “bad” years to better prepare our global food system for future climate variability.
The study “An integrated approach to maintaining cereal productivity under climate change” concludes the opportunity to share knowledge between crops and identify priority traits for future research can be exploited to increase breeding impacts and assist in identifying the genetic loci that control adaptation. The researchers also emphasize a more internationally coordinated approach to crop phenotyping and modeling, combined with effective sharing of knowledge, facilities, and data, will boost the cost effectiveness and facilitate genetic gains of all staple crops.
Learn more about this study and other recent publications from CIMMYT scientists, below.
Africa’s changing farm size distribution patterns: the rise of medium-scale farms. Jayne, T.S.; Chamberlin, J.; Traub, L.; Sitko, N.J.; Muyanga, M.; Yeboah, K.; Anseeuw, W.; Chapoto, A.; Ayala Wineman; Nkonde, C.; Kachule, R. Agricultural Economics 47 (Supple.): 197-214.
Application of unmanned aerial systems for high throughput phenotyping of large wheat breeding nurseries. Haghighattalab, A.; Gonzalez-Perez, L. Mondal, S.; Singh, D.; Schinstock, D.; Rutkoski, J.; Ortiz-Monasterio, I.; Singh, R.P.; Goodin, D.; Poland, J. Plant Methods 12: 35.
Effect of traditional and extrusion nixtamalization on carotenoid retention in tortillas made from provitamin A biofortified maize (Zea mays L.). 2016. Rosales-Nolasco, A.; Agama-Acevedo, E.; Bello-Pérez, L.A.; Gutiérrez-Dorado, R.; Palacios-Rojas, N. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 64 (44): 8229-8295.
Grain yield, adaptation and progress in breeding for early-maturingand heat-tolerant wheat lines in South Asia. Mondal, S.; Singh, R.P. Mason, E.R.; Huerta-Espino, J.; Autrique, E.; Joshi, A.K. Field Crops Research 192: 78-85.
The marketing of specialty corns in Mexico: current conditions and prospects. López-Torres, J.; Rendon-Medel, R.; Camacho Villa, T.C. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Agricolas 15: 3075-3088.
Mining centuries old In situ conserved turkish wheat landraces for grain yield and stripe rust resistance genes. Sehgal, D.; Dreisigacker, S.; Belen, S.; Kucukozdemir, U.; Mert, Z.; Ozer, E.; Morgounov, A.I. Frontiers in Geenetics 7 : 201.
Molecular characterisation of novel LMW-m and LMW-s genes from four Aegilops species (Sitopsis section) and comparison with those from the Glu-B3 locus of common wheat. Cuesta, S.; Guzman, C.; Alvarez, J.B. Crop and Pasture Science 67: 938-947.
Relay intercropping and mineral fertilizer effects on biomass production, maize productivity and weed dynamics in contrasting soils under conservation agriculture. Mhlanga, B.; Cheesman, S.; Maasdorp, B.; Mupangwa, W.; Thierfelder, C. Journal of Agricultural Science. Online First.
The evolution of the MasAgro hubs: responsiveness and serendipity as drivers of agricultural innovation in a dynamic and heterogeneous context. Camacho Villa, T.C.; Almekinders, C.; Hellin, J.; Martinez-Cruz, T.E.; Rendon-Medel, R.; Guevara-Hernández, F.; Beuchelt, T.D.; Govaerts, B. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension 22 (5) : 455-470.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT)—Scientists from two of the world’s leading agricultural research institutes will embark on joint research to boost global food security, mitigate environmental damage from farming, and help to reduce food grain imports by developing countries.
At a recent meeting, 30 scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Rothamsted Research, a UK-based independent science institute, agreed to pool expertise in research to develop higher-yielding, more disease resistant and nutritious wheat varieties for use in more productive, climate-resilient farming systems.
“There is no doubt that our partnership can help make agriculture in the UK greener and more competitive, while improving food security and reducing import dependency for basic grains in emerging and developing nations,” said Achim Dobermann, director of Rothamsted Research, which was founded in 1843 and is the world’s longest running agricultural research station.
Individual Rothamsted and CIMMYT scientists have often worked together over the years, but are now forging a stronger, broader collaboration, according to Martin Kropff, CIMMYT director general. “We’ll combine the expertise of Rothamsted in such areas as advanced genetics and complex cropping systems with the applied reach of CIMMYT and its partners in developing countries,” said Kropff.
Nearly half of the world’s wheat lands are sown to varieties that carry contributions from CIMMYT’s breeding research and yearly economic benefits from the additional grain produced are as high as $3.1 billion.
Experts predict that by 2050 staple grain farmers will need to grow at least 60 percent more than they do now, to feed a world population exceeding 9 billion while addressing environmental degradation and climate shocks.
Rothamsted and CIMMYT will now develop focused proposals for work that can be funded by the UK and other donors, according to Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s global wheat program. “We’ll seek large initiatives that bring significant impact,” said Braun.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a second set of new improved maize hybrids to partners in eastern Africa and similar agroecological zones, to scale up production for farmers in these areas.
National agricultural research systems and seed companies are invited to apply for the allocation of these pre-commercial hybrids, after which they will be able to register, produce and offer the improved seed to farming communities.
