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CIMMYT and WorldVeg strengthen collaboration in the midst of the climate crisis to increase their impact

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in News, Press releases.

On December 9, 2023, CIMMYT and the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to further promote research and development, capacity strengthening activities and facilitate joint learning and the exchange of information and technology between the two organizations.

Sustainable diversification of food systems, good agricultural practices and safe and sustainable development of cereal and vegetable production systems and agrifood value chains sits at the core of this partnership.

The ultimate objective of the MoU is to further contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG1 and SDG2, enhancing food and nutrition security, reducing rural and urban poverty and increasing employment opportunities in particular for women and youth.

CIMMYT and the World Vegetable Center are already partners in the Southern Africa Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative Rapid Delivery Hub (AID-I).  Through this program, it is distributing seed kits directly to vulnerable populations such as pregnant and lactating mothers and children under five, as well as improving soil health, promoting the production of traditional African vegetables, and increasing employment opportunities through building vegetable businesses. Recent impacts in Zanzibar are a good example.

Bram Govaerts, director general of CIMMYT, and Marco Wopereis, director general of the World Vegetable Center, sign the MoU. (Photo: CIMMYT and WorldVeg)

“This collaboration between CIMMYT and WorldVeg is a testament to the potential of collective action, highlighting sustainable solutions and community empowerment as essential elements in combating malnutrition and enhancing overall well-being. We are building on the foundation already established by our collaborations within the Accelerated Innovation Delivery (AID-I) project in southern and eastern Africa,” said CIMMYT Director General, Bram Govaerts. “CIMMYT is excited to expand our connection with WorldVeg to bring innovations to even more people as crop diversification encourages improved nutrition.”

“The World Vegetable Center is proud to deepen our work with CIMMYT. Reaching the Sustainable Development Goals will require not only advanced technologies but also systems to deliver those innovations to the people that need them most and this partnership will enable both priorities,” said Director General of the World Vegetable Center, Marco Wopereis. “Promoting and enhancing the availability of nutritious vegetables and cereals are vital to achieving these aims.”

By providing farmers with more options, CIMMYT and WorldVeg will promote the cultivation of diverse crops that are essential for a balanced and nutritious diet particularly among vulnerable communities around the world. By raising awareness about the significant benefits of incorporating different vegetables and cereals into daily diets, the partnership will inspire and encourage millions of people to fully embrace diversification and improved nutrition.

About CIMMYT

CIMMYT is a cutting edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow’s problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers, while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries.

CIMMYT is a core CGIAR Research Center, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security and improving natural resources. For more information, visit cimmyt.org.

About the World Vegetable Center

The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) is an international non-profit institute for vegetable research and development. It mobilizes resources from the public and private sectors to realize the potential of vegetables for healthier lives and more resilient livelihoods.

WorldVeg’s globally important genebank, improved varieties, production and postharvest methods help farmers to increase their vegetable harvests, raise incomes in poor rural and urban households, create jobs, and provide healthier, more nutritious diets for families and communities. With headquarters in Taiwan, field operations are led from regional centers in Benin, India, Mali, Tanzania and Thailand, and through offices in other key countries.

Discovering the potential of multispectral UAV and satellite sensors in detecting wheat rust in Ethiopia

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in Publications.

Latest advances in sensor technology and data processing allow early detection, mapping and monitoring of crop infestation, helping prevent large-scale outbreaks.

A recent study published in Nature Scientific Reports, assesses the capability of very high-resolution satellite (VHRS) imagery and high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) imagery for high-throughput phenotyping and detecting impacts of wheat rusts in earlier crop growth stages. UAVs and VHRS offer high potential for nonintrusive, extensive, rapid and flexible measurements of plant biophysical properties at very high spatial and temporal scales.

The study—led by CIMMYT in partnership with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and Lincoln Agritech Ltd from New Zealand—establishes that these advanced sensor technologies are emerging as gamechangers in crop health management. They save time, complement traditional disease scoring methods and field surveys, and are cost-effective.

