Mexico’s solar thermal and photovoltaic resources are among the world’s best. Just one square of 25 kilometers in the State of Chihuahua or the Sonoran desert would be sufficient to supply electricity to the entire country.¹ Mexico’s Secretariat of Energy (SENER) predicts the country will have 6 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy installed by 2020, although less than 1% of that is currently installed. The Mexican Government offers no direct subsidy to solar energy.

Demand for electricity in Mexico is increasing, and 22 GW will be needed by 2025. Energy costs are rising 8-10% annually. Despite little government intervention, the private solar sector in Mexico has been booming, experiencing triple-digit growth rates every three years over the past ten years and becoming one of the fastest growing solar energy markets globally.

CIMMYT is actively taking advantage of solar energy’s potential in Mexico.

“The project started a year and a half ago, when the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) offered to fund self-efficient energy projects,” said Francisco J. Peñafort Olivas, Facilities Manager at CIMMYT-El Batan. “They gave us €750,000 EUR this January to install 920 solar panels that produce 275 kilowatts (KW) of energy. This produces about 12% of the total amount of energy CIMMYT demands per month, saving us around US $35,000/year.”

Peñafort pointed out that, unlike most organizations taking advantage of Mexico’s solar resources, CIMMYT requires energy 24/7 to power the genebank and other biosciences chambers. “We are planning to implement two more phases in this solar panel project and reach 495 KW of power, which would supply around 22% of CIMMYT’s energy and save nearly US $63,000 per year,” he said.

At least another €4 million EUR are needed for CIMMYT to achieve self-efficiency, but this is a step in the right direction. The solar panels have a 25-year warranty, and if a panel fails or falls below 80% efficiency, it is immediately replaced. “We also installed equipment to measure the energy we’re expending and monitor how each panel is working, and we’re sharing these data with CIMMYT’s genebank and the German Government,” said Peñafort.

CIMMYT is investing in other green initiatives as well. For example, it is replacing all the lights in the genebank with light-emitting diode lights, which will save around US $400 per year in energy. According to Peñafort, new energy-saving air conditioning systems are being installed throughout the campus. The solar panels are a long-term investment in CIMMYT going green and, in pursuit of self-sufficiency, the Center will continue to expand its solar program with other renewable initiatives.

¹    Assuming a net system efficiency of 15%, based on the SENER and the German Technical Cooperation Agency 2009 study “Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in México”

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) tested more than 700 diverse maize lines this past year, as part of its efforts to develop more affordable, well-adapted maize varieties. During two cropping seasons, 15 trials consisting of 680 diverse maize lines were conducted across Pakistan. AIP’s maize variety evaluation is the largest in the history of Pakistan, both in the number of varieties and of testing sites.

Compared to wheat, which has had a stronghold in Pakistan since the Green Revolution of the 1970s, maize development and deployment activities are rather recent. Production of maize, Pakistan’s third most important cereal crop, is projected to keep on increasing over the next several years. Despite growth, 85-90 percent of maize seed is imported hybrid seed, which means the seed price in Pakistan is very high compared to seed prices in other South Asian countries.

“The current seed price of US $6-8/kilogram is too expensive for resource-poor farmers to adopt improved varieties. That is why CIMMYT aggressively embarked on testing such a huge quantity of maize varieties. Pakistan is the new frontier for CIMMYT, and development interventions can have a quick impact,” said AbduRahman Beshir, CIMMYT’s Maize Improvement and Seed Systems Specialist.

At its recently held annual meeting (8-9 April 2015), the AIP-Maize Working Group invited public and private partners to share the field performance results of CIMMYT maize varieties introduced from Colombia, Mexico and Zimbabwe. Some of the entries evaluated during the 2014 spring and summer season outyielded the commercial check by more than 50 percent. Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Federal Minister of Food Security and Research, applauded AIP-Maize’s efforts after visiting the maize stall where AIP-Maize displayed a diversity of maize ears at a recent agricultural expo.

“Pakistan’s maize sector is being activated by AIP-Maize. Location testing followed by provision of parental lines for local seed production is the kind of support we need to have sustainable interventions,” said Shahid Masood, member (Plant Sciences) of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) who presided over a maize working group with more than 45 participants.

Based on a seed delivery road map, CIMMYT has started allocating the best performing varieties to partners, with three varieties already included in Pakistan’s maize register. Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT’s country representative in Pakistan and AIP project leader, urged participants in the maize working group meeting to fast-track the deployment of CIMMYT varieties and distribute seed to resource-poor farmers.

According to Beshir, Pakistan’s yearly bill for imported hybrid maize seed reached US $56 million during 2013/14, which makes maize the highest priced imported seed among all the cereals. “The foundation is now being laid to make Pakistan self-sufficient in maize seed,” he said.