The deadline for applications is 07 February 2017.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Carolina Sansaloni’s passion for genetics began when she was at Universidad de Misiones in Posadas, Misiones, Argentina, an interest that grew as she moved on to receive her master’s and doctoral degrees in molecular biology at Universidad de Brasilia in Brazil.
While completing her doctorate degree, Sansaloni travelled to Canberra, Australia to research the genomic structure of the eucalyptus tree at Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT), learning the ins and outs of sequencing technology.
In 2012, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) wanted to introduce the DArT genotyping technologies to Mexico to serve the needs of the Mexican maize and wheat research communities, and once Sansaloni finished her doctoral degree, she was an obvious choice to lead this initiative.
Working under the MasAgro Biodiversidad project in partnership with DArT, INIFAP and CIMMYT, Sansaloni helped to build the Genetic Analysis Service for Agriculture (SAGA in Spanish) from the ground up.
The service, managed by the CIMMYT-based Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative, brings cutting edge genotyping capacity and genetic analysis capability to Mexico. The facility provides unique insights into the genetic variation of wheat and maize at a “sequence level.” Use of the vast quantities of data generated help understand genetic control of characteristics evaluated at a plant or crop level for example, height variations among wheat varieties.
SAGA’s services are available for all CIMMYT scientists, universities, national agriculture research programs and private companies. Worldwide, few other platforms produce this kind of data and most are inaccessible to scientists working at publicly funded institutions because their economic or logistics difficulties.
“When it comes to genotyping technology, it doesn’t matter what type of organism you are working with. It could be wheat, eucalyptus or chicken – the machine will work the same way,” explained Sansaloni.
Sansaloni has also been focusing her time on the wheat Global Diversity Analysis, which characterizes and analyzes seeds in genebanks at both CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). Her team has characterized approximately 100,000 wheat accessions including 40 percent of the CIMMYT genebank and almost 100 percent of the ICARDA genebank wheat collection. This is an incredible and unique resource for wheat scientists providing a genetic framework to facilitate selection of the most relevant accessions for breeding.
“Currently only five to eight percent of materials in the genebank are being used in the breeding programs,” Sansaloni said. “The Global Diversity Analysis could have huge impacts on the future of wheat yields. It is like discovering the pieces of a puzzle, and then beginning to understand how these pieces can fit together to build excellent varieties of wheat.”
Sansaloni’s goal is to combine information from CIMMYT and ICARDA, making the information accessible to the entire wheat community and eventually enhancing breeding programs across the globe.
“Working at CIMMYT has been an invaluable experience,” Sansaloni said. “I’ve had the opportunity to work and collaborate with so many different people, and it’s brought me from the laboratory into the wheat fields, which really brings me closer to my work.”
SeeD is a joint initiative of CIMMYT and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA) through the MasAgroproject. SeeD receives additional funding from the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize (MAIZE CRP) and Wheat (WHEAT CRP), and from the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Evaluating CIMMYT’s white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – New varieties of white maize in Pakistan have the potential to both quadruple savings of irrigation water and nearly double crop yields for farmers, thereby building food security and conserving badly needed water resources for the country.
Maize is the third most important cereal crop in Pakistan, which at a production rate of four tons per hectare, has one of the highest national yields in South Asia. Maize productivity in Pakistan has increased almost 75 percent from levels in the early 1990s due to the adoption and expansion of hybrid maize varieties. The crop is cultivated both in spring and autumn seasons and grows in all provinces throughout the country.
However, Pakistan is expected to be severely affected by climate change through increased flooding and drought, and is already one of the most water stressed countries in the world. If the country is to be able to meet future food demand, new maize varieties that can grow with less water under harsher conditions must be developed and adopted by farmers.
The Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI) in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – an area particularly reliant on white maize for food, unlike other parts of the country where yellow maize is predominantly used for animal feed – recently tested nine white maize varieties (hybrids and open-pollinated varieties) provided by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that demonstrated tolerance to water stress conditions.
Two of the early-maturing, open-pollinated varieties gave above average seed yields even though farmers irrigated the fields just twice, compared to the usual eight to ten times necessary with currently grown varieties. These varieties can also be harvested in less than 100 days and yield seven to 10 tons per hectare (ha) under good management practices – over twice the national average of four tons per ha – giving farmers time to grow another crop within the same season and produce nearly double the current national average yield.
Team of researchers evaluating CIMMYT’s white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT
CCRI will distribute about 1000 kilograms of these seeds to about 100 farmers across the province in the coming autumn season, which farmers will be allowed to keep for subsequent seasons. These varieties will not only contribute to climate mitigation strategies but also help farmers adopt new, sustainable cropping systems. In addition to meeting food demand, these new varieties also can alleviate the scarcity of livestock feed in Pakistan, contributing to the country’s food and nutritional security.
The CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), which receives support from the United States Agency for International Development, is helping to bring affordable, climate resilient and water efficient maize options to market. Since the launch of the program in 2013, Pakistani researchers have identified more than 80 CIMMYT hybrids and open-pollinated varieties that are well adapted to the country’s diverse environments.
Learn more about how AIP is sustainably increasing agricultural productivity across Pakistan here.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
Deepmala Sehgal, wheat geneticist and molecular breeder at CIMMYT. Photo: M. Listman/CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Molecular analysis research by Deepmala Sehgal, a wheat geneticist and molecular breeder who joined the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as an associate scientist in 2013, has led to the discovery of novel genes for yield, disease resistance and climate resilience in previously little-used wheat genetic resources.
