By Raj Gupta and Raj Kumar Jat/CIMMYT

A three-day agricultural festival held in India allowed farmers to articulate their production technology needs in the presence of policymakers, researchers and extensionists. The Rajendra Agricultural University (RAU) organized FarmFest from 8-11 March in Pusa, India, and a field day in Mathlupur. The theme of the FarmFest was “Making Agriculture Profitable under Changing Scenarios.”

FarmFest interactive sessions were attended by Gurubachan Singh, chairman, Agricultural Scientists’ Recruitment Board (ASRB); Mangla Rai, agriculture advisor to the chief minister, Government of Bihar; J.S. Sandhu, agriculture commissioner, Government of India; N.N. Singh, former vice-chancellor, Birsa Agriculture University, Ranchi; M.C. Diwaker, director, Directorate of Rice Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India; R.K. Mittal, vice chancellor, RAU; Gopalji Trivedi, former horticulture commissioner, RAU; and H.P. Singh former vice chancellor, RAU.

Raj Gupta, team leader for the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) Research Station Development and Raj Kumar Jat, cropping systems agronomist, gave a tour of the conservation agriculture hub and briefed the visitors about agricultural research for development activities at BISA, Pusa. Participants collected information on innovative soil-water-crop management practices being developed for smallholder and resourcepoor farmers. Interactions between policymakers and farmers on the BISA farm helped the officials understand the farmers’ needs and how to make agriculture profitable under changing socioeconomic and climatic scenarios and the competing end-use of natural resources.

Discussions focused on the contributions Bihar farmers can make to sustainable ecosystem intensification by shifting from conventional agriculture to conservation agriculture, replacing low-value crops with high-value commodities and further intensifying existing cropping systems practiced in irrigated and rainfed upland and lowland ecologies with appropriate crop cultivar choices. Sandhu’s speech focused on crop diversification and conservation agriculture, especially the permanent raised bed system of crop planting. He also asked the farmers to plant long-duration, water-logging tolerant pigeon pea and to develop intercropping systems. He told farmers to visit the BISA farm and take advantage of the innovative crop production technologies evolving there.

Gubachan Singh was concerned about declining farm holding size and factor productivity. He asked scientists to reorient their research to focus on the needs of smallholder farmers. Rai reminded farmers of the power of cooperative efforts in procuring farm inputs and marketing their produce. Without policy corrections such as buying in retail and selling in bulk, it is difficult to make agriculture profitable, but collective efforts can help.

By Sam Storr/CIMMYT

Representatives from the national agricultural systems in Bolivia and Ecuador visited CIMMYT at El Batán, Mexico, from 7-9 April to lay the framework for future collaboration to improve maize production.

The meeting was preceded by a visit from Colombian officials and will be followed by a visit of officials from Peru at the end of April, completing initial talks between CIMMYT and the four South American countries. “We are determining how CIMMYT can work more quickly and concretely to help feed populations in alliance with these countries. Bolivia is self-sufficient in maize, but it could become an exporter,” said Luis Narro, plant breeder for CIMMYT in Colombia. “Ecuador is importing more, but the government has decided to achieve self-sufficiency in two years. So they want to know how CIMMYT can be more involved in solving the problem of production in these countries, and we hope to improve the lives of producers.” Visitors included Nemesia Achacollo, Bolivian minister for land and rural development; Gabriel Hoyos, executive director general of the National Institute of Agrarian and Forestry Innovation (INIAF, Bolivia); and José Luis Zambrano, director of research at Ecuador’s Autonomous National Institute of Agrarian Research (INIAP).

Presentations on advanced maize research at CIMMYT, including an introduction to MasAgro work in sustainable intensification were conducted for the delegation. After learning more about the extent of work undertaken by CIMMYT, Achacollo was impressed by the challenges facing Bolivia in establishing its own international quinoa center. The delegation members also visited the Agua Fría Experimental Station in Puebla, where Achacollo announced that the Bolivian government would create policies for young Bolivian researchers to train in similar facilities. “We must invest in future generations so that they can provide the foundation of agricultural knowledge,” she said. “We cannot be left behind.”

More than 80 farmers in Punjab, India, celebrated the 100th anniversary of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s birth on 25-26 March by reflecting on his achievements and legacy.

By Jenny Nelson/CIMMYT

Patronato, an organization representing farmers in Sonora, Mexico, held its Annual Day of the Farmer (Día del Agricultor) on 8 April and awarded plaques of appreciation to the many organizations and agencies in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, that participated in securing the safety and enjoyment of all participants at the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security, held in the city on 25-28 March. Hans Braun, Global Wheat Program director, attended the event. He expressed his gratitude to Patronato for facilitating the extensive support provided by the police, medical services, fire department and the airport that created the environment for a successful event. Braun also presented a Borlaug statue to Rogelio Diaz Brown, presidente municipal of Ciudad Obregón, as well as to the rector of the Universidad de La Salle Noreste (ULSA), in recognition of their assistance and the warm hospitality of the Ciudad Obregón and the students, staff and faculty of ULSA. Officials who attended the event included Fernando Isaac Apodaca Lauterio, secretary of municipal public security; José Alejandro Cervantes Flores, transit chief; Orlando Velderrain Paredes, official with the prevention police; Manuel Alejandro Velasco Villanueva, infantry colonel chief of staff of Mexican Defense; and Adolfo Díaz Herrera, chief inspector and head of the police.

By Rajiv Sharma/CIMMYT

Constraints to raising the productivity of maize in Afghanistan – the country’s fourth most important cereal – were the focus of a workshop in Kabul on 10 March. Afghanistan grows maize on about 142,000 hectares, making it the most important cereal in the country after wheat, barley and rice.

