To demostrate the advances of the project “Increasing the profitability of maize-coffee systems” conducted by CIMMYT in Colombia over the past 10 years in collaboration with the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Producers (FEDERECAFE, Spanish acronym), two field days were held at the Paraguaycito–Quindío (29 April) and La Catalina–Risaralda (7 May) Experiment Stations belonging to CENICAFE, FEDERECAFE’s research unit. At these events, attended by 158 representatives of the Local Coffee Growers’ Committees and the National Federation of Cereal Growers (FENALCE, Spanish acronym), the latest advances in the areas of climate change, agronomy and genetic improvement were presented.

Agronomy

In the field of agronomy, there were demonstrations on how to use a manual maize planter and the GreenSeeker sensor. These inventions are available to farmers today thanks to the work and perseverance of Bill Raun and his colleagues at Oklahoma State University, USA.

In the 1980s, when Bill was working for CIMMYT’s Agronomy Program for Central America, he realized the risks farmers faced when growing maize. The seed was treated with insecticides and fungicides to protect it and promote germination and crop establishment. Farmers would take the seed in their bare hands and put it into the soil, in holes made with the help of a stick; they did not use gloves or any kind of protection.

More than 20 years later, farmers finally have a manual planter. The most important parts of the planter are a plastic tube where the seed is placed, a cylinder that regulates seed drop and a device at the end of the planter that passes the seed from the plastic tube into the soil. During the sowing demonstrations, the attendees observed the excellent germination of a plot sown with the planter the previous week. The planter can also be used for fertilization and is ideal for planting maize on the very steep slopes where coffee is grown and where mechanization is not possible. Most of the region’s coffee growers are small-scale farmers whose land holdings average 1.54 hectares.

Argemiro Moreno, former CENICAFE scientist, spoke on efficient nitrogen use for maize crops in Colombia’s coffee growing region. He also explained the basics of GreenSeeker use to calculate the precise amount of nitrogen that plants need for maximum growth and production and to avoid polluting the atmosphere or the ground water through excess fertilizer use. There was also a demonstration of how to use the GreenSeeker in the field and for converting the readings into fertilizer dosage recommendations (by cell phone at www.nue.okstate.edu).

Genetic improvement––biofortified maize

As Luis Narro, CIMMYT-Colombia, explained during both field days, biofortification uses conventional breeding to develop varieties with higher content of micronutrients such as iron, zinc and provitamin A. Normal maize grain contains, on average, 20 ppm Zn and 2 ppm pro-vitamin A, whereas biofortified maize being developed at CIMMYT with support by HarvestPlus contains 32 ppm Zn (white maize) and 8-10 ppm provitamin A (orange maize).

As a HarvestPlus activity, 81 white experimental hybrids with high zinc content and 81 orange hybrids with high provitamin A content are being evaluated in Colombia’s coffee growing region. Preliminary results at La Catalina Experiment Station indicate that the best hybrid with high Zn content (8.9 t/ha) yielded 10% more than the normal (check) hybrid and showed less ear rot and less tar spot damage. The yield of the best hybrid with high provitamin A content was 5.4 t/ha, similar to that of the normal check.

At the same time, the HarvestPlus team at CIAT, in collaboration with small food product manufacturers in Colombia’s Cauca Valley, are conducting pilot studies aimed at developing food products from biofortified maize, as well as sensory studies and studies on micronutrient retention and on shelf life. Consequently, it’s very possible that cropping and consumption of biofortified maize will be promoted in Colombia’s coffee region as an alternative for improving food security.

* This is the second part of a two-part report; the first was published in the previous issue of the CIMMYT Informa.

AWARENESS-RAISING ON ISSUES AFFECTING AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND CULINARY ARTS

International Women’s Day on March 8, offers an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women worldwide. This year, CIMMYT asked readers to submit stories about women they admire for their selfless dedication to either maize or wheat. In the following story, Amanda Niode writes about her Super Woman of Maize, Asriani Anie Annisa Hasan of the Gorontalo Corn Information Center and Food Security Agency.

Asriani Anie Annisa Hasan is my maize superwoman.

Anie is a beautiful and warm-hearted woman, who is currently head of the Dissemination and Information Division at the Gorontalo Corn Information Center and Food Security Agency.

Gorontalo is a province located on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia on the Wallacea, borderline islands situated between the Asian and Australian bio-geographical regions characterized by great biodiversity of flora and fauna.

Anie is not known as an official who works behind her desk. She is very much involved in the cornfields and the livelihoods of farmers, taking pictures of newly harvested cornfields, driving a truck, or sitting on the floor chatting with corn farmers.

She informs farmers about native corn varieties found in Gorontalo, including those on the brink of extinction such as momala, motorokiki, bonia/badia and pulut (binthe pulo).

Additionally, Anie is very active on social media networks and always explains her corn-related activities in a fun way, One of her Facebook posts features two decorated corn cobs saying: “Corns fall in love today. Love maize.”

In another post, she wrote: “Sunday morning is usually laundry time, but now I should be chummy with the corn field.”

She is always on the forefront on any major corn-related activity, including the International Maize Conference, which was held in Gorontalo in 2012, and attended by corn experts from all over the world.

She works very hard to assist the Omar Niode Foundation, an organization working to raise public awareness about issues affecting agriculture, food and culinary arts. This work included attending an exhibition of Gorontalo local corns in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

Anie Annisa, is a passionate maize superwoman.

RESEARCH IMPROVES MAIZE PRODUCTION AND PROTECTS GERMPLASM

International Women’s Day on March 8, offers an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women worldwide. This year, CIMMYT asked readers to submit stories about women they admire for their selfless dedication to either maize or wheat. In the following story, Vivian Bernau writes about her Super Woman of Maize, Candice Gardner, a research leader with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Candice Gardner serves as research leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s North Central Region Plant Introduction Station (USDA-ARS NCRPIS), one of the 20 gene banks of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System, where she is responsible for overseeing both fiscal and operation management, as well as guiding the execution of research.

Dr. Gardner’s interests have guided her through several research positions. She worked in industry as a maize breeder and later as a technology trait developer, and now oversees two premier public maize research programs in the United States.

In her current role, Dr. Gardner chaperones both the conservation of the U.S. maize collection (including more than 20,000 accessions, held in a gene bank in Ames, Iowa) and the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project, a collaboration between USDA-ARS, and both public and private research scientists.

No one will deny that germplasm conservation is important for preserving genetic diversity, but in recent years research funding for the USDA-Agriculture Research Service has not necessarily kept up with the increase in demand for germplasm. Dr. Gardner has helped to guide the research station through many transitions and works as an advocate for all of the programs she oversees.

Additionally, while her expertise is in maize breeding and genetics, she has served as an excellent mentor to many students and young researchers who have worked at the research station – including me. Her passion for quality research to improve maize production and protect the world’s germplasm is inspiring to say the least.

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

PROMOTION, ADOPTION, AND EVALUATION OF HIGH PROTEIN CORN VARIETIES

International Women’s Day on March 8, offers an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women worldwide. This year, CIMMYT asked readers to submit stories about women they admire for their selfless dedication to either maize or wheat. In the following story, Haley Kirk writes about her Super Woman of Maize, Jennifer Brito, food security coordinator at Semilla Nueva.

As the Food Security Coordinator at Semilla Nueva, Jennifer Brito works with women in 10 coastal Guatemalan communities to improve the livelihoods, nutrition, and all-around well-being of their families.

Jen has been with Semilla Nueva, a non-governmental organization developing locally-led farmer education programs to alleviate poverty and boost food security, for almost a year and a half.

During that time, her work has involved promoting several varieties of quality protein maize (QPM) with families in our communities. High-yielding QPM, which was developed at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in the 1990s, contains almost double the protein of other maize varieties grown in the tropics.

Additionally, Jen is leader of a study Semilla Nueva is undertaking an evaluation of the impact of QPM on malnutrition in Guatemala.

Jen has taught her participants how to make various recipes, including green tortillas, which use local herbs and QPM to transform the nutritionally empty tortilla into a vessel containing extra protein and vitamins.

To create “tortillas verdes” she worked with locally-grown, micronutrient-rich chaya, chipilín, and hierbamora leaves. She boiled a large amount of leaves and mixed the cooked leaves together with a nixtamal alkaline solution, which helps improve nutritional value. At the mill, the corn was combined with the herbs to create green corn dough.

Jen’s work with women in rural Guatemalan communities is key to the successful promotion, adoption, and evaluation of high protein corn varieties that could potentially lift Guatemala out of its position as the most malnourished country in the western hemisphere.

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

ZINC DEFICIENCY IS ATTRIBUTED TO 800,000 DEATHS EACH YEAR

International Women’s Day on March 8, offers an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women worldwide. This year, CIMMYT asked readers to submit stories about women they admire for their selfless dedication to either maize or wheat. In the following story, scientist Velu Govindan writes about his Super Woman of Wheat, Chhavi Tiwari, a senior research associate at Banaras Hindu University.

Zinc deficiency is attributed to 800,000 deaths each year and affects about one-third of the world’s population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It can lead to short stature, hypogonadism, impaired immune function, skin disorders, cognitive dysfunction and anorexia. Additionally, it causes approximately 16 percent of lower respiratory tract infections, 18 percent of malaria cases and 10 percent of diarrheal disease cases worldwide, WHO statistics show.

Enhancing the micronutrient content in wheat through biofortification is increasingly seen as an important tool to help improve the livelihoods of the most vulnerable, poorest and least educated sectors of society.

That is why Dr. Chhavi Tiwari, senior research associate from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, is my super woman of wheat.

She has been working with the HarvestPlus program with active collaboration and support from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to empower women farmers by making them aware of the value of micronutrient-rich wheat.

Her on-farm training programs increase their understanding of crop and soil management techniques, aiding in the improved production of wheat varieties high in zinc content.

Working closely with women’s self-help groups, she demonstrates the importance of wheat varieties high in zinc content through a participatory variety-selection approach, increasing the potential agronomic and nutritional benefit of these varieties for fast-track adoption.

Through her inclusive approach, a great deal of interest in high zinc wheat varieties has been generated among women farmers. Her efforts have contributed to the adoption of nutritious wheat varieties the eastern part of India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, leading to the potential for technology dissemination in neighboring states.

Engaging with rural women farmers is a core interest of Chhavi’s. She consults women farmers on their views and gives them the opportunity to participate in a decision-making process that increases their investment in agriculture and nutrition.

Her activities play a crucial role in uplifting women by alleviating malnutrition and hunger through nutritious wheat.

Chhavi is the recipient of the 2010 CIMMYT- Cereal System Initiative of South Asia (CSISA) research fellowship and the Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum Award from the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative in 2014.

Any views expressed are those of the author and not of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

GENETIC VARIATION AND DIVERSITY TRANSFER ACROSS DIFFERENT GRASS SPECIES

International Women’s Day on March 8, offers an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women worldwide. This year, CIMMYT asked readers to submit stories about women they admire for their selfless dedication to either maize or wheat. In the following story, wheat breeder Jessica Rutkoski writes about her Super Woman of wheat, Julie King, a research fellow at Britain’s University of Nottingham.

Wild relatives of wheat are of particular importance to wheat breeders trying to develop disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties that can tolerate various environmental stresses, including drought and poor quality soils.

These wild grasses, cousins to the ancestors of modern-day wheat, provide a vast and largely untapped source of genetic variation for almost all traits important for wheat growers.

Plant geneticist Julie King, a research fellow with the University of Nottingham, has developed a new strategy for transferring genetic variation and diversity across different grass species. This strategy is now being used to transfer genetic variation into wheat from its distant relatives, which carry key disease resistance and stress tolerance genes. Very few people in the world are capable of this work, and so Julie plays a key role in adding new variations.

By crossing wheat with its wild relatives, a painstaking process, Julie and her research team aim to improve the ability of wheat to tolerate heat, drought, and salt – of key benefit in a world where freshwater is going to become even more scarce amid changing climate and population pressures.

Working with wild relatives is very difficult and not many people can do it – it’s like magic. It almost takes super powers to overcome the many barriers that can prevent hybridization of the species – so many crosses fail.

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

DIETARY DEPENDENCE ON MAIZE PUTS SOME PEOPLE AT RISK FOR MALNUTRITION

For International Women’s Day I would like to honor Dr. Evangelina Villegas, one of CIMMYT’s original “superwomen,” not only for the breakthroughs she made in her field, but for the positive impact she made on the world.

Villegas was born in Mexico City in 1924 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and biology at the National Polytechnic Institute at a time when higher education for women was still a novelty.

In 1950, she began her career as a chemist and researcher at Mexico’s National Institute of Nutrition and at the Special Studies Office, an initiative funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock (SAGARPA) that would later become the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

She returned to the center in 1967 after having earned a Master of Science degree in cereal technology from Kansas State University and a 1967 doctoral degree in cereal chemistry and breeding from North Dakota State University.

Villegas was both a maize and wheat superwoman, working in both the industrial wheat quality and maize nutritional and protein quality labs.

While in charge of the lab investigating protein quality she formed a fruitful partnership with Surinder Vasal, a CIMMYT maize breeder, in an attempt to develop a variety of maize with higher levels of two key amino acids.

A staple food in many developing countries, maize is deficient in the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which are key protein building blocks. This means that people whose diets depend heavily on maize, without access to more varied food, are at risk for malnutrition.

After countless hours in the laboratory testing samples, sometimes up to 25,000 a year, their hard work culminated in the creation of quality protein maize (QPM). Grain of QPM features enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan and the kernels have the texture and flavor that consumers like.

As an ingredient in pig and poultry feeds, QPM has been shown to enhance animal growth and health. QPM has shown to be particularly effective in improving the nutritional status of young children.

A 2002 study in Ethiopia found that children fed a QPM diet had a 15 percent increase in the rate of weight growth over those who consumed conventional maize, and a 2005 study found that QPM consumption in children led to a growth rate in height 15 percent greater than children fed conventional maize. Villegas and Vasal thus created a product that offers better nutrition for millions of consumers.

They received the World Food Prize in 2000 for their work developing QPM, making Villegas the first woman to receive the prestigious award. She was also named “Woman of the Year” in Mexico that year for her accomplishments.

In addition to her work improving lives and livelihoods around the world, Villegas changed the lives of many local “bird boys,” young men hired by CIMMYT to prevent birds from eating experimental crops, by helping to create a scholarship fund that allowed many of them to complete their education and go on to accomplish great things.

Without “Eva,” the world would be a hungrier and poorer place, and her hard work and dedication should be remembered by all.

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center