But getting to the point of applying cutting-edge DNA marker technology to support CIMMYT wheat breeding has involved a few dramatic moves for the New Delhi native, who studied botany throughout middle school and university. “I loved science and chose plant science, because I enjoyed the field trips and didn’t like dissecting animals,” Sehgal said, explaining her choice of profession.
It wasn’t until she was studying for her Ph.D. at Delhi University in 2008 that she first used molecular markers, which are DNA segments near genes for traits of interest, like drought tolerance, and which can help breeders to develop improved crop varieties that feature those traits.
“For my thesis, I used molecular markers in a very basic way to analyze the diversity of safflower species that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had in its gene bank but didn’t know how to classify. I found a place for some and, for several, had to establish completely new subspecies,” Sehgal said.
Later, as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Aberystwyth in Britain, Sehgal used an approach known as fine mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL), for drought tolerance in pearl millet. “The aim of fine mapping is to get shorter QTL markers that are nearer to the actual gene involved,” she explained, adding that this makes it easier to use the markers for breeding.
As it turned out, Sehgal’s growing proficiency in molecular marker research for crops made her suited to work as a wheat geneticist at CIMMYT.
“By 2013, CIMMYT had generated a huge volume of new data through genotyping-by-sequencing research, but those data needed to be analyzed using an approach called “association mapping,” to identify markers that breeders could use to select for specific traits. My experience handling such data and working with drought stress gave me an in with CIMMYT.”
Based at CIMMYT’s Mexico headquarters, Sehgal currently devotes 70 percent of her time to work for the CIMMYT global wheat program and the remainder for Seeds of Discovery, a CIMMYT-led project supported by Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), which aims to unlock new wheat genetic diversity able to address climate change challenges.
Over the last two years, she has served as lead author for two published studies and co-author for four others. One used genotyping-by-sequencing loci and gene-based markers to examine the diversity of more than 1,400 spring bread wheat seed collections from key wheat environments. Another applied genome-wide association analysis on a selection of landrace collections from Turkey.
“In the first, we discovered not only thousands of new DNA marker variations in landraces adapted to drought and heat, but a new allele for the vernalization gene, which influences the timing of wheat flowering, and new alleles for genes controlling grain quality, all in landraces from near wheat’s center of origin in Asia and the Middle East.”
Sehgal acknowledges the as-yet limited impact of molecular markers in wheat breeding. “Individual markers generally have small effects on genetically complex traits like yield or drought tolerance; moreover, many studies fail to account for “epistasis,” the mutual influence genes have on one another, within a genome.”
To address this, she and colleagues have carried out the first study to identify genomic regions with stable expression for grain yield and yield stability, as well as accounting for their individual epistatic interactions, in a large sample of elite wheat lines under multiple environments via genome wide association mapping. A paper on this work has been accepted for publication in Nature Scientific Reports.
Sehgal has found her experience at CIMMYT enriching. “I feel free here to pursue the work I truly enjoy and that can make a difference, helping our center’s wheat breeders to create improved varieties with which farmers can feed a larger, more prosperous global population in the face of climate change and new, deadly crop diseases.”
CIMMYT’s interventions on cropping intensification in Southern Bangladesh look beyond surface water irrigation to ensure long-term environmental sustainability. Photo: T. Krupnik/CIMMYT
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) – For the first time, researchers have mapped rivers and freshwater canals in southern Bangladesh using geospatial tools as part of a new initiative to help farmers in monsoon and rainfed systems transition to sustainable farming methods. Essential to this transition is the use of surface water for irrigation, which is less costly and more environmentally friendly than extracting groundwater.
A new study by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) indicates that by switching to surface water irrigation, farmers can greatly increase crop production, even in the face of soil and water salinity constraints. It identified over 121,000 hectares (ha) of currently fallow and rainfed cropland that could be placed under irrigation. Dry season wheat and maize production would also increase significantly, thereby greatly benefiting national cereal productivity.
Access to irrigation is needed to ensure crops will grow during southern Bangladesh’s dry season, a challenge for farmers who have traditionally relied on rainfed cultivation. Extracting groundwater for irrigation is energy-intensive, but southern Bangladesh has a dense network of rivers and natural canals that can be used for surface water irrigation.
In order to maximize productivity without expanding to new land, farmers in southern Bangladesh will need to rotate at least two crops per year. By using crop rotation, an SI practice that can boost yields, increase profits, protect the environment, and improve soil function and quality, farmers can grow different crops on the same plot, minimizing crop expansion into forests.
Surface water irrigation can increase cereal productivity and intensify cropping systems, even in the face of soil and water salinity constraints. Photo: T. Krupnik/CIMMYT
As South Asia’s population continues to rise and more people move out of poverty, changing dietary preferences are increasing the demand for wheat and maize, while maintaining the demand for rice. However, the average increase in the yield potential of staple crops since the 1960s has been negligible, while farm area per capita has shrunk more than 60 percent to just a tenth of a hectare per person, according to 2014 World Bank Indicators.