Further, the study establishes that multispectral VHRS sensors can pave the way for the upscaling of disease severity assessment from plot to regional scales at early growth stages.

Wheat rust is a global challenge

Globally, crop infections are an increasing threat to crop production and food security. Increased cross-border trade and travel, coupled with a changing climate are resulting in increased frequency and severity of crop disease outbreaks. Of all the diseases that affect wheat, wheat rusts are among the most damaging, capable of causing epidemics on a vast scale with significant economic and production losses. As of date, global losses from wheat rusts equate to 15 million tonnes per year (USD $2.9 billion). In Ethiopia, a major stripe/yellow-rust epidemic in 2010 affected an estimated 600,000 hectares, resulting in production losses of 15–20% and causing economic losses of USD $250 million. Similarly, a stem/black rust (SR) epidemic from 2013-2014 infected approximately 40,000 hectares. SR, which can cause 100% crop loss within weeks, is re-emerging as a major concern to wheat production.

Early detection, monitoring and timely intervention is key

Rapid early-season detection, monitoring and timely control of wheat rusts in susceptible varieties are critical to avoid large-scale outbreaks, especially in countries where fungicides are scarcely available or too costly for smallholders. UAV-based high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) has been recently investigated to support wheat improvement breeding, in particular, to assess plant growth development, canopy architecture, physiology, reaction to abiotic stress, crop disease and insect pest response, and wheat yield.

Figure 1

Spectral and thermal measurements at the plant and canopy levels allow for monitoring the interactions between plant germplasm and environmental (abiotic and biotic) factors. The current study identifies several spectral features from UAV and VHRS multispectral imagery that have strong assessment power for the detection of combined wheat rust diseases at early crop growth stages.

During a randomized trial conducted in Ethiopia, six bread wheat varieties with differing rust resistance were monitored using UAV and VHRS. In total, 18 spectral features were tested to assess stem and yellow rust disease progression and associated yield loss. Spectral properties of the wheat canopy (e.g., pigmentation, moisture, and biomass) are altered under rust disease stress. Using multispectral images and derived vegetation indices, it is possible to determine crop susceptibility to diseases and consequently can be used for detection and monitoring of wheat rusts.

Figure 2

Recent research on wheat, maize and dry bean demonstrated strong and significant correlations between vegetation indices extracted from UAV and VHRS imagery, confirming the feasibility of VHRS-HTP targeting biomass and yield; however, such satellite applications for plant breeding programs are still scarce.

Looking ahead to upscaling

This study provides valuable insight into the upscaling capability of multispectral sensors for disease detection from UAV imagery at 5 cm per pixel to pan-sharpened satellite imagery at 50 cm per pixel, demonstrating a first step towards upscaling disease detection from plot to regional scales. Further work will expand and improve current methodology to examine the VHRS detection capability towards machine and deep learning techniques (e.g., convolutional neural network) to allow for continuous monitoring systems, focusing on both single and mixed rust diseases under different treatments (e.g., variable fungicide rates, irrigation rates).

The early detection of diseases through spectral analysis and the integration of machine learning algorithms offers invaluable tools to mitigate the spread of infections and implement prompt disease management strategies.

Figures (1-2):

Field trial captured at varying spatial resolutions:

(a) SkySat false color composite (NIR-R-G) at 50 cm pixels (booting stage; 2020-10-17)

(b) UAV false color composite (NIR-R-G) at 5 cm pixels (heading stage; 2020-10-29) 

(Photo: Nature Scientific Reports)

How K-State research feeds the world

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in In the media.

Jared Crain, a research assistant professor of plant pathology, collaborates with CIMMYT on wheat genomics. Leading the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics at K-State, Crain and his team annually analyze DNA from 19,000 plants.

Read the full story.

 

Early maturity products popular among farmers in Kenya

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in Publications.

