By Raman Babu & BS Vivek/CIMMYT

“It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics,” George Bernard Shaw once said, and the 56 maize researchers who attended a mid-career refresher course on statistical and genomic analysis likely would agree.

Five agriculture universities, seven national agriculture research systems, five seed companies from South and Southeast Asia, CIMMYT and ICRISAT were represented at the course, held 12-21 May at CIMMYT’s Hyderabad office.

Big data is now a reality and the volume, variety and velocity of data coming into the breeding programs are reaching unprecedented levels. The ability to swiftly sift through multi-location phenotypes and high-density genotypes enables breeders to continuously drive innovation and make the best selection decisions. The course was intended to strengthen the statistical underpinnings of modern crop improvement approaches, particularly for mid-career scientists and students involved in maize research.

A significant percentage of the training was devoted to hands-on practical assignments using mostly open source data analysis platforms such as R and Genstat with real datasets obtained from CIMMYT breeding programs. A range of analyses such as generation of BLUPs for large and unbalanced data, factorial regressions, QTL mapping, genome-wide association analysis, genomic selection, fine mapping, and genotype imputation was demonstrated.

“Getting to know an amazing variety of powerful statistical and molecular breeding tools will definitely help advance my breeding program,” said Mahendra Tripathi, a maize breeder with the National Maize Research Program, Nepal, who is pursuing a Ph.D. with CIMMYT as part of the Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia project. Brad Thada, a student from Purdue University in the U.S. who researches heat tolerance, said he particularly liked the big picture of maize improvement that he could capture, while Ryan Gibson, also from Purdue, admired the fine mapping part of the course, which gave him an opportunity to understand the entire process of marker discovery and how to fine-tune it to breeder-ready applications. Willy Bayuardi from Indonesia’s Bogor Agricultural University said he found the course intensely educational, especially the “Meta-R” suite of programs that summarize R Script-based statistical analyses in a user-friendly interface.

Mateo Vargas and Gregorio Alvarado from the Biometrical and Statistical Unit of CIMMYT-Mexico facilitated the statistics part of the training as key resource persons. The molecular breeding team of CIMMYT-India (Raman Babu, Sudha Nair, Girish Krishna and S. Gajanan) along with Willy Bayuardi, Jefferson Paril (Institute of Plant Breeding, University of Philippines) and ICRISAT staff orchestrated the genomic analysis part. The course was coordinated by B.S. Vivek, Maize Breeder and Raman Babu, Molecular Breeder of CIMMYT-India, Hyderabad.

By Anuradha Dhar

Strategies to make improved seed varieties more appealing and available to India’s farmers were the focus of the Seed Summit for Enhancing the Seed Supply Chain in Eastern India, held 14-15 May in Patna, Bihar. The summit was organized by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development Feed the Future initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

More than 60 seed experts from the government, research institutions and the private sector identified the challenges in the seed value chain and discussed actionable solutions that will improve the delivery of improved wheat and rice varieties to farmers in eastern India.

Seed Scenario

Many varieties of the two key crops have been released in India in recent decades, which could significantly increase agricultural productivity and reduce rural poverty. However, most

small-scale and poor farmers in eastern India do not have access to modern varieties that can tolerate flooding or are more resistant to pests and diseases while generating higher yields.

Seed replacement rates are extremely low in eastern India, for several reasons: farmers are not aware of the potential of new varieties; a lack of proper seed storage infrastructure to maintain good quality; poor linkages among government, private sector and farmers to provide seeds in a timely manner; and gaps in the policy environment.

The event focused on strengthening the financial capacity and marketing skills of rural seed dealers and input retailers, expanding the role of agricultural extension and advisory services, leveraging civil society – farmers’ associations, community groups and nongovernmental organizations – to help promote new varieties and encouraging greater engagement from India’s vibrant private sector in the region’s seed markets.

David Spielman, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said India is the fifth-largest seed market in the world, growing at 12 percent annually. “There is a need for better decision-making tools —better data, information and analysis at a strategic level to improve seed systems and markets in Asia. Greater investments in the research systems and improved market surveillance to identify and prosecute fraudulent seed production are also required,” he said.

Vilas Tonapi, principal scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, promoted alternative seed system models – individual farmer as a seed bank, village-based seed banks and group-based small-scale seed enterprise – to provide local platforms where farmers can easily buy improved seeds.

Looking Forward

The last session established four critical priorities for an action plan in the Indian seed sector, especially in the eastern states: the extension system should be restructured and revived; effective seed subsidy programs should be designed that are based on evidence, are cost-effective and are better targeted to reach poor farmers; mechanization of the seed sector should be promoted with the introduction of mobile seed treatment units and seed weighing machines; and demonstration of new varieties and new farm technologies should be promoted through progressive farmers.

To view photos and press coverage of the summit, please visit www.csisa.org.

By AbduRahman Beshir Issa/CIMMYT

The maize component of the recently launched Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan has created a public-private network to evaluate CIMMYT international trials of white and yellow kernel hybrids and OPVs including conventionally developed bio-fortified maize.

Seven types of maize trials consisting of different maturity groups, various tolerances to water stress and enhanced levels of protein quality were introduced from CIMMYT Colombia, Mexico and Zimbabwe and distributed to five private seed companies, six public research institutes and two universities for evaluation during the spring season (February-June). The preliminary evaluation during seed setting showed good performance of introduced materials, and a number of entries are showing strong selection potential.

The testing will continue in the summer season (July-November) with additional varieties and partners to check seasonal variations on the performance of the varieties. The AIP is funded by the USAID Feed the Future Initiative and collaborators receive grants to conduct variety evaluation and other project activities. This approach will strengthen the public-private partnership and ensure accelerated diffusion of improved maize cultivars to the smallholders at an affordable price. In addition, partners will enrich their gene pool and enhance their breeding program through the acquisition of CIMMYT maize germplasm.

AIP maize trials distributed to public and private partners in Pakistan (Spring 2014)

Partner institution/center No. of trials

• Maize and Millet Research Institute (MMRI): 4
• Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI): 5
• National Agricultural Research Institute (NARC): 7
• Jullundur Private Ltd (JPL): 3
• Four Brothers Seed company (4B group): 3
• Ali Akbar Group: 2
• ICI Pakistan Ltd: 2
• Petal Seed Company (PSC): 1
• Agricultural Research Institute – Balochistan/Quetta: 1
• Agricultural Research Institute- Tandojam (ARIT)-Sindh: 1
• Agricultural Research Institute- Gilgit Biltistan: 1
• University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF): 1
• University of Agriculture Peshawar (UAP): 1

Dr. Ravi Singh, a CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist and Head-Bread Wheat Improvement & Rust Research, was recently profiled for his work with wheat in the article “Putting Up Resistance,” which appeared in The Scientist(Click here to read article)

Singh spoke to the importance of wheat around the world and his work with the Ug99 strain of wheat rust, which Singh was one of the first scientists to discover in the 1980s.

Additional articles on Dr. Ravi Singh:

• A Warming Planet Struggles to Feed Itself. The New York Times.
• Interview with Ravi Singh. CIMMYT.

El trabajo del Dr. Ravi Singh, científico distinguido y jefe del programa de mejoramiento de trigo duro y experto en royas, es tema del artículo Putting Up Resistance, que publicó recientemente The Scientist (haga clic aquí para leer el artículo)

Singh habla de la importancia del trigo en el mundo y de su trabajo con Ug99, una cepa de la roya del tallo. Singh fue uno de los primeros científicos que la detectaron en la década de los ochenta.

Otros artículos del Dr. Ravi Singh:

• A Warming Planet Struggles to Feed Itself. The New York Times.
• Interview with Ravi Singh. CIMMYT.

By Mulunesh Tsegaye/CIMMYT

A comprehensive gender equity strategy for the NuME project has received approval from both the donor and the project steering committee. The strategy is based on an extensive gender analysis study conducted at the outset of the project and covers four areas: gender-responsive communication and extension, access to inputs, capacity building and gender research.

NuME is a project implemented by CIMMYT in Ethiopia and funded by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFATD), Trade and Development. It is designed to help improve the food and nutritional security of Ethiopia’s rural population, especially women and children, through the adoption of quality protein maize (QPM) varieties and crop management practices that increase farm productivity.

The strategy was developed during a daylong workshop on 5 March, where 25 participants from all implementing partners and representatives from DFATD took part in brainstorming and action planning. The event also featured a presentation on community conversation where two NGOs (Care-Ethiopia and CHF-Canada) shared their experiences.

By Wandera Ojanji/CIMMYT

The Effective Grain Storage for Sustainable Livelihoods of African Farmers Project (EGSP) Phase II is conducting a study to help understand gender dynamics in maize post-harvest management in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The results of the study, Gender Analysis for Maize Post Harvest Management, will guide the project implementation team to develop a strategy that will ensure equitable processes and outcomes for men and women farmers in target communities.

Vongai Kandiwa, CIMMYT gender specialist and the study team leader, spoke of the need to understand how cultural norms such as gender roles and rights influence patterns of access to and control of the metal silos, Super Grainbags and other resources. “The study will help the project team to develop a better understanding of the communities in which EGSP II is implemented. It will also help improve the team’s capacity to develop strategies to foster gender equality and anticipate unintended negative outcomes for particular groups in communities,” Vongai said.

Vongai said the study will help the project team in four ways: First, at the household level, a gender analysis will reveal the roles that men, women and youth play in post-harvest management, as well as technology preferences, aspirations and constraints.

Second, a gender analysis at the technology design level will help the project team to understand metal silo artisans’ capacity to develop and implement strategies that ensure both business growth and equitable access across different social groups, including women.

Third, CIMMYT collaborates with many partners such as NGOs in disseminating and testing improved post-harvest technologies. A gender analysis will reveal evidence on the capacity of partners to carry out gender-responsive technology and information dissemination activities.

Lastly, the study will reveal existing knowledge and knowledge gaps on gender in post-harvest management and how they might be filled.

The gender analysis study draws on survey data as well as qualitative data. Part of the qualitative data is collected through sex-disaggregated focus group discussions. Vongai said those discussions open up possibilities and space for amplifying women’s voices because issues of post-harvest, especially grain management and control, are inherently influenced by household power relations. Moreover, technology preferences are seldom gender-neutral.

EGSP-II (2012-2016) builds on the previous phase (2008-2011) and aims to improve food security and reduce the vulnerability of resource-poor farmers – particularly women – in Eastern and Southern Africa through the dissemination of effective grain storage technology. The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and will help smallholder farmers in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe acquire more than 16,000 metal silos and 24,000 Super Grainbags, which will reduce grain losses from storage pests.

By George Mahuku and Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT

Germplasm screening at the maize lethal necrosis (MLN) screening facility at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Naivasha is underway, and CIMMYT pathologist George Mahuku said some inoculated lines are showing levels of resistance.

He described the green islands among the maze of yellow in the fields as a demonstration of the success of the testing protocols being used at the site. “This is the lifeline for farmers,” he said. “Next we will be incorporating genes from these lines into adapted germplasm and using the Doubled Haploid facility in Kiboko to quickly develop inbred lines with resistance to MLN.”The deadly maize disease was first identified in Kenya in 2011 and has since been diagnosed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The MLN screening facility was established in 2013 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture to serve maize breeding institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa in response to 2014 the emergence of the disease.

“To date, we have planted more than 19,000 different types of germplasm on 15 hectares,” Mahuku said. “This germplasm was submitted by both private and public sector partners, including CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).”

All germplasm has been inoculated, Mahuku said, and symptoms are fully visible. Operations at the facility include maintaining pure strains of the viruses that cause MLN, producing inoculum for artificial inoculation, evaluating maize hybrids and inbred lines for response to MLN and building the capacity of stakeholders including scientists, technicians, farmers and extension workers to handle the disease.

The facility also provides employment opportunities for the community, hiring more than 30 people for activities such as weeding, irrigation and disease scoring. Because the facility screens germplasm from different countries, it’s isolated from farmers’ maize plots and certified as a quarantine site. “We still do not fully understand the variability in virus strains, whether the virus strains in Rwanda, Tanzania or Uganda are the same as the ones in Kenya,” said Mahuku.

After disease evaluations, all plant debris will be disposed of by incineration. The facility has received many visitors from universities, international organizations and public and private institutions. “There is a lot of interest in learning and knowing the disease,” Mahuku said.

It recently hosted two scientists from Ethiopia who will share the knowledge gained with their colleagues and will conduct surveys to assess whether the disease is in their country. “To see all this going well is breathtaking,” said CIMMYT technician Janet Kimunye, who is in charge of virus maintenance, inoculum production and inoculations in the field and has been involved in MLN research from the beginning, initially as a consultant to CIMMYT.

“We have assembled a really good team here; watching them work way into the night and weekend is heartening,” said Mahuku. “Everybody wants a solution to this problem that is threatening their food security.”

Facts about the Facility:

• Area planted: 15 ha
• Number of rows: 49,500
• Total germplasm: 19,539
• Inoculated area: 6.5 ha
• Disease expression: 4.5 ha is under disease evaluation as symptoms are expressing well

Sources of Germplasm Sources of Entries Screened

• CIMMYT/IITA: 13,699
• Private sector (seed companies): 3,781
• Public institutions (NARS): 2,059
• Total: 19,539

By Yahya Rauf and Imtiaz Muhammad/CIMMYT

CIMMYT and the government of Pakistan have formally agreed to continue the Host Country Agreement signed in 1984, which allows CIMMYT to host other partners in the country. Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT director general, and Iftikhar Ahmad, chairman of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), signed a memorandum of agreement that will give CIMMYT new avenues to work with the government of Pakistan, PARC, public and private universities, corporations, nongovernmental organizations and farmer associations. In addition, CIMMYT may locate international staff, experts and consultants in the country after getting approval from the government. CIMMYT has already brought international partners like ILRI, AVRDC, UC Davis and IRRI under the umbrella of the Agriculture Innovation Program (AIP).

By Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT

CIMMYT and Kenya’s Egerton University have agreed to strengthen their research collaboration, policy formulation and data sharing and to engage more graduate students in data analysis as part of the Adoption Pathways (AP) project. “This will accelerate the use of data sets to quickly produce products,” said Menale Kassie, CIMMYT socioeconomist, who is also the AP project leader.

Through AP, CIMMYT is partnering with universities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania to identify the incentives and constraints to farmers’ adoption of new techniques in maize-legume systems. The project is funded by the Australian International Food Security Research Centre (AIFSRC) and managed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

The enhanced collaboration between CIMMYT and Egerton was discussed at a meeting held at the CIMMYT-Nairobi office on 24 April and attended by Professor James Tuitoek, vice chancellor at Egerton; Professor Gideon Obare, the AP national coordinator in Kenya and a lecturer at the university; and Mary Mathenge, director of the Tegemeo Institute of Public Policy and Development, a policy think tank of Egerton University based in Nairobi.

Senior staff from Tegemeo, which specializes in agricultural policy formulation backed by data, will supervise the graduate students in collaboration with CIMMYT, Tuitoek said. The two institutions train young economists pursuing postgraduate degrees, and research on maize is a major component of their socioeconomic studies. “Almost 50 percent of Tegemeo’s research has been on maize policy,” said Mathenge. “It is often difficult to showcase the value of economic research to policymakers because it is an intangible product – it is not like a new seed variety, for example,” said Kassie. Despite that challenge, Kassie is confident that the partnership with Tegemeo will be mutually beneficial. “If we work with Tegemeo, who already have established ways of packaging research outcomes from economics studies, then we can have a far greater impact from the work we do.”

Carissa Wodehouse/CIMMYT

On 20-22 May, CIMMYT hosted a summit with researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a U.S. Department of Energy facility that is the largest multipurpose science laboratory in the U.S. and a committed member of the Knowledge Systems for Sustainability community of practice.

CIMMYT and ORNL began interacting in 2011, with CIMMYT leadership visiting ORNL in 2013. This summit was the formal realization of the commitment between the two groups. Bram Govaerts, associate director of CIMMYT’S Global Conservation Agriculture Program, gave an overview of the necessity for collaboration by referring to a recent National Geographic article, “Feeding 9 Billion,” that offered a five-step plan to sustainably increase the global food supply:

1. Freeze agriculture’s footprint

2. Grow more on the farms we already have

3. Use resources more efficiently

4. Shift diets

5. Reduce waste

The first four suggestions, Govaerts pointed out, were being directly addressed at the summit. Technology developed at ORNL will play a major role, through the improved use of big data, assessment tools, sensors and controls. One example described by Jay Gulledge, director of ORNL’s Environmental Services Division, is a laser-based infrared computed tomography spectroscopy tool that can read the greenhouse gas emissions of an area.

Virginia Dale, ORNL Corporate Fellow in the Environmental Services Division, addressed how farmers, data specialists and others are having different conversations around the same topics. “When people talk about food security, they mean different things; there’s no agreement in the world.” To create a common starting point, Dale described ORNL’s efforts to determine specific environmental and socioeconomic sustainability indicators that add value to the entire community.

On the second day, the morning was dedicated to creative, collaborative brainstorming to specify work for each of the five task areas. Stan Wood, senior program officer in the Agricultural Policy and Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, noted a recurring tension among all task groups between focusing on external audiences versus serving internal scientists’ needs. He described how the science community tends to ask for a model, while visitors to the Gates Foundation will ask “so what difference does it make?” Wood suggested focusing both on the practitioners (will it actually be helpful in the field?) and the beneficiaries (are they front and center?) to create a strong human narrative.

Molly Jahn, professor in the Laboratory of Genetics and Department of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reviewed the partnership potential including commercial and media groups, common resources and a focus on near-term rather than hypothetical goals. “We’re on the edge, and not everything we commit to or try works,” she said. “Challenges happen, and that is part of the experiment. Those challenges themselves are deeply informative.”

CIMMYT Director General Tom Lumpkin closed the summit, describing Jahn as “a living matrix maker … she gets us out of our silos.” He continued, “so much could be done if we had all of the data, all of the research projects that have disappeared into paper recycling and digital trash cans.” Acknowledging the senior CIMMYT staff present, Lumpkin emphasized that they are people who have spent time “on the ground, in the villages, who have looked farmers in the face. They can bring a lot to the discussion.”

By Ricardo Curiel

The Invest in LAC Agriculture campaign kicked off 13 May to encourage increased investment and unlock the grain production potential of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The region is home to more than one-third of the world’s freshwater resources and more than a quarter of its medium- to high-potential farmland.

Scaling up investments in agricultural development and research in LAC was one of the key policy recommendations of a groundbreaking report by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Harvest Initiative titled The Next Global Breadbasket: How Latin America Can Feed the World, released on 23 April (download the report here). This report illustrates the opportunities, obstacles and challenges that stand in the way of realizing LAC’s agricultural potential, and how the public and private sectors can and must move forward together.

CIMMYT was among more than 30 partner organizations that contributed compelling evidence for policy action action and investment. In particular, CIMMYT shared its experience in improving extension services in Mexico by developing MasAgro-Móvil, a mobile information service that offers technical advice, grain price information and weather updates to more than 3,500 farmers who participate in the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project.

CIMMYT and the Mexican Agriculture Secretariat (SAGARPA) started MasAgro in 2010 to increase Mexico’s maize and wheat productivity by developing improved maize seeds for rain-fed zones and promoting conservation practices among resource-constrained farmers, explained Bram Govaerts, associate director of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program, who represented CIMMYT at the launch event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  MasAgro drew praise from the representatives of the partner institutions who spoke at the launch.

Ricardo Sánchez, sustainable food security director for Latin America of The Nature Conservancy, commended the collaboration for offering opportunities to young farmers who wish to earn their livelihood from agriculture. Philippe Villers, president of GrainPro Inc., said that Mexico and CIMMYT were at the forefront of the Green Revolution of the 1970s and that today their partnership is developing extension systems that effectively achieve yield increases and reduce post-harvest losses.

The LAC report was further discussed at an afternoon briefing attended by members of Congress and their staffs as well as representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Agency for International Development, NGOs, foundations and think tanks, plus researchers and academics working in and for LAC.

By Cosmos Magorokosho, Mulugetta Mekuria and Tawanda Mushandu/CIMMYT

A strong hailstorm that ravaged the CIMMYT research station in Harare turned out to be an unplanned but effective demonstration for the Southern Africa Regional Office’s partners day, held on 15 April.

Participants were excited about the low-cost maize storage silos on display and the efficacy of the SuperGrainbag, a hermetically sealed grain storage system. They also were surprised to see how well the lodging-resistant varieties had withstood the hail that had fallen two weeks earlier.

The event drew more than 200 participants from various Zimbabwe government departments, private seed companies, universities, agriculture colleges, the donor community, diplomatic missions, agro-input companies, and other stakeholders. Economist Mulugetta Mekuria highlighted that the CIMMYT Harare station has evolved from a purely maize breeding station to a maize improvement and farming systems research station.

The participants visited programs showcasing technologies on effective grain storage; new drought-tolerant and disease-resistant hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs); and new technologies for phenotyping and sustainable intensification. They also learned about conservation agriculture technologies such as legumes that can be used effectively in soil improvement and crop rotation systems, low-cost field equipment suited to CA systems for smallholder farmers, and recommended agriculture input application for CA systems. The new hybrid and OPV maize varieties were classified according to maturity group, grain quality, disease resistance, plant aspect, and yield potential. Of particular interest were the germplasm products showing high yield potential, tolerance to low soil nitrogen and resistance to biotic stresses such as maize streak virus, northern leaf blight, grey leaf spot and cob rots.

The Maize Physiology program showcased the nitrogen-use efficiency work in progress and the latest low-cost technologies that are supporting the breeding activities, and how they can help breeders choose the best germplasm. The day ended with a discussion during lunch where participants gave positive and constructive feedback on what they had seen and learned in the field, and more importantly, on what they would wish to see CIMMYT scientists develop in the future.

By Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT

Seed companies play an important role in providing smallholder farmers access to improved seed.

CIMMYT’s breeding and seed systems teams have been supporting Afriseed – a brand produced under the flagship of Stewards Globe Limited – to build its product offering and give farmers more options. The company has recently added high-yielding, drought-tolerant maize hybrids (GV635 and GV638) to its portfolio, which includes open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) and legumes such as beans, cowpeas, groundnuts and soybeans. Stewards Globe has received technical assistance through the CIMMYT-led Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for the Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA) projects.

“We don’t have a breeding program, and we need the partnership until we are big enough to develop one,” said Stephanie Angomwile, the acting chief executive officer at Stewards Globe, which has been working with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) since 2010. Both AGRA and DTMA are funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF), while SIMLEZA is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Afriseed production manager Emma Sekelechi got practical training on seed production and hand-pollination techniques during a visit to the CIMMYT-Harare research station in Zimbabwe, where she learned how to synchronize the flowering dates of the male and female parents. The training is important because the company is now making the transition from growing OPVs to hybrids, and hybrid production needs more technical skills than OPV production does. She also attended a weeklong training session for maize technicians held at the Natural Resources Development College (NRDC) in Lusaka, Zambia, supported by DTMA and SIMLEZA projects.

Afriseed works with approximately 170 smallholder farmers on contract to multiply seed, but it is exploring the option of working with fewer farmers who have larger plots of land. “On-farm cleaning and storage of seed” are challenges, Angomwile said. The company is working on an aggressive marketing drive to popularize the new varieties through demonstration plots, providing demonstration packs (100 grams each), working with more agro dealers and holding field days for farmers to evaluate the crops. “Fake seed will not give you anything,” Afriseed marketing manager Mike Chungu told the farmers. “Use seed that comes from a reputable dealer and is approved by the Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI).”

By B.M. Prasanna/CIMMYT

Since 2011 MLN has become a disease of serious concern in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and possibly Rwanda. CIMMYT has been working in close collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), private sector partners and virology experts from the USA to combat the disease through host-controlled resistance.

A CIMMYT-KARI MLN screening facility was established at Naivasha in September 2013, and a large array of maize germplasm is presently being evaluated against the disease under artificial inoculation. Subsequent to the development of effective protocols, CIMMYT and KARI have been conducting MLN screening trials in Kenya since 2012, to identify promising inbred lines and pre-commercial maize hybrids with resistance to MLN.

This is the second update of the information on potential MLN-resistant or moderately resistant inbred lines and pre-commercial hybrids (crossed with CIMMYT varieties), following the first update that was shared with public and private sector partners in May 2013. An evaluation of CIMMYT inbred lines and pre-commercial hybrids was done under artificial inoculation during 2013-2014 in two independent trials, at Narok and Naivasha sites in the Rift Valley, Kenya (Tables 1 and 2).

In each trial, the entries were grown in at least two replications, and MLN severity scores were recorded at different stages of crop growth (vegetative and reproductive stages) on a 1-5 scale (1 = no disease symptoms, 5 = extensive damage). The highest MLN severity score recorded across different trials on a particular entry, and the corresponding disease response rating, are presented here. For a list of the new lines and hybrids, click here.