The Government of Bangladesh recently adopted land- and water-use policies to support agricultural development in southern Bangladesh by calling for donors to invest over $7 billion. Of these funds, $500 million will be allocated for surface water irrigation to help farmers transition from monsoon rice-fallow or rainfed systems to intensified double-cropping systems.
Future interventions on cropping intensification in southern Bangladesh must look beyond surface water irrigation to assess where conjunctive use of groundwater might be needed and to ensure long-term environmental sustainability. While research results support the targeted use of surface water irrigation alongside improved water governance measures, more viable crop diversification options must be explored and the environmental impact of large-scale irrigation development needs to be assessed.
Building on this study, the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia will work with national agricultural research systems, government and private sector partners to develop policy and market interventions that continue to build sustainable intensification strategies for both irrigated and rainfed systems across southern Bangladesh.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
Jiafa Chen, a statistical and molecular geneticist at CIMMYT. Photo: CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Maize has always been an integral part of Jiafa Chen’s life.
Chen, a statistical and molecular geneticist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has helped identify new genetic resources that have the potential to be used to breed new maize varieties that withstand a variety of environmental and biological stresses. He has also played a significant role in the development of a recent partnership between CIMMYT and Henan Agricultural University (HAU) in China.
Born in Henan – a province in the fertile Yellow River Valley known for its maize and wheat production – Chen’s family grew maize, which was a major source of income and led to his interest in breeding the crop as a means to help small farmers in China. He went on to study agriculture at HAU, where he focused on maize at a molecular level throughout undergraduate and graduate school, then came to CIMMYT as a postdoctoral researcher in 2013.
“Coming to CIMMYT was natural for me,” Chen said. “CIMMYT’s genebank – which holds over 28,000 maize accessions – offered a wide array of genetic resources that could help to breed varieties resistant to disease and abiotic stress which are large challenges in my country.”
Over Chen’s four years at CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City, he has helped characterize CIMMYT’s entire maize genebank using DArTseq, a genetic fingerprinting method that can be used to help identify new genes related to traits like tolerance to heat under climate change, or resistance to disease. This research is being used to develop maize germplasm with new genetic variation for drought tolerance and resistance to tar spot complex disease.
“Conserving and utilizing biodiversity is crucial to ensure food security for future generations,” Chen said. “For example, all modern maize varieties currently grown have narrow genetic diversity compared to CIMMYT’s genebank, which holds some genetic diversity valuable to breed new varieties that suit future environments under climate change. CIMMYT and other genebanks, which contain numerous crop varieties, are our only resource that can offer the native diversity we need to achieve food security in the future.”
Chen moved back to China this month to begin research at HAU as an assistant professor, where he will continue to focus on discovering new genes associated with resistance to different stresses. Chen was the first student from HAU to come to CIMMYT, and has served as a bridge between the institutions that officially launched a new joint Maize and Wheat Research Center during a signing ceremony last week.
The new center will focus on research and training, and will host four international senior scientists with expertise in genomics, informatics, physiology and crop management. It will be fully integrated into CIMMYT’s global activities and CIMMYT’s current collaboration in China with the Chinese Agricultural Academy of Sciences.
“I think through the new center, CIMMYT will offer HAU the opportunity to enhance agricultural systems in China, and will have a stronger impact at the farm level than ever before,” Chen said. “I also think HAU will have more of an opportunity to be involved with more global agricultural research initiatives, and become a world-class university.”
Cereal yields in sub-Saharan Africa must increase to 80 percent of their potential by 2050 to meet the enormous increase in demand for food. Above, Phillis Muromo, small-scale farmer in Zaka in Zimbabwe. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Cereal yields in sub-Saharan Africa must increase to 80 percent of their potential by 2050 to meet the enormous increase in demand for food, according to a new report.
Currently, sub-Saharan Africa is among the regions with the largest gap between cereal consumption and production, with demand projected to triple between 2010 and 2050. The study “Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself?” shows that nearly complete closure of the gap between current farm yields and yield potential is needed to maintain the current level of cereal self-sufficiency by 2050. For all countries, such yield gap closure requires a large, abrupt acceleration in rate of yield increase. If this acceleration is not achieved, massive cropland expansion with attendant biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions or vast import dependency are to be expected.
Genomic regions associated with root traits under drought stress in tropical maize (Zea mays L.). 2016. Zaidi, P.H.; Seetharam, K.; Krishna, G.; Krishnamurthy, S.L.; Gajanan Saykhedkar; Babu, R.; Zerka, M.; Vinayan, M.T.; Vivek, B. Plos one, 11(10): e0164340.
Can sub-Saharan Africa feed itself? 2016. Ittersum, M.K. van; Bussel, L.G.J. van; Wolf, J.; Grassini, P.; Wart, J. van; Guilpart, N.; Claessens, L.; De Groote, H.; Wiebe, K.; Mason-D’Croz, D.; Haishun Yang; Boogaard, H.; Oort, P.J.A. van; Van Loon, M.P.; Saito, K.; Adimo, O.; Adjei-Nsiah, S.; Agali, A.; Bala, A.; Chikowo, R.; Kaizzi, K.; Kouressy, M.; Makoi, J.H.; Ouattara, K.; Kindie Tesfaye Fantaye; Cassman, K.G. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America PNAS, 113 (52): 14964-14969.
