Martin Kropff made his first official visit to China as CIMMYT Director General from 28 August to 1 September. He was accompanied by his wife and by Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT’s former DG. Major activities included meeting with Jiayang Li, President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), and visiting the potential site for a new China-CIMMYT center in Tongzhou, located an hour’s drive from CAAS headquarters. Kropff also met with Jiangguo Zhang, Vice-Minister and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA), and officially presented a statue of Norman Borlaug to him in recognition of SAFEA and Jiangguo Zhang’s personal support for the CIMMYT-China collaboration.
The visitors from CIMMYT also had a fruitful discussion with the China Scholarship Council (SCC), which has sponsored 18 visiting scientists at CIMMYT. Liu Jinghui, SCC Secretary General, was very impressed with CIMMYT’s impact both worldwide and in China and agreed to increase the allowance of visiting scientists and postgraduate students from US$ 900 per month to US$ 1400 at CIMMYT HQ and all regional offices. Each year, SCC will offer more than 10 scholarships, ranging from 12 to 24 months, to train at CIMMYT. A memorandum of understanding between CIMMYT and SCC will be signed soon. In addition to these activities, Kropff visited China’s National Nature Science Foundation and met with CIMMYT Board Member Feng Feng.
Kropff also visited the CIMMYT office at CAAS and attended presentations by CIMMYT staff stationed at four locations. He mentioned that he will continue the work Tom Lumpkin did in China, which is the reason they decided to travel together. Maize and wheat are, respectively, the first and third leading crop in China. CIMMYT has worked with China for over 35 years; it opened its China office in 1997 and will continue to expand its collaboration.
Kingbird released in Ethiopia to combat new stem rust threat. Credit: Linda McCandless
Farmers in Ethiopia are banking on Kingbird, the latest variety of wheat to be released by the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR). Kingbird is resistant to Ug99, the devastating race of stem rust first identified and subsequently race-typed as TTKSK in 1999, and TKTTF, a new stem rust race identified in 2012 that raged through so many Ethiopian farmers’ fields in 2013 and 2014.
The scourge of wheat farmers the world over, stem rust can quickly turn a wheat field into black stalks empty of grain when environmental conditions are optimal.
The new variety was evaluated at multiple locations in Ethiopia during the 2014 season and approved for release in 2015. “Kingbird offers new hope for resource-poor farmers in stem rust prone areas of Ethiopia,” said Fentahun Mengistu, EIAR Director General. “It is expected to replace the varieties Hawi and Pavon-76 in lowland areas, and complement Kakaba, Ogolcho, Shorima and a few other mid-altitude varieties.”
As Ronnie Coffman, vice-chair of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), the international network of scientists, breeders and national wheat improvement programs that cooperated on the release of Kingbird, pointed out, crop diseases do not respect international boundaries. “Wheat farmers the world over are threatened by outbreaks of new races of yellow and stem rust of wheat on an almost yearly basis. It takes persistent and continually evolving international efforts to protect staple crops like wheat on a global scale.”
“Kingbird’s multi-disease resistance attributes combined with good bread-making quality and good yield performance led to its release in South Africa and Kenya a few years back,” said Ravi Singh, senior wheat scientist at CIMMYT, whose team is instrumental in making the initial crosses for most new wheat introductions in the developing world.
The pipeline for developing varieties such as Kingbird has been directed by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project at Cornell University, acting as BGRI secretariat, since 2008. CIMMYT, the international Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), national agricultural research systems, and 22 other institutions assist in the effort. Generous support is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department of International Development (DFID).
To read more on Kingbird’s development and spread and the efforts to protect world wheat production, check out the BGRI blog, “How Kingbird moved across East Africa.” A poster abstract by Zerihun Tadesse, wheat breeder at the EIAR, may be found here.
CIMMYT wheat breeder Sridhar Bhavani talks about the recently discovered virulence of TKTTF on Robin in Kenya, and Digelu in Ethiopia, and the new Kingbird release here.