Across all production environments in Kenya, early-maturity products demonstrate strong sales. This was revealed in a recent study by the CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence. During the long-rains season, farmers in higher rainfall production environments—wet, mid and high altitudes—purchased early-maturity seed products despite potentially lower yields. Also, the short-rains season, which represents almost one-fourth of total maize seed sales, was dominated by early-maturity products.

These insights were obtained through a panel of maize-seed sales data from 722 agrodealers in Kenya during two short-rains seasons and three long-rains seasons in 2020–2022. The study also offers insights into the extent the maturity level of seed products, purchased by farmers in Kenya, aligns with the production environment where they were sold. Market Intelligence applies eight criteria to identify seed product market segments (SPMSs) for CGIAR crop breeding. In the application of these criteria to maize in East Africa, two conditions distinguish the segments: production environment and maturity level. The other criteria do not vary. A key indicator for prioritizing breeding investments across segments is the relative size of SPMSs. In the case of maize, and other crops, teams generally use geospatial data to identify the area of production environments, with the assumption that farmers in each production environment would use the seed product with the maturity level designed for that environment.

The paper contends that a stronger focus on using sales data to inform breeding decisions in maize, and potentially other crops where retailers play an important role in seed distribution, should become a priority for market intelligence. Future work will engage stakeholders in maize seed systems in other countries of East Africa about the changes in demand for earlier-maturing products and the implications for segmentation.

This article is adapted from Market Intelligence Brief 5: Maize Farmers Acquire Early-Maturity Seed Across Production Environments – the fifth paper in the ongoing peer-reviewed series published inMarket Intelligence Briefs.

*About Market Intelligence Briefs

The CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence (‘Market Intelligence’ for brevity) represents a new effort to engage social scientists, crop-breeding teams, and others to work together toward the design and implementation of a demand-led breeding approach. In 2022, the Market Intelligence Brief (MIB) series was created as a valuable communication tool to support informed decision making by crop breeders, seed-system specialists, and donors on future priorities and investments by CGIAR, NARS, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The author would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund. This project received funding from the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat project (AGG) [INV-003439], funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR); United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

While you were sleeping: increasing nighttime temperatures and their effects on plant productivity

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in Publications.

When one thinks of heat waves, the natural tendency is to consider high daytime temperatures. However, when most people are sleeping, a hidden factor of climate change is taking place: temperatures at night are not dipping as much as observed in the past, which has dramatic effects on many crops, including wheat. In fact, nocturnal temperatures are rising more rapidly globally than daytime temperatures, which is of great concern as research is starting to show the sensitivity of plants to warmer nights.

A group of researchers, from the University of Nottingham, the Sonora Institute of Technology (ITSON) and CIMMYT examined how different wheat lines reacted to the effects of rising nighttime temperatures treatments imposed in the field, for three years at CIMMYT’s Norman E. Borlaug experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. Their results, Night-time warming in the field reduces nocturnal stomatal conductance and grain yield but does not alter daytime physiological responses were published in New Phytologist.

Previous studies revealed that wheat yields decline 3-8% for every 1°C increase of the nighttime low temperature. For this research, the team subjected the selected wheat breeds to an increase of 2°C. The varieties were selected based on previous evaluations of their daytime heat tolerance.

Notably, the findings highlighted that genotypes classified as traditionally heat tolerant were sensitive to small increases in nighttime temperature even without daytime temperature stress, implying that adaptation to warm nights is likely under independent genetic control than daytime adaptation.

“These results are exciting as they offer new perspectives on the impact of night temperatures on diurnal photosynthetic performance and wheat yields,” said co-first author Liana Acevedo-Siaca. “Through this work we found that wheat yields decreased, on average, 1.9% for every degree that increased at night. Our hope is that this work can help inform future breeding and research decisions to work towards more resilient agricultural systems, capable of dealing with warmer day and nighttime temperatures.”