QTL mapping for grain zinc and iron concentrations and zinc efficiency in a tetraploid and hexaploid wheat mapping populations. 2016. Velu, G.; Yusuf Tutus; Gomez-Becerra, H.F.; Yuanfeng Hao; Demir, L.; Kara, R.; Crespo-Herrera, L.A.; Orhan, S.; Yazici, A.; Singh, R.P.; Cakmak, I. Plant and Soil, online first.
Control of Helminthosporium leaf blight of spring wheat using seed treatments and single foliar spray in Indo-Gangetic Plains of Nepal. 2016. Sharma-Poudyal, D.; Sharma, R.C.; Duveiller, E. Crop Protection, 88: 161-166.
Breeding value of primary synthetic wheat genotypes for grain yield. 2016. Jafarzadeh, J.; Bonnett, D.G.; Jannink, J.L.; Akdemir, D.; Dreisigacker, S.; Sorrells, M.E. Plos one, 11 (9): e0162860.
Introducing climate change in Bihar’s Krishi road map. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA
BIHAR, India (CIMMYT) — Rich endowment of fertile soil, adequate rainfall and sufficient ground water makes agriculture key to the overall development of the economy of the state of Bihar in India. Farm mechanization to enhance cropping intensity, reduce labor requirements and improve farm production efficiency is a vital policy initiative taken by Bihar’s Department of Agriculture to address the shrinking area under cultivation. Although the state government has accorded top priority to agriculture, the action plan (the so-called Krishi road map) it has prepared for the agriculture sector does not include a strategy for climate change mitigation.
Extreme climatic vulnerability keeps Bihar’s agricultural productivity low. It is the only state in the country where drought and flood recurrently occur at the same time. To overcome these adverse conditions, the government of Bihar is trying to re-orient agriculture by enacting diversification policies and other measures such as irrigation, flood control and drainage schemes. It has also been involved in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) work and pilot climate-smart villages (CSVs) undertaken by CIMMYT and the Borlaug Initiative for South Asia (BISA) and other collaborators. Concerns about climate change challenges were shared by Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s chief minister, with CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff during his recent visit to Bihar. They also discussed local community collaboration with researchers, policymakers and scientists on establishing a strategic approach to scale sustainable intensification based on conservation agriculture.
Throughout 2016, traveling seminars and workshops were organized in CSVs to disseminate knowledge about climate-smart agriculture practices (CSAPs). Highlighted at these events were the benefits of direct-seeded rice, laser land leveling, bed planting, residue management, site-specific nutrient management, the GreenSeeker sensor, zero tillage, crop diversification, intensification with legume incorporation, information & communications technologies and weather forecasting. During a stakeholder consultation in September 2016 led by Vijoy Prakash, Bihar’s Agriculture Production Commissioner, CIMMYT-BISA shared its CSA experiences. Addressing the need to incorporate climate change into the Krishi road map, the Chief Minister and other senior government officials visited the CSA research sites at BISA-Pusa and the CSV pilots in Samastipur District implemented by CCAFS, CIMMYT and BISA. Bihar’s Agriculture Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary also visited 30 CIMMYT-BISA pilot CSVs in Samastipur and Vaishali Districts.
Farmers sharing their experiences with climate-smart practices during a field visit by the Chief Minister of Bihar. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA
The Bihar Agricultural Management and Training Institute (BAMETI) issued a letter to CIMMYT stating that the government of Bihar plans to implement CSA and CSVs in all 38 districts of Bihar. BAMETI is responsible for organizing need-based training programs for the farming community. The Bihar’s Department of Agriculture is also preparing a proposal to introduce CSAPs to improve the resilience of farmers by mainstreaming CSVs in Bihar with technical and strategic support from CIMMYT, BISA and CCAFS in collaboration with Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar Agricultural University and the ICAR research complex for the eastern region. Based on the success of CSVs, the linkages with CIMMYT will help fulfill Bihar’s innovative Krishi road map. Commending the work done in farmers’ fields and its relevance for addressing climate challenges from a farming systems perspective, Chief Minister Kumar sent a letter to CIMMYT’s DG on the occasion of CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary.
Since then, several field days, workshops and meetings have been conducted by CIMMYT-BISA in collaboration with other partners to fulfill the Krishi road map. On October 7, 2016, a field day on “Direct-Seeded Rice in Climate-Smart Villages’’ was held at CSV Digmbra with more than 300 farmers, service providers, NGOs, private companies and state agriculture department representatives participating, as well as scientists from Krishi Vikas Kendra University and CIMMYT.
Among the subjects discussed were CSA interventions implemented through innovative partnerships with farmers and farmer cooperatives to build farmers’ resilience to climate change and increase their productivity and incomes, while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Samastipur’s district magistrate reported that the government of Bihar is supporting farmers’ adoption of improved technologies by providing them with subsidies for mechanization, irrigation and improved seed. Finally, several progressive farmers shared their experiences with climate-smart practices and encouraged other farmers to adopt them in order to improve their livelihoods.
Ulrich Schurr (L), of Germany’s Forschungszentrum Jülich research center and chair of the International Plant Phenotyping Network, and Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, are promoting global partnerships in phenotyping to improve critical food crops, through events like the recent International Crop Phenotyping Symposium. Photo: CIMMYT/Mike Listman
EL BATÁN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Global research networks must overcome nationalist and protectionist tendencies to provide technology advances the world urgently needs, said a leading German scientist at a recent gathering in Mexico of 200 agricultural experts from more than 20 countries.