Seed company representatives assess the physical purity of maize seed samples. Photo: Alberto Chassaigne/CIMMYT
During the training courses for MasAgro Network seed producers given in 2014, surveys were conducted to determine their training needs in 2015. CIMMYT seed systems experts who visited seed production facilities and fields also identified gaps in the capacities of small, medium and large seed producers in Mexico.
They found that the genetic and physical quality of the seed produced by the different seed companies varies, even among seed of the same hybrid. Some companies do not conduct quality analyses before marketing the seed, while others have quality laboratories but lack adequately trained staff.
To help bridge this gap among seed companies and standardize the methods used for analyzing maize seed quality, a Maize Seed Quality Analysis Workshop based on the protocols of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) was held at CIMMYT Headquarters from 22-24 July. Organized by CIMMYT in collaboration with Mexico’s Seed Inspection and Certification Service (SNICS), the workshop was led by staff from the Central Reference Laboratory, which is certified by ISTA.
Workshop participants evaluate seed germination tests. Photo: Alberto Chassaigne/CIMMYT
During the workshop, 48 Mexican seed company representatives and CIMMYT technicians updated their knowledge of the methods used for sampling maize seed plots, analyzing physical purity, and conducting germination and biochemical (tetrazolium) viability tests. The acquired hands-on experience will allow seed companies that conduct seed analyses to refine their methods, and those that don’t, to incorporate them into the production process.
Through the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project, 13 maize hybrids were approved for commercial production by relevant authorities in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa between October 2014 and March 2015. This means that farmers will soon access these hybrids and benefit from higher yields within their specified environments.
WEMA provides farmers with maize varieties that produce higher yields under moderate drought and are protected from insect damage by their pest resistance. As a key player in the WEMA partnership, CIMMYT contributes its technical expertise, particularly in breeding, to the project.
“Our main focus is to give farmers durable solutions,” explains Stephen Mugo, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Africa and maize breeder who also coordinates CIMMYT’s work in WEMA. “These seeds are bred with important traits that meet farmers’ needs, and have the ability to give higher yields within specific environments.”
All hybrids released under the WEMA project will be sold to farmers under the trade name DroughtTEGO™. “Tego” is Latin for cover, protect or defend. The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), which coordinates the WEMA project, has sub-licensed 22 seed companies in the four countries to produce DroughtTEGO™ seeds to sell to farmers.View the full story here and read more about WEMA and the newly released hybrids.
In response to the interest expressed by the Seed Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal (SEAN), CIMMYT-Nepal organized a meeting with SEAN and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) on 29 July 2015 at NARC’s Agriculture Botany Division, Khumaltar, as an activity of the CIMMYT-led Cereal System Initiative for South Asia-Nepal (CSISA-NP).
Following its interaction with the National Seed Association of India (NSAI) and Indian seed businesses during an event organized by CSISA-NP in the first and second week of June, SEAN decided to devise a strategic roadmap and upgrade its organizational strategy. The specific purpose of the July meeting, which was attended by 19 participants from SEAN, 3 from NARC and 4 from CIMMYT-Nepal, was to study SEAN’s vision, mission and goal, and how they could be updated in the current era of globalization, technological innovation and deregulation.
Increasing farmers’ access to quality seed is important for enhancing Nepal’s food security. To this end, CSISA-NP has been helping small and medium seed enterprises accelerate their growth in an integrated manner. To facilitate their growth, the current situation of seed enterprises, the challenges they face and their potential for growth were recently documented, and the outcomes will be presented at the National Seed Summit on 14-15 September 2015. In addition, representatives of 15 Nepali seed enterprises visited Indian seed companies in May 2015 to learn from their experience, and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between NSAI and SEAN to foster partnership between them.