AIP-Maize is currently working with nine public and nine private companies representing the diverse ecologies of Pakistan. The AIP-Maize network is a platform for data and knowledge sharing, which helps to create synergies among stakeholders.

A new investment by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Nepal (CSISA-NP) was launched on 10 April, 2015 at a public event in Kathmandu. The investment by USAID India and USAID Washington, totalling US$ 4 million over four years, aims to work with the private and public sectors to benefit smallholder farmers by integrating scale-appropriate mechanization technologies with resource conservation and management best practices.

“For a country where 75 percent of the population makes its livelihoods in agriculture, these partnerships are absolutely important. Agriculture development, as we know, is one of the surest routes out of poverty,” remarked Beth Dunford, Mission Director, USAID Nepal at the launch. Eight million Nepalis still live in extreme poverty and almost 3 million Nepalis live in recurring food insecurity. “We also know that growth tied to gains in agricultural productivity is up to three times more effective at raising the incomes of the poor than growth from any other sector,” Dunford added.

The new phase of CSISA-NP, an initiative led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), will build on successes and lessons learned from the ongoing work of CSISA Nepal, currently funded by USAID Nepal, and will continue to focus on districts in the mid-West and far-West regions of Nepal. It will complement USAID’s Feed the Future program, KISAN, which works to improve agricultural productivity and incomes for over one million Nepalis.

The new workplan will be implemented in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Nepal Agricultural Research Council, to strengthen seed value chains for timely access to improved varieties by farmers, promote sustainable intensification of agricultural systems through increasing lentil cultivation and better-bet management, increase wheat productivity using new technologies and better farming practices and facilitate precise and effective use of nutrients to increase crop yield.

A specific component of the new investment is designed to support and build the capacity of change agents like medium-sized seed companies, agro‐dealers and mechanized service providers. “Building on its success of working with the Indian private sector, CSISA will expand the program in Nepal to facilitate application of specialized, commercially-viable equipment for small and marginal farmers,” highlighted Bahiru Duguma, Director, Food Security Office, USAID India.

“CSISA supports more than 1,600 service providers in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India and we want to replicate that success in Nepal of working with local entrepreneurs to help reach farmers with mechanized technologies,” said Andrew McDonald, CSISA Project Leader.

Rajendra Prasad Adhikari, Joint Secretary, Policy and International Cooperation Co-ordination Division, Ministry of Agricultural Development welcomed this initiative and said that this launch is very timely as the agricultural ministry has just developed and endorsed an agricultural mechanization promotion policy and the Nepal Agricultural Development Strategy is in its final shape.

The launch was well attended by representatives from the Nepal Ministry of Agriculture, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Agriculture and Forestry University and USAID officials and received positive media coverage in Nepal.

The 58^th All India Coordinated Annual Maize Workshop was held at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana, India during 4-6 April. The workshop brought together nearly 200 scientists in India working on maize research and development, as well as representatives from seed companies. The All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Maize was the first crop research project established in India in 1957 and served as a model for all following crop projects in the country.

“We need to double maize production and productivity in India through multi-institutional, multi-pronged strategies,” said B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program, during the workshop’s keynote lecture. He went on to explain how “this can be achieved through germplasm enhancement, broadening the phenotyping scale and precision and accelerating breeding through doubled haploid technology, among other improved technologies and management practices.”

“The partnership between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and CIMMYT over the last several decades has benefited the Indian breeding program immensely, from providing germplasm to receiving support for human resource development,” said O.P. Yadav, Director of the Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR). Yadav presented AICRP-Maize’s 2014 achievements, such as the release of 17 new varieties and national maize production reaching its highest level (24 million tons).

A panel discussion co-chaired by Prasanna and J.S. Sandhu, Deputy Director General-Crop Science at ICAR, entitled “Doubling maize production in India by 2025: Opportunities and Challenges” drew representatives from several public and private institutions working on maize. Prasanna and A.S. Khehra, former PAU Vice-Chancellor, were congratulated for their outstanding achievements in maize research, including the release of several improved maize varieties and advances in genetics and molecular breeding.

“Genetic gains must also translate to yield gains in farmers’ fields,” Prasanna declared. “We must effectively integrate improved varieties that meet the needs of farming communities with sustainable intensification practices.”

The workshop closed with an overview of achievements and finalization of a 2015 work plan, with scientists from AICRP-Maize Centres and CIMMYT providing input. Also in attendance were Gurbachan Singh, Chairman of India’s Agricultural Service Recruitment Board; BS Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor of PAU; SK Sharma, Chairman of IIMR’s Research and Advisory Committee; IS Solanki, Assistant Director of ICAR’s General-Food Crops; and S.K. Vasal, retired CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist.