“Agriculture’s critical challenges of providing food security and better nutrition in the face of climate change can only be met through global communities that share knowledge and outputs; looking inward will not lead to results,” said Ulrich Schurr, director of the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences of the Forschungszentrum Jülich research center, speaking at the 4th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium
Adapting medical sensors helps crop breeders see plants as never before
“Phenotyping” is the high-throughput application of new technology — including satellite images, airborne cameras, and multi-spectral sensors mounted on robotic carts — to the age-old art of measuring the traits and performance of breeding lines of maize, wheat and other crops, Schurr said.
“Farmers domesticated major food crops over millennia by selecting and using seed of individual plants that possessed desirable traits, like larger and better quality grain,” he explained. “Science has helped modern crop breeders to ‘fast forward’ the process, but breeders still spend endless hours in the field visually inspecting experimental plants. Phenotyping technologies can expand their powers of observation and the number of lines they process each year.”
Adapting scanning devices and protocols pioneered for human medicine or engineering, phenotyping was initially confined to labs and other controlled settings, according to Schurr.
“The push for the field started about five years ago, with the availability of new high-throughput, non-invasive devices and the demand for field data to elucidate the genetics of complex traits like yield or drought and heat tolerance,” he added.
Less than 10 years ago, Schurr could count on the fingers of one hand the number of institutions working on phenotyping. “Now, IPPN has 25 formal members and works globally with 50 institutions and initiatives.”
Cameras and other sensors mounted on flying devices like this blimp provide crop researchers with important visual and numerical information about crop growth, plant architecture and photosynthetic traits, among other characteristics. Photo: E. Quilligan/CIMMYTMany ways to see plants and how they grow
So-called “deep” phenotyping uses technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission and computer tomography to identify, measure and understand “invisible” plant parts, systems and processes, including roots and water capture and apportionment.
In controlled environments such as labs and greenhouses, researchers use automated systems and environmental simulation to select sources of valuable traits and to gain insight on underlying plant physiology that is typically masked by the variation found in fields, according to Schurr.
“Several specialists in our symposium described automated lab setups to view and analyze roots and greenhouse systems to assess crop shoot geometry, biomass accumulation and photosynthesis,” he explained. “These are then linked to crop simulation models and DNA markers for genes of important traits.”
Schurr said that support for breeding and precision agriculture includes the use of cameras or other sensors that take readings from above plant stands and crop rows in the field.
“These may take the form of handheld devices or be mounted on autonomous, robotic carts,” he said, adding that the plants can be observed using normal light and infrared or other types of radiation reflected from the plant and soil.
“The sensors can also be mounted on flying devices including drones, blimps, helicopters or airplanes. This allows rapid coverage of a larger area and many more plants than are possible through visual observation alone by breeders walking through a field.”
In the near future, mini-satellites equipped with high-resolution visible light sensors to capture and share aerial images of breeding plots will be deployed to gather data in the field, according to symposium participants.
Bringing high-flying technologies to earth
As is typical with new technologies and approaches to research, phenotyping for crop breeding and research holds great promise but must overcome several challenges, including converting images to numeric information, managing massive and diverse data, interfacing effectively with genomic analysis and bringing skeptical breeders on board.
“The demands of crop breeding are diverse — identifying novel traits, studies of genetic resources and getting useful diversity into usable lines, choosing the best parents for crosses and selecting outstanding varieties in the field, to name a few,” Schurr explained. “From the breeders’ side, there’s an opportunity to help develop novel methods and statistics needed to harness the potential of phenotyping technology.”
A crucial linkage being pursued is that with genomic analyses. “Studies often identify genome regions tied to important traits like photosynthesis as ‘absolute,’ without taking into account that different genes might come into play depending on, say, the time of day of measurement,” Schurr said. “Phenotyping can shed light on such genetic phenomena, describing the same thing from varied angles.”
Speaking at the symposium, Greg Rebetzke, a research geneticist since 1995 at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), said that the effective delivery in commercial breeding of “phenomics” — a term used by some to describe the high-throughput application of phenotyping in the field — is more a question of what and when, not how.
“It’s of particular interest in breeding for genetically complex traits like drought tolerance,” Rebetzke said. “Phenomics can allow breeders to screen many more plants in early generations of selection, helping to bring in more potentially useful genetic diversity. This genetic enrichment with key alleles early on can significantly increase the likelihood of identifying superior lines in the later, more expensive stages of selecting, which is typically done across many different environments.”
Moreover, where conventional breeding generally uses “snaphot” observations of plants at different growth stages, phenotyping technology can provide detailed time-series data for selected physiological traits and how they are responding to their surroundings—say, well-watered versus dry conditions—and for a much greater diversity and area of plots and fields.
Phenotyping is already being translated from academic research to commercial sector development and use, according to Christoph Bauer, leader of phenotyping technologies at KWS, a German company that breeds for and markets seed of assorted food crops.
“It takes six-to-eight years of pre-breeding and breeding to get our products to market,” Bauer said in his symposium presentation. “In that process, phenotyping can be critical to sort the ‘stars’ from the ‘superstars’.”
Commercial technology providers for phenotyping are also emerging, according to Schurr, helping to ensure robustness, the use of best practices and alignment with the needs of academic and agricultural industry customers.
“The partnership triad of academia, commercial providers and private seed companies offers a powerful avenue for things like joint analysis of genotypic variation in the pre-competitive domain or testing of cutting-edge technology,” he added.
On the final morning of the symposium, participants broke off into groups to discuss special topics, including the cost effectiveness of high-throughput phenotyping and its use to analyze crop genetic resources, measuring roots, diagnostics of reproductive growth, sensor technology needs, integrating phenotypic data into crop models, and public-private collaboration.
Schurr said organizations like CIMMYT play a crucial role.
“CIMMYT does relevant breeding for millions of maize and wheat farmers — many of them smallholders — who live in areas often of little interest for large-scale companies, providing support to the national research programs and local or regional seed producers that serve such farmers,” Schurr said. “The center also operates phenotyping platforms worldwide for traits like heat tolerance and disease resistance and freely spreads knowledge and technology.”
Researchers are seeking to re-engage rural youth who are increasingly abandoning agriculture to work in cities, raising the question who will grow our food in the future? Photo: P.Lowe/CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – More than 60 percent of the population in developing countries is below the age of 25, a demographic that is projected to grow. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, the number of young people is expected to triple by 2050.
Despite large numbers of youth, farmers worldwide are an average age of about 60 as young people are being pushed out of their rural homes, due to factors like lack of access to land or credit. This is causing a dangerous trend that could result in a shortage of farmers in the coming decades, just as global food demand is projected to increase 70 percent by 2050.
However, when given the opportunity and access to resources, young men and women often prefer to stay in their rural homes and have proven to be more likely to adopt the new technologies needed to sustainably increase agricultural productivity than older farmers.
In an effort to address this age disparity and encourage young people to get involved in farming, youth in agriculture experts are developing a new framework with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that aims to help boost interest in research on maize and wheat farming systems.
Youth in agriculture experts from the Institute of Development studies (IDS), the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) visited CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City to discuss prospects and implications for maize and wheat farming systems – building on efforts to produce a collaborative draft framing paper by IDS with the CGIAR Research Programs MAIZE and WHEAT to help think about how both programs want to engage with youth as part of their research agendas.
Jim Sumberg, agriculturalist and research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, discusses how we can support youth and build up rural society at large. Photo: G. Renard/CIMMYT
In some situations young people are resorting to occupations other than farming due to lack of land or employment options in rural areas, according to Jim Sumberg, research fellow at IDS and an agriculturalist with over 25 years’ experience working on small-scale farming systems and agricultural research policy.
The response of agricultural research should not just be simply to make youth another target group, Sumberg said.
“We want to develop a more nuanced story, particularly in relation to the interests of MAIZE and WHEAT, and how these align with the interests and capabilities of different groups of young people – men and women, rich and poor, better and less well educated,” Sumberg said.
However, Sumberg cautioned against youth becoming just another box for donors to tick.
“There is a real danger that if we identify young people as a separate target group, as has been done before with women,” Sumberg said. “For each new box you put people in, you are chopping up rural society into separate pieces, as if youth aren’t related to the adults, older people and kids. But in fact everyone is embedded in social relations and networks and are connected to each other.”
What young people do economically, what they’re able to do both in farming and other occupations, has a lot to do with the nature of those relationships.
You need to consider questions like “Does a son or daughter receive land from a father or uncle? Does a wife lend money to her husband to start a business? If you only think in terms of isolate groups, you’re not getting the full picture,” he said.
Sumberg believes that we are early enough in youth involvement in agricultural research that we can avoid the mistake of making them a distinct and separate target. The real challenge is to work our way back to a more holistic image of rural society, which includes understanding the dynamic relationships between individuals and groups in each context in which we operate.
“It’s a great challenge, but the benefits are huge if we can pull this off,” Sumberg said.
The collaborative framing paper on youth for MAIZE and WHEAT will be published in 2017.
Mbula and her son Kivanga shell the cobs of KDV2 maize, an early maturing drought tolerant variety. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – Millions of women across Africa continue to drive agriculture and for Francisca Mbula, a mother of five in her late 50s, her successful journey in farming is credited to her 30-year old eldest son Nzioka Kivanga. Mbula’s family lives in Machakos County, a semi-arid area situated in the eastern part of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, and like thousands of other families, they depend on small-scale rainfed farming, which remains a key livelihood even though it is adversely affected by climatic shocks.
Machakos, like several other counties in eastern Kenya, was badly hit with drought that ravaged various parts of the country during the October-December short rains.
Kivanga is not in formal employment but a dedicated farmer. “Sometimes I see his lack of formal employment as a blessing, because without his hard work and zeal for farming I would not have learned about Drought Tego and KDV2 varieties that have changed my farming,” explained Mbula.
Both Drought Tego and KDV2 are modern improved varieties that are drought tolerant and offer better resistance to common maize diseases in this region. He started planting KDV2, an improved open pollinated variety, during March 2014 and a year later planted Drought Tego, an improved hybrid
A rear view of Kivanga’s new home, built from the income generated using improved maize varieties. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT
“The KDV2 maize is very sweet and good for our Muthokoi meal made from maize and beans, because its grains are small so you don’t need a lot of beans. This helps a lot to cut costs,” said Kivanga. The two varieties are produced and marketed by the Dryland Seed Company (DLS) where Kivanga first learned and purchased at the company shop in Machakos in 2014.
KDV2 and Drought Tego’s yield success has brought many economic gains to Kivanga than he would have otherwise never earned planting traditional varieties. “I started building my house in 2013. It was very slow because I did not have cash to keep the construction going,” said Kivanga. “From the seven bags of KDV2 maize harvest I sold the extra five bags for 3,600 shillings (USD $36) each, which helped me to build up the house from the foundation to the walls.” The seven 90 kilogram (kg) bags of maize harvested from a 2 kg packet of KDV2 variety was four times more than what Kivanga and his mother would have harvested from their recycled local varieties.
When Kivanga got his harvest from Tego in September 2015, it surpassed his expectations. From the 2 kg packet of Drought Tego, Kivanga harvested ten 90 kg bags and another five bags from KDV2 in the same season.
Mbula holds a full cob from the Drought Tego variety, expected to provide her and her family a successful harvest. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT
“With this harvest I was able to plaster all the walls and buy iron sheets for the roofing,” Kivanga said while pointing at his nearly finished house, which he plans to finish in 2016 after the August harvest.
DLS has played a major role in supporting farmers’ access to improved seed by creating awareness about available varieties and their suitability based on agro-ecological zone and planting season.
“KDV varieties are early maturing, so we advise farmers to plant these varieties during the short rains and Drought Tego during the long rains since it is medium maturing,” said Jecinta Mwende, a sales representative at DLS. “This is a sure way of farmers getting higher yields.”
DLS is a key partner collaborating with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to produce and distribute improved stress tolerant varieties. In 2015 DLS produced 300 tons of its three varieties KDV2, KDV4 and Drought Tego, currently being sold to farmers. Another variety – SAWA – is the latest variety and its production started in 2016 as an introductory seed.
“The performance of the four varieties has been impressive even in our production fields, and we will have enough to distribute beyond the eastern region through the coming two planting seasons starting from October 2016,” added Ngila Kimotho, managing director of DLS Company.
To satisfy the enormous increase in demand for food in sub-Saharan Africa until 2050, cereal yields must increase to 80 percent of their potential. This calls for a drastic trend break. Graphic courtesy of Wageningen University
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Sub-Saharan Africa will need to transform and intensify crop production to avoid over-reliance on imports and meet future food security needs, according to a new report.
Recent studies have focused on the global picture, anticipating that food demand will grow 60 percent by 2050 as population soars to 9.7 billion, and hypothesizing that the most sustainable solution is to close the yield gap on land already used for crop production.
Yet, although it is essential to close the yield gap, which is defined as the difference between yield potential and actual farm yield, cereal demand will likely not be met without taking further measures in some regions, write the authors of the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
In particular, sub-Saharan Africa faces the prospect of needing greater cereal crop imports or expanding onto previously unfarmed lands, which will lead to a sharp uptick in biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions in the region.
“No low-income country successfully industrialized in the second half of the 20th century while importing major shares of their food supply,” said co-author Kindie Tesfaye, a scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
To meet food demand without planting on previously unsown lands, farmers in sub-Saharan Africa will need to close yield gaps, but in addition consider options to sustainably intensify the number of crops grown on existing croplands by rotation and expanding the use of irrigation in a responsible manner.
“If intensification is not successful and massive cropland expansion is to be avoided, sub-Saharan Africa will become ever more dependent on imports of cereals than it is today,” Tesfaye said, adding that the African Development Bank highlights self-sufficiency in agriculture as a principal goal of its action plan for agricultural transformation.
More than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is projected to occur in Africa, where it increased 2.6 percent each year between 2010 and 2015, according to data from the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
In sub-Saharan Africa, population will increase 2.5 times overall by 2050, and demand for cereals will triple, while current levels of cereal consumption already depend on substantial imports.
For the study, titled “Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself?”, scientists focused on 10 countries where cereals make up half of calories in the human diet and half the cropland area that are part of the Global Yield Gap Atlas, which is developed using local data, to estimate food production capacity on existing cropland. Of the 10 countries, seven do not have enough land area to support expansion.
Except in Ethiopia and Zambia, cereal yields in most countries in the region are growing more slowly than population and demand, while total cropland area has increased a massive 14 percent in the last 10 years. Although Ethiopia shows progress in crop production intensification, other countries lag behind, Tesfaye said.
“With improved cultivars, hybrid seeds, coupled with increased use of irrigation, fertilizers, modern pest management practices and good agronomy, it’s possible to achieve accelerated rates of yield gain, but more research and development are required,” he added.
“Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself?” appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of December 12. It is co-authored by Wageningen University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and multiple CGIAR centers, regional and national Institutions in Africa.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a second set of new improved maize hybrids to partners in eastern Africa and similar agroecological zones, to scale up production for farmers in these areas.
![Cameras and other sensors mounted on flying devices like this blimp [remote-control quadcopter] provide crop researchers with important visual and numerical information about crop growth, plant architecture and photosynthetic traits, among other characteristics. Photo: Emma Quilligan/CIMMYT](http://staging.cimmyt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Blimp-EmmaQuilligan.jpg)