Speaking on behalf of SEAN, its president, Laxmi Kanta Dhakal, said that to catalyze the implementation of the MoU between their organization and NSAI, SEAN needs to develop appropriate strategies to address its internal issues as well as reshape partnership modes with potential national and international stakeholders.
Initiated in 1989, SEAN was registered in Nepal in 1991 as a non-profit organization and now comprises 500 members, including seed entrepreneurs engaged in producing, processing and marketing seeds and other agricultural inputs. SEAN’s main purpose has been to organize individual entrepreneurs and private companies to foster capacity building, lobbying and advocating on behalf of seed entrepreneurs, thereby strengthening the national seed industry.
At the meeting, Gurbinder Singh Gill gave a lecture on how to develop the strategic roadmap and facilitated the session where SEAN started working on its mission, vision and goal statements. Gill also shared case studies from different countries and organizations to encourage SEAN’s leadership team to start working at the organizational level. Once these themes are discussed and detailed by SEAN at the organizational level, CSISA-NP will hold a workshop to decide on the way forward. This should lead to an implementable strategic plan for the next five or ten years.
NARC, SEAN and CIMMYT colleagues engaged in establishing a strategic road map for seed enterprises in Nepal.
Towards the end of the meeting, NARC Director (Crops and Horticulture) Shanbhu Prasad Khatiwada said that strong linkage and coordination between the national research program, SEAN, seed enterprises and the CIMMYT team are needed to achieve comprehensive progress towards solving Nepal’s food security issues. He said that this was the first meeting of its kind in Nepal where SEAN, NARC and CIMMYT came together to reshape the organizational strategy of the only seed association of Nepal.
The event was opened by Arun Joshi, Country Representative of CIMMYT-Nepal, facilitated by CIMMYT consultants Narayan Khanal and Gurbinder Singh, and by K.C. Dilli, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, CIMMYT-Nepal.
Frédéric Baudron in northern Rwanda. Photo courtesy of Frédéric Baudron
Frédéric Baudron, systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Ethiopia, introduces himself and his work. This is one of a series of portraits of key people in Africa RISING.
Tell us about your background
I trained as a tropical agronomist, but specialized as a livestock scientist and started my career working for various development programs targeting the interface between people (mainly farmers) and wildlife. I then did a Ph.D. in plant production systems. My research interests include farming system research, sustainable intensification, the impact of agriculture on biodiversity, and participatory innovation development.
Velvet bean planted in rotation with maize increases soil fertility, provides biomass for feed and suppresses weeds in Chipata, Zambia. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT.
It is widely accepted that improved maize germplasm will only express its yield potential under optimum agronomic management such as timely planting, optimal plant/space arrangements, and timely weed and pest control. But perhaps the most important agronomic intervention is adequate fertilization. Although farmers in Europe and America have used mineral fertilizers for generations, these have become available in Africa only relatively recently. However, the excessive use of mineral fertilizer in Europe and America has led to water pollution and eutrophication, and has increased the energy requirements of the fertilizer production process.
In Africa, mineral fertilizer remains a scarce, expensive and risky resource for most smallholder farmers. On average, farmers use less than 10 kg/ha of NPK fertilizer, and many do not apply it at all. The price of fertilizer is 3-5 times higher in Africa than in Europe due to the lack of infrastructure and production facilities, often making it unaffordable for farmers. Fertilizer is primarily applied to higher value and horticulture crops that, unlike maize, give farmers greater return on their investment.
Many farmers in southern Africa plant maize extensively on large areas, harvest less than 1 t/ha on average and mine already depleted nutrients from the soil while trying to become food secure and escape from poverty – an impossible task! But farmers are now being offered a range of solutions that provide a way out of the poverty trap, such as improved drought and stress tolerant maize germplasm, conservation agriculture (CA), improved rotation systems with legumes and green manure cover crops.
The use of CA principles (minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and diversification through rotation and intercropping) hinges on the ability of farmers to retain sufficient surface crop residues to protect the soil from heavy rain, evaporation and sunlight. However, farmers in mixed crop/livestock systems face competing demands for these residues because they also feed them to their animals.
It is against this background that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) involved CIMMYT in a small project aimed at introducing green manures to smallholder farmers in eastern Zambia and central and southern Malawi. Green manures are grown primarily to improve the soil, generate biomass for ground cover and provide fodder; some also produce grain for feed and food.
In Lilongwe District, Malawi, farmer Bikoni Yohane and wife Esnart proudly present their maize-cowpea intercropped field, which will produce grain and leaves for home consumption and im-prove soil fertility. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT.
A range of varieties have been tested by the Global Conservation Agriculture Program over the past five years. Crops such as velvet bean, lablab, cowpea, sunnhemp, jackbean, pigeonpea and groundnuts have been identified as viable options with great potential for smallholders. They provide 5-50 t/ha of extra biomass for groundcover and/or fodder, leave 50-350 kg/ha of residual nitrogen in the soil and do not need extra fertilizer to grow. The new project is testing these species in full rotation or intercropped with maize on farmers’ fields in the three project regions. To increase adoption, the project is using an intensive participatory process to adapt the green manures to smallholder conditions.
This initiative is not the only one where CIMMYT has been involved with green manure cover crops: in northern Mozambique, a collaboration with CARE International reports that yield increased from 4 t/ha to 13 t/ha by only using lab-lab and improved germplasm in cassava-based CA systems. The ACIAR-funded ZimCLIFFS project in Zimbabwe was also very successful in growing lablab and velvet beans to generate supplementary fodder for livestock during the dry winter period.
Through innovative approaches, CIMMYT will further explore new ways of integrating green manures into smallholder farming systems so they become the status quo, not just an option!
Participants visit CIMMYT maize trials during the traveling seminar. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar/CIMMYT-Pakistan
Pakistan’s maize sector is heavily dependent on imported hybrid seed, which accounts for 85-90% of the annual seed supply. Such huge imports not only cost the country about US$ 50 million every year, but also mean that Pakistani maize farmers have to pay US$ 6-8 per kg for hybrid seed, depending on the variety and the availability of seed on the market. Availability and affordability of quality seed of widely adapted maize varieties are the key to unlocking the production and productivity potential of maize, Pakistan’s third most important cereal crop.
To address this issue, which is a priority of the government of Pakistan, CIMMYT is conducting maize intervention activities under the Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP), a USAID-funded project. Under the AIP program, CIMMYT has introduced more than 700 diverse maize lines from its regional breeding hubs in Colombia, Mexico and Zimbabwe, and has evaluated them under Pakistan’s diverse ecologies since early 2014.
The germplasm consists of hybrids and open-pollinated varieties with enhanced nutrient content (quality protein maize and varieties enriched with pro-vitamin A) and wide adaptation that have consistently performed well over the past three seasons.
Discussion on CIMMYT maize germplasm at a private seed company research station. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar/CIMMYT-Pakistan
Based on the performance of the materials, CIMMYT, in partnership with Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), organized a traveling seminar to give stakeholders the chance to evaluate the performance of CIMMYT maize germplasm in Punjab Province. The evaluation focused mainly on spring maize and took place on 15-17 June 2015. Experts from 12 public and private institutions (including seed companies, agricultural universities and public research institutions) evaluated the performance of the materials at different sites across the province.
The event also gave stakeholders the opportunity to share their trial management and field data recording experience. Participants thanked CIMMYT and PARC for creating such a unique platform where stakeholders showcased their activities and discussed and shared information on how CIMMYT materials perform across the different sites. According to AbduRahman Beshir, CIMMYT-Pakistan maize improvement and seed systems specialist, “When we first introduced the range of CIMMYT maize hybrids and OPVs in early 2014, we were not sure how they would perform, particularly in harsh environments where the temperature often exceeds 40 0C.” He added that after such an aggressive intervention, CIMMYT is now at the product allocation phase based on partners’ selection and requests. Today it is clear that CIMMYT has much to offer its Pakistani partners not only in their efforts to produce hybrid seed locally and achieve self-sufficiency, but also to enhance local maize breeding programs through enriched gene pools.