The country produced about 310,000 tons of maize during 2013 with average productivity of 2.2 tons per hectare. Joint efforts by CIMMYT and the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) have led to the release of four open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) during the last few years. Current efforts aim to identify suitable hybrids and more OPVs to enhance and sustain maize productivity.

More than 30 participants from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), CIMMYT, Kabul University, the World Bank and ARIA research stations in Baghlan, Helmand, Kabul, Kunduz, Jalalabad and Takhar attended the third annual ARIA-CIMMYT maize workshop. The workshop was opened by Mohammad Qasem Obaidi, director of ARIA.

Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT country liaison officer for Afghanistan, welcomed participants and emphasized conducting experiments precisely to draw valid conclusions across environments. The workshop began with the status of maize production and constraints by Abdul Rahman Manan from ICARDA. Manan indicated huge potential for increasing maize production in eastern and southern Afghanistan.

Discipline-specific presentations from different research stations followed. B.B. Singh, seeds advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock’s Agriculture Input Project, supported by the World Bank, advised fine tuning fertilizer recommendations. Finally, ARIA discipline leaders for agronomy, breeding and pathology presented overall results and conclusions for the 2013 crop season.

Mohammad Hashim Azmatyar, head of breeding, identified three new hybrids suitable for release in the country. He said he hoped CIMMYT’s maize program could provide the basic seed from the parental lines of these hybrids and that hybrid seed production training could be organized to assist ARIA researchers and private seed companies. T.S. Pakbin, ARIA technical advisor, congratulated ARIA and for meaningful, collaborative work benefitting maize farmers.

By Seifu Mahifere/CIMMYT

A senior official with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), which plays a leading role in influencing agricultural technology development in the country, said CIMMYT’S Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project could have a profound impact in reducing under-nutrition in Ethiopia.

The commendation came during NuME’s annual project performance and review (APPR) meeting on 24 March in Addis Ababa. Endale Gebre, deputy crops research director of EIAR, noted that maize production in Ethiopia has been steadily increasing in the last two decades with a four-fold increase in total production and a 2.5-fold increase in area.

As the importance of maize in the diets of the poor grows, more people will be put at risk of protein deficiency because maize is deficient in essential amino acids, he said. NuME is implemented by CIMMYT in Ethiopia and funded by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, 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. Lysine and tryptophan deficiency are of concern, especially in areas like the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), where maize constitutes more than 60 percent of dietary protein and people have low access to other protein sources.

NuME is bringing QPM to rural maize producers in the Ethiopian maize belt and beyond. “As a multifaceted project with components that include the widespread promotion and adoption of QPM technologies and QPM seed production, it is strategically important that NuME address this nutritional gap,” Endale said, adding NuME could have a “profound impact” in improving nutritional status in the project area and beyond. Endale also noted that NuME performance is improving from year to year and its partners should work even harder to enable the project to influence the whole maize value chain in the country.

The APPR is a routine exercise that compares outputs and results registered by the project against annual work plan targets developed at the outset. It includes an analysis of major activities against targets proposed, major challenges faced, lessons learned and recommendations for future improvement. The forum serves as a platform to bring partner institutions together to develop work plans for the coming year in a participatory approach to be approved by the project steering committee.

NuME partner institution representatives and NuME staff reported on key project outputs like QPM field food demonstrations and field days undertaken by partners like Sasakawa Global 2000 and regional agricultural research centers. The meeting also included deliberations on breeding and agronomy research, QPM seed production, QPM media material development and radio broadcasting activities and the status of the NuME gender action plan. Thematic working groups examined QPM dissemination, utilization and nutritional impact, as well as breeding and seed production and distribution and agronomy. Detailed action plans were consolidated into thse 2014/15 NuME annual work plan, which was evaluated by the NuME project implementation committee and forwarded to the project steering committee for final approval.

By Arun Joshi/CIMMYT
CIMMYT-Nepal and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) organized a training program on spot blotch in wheat from 21-23 February for scientists, students and field workers.

The program was part of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project Objective 4 and the CGIAR Research Program Strategic Initiative 5. It was an extension of activities conducted in the last crop cycle by Ramesh Chand and V.K. Mishra, BHU and CIMMYT’s Arun Joshi. Of the 45 participants, 11 were female, 42 were from India, two came from Nepal and one was from Nigeria. Participants represented institutions including the Sam Higginbotom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Naini, Allahabad; Rajendra Agricultural University (RAU), Pusa Bihar; Bihar Agricultural University (BAU), Bhagalpur Bihar; Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidayalaya (UBKV), West Bengal; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, West Bengal; and BHU.

Trainees visited the laboratory established by Arun Joshi and Vinod Mishra under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research “Niche Area of Excellence” for molecular research on spot blotch in wheat. The trainees practiced DNA extraction from wheat leaves, learned steps for the purification of DNA, examined spot blotch symptoms, practiced isolation techniques from the infected leaves and recorded variation in the pathogen colony.

They prepared slides from infected leaves and observed the typical conidia spores and conidiophores of the pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana. Participants characterized symptoms on 484 wheat lines and noted the progress of spot blotch disease during a visit to the polyhouse. They also recorded data on a range of hosts for this pathogen, prepared inoculum and counted spores in the suspension to maintain uniform inoculum.

Trainees were taught to use photography and C3 software to count lesions. They were also taught histopathological skills to understand the behavior of resistant wheat genotypes. Finally, trainees visited CSISA wheat nurseries, identified initial spot blotch symptoms and learned to distinguish them from similar symptoms.

Each participant screened 50 lines for the lesion mimic and appