Azbetta Ogembo, a farmer in western Kenya, displays a WH507 maize plant. Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT
Maize farming in western Kenya is leaping one notch higher thanks to maize variety WH507, which is becoming farmersâ first choice because of two very important traitsâdrought tolerance and nitrogen-use efficiency.
Like millions of other African smallholders, most farmers in the region struggle with poor soil fertility. Given their economic constraints, they are unable to apply the required amount of fertilizers to boost productivity on their farms. This is exacerbated by erratic rains that increase chances of crop failure and very low yields. Yet many of Africaâs maize-growing households rely on maize not only as their staple food, but also as a source of income.
To help farmers mitigate the challenge of poor soil fertility and drought, the CIMMYT-led project Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) provided support to a local seed company in Kenya to mass produce parent seed of hybrid variety WH507. The goal was to increase its availability and ensure farmers can purchase it at the current market price of KES 410 (US$ 4) per two-kilogram pack.
Western Seed Company, the sole distributor of this seed, aims to produce 1,000 tonnes of WH507 parent seed. It has also undertaken various activities to increase adoption of WH507 among farmers in western Kenya. To this end, in 2014 alone, Western Seed conducted demonstrations on 1,200 plots during the short rains to make farmers aware of the variety. One farmer, Azbetta Ogembo, a widow and mother of seven, was pleasantly surprised by her first experience with WH507.
Zaki Afshar grew up in the small city of Puli Khumri in northern Afghanistan, and visited his fatherâs seven-hectare farm every weekend. In this farming locality where the staple crops are wheat and rice, Afshar saw the impact agriculture could have on a community.
âA big part of why I chose agriculture was because I saw how hard the farmers worked and still suffered,â said Afshar. âI wanted to know how I could help them. Why were they not using the advanced technologies I saw available in other parts of the world?â
According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 60% of Afghan citizens rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Wheat is the chief crop in Afghanistan, covering 2.5 million ha and providing about 60% of the daily calorie intake of an average Afghan. âWe have a very basic agricultural system,â explained Afshar. âYou will only see machinery used for plowing and threshing, not for sowing or even harvesting.â
Afshar attended Balkh University in Mazari Sharif and received a degree in Agricultural Plant Science. He currently works at the CIMMYT-Afghanistan office as a project associate in the wheat improvement program. The CIMMYT-ARIA (Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan) joint wheat breeding program is relatively small and new. Afsharâs dream upon starting at CIMMYT was eventually to join the wheat breeding team. Last March, Afshar was able to make this dream a reality, by participating in CIMMYTâs 2015 Basic Wheat Improvement Course (BWIC). This three-month intensive course at the Norman E. Borlaug Experiment Station in Ciudad ObregĂłn, Sonora, Mexico, targets young and mid-career scientists and focuses on applying breeding techniques in the field.
âOn my first field visit after returning home, I realized how different things were in Kabul than in ObregĂłn,â said Afshar. âBecause our program is very new, we have fewer breeders and need more training. I am excited to share with them everything I learned in Mexico.â
In ObregĂłn, Afshar was able to meet scientists from all over the world and learn about breeding methods used in various regions worldwide. For Afshar it was extremely important to come to Mexico to receive his training. At the end of the BWIC, Afshar was honored with the most improved wheat breeder award.
âThrough this course I learned how to be a breeder, how different breeders work and new information in wheat breeding,â said Afshar. âThe most exciting moment was when I joined my team back in Afghanistan. It was easy for me to score and differentiate between different types of rust, and I realized that everyone in the field was paying attention to what I had to say.â
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, CIMMYTâs 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 hourâs 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 Zhangâs 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 CIMMYTâs 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 Chinaâs 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 farmersâ 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. âKingbird offers new hope for resource-poor farmers in stem rust prone areas of Ethiopia,â said Fentahun Mengistu, EIAR Director General. âIt 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.â
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. âWheat 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.â
âKingbirdâs 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,â 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 Kingbirdâs development and spread and the efforts to protect world wheat production, check out the BGRI blog, âHow Kingbird moved across East Africa.â 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 Mexicoâs 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 donât, 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.
âOur main focus is to give farmers durable solutions,â explains Stephen Mugo, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Africa and maize breeder who also coordinates CIMMYTâs work in WEMA. âThese seeds are bred with important traits that meet farmersâ needs, and have the ability to give higher yields within specific environments.â
All hybrids released under the WEMA project will be sold to farmers under the trade name DroughtTEGOâą. âTegoâ 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 DroughtTEGOâą 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 Entrepreneursâ Association of Nepal (SEAN), CIMMYT-Nepal organized a meeting with SEAN and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) on 29 July 2015 at NARCâs 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 SEANâs vision, mission and goal, and how they could be updated in the current era of globalization, technological innovation and deregulation.
Increasing farmersâ access to quality seed is important for enhancing Nepalâs 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. SEANâs 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 SEANâs 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 Nepalâs 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.
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 â 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 farmersâ 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
Pakistanâs 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, Pakistanâs 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 Pakistanâs 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, âWhen 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.â He added that after such an aggressive intervention, CIMMYT is now at the product allocation phase based on partnersâ 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) â 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:
âNow, 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!â 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.
âItâs fallacious to think that we can âsolve the stem rust problemâ through funding because the actual solution sows the seeds of its own destruction,â 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.
âThe nature of the intervention is that the very seeds of success of wheat breeders sows their own destruction,â Pardey said. âA 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.â
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 âšinfection, while 62.7 percent of the crop is in areas that are vulnerable to all three rusts.
âIâm hopeful Pardeyâs research findings illustrate the importance of ongoing funding for wheat rust research,â 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.
âPardeyâs 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.â
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.
âIn 1935, the United States lost a fifth of the crop to rust, last year they lost less than half a percent,â Pardey said. âSo, I wouldnât want to take last yearâs loss as being representative of the losses of this disease, nor would I want to take the 1935 loss. Itâs not representative.â
Pardey developed a framework to characterize the probabilistic nature of losses over the century, then conducted a Monte Carlo simulation â which assesses risk impact under all possible outcomes of a given scenario â to determine a loss average estimate.
âIf wheat breeders are successful in getting modern varieties onto all the wheat areas around the world, there is additional value because theyâre at a higher yield level when the disease pulls the yields down,â Pardey said.
âHigh-yield varieties make the value of the rust avoidance go up as the yield goes up. Youâve 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 â weâre running fast to stand still.â
In a study published last month in Food Security, CIMMYT researchers reported that wheat farmersâ 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 farmersâ 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.
âWe 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-analysisâ 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. âHowever, 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,â 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. âThere 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),â 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.
âFurthermore, 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 farmersâ access to ZT has to go hand-in-hand with large-scale information campaigns to raise their awareness of the technology,â 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.