CIMMYT is pleased to announce the release of a set of 16 new CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs). These CMLs were developed at various breeding locations of the CIMMYT Global Maize Program by multi-disciplinary teams of scientists in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. These lines are adapted to the tropical and subtropical maize production environments targeted by CIMMYT and partner institutions.
Economist Philip Pardey on the sidelines of the International Wheat Yield Conference in Sydney, Australia. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins
SYDNEY, Australia (CIMMYT) – When storybook character Alice stepped through the looking glass, the Red Queen encouraged her to run as fast as she could. Alice did, but despite her efforts she remained stuck in one place:
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” said the Red Queen.
Despite efforts to develop wheat that is resistant to damaging stem, stripe and leaf rusts, the diseases, which have existed for 10,000 years, will continue to thwart scientists, Pardey said, adding that the annual global investment in wheat rust research should be $108 million a year in perpetuity.
Currently, major projects such as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, which is directed at completely wiping out Ug99 stem rust, are funded for set periods of time and target specific strains of rust. It is unfeasible to expect a cure to be found, Pardey argued.
“It’s fallacious to think that we can ‘solve the stem rust problem’ through funding because the actual solution sows the seeds of its own destruction,” Pardey said, explaining that the fight against rusts is ongoing and must be funded continuously.
RED QUEEN EFFECT
Just as Alice and the Red Queen ran in one spot as hard as they could but got nowhere, rust sexual reproduction and genetic re-combinations fight to survive, allowing wheat rusts to co-evolve and adapt to changes in their environment.
In his study, Pardey determined that global losses from all three rusts average at least 15.04 million tons (552.8 million bushels) per year, equivalent to an average annual loss of about $2.9 billion a year.
He calculated that the economically justifiable investment in wheat rust research and development should be $108 million a year, equivalent to an annual investment of $0.51 per hectare per year across the current 212 million hectares (524 acres) of wheat worldwide.
“The nature of the intervention is that the very seeds of success of wheat breeders sows their own destruction,” Pardey said. “A co-evolutionary pressure is developed where rust has every incentive to survive, so when fungicides are used or the biology of the plants is altered to resist those fungi, it forces evolutionary pressure on the fungi to evolve around that resistance.”
Almost the entire global wheat crop is at risk of infection from wheat rusts, Pardey said. Globally, only 3.2 percent of the crop is grown in areas not susceptible to infection, while 62.7 percent of the crop is in areas that are vulnerable to all three rusts.
“I’m hopeful Pardey’s research findings illustrate the importance of ongoing funding for wheat rust research,” said Hans Braun, head of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Wheat Research Program overseen by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers.
“Pardey’s research is critical in highlighting the severity of the threat from all three types of rust, showing that continuous funding in perpetuity is the best way to keep them in check. Consistent funding will make it easier to help farmers and protect food security by controlling the disease.”
GLOBAL RISKS
Through modeling for both seasonal vulnerability and system vulnerability, Pardey determined that losses at any particular location or point in time do not represent the average annual global losses over the longer term.
“In 1935, the United States lost a fifth of the crop to rust, last year they lost less than half a percent,” Pardey said. “So, I wouldn’t want to take last year’s loss as being representative of the losses of this disease, nor would I want to take the 1935 loss. It’s not representative.”
Pardey developed a framework to characterize the probabilistic nature of losses over the century, then conducted a Monte Carlo simulation – which assesses risk impact under all possible outcomes of a given scenario – to determine a loss average estimate.
“If wheat breeders are successful in getting modern varieties onto all the wheat areas around the world, there is additional value because they’re at a higher yield level when the disease pulls the yields down,” Pardey said.
“High-yield varieties make the value of the rust avoidance go up as the yield goes up. You’ve got a virtuous cycle. The rust resistance becomes more valuable the more extensive the higher yielding varieties are spread. An investment of $108 million a year just allows us to keep up with it – we’re running fast to stand still.”
In a study published last month in Food Security, CIMMYT researchers reported that wheat farmers’ total annual income increased by 6% on average with the introduction of zero tillage (ZT) in Bihar.
While studies done in the past in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) have shown ZT impacts in field trials or controlled environments, this research is believed to be the first that studied actual impacts in farmers’ fields in eastern India.
ZT allows direct planting of wheat without plowing, sowing seeds directly into residues of the previous crop on the soil surface, thus saving irrigation water, increasing soil organic matter and suppressing weeds.
“We found that the prevailing ZT practice, without full residue retention, used by farmers in Bihar has led to an average yield gain of 498 kilogram per hectare (19%) over conventional tillage wheat, which is in contrast to the results of a recent global meta-analysis” says Alwin Keil, Senior Agricultural Economist, CIMMYT and the lead author of this study.
The global meta-analysis published last year compared crop yields in ZT and conventionally tilled production systems across 48 crops in 63 countries. It reported that ZT is only profitable in rainfed systems and when it is combined with full residue retention and crop rotation. “However, in Bihar, marginal and resource-poor farmers cannot afford to leave the full residue in the field as they use the rice straw to feed their livestock,” says Keil.
According to Keil, the divergent findings of the meta-analysis may be caused by the fact that most of the reviewed studies were conducted in moderate climatic zones (U.S., Canada, Europe, China) and results were aggregated across various crops.
Bringing a Wheat Revolution to Eastern India
Compared to the prosperous northwestern states, the eastern IGP is characterized by pervasive poverty and high population density, and its resource-poor farmers are more prone to the risks of climate change. Bihar has the lowest wheat yields in the IGP with an average of 2.14 tons per hectare.
To feed a growing wheat-consuming population, Bihar currently imports wheat largely from Punjab, where yields have stagnated over the last five years due to an over-exploitation of resources, especially water.
While ZT is widespread on the mechanized farms of Punjab and Haryana, seat of the first Green Revolution in India, farmers in the eastern IGP are yet to benefit. “There is also evidence that the positive effect of ZT is larger in areas with low agricultural productivity (generally low yields, such as Bihar) than in areas with higher productivity (such as Punjab, for instance),” remarks Keil.
Increasing Access among Smallholders
The study concludes that ZT users reap substantial benefits, and that this technology could help close the growing yield gap between production and consumption of wheat in Bihar. A 19% yield increase would translate into a production increase of 950,000 MT, which exceeds the total wheat imports into Bihar (868,000 MT in 2011).
However, with low ownership of tractors and ZT drills, large-scale adoption of ZT in eastern India hinges on an expansion of the network of service providers, who can custom-hire these kinds of services to smallholder farmers.
With public and private sector partners, the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) has supported the development of ZT service providers among tractor owners by facilitating the purchase of ZT drills and providing technical trainings and know-how since 2009. Consequently, the number of ZT service providers in Bihar increased from 17 in 2011 to 1,624 in 2014, servicing a total of approximately 44,700 acres.
“Furthermore, we found that only 32% of non-users of ZT in our sample were aware of the technology. Hence, increasing the number of service providers to enhance farmers’ access to ZT has to go hand-in-hand with large-scale information campaigns to raise their awareness of the technology,” says Keil.
Last year, climatic variability such as untimely rainfall was devastating in northwest India. Mid-season rainfall resulted in massive yield losses during winter 2014-15. Starting that season, a case study of wheat adaptation to climatic risks was undertaken in Karnal by Sakshi Baliyan, a young female student, as an internship project under CIMMYT-CCAFS. The project aimed to evaluate yield losses as evidence of the difference zero till makes in coping with unseasonable rainfall.
The study focused on the vulnerability of wheat yields to untimely mid-season rainfall by comparing conventional vs. conservation agriculture (CA) practices. To construct the database, during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 winter seasons, wheat yield data were collected from 100 randomly selected farmers who produced wheat using conventional tillage and conservation agriculture in 14 climate-smart villages (CSVs) in the Karnal district of Haryana.
The results revealed that CA-based systems produced higher wheat yields (6% higher in 2013-14 and 13% higher in 2014-15) than conventional tillage systems. The study also found that farmers who practiced conventional tillage during winter 2014-15, which had untimely heavy rains, averaged a 19% yield loss, whereas those practicing CA averaged a yield loss of only 10% in the same locations.
These interesting results indicate that the next step should be to introduce climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) in policy decision making. A more in-depth study should be undertaken to verify the results and establish environmentally and farmer friendly policies at the state and national levels. Policies that calculate subsidies and compensations considering the agricultural practices used by farmers are required to motivate them to adopt CSAPs. This will not only reduce losses in times of uncertainty, but also generate gains in favorable times.
CIMMYT’s project on Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume-based Cropping Systems for Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa hosted a five-day gender training workshop on 24-29 August in Pretoria, South Africa.
Called “Situating Gender in SIMLESA”, the workshop aimed at increasing awareness of gender issues in agricultural research and development, and identifying practical solutions to integrate gender into SIMLESA. It brought together a core team comprised of SIMLESA’s project leader, project manager, gender focal points, monitoring and evaluation specialist, communications specialist, and country coordinators. In his opening remarks, Litha Magingxa, ARC Group Chief Executive (Agri-Economics and Capacity Development), commended SIMLESA for the gender training.
Working closely with the ARC, CIMMYT gender specialist Vongai Kandiwa provided technical training to 14 participants on gender analysis tools, leadership skills, and competencies. Given the coordination role that SIMLESA gender focal points play within countries, it is essential that they have solid interpersonal and leadership skills, in addition to their gender expertise.
“This is a particularly exciting workshop because it demonstrates a strong commitment by CIMMYT and SIMLESA to actively invest in building skills and finding practical ways of integrating gender into ongoing activities,” said Mulugetta Mekuria, SIMLESA Project Leader. “The workshop has highlighted some of the gender-based constraints that women and men face when they try to adopt, adapt, and benefit from sustainable intensification options. This is a critical first step to improving gender awareness and equality in the rural smallholder agriculture sector where SIMLESA operates.”
Of the poor who depend on maize for their livelihoods and food security in East and Southern Africa, more than half are women and girls. Although women play a crucial role in farming and food production, they often face greater constraints in agricultural production than men. Rural women in East and Southern Africa are also less likely than men to own land or livestock, adopt new technologies, access credit and financial services, and receive education or extension advice, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Participants discussed challenges and opportunities to embed gender within the relevant SIMLESA work sub-objectives. They collectively identified gender entry points, specified monitoring and evaluation indicators, and agreed on an effective accountability framework. They also agreed on what should be done across all SIMLESA countries in diverse areas such as socioeconomic research, strategic gender research, participatory selection of alternative sustainable intensification options, and seed systems.
As Kandiwa told the participants, “Careful integration of a gender perspective into the research process ensures that maize and legume research for development leads to positive and substantive outcomes.”
The participants were expected to return to their respective workplaces and apply the knowledge and skills they gained at the workshop. Almost immediately, country coordinators will work closely with objective coordinators and gender focal points to ensure gender relevant activities are budgeted for during SIMLESA’s annual planning meetings, effectively implemented, and accurately reported. The ARC undertook to develop a gender capacity building strategy for SIMLESA.
In SIMLESA II (2014-2018), the aim of gender integration is to consolidate the gains made during SIMLESA I (2010-2014). Through the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (ASARECA), SIMLESA I strengthened the capacity of more than 1000 individuals by providing gender-sensitive training at times and places that were convenient for both men and women, to ensure equal access to the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in agriculture.
Additionally, ASARECA documented in-depth case studies to improve SIMLESA’s understanding of the best practices for gender analysis and development. SIMLESA II is poised to build on this foundation and integrate gender effectively.
Farmer uses a mini-tiller in mid-west region of Nepal CSISA
The recent 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on 25 April, followed by a 7.3 magnitude aftershock on 12 May and several hundred additional aftershocks to date, has had huge negative impacts on the country’s agriculture and food security. Around two-thirds of Nepal’s population relies on agriculture for their livelihood and agriculture contributes to 33 percent of Nepal’s GDP. It is estimated that about 8 million people have been affected by the earthquakes, with smallholders in hilly regions being most hard-hit.
The earthquake damaged or destroyed agricultural assets, undermining the longer-term food production capacity of farm families and disrupting critical input supply, trade and processing networks. Farmers lost grain and seed stocks, livestock, agricultural tools and other inputs, and are facing significant shortages of agricultural labour. Widespread damage to seed and grain storage facilities have affected smallholder farmers’ ability to secure their harvested crops through the rainy season.
In response to the devastation, USAID-Nepal has provided US$1 million for earthquake relief and recovery to the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Nepal (CSISA-NP). The Earthquake Recovery Support Program, for a period of 13 months, will be implemented in close coordination with the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD), Department of Agriculture (DoA), Department of Livestock Services (DoLS), Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and District Disaster Relief Committee (DDRC). The districts that will receive support include Dolkha, Kavre, Khotang, Makwanpur, Nuwakot, Ramechap, Sindhupalchowk, and Solukhumbu, which have suffered particularly high levels of damage.
“Even if seed is available, the capacity for farmers to plant and harvest crops has been severely diminished due to the loss of draft animals and the exacerbation of labor shortages,” said Andrew McDonald, CIMMYT Principal Scientist and CSISA Project Leader. “We will reach more than 33,000 farming households through seed and grain storage facilities, mini-tillers and other farm machines, agricultural hand tools, technical training and agronomy support,” added McDonald.
The program will provide 50,000 grain storage bags, 30 cocoons for community grain storage, 400 mini-tillers and other modern agriculture power tools (e.g., reapers, maize shellers, seeders), 800 sets (5 items in a set) of small agricultural hand tools, and 20,000 posters on better-bet agronomic practices for rice and maize. “We will first focus on getting small horsepower mini-tillers into affected communities, and subsequently broadening the utility of these machines to power a host of essential agricultural activities including seeding, reaping, threshing and shelling, as well as powering small pumps for irrigation,” said Scott Justice, Agricultural Mechanization Specialist, CSISA-NP.
At the program’s inception workshop held recently on 28 August, Dr. Beth Dunford, Mission Director, USAID Nepal, remarked that USAID-Nepal has arranged a special fund to help earthquake-affected people. Beyond the devastation of houses, public infrastructure like roads, the earthquake has seriously disrupted the agriculture and rural economy throughout the impacted districts. Re-establishing vital agricultural markets and services in the aftermath of the earthquake is key to how quickly these communities will recover, underlined Dunford.
For effective coordination and monitoring of activities in the program, Central Level Management Committee, District Level Management Committee and Local Level Management Committee have already been formed. They aim to identify most earthquake affected areas within a district and will ensure efficient and transparent distribution of support items.
Dr. Adhikari, Joint Secretary, MoAD, highlighted that the Ministry feels a real sense of ownership over this program and is committed to implementing the activities through its network. He said the farm machinery support program will be a perfect platform for MoAD to expand its farm mechanization program into other areas of the country. The Earthquake Recovery Support Program also aligns with the Agriculture Development Strategies of the Government of Nepal, which focuses on community-wide inclusive development.