Plants at night

While plants do not “sleep” in the way animals do, nighttime for plants has long been thought of as a time of repose compared to daylight hours when photosynthesis is taking place. However, recent findings have revealed that plants are more active than previously thought at night, for example in transpiration, which is the process of plants gathering liquid water from the soil and releasing water vapor through their leaves.

“An interesting result of our research was that we found varieties characterized as heat tolerant, showed some of the greatest declines in yield in response to warmer nights,” said co-first author Lorna McAusland, Division of Plant and Crop Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham. “These are the varieties wheat farmers are being recommended for increasing daytime temperature, and so there is a worry that advantages gained during the day are being lost at night.”

“There is likely a goldmine of opportunities related to genetically improving nighttime processes in crops, as very little research has been conducted in that space. Useful genetic variation can be expected, since ‘night’ traits have never been considered or needed before now,” said co-author Matthew Reynolds, who leads the CIMMYT’s Wheat Physiology Lab that collaborates globally with experts via HeDWIC (https://hedwic.org/) and uses physiological pre-breeding as a conduit for cutting edge technologies to impact mainstream breeding.

Gov. Little’s Mexico trade mission strengthens trade opportunities for Idaho businesses

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in In the media.

During his visit to the CIMMYT, Governor Little initiated conversations between the center, the University of Idaho College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and various Idaho commodity groups. These discussions aim to explore potential collaborations in wheat breeding, sustainability initiatives, and the advancement of bean seed development.

Read the full story.

Sequestering carbon in soils: what agriculture can do

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in In the media.

In Zimbabwe, CIMMYT is studying the long-term effectiveness of integrated farming practices, including tillage, no-tillage, mulching with maize residues, and cowpea rotation. This experiment in a distinct agricultural context provides insights into sustainable strategies and soil carbon stocks.

Read the full story.

Ten years later: CIMMYT facilities in East Africa continue to make a difference

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in News.

CIMMYT and partners in Kenya recently marked the 10th anniversary of two major facilities that have been crucial for maize breeding in sub-Saharan Africa. The Maize Doubled-Haploid (DH) facility and the Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) screening facility at the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) centers in Naivasha and Kiboko, respectively, have made immense contributions to the rapid development of higher-yielding, climate-resilient and disease-resistant maize varieties for smallholder farmers across the continent.

An aerial photo of the Naivasha Research Center. (Photo: CIMMYT)

“These two facilities have been instrumental in furthering KALRO’s mission to utilize technology in the service of Kenya’s smallholder farmers,” said KALRO Director General/CEO, Eliud Kireger. “They also exhibit the spirit of cooperation and collaboration that is necessary for us to meet all the challenges to our food systems.”

“Deploying a higher yielding maize variety may not be impactful in eastern Africa if that variety does not have resistance to a devastating disease like MLN,” said CIMMYT’s Director General Bram Govaerts. “These two facilities demonstrate the holistic methods which are key to working towards a more productive, inclusive and resilient agrifood system.”

Maize DH facility

Hybrid maize varieties have much higher yields than open-pollinated varieties and are key to unlocking the agricultural potential of maize producing countries. The doubled haploid process is an innovative technology producing within a year genetically true-to-type maize lines that serve as building blocks for improved maize hybrids.

Unlike conventional breeding, which takes at least 7 to 8 generations or crop seasons to develop parental lines, DH lines are generated within two seasons, saving significant time, labor and other resources. DH maize lines are highly uniform, genetically stable, and are more amenable to the application of modern molecular tools, making them perfect resources for breeding elite maize hybrids.

Workers in the Kiboko Double Haploid facility. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The aim of CIMMYT’s maize DH facility is to empower the breeding programs throughout the low-and middle-income countries in Africa by offering a competitive, accessible, not-for-profit DH production service that will accelerate their rate of genetic gain and fast-track development of improved maize varieties for farming communities.

Since 2017, the DH facility has delivered 280,000 DH lines from 1,840 populations of which 20% were delivered to public and private sector partners. CIMMYT maize breeding programs and partner organizations have embraced the use of DH technology, with many of the newest maize hybrids released in Africa being derived from DH lines. The facility has also served as a training ground so far for over 60 scientists and hundreds of undergraduate students in modern breeding technologies.

“Before 2013, DH technology was mainly employed by private, multinational corporations in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America,” said CIMMYT’s DH Facility Manager, Vijay Chaikam. “But the DH facility operated by CIMMYT at the KALRO Kiboko research station is specifically targeted at strengthening the maize breeding programs by the public sector institutions as well as small-and medium-size enterprise seed companies in Africa.”

The maize DH facility at Kiboko, Kenya, was established with funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and inaugurated in September 2013. The facility includes an administrative building, seed quality laboratory, training resources, artificial seed dyer, a cold-storage seed room, a chromosome doubling laboratory, greenhouse and a state-of-the-art irrigation system to support year-round DH production in the 17-hectare nursery.

MLN screening facility

MLN is a devastating viral disease that can decimate farmers’ fields, causing premature plant death and unfilled, poorly formed maize ears, and can lead to up to 100 percent yield loss in farmers’ fields. Though known in other parts of the world for decades, the disease was first identified in eastern Africa in 2011. By 2015, MLN had rapidly spread across eastern Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. CIMMYT scientists quickly discovered that almost all the commercial maize cultivars in eastern Africa were highly susceptible to the disease.

Against this backdrop, CIMMYT and KALRO recognized the urgent need for establishing a screening facility to provide MLN phenotyping service and effectively manage the risk of MLN on maize production through screening of germplasm and identifying MLN-resistant sources. The facility was built with funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, and inaugurated in September 2013.

Resistant and susceptible line at the Maize Lethal Necrosis facility. (Photo: CIMMYT)

“The MLN screening facility is a key regional resource in breeding for resistance to a devastating viral disease. The facility is indeed one of the key factors behind successful management of MLN and helping stem the tide of losses in eastern Africa,” said Director of the Global Maize Program at CIMMYT and One CGIAR Plant Health Initiative, B.M. Prasanna. “Fighting diseases like MLN, which do not respect political boundaries, requires strong regional and local collaboration. The successes achieved through the MLN Screening facility in the past 10 years embody that spirit of collaboration.” Indeed, farmers in the region now have access to over twenty genetically diverse, MLN-tolerant/resistant maize hybrids released in eastern and southern Africa.

The facility is the largest dedicated MLN screening facility in Africa and has evaluated over 230,000 accessions (over 330,000 rows of maize) from CIMMYT and partners, including over 15 national research programs, national and multinational seed companies. The facility covers 20 hectares, of which 17 hectares are used for field screening of germplasm. Dedicated laboratories and screen houses cover the remaining 3 hectares.

“MLN phenotyping service is conducted under stringent quarantine standards and the high-quality data is shared with all the CGIAR and public and private partners. The MLN screening service has helped breeding programs across the continent, aided in undertaking epidemiological research activities, and supported capacity building of students from diverse institutions, and regional stakeholders regarding MLN diagnosis and best management practices,” said CIMMYT’s Maize Pathologist in Africa, L.M. Suresh.

“The output of MLN resistant lines and hybrids has been remarkable,” said Director of Phytosanitary and Biosecurity at the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), Isaac Macharia. “And the facility has strictly adhered to quarantine regulations.”

In Uganda, the MLN facility was crucial in the “release of the first-generation MLN tolerant hybrids and dissemination of MLN knowledge products that minimized the economic impact of MLN,” said the Director of Research of the National Crops Resources Research Institute, Godfrey Asea.

Peter Mbogo, maize breeder with Seed Co Group, said, “This is the only quarantine facility in the world where you can screen against MLN under artificial inoculation. It has been an excellent return on investment.”