The recent report “Groundwater Management in Bangladesh: An Analysis of Problems and Opportunities,” published by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia – Mechanization and Irrigation (CSISA-MI) project, reveals that water resource policy in Bangladesh has focused largely on development and not enough on management, draining aquifers in intensively irrigated areas and sustaining expensive subsidies for dry-season irrigation pumping.

Unless water-use-efficient practices and policies are adapted and adopted, these challenges will become a serious threat to sustained agricultural growth in Bangladesh, according to Timothy Krupnik, CIMMYT agronomist and co-author in the study.

“Dry season rice production using irrigation helped Bangladesh to increase its total rice production from 18 million tons in 1991 to 33.8 million tons in 2013,” said Krupnik. “But this dramatic increase in rice production comes with costs – namely the high energy requirements to pump groundwater.”

Diesel pumps consume about 4.6 billion liters of diesel every year to lift groundwater for dry season rice production in Bangladesh, costing US $4 billion, in addition to U.S. $1.4 billion yearly of government energy subsidies for groundwater irrigation. These expenditures are unsustainable in the long-term, the report concludes, and counter to government policies to reduce energy subsidies and shift to cheaper, more energy-wise surface water irrigation.

The report highlights supply- and demand-side options for sustainable groundwater management. “Improving water-use efficiency through resource- conserving crop management practices such as direct-seeded rice and bed planting could help reduce groundwater demand from agriculture,” Krupnik said. “In surface water irrigated areas, farmers can use fuel-efficient axial flow pumps.” The CSISA-MI project is working with the private sector to help promote use of these pumps.

Water demand can also be reduced by rationalizing cropping patterns; for example, shifting from rice to more profitable crops like maize, according to Krupnik. Involvement of consumers, investment in improved water and agricultural technologies and support for farmers are needed.

Since the concept of “more water-more yield” is still prevalent among farmers, the report also emphasizes the need for policy and educational programs aimed at wise water use and volumetric water pricing. In addition to technical solutions, strong linkages and improved communications among organizations involved in groundwater management will be required.

Managers of private and public seed companies in Ethiopia have expressed interest to produce and broadly market quality protein maize (QPM) seed, provided that they get technical and other necessary support from the Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project.

The managers attended a three-day workshop on Seed Business Management organized by NuME from March 23–25 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The training was aimed at improving the capacity of seed companies to produce QPM seed at the required quantity and quality for the sustainable adoption of QPM.

In his keynote address, Dr. Adugna Wakjira, the Deputy Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, noted that “many challenges are involved in seed production and delivery systems and it is thus critical that seed companies, both public and private, enhance their capacities to engage in the QPM value chain.”

Adefris Teklewold, NuME project leader, briefed participants about the project and its many accomplishments so far and pledged that “NuME will do all it can to address challenges faced by seed companies in producing QPM seed.”

“All issues and concerns in the seed value chain need to be considered, including seed quality, branding as well as maize lethal necrosis,” Adefris noted.

	CIMMYT has appointed Stephen Mugo as the new CIMMYT–Africa Regional Representative (CRR) and the CIMMYT–Kenya Country Representative (CCR). He takes over these two roles from the late Wilfred Mwangi, who served CIMMYT for 27 years, the last of them as Africa Regional Liaison Officer before his demise in December 2014. Mugo brings to the position 32 years of experience in agricultural research, 17 of them in service to CIMMYT under different capacities, including his current role as CIMMYT’s leader in the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project.
	CIMMYT has two other offices in Africa: the Ethiopia country office with Bekele Abeyo as the CIMMYT–Ethiopia Country Representative (CCR), and the Zimbabwe country office with Mulugetta Mekuria as CCR. Mulugeta also doubles as the Southern Africa Sub-Regional Representative.Together, Stephen Mugo, Bekele Abeyo and Mulugetta Mekuria serve as the CIMMYT contact persons in Africa for donors and governments, and they oversee regional and local office operations.
	CIMMYT has 200 staff based in Africa, of whom one-third are internationally recruited and two-thirds are locally recruited. CIMMYT executes nearly 40 percent of its regional targeted activities in Africa. These activities are in collaboration with partners in 24 countries, besides other sister CGIAR centers.
	CIMMYT’s overall research oversight is managed globally through five research programs – the Genetic Resources Program (led by Kevin Pixley, based in Mexico), the Global Maize Program (led by B.M. Prasanna, based in Kenya), the Global Wheat Program (led by Hans Braun, based in Mexico), the Conservation Agriculture Program (led by Bruno Gerard, based in Mexico) and the Socioeconomics Program (led by Olaf Erenstein, based in Mexico).

Link: Our work in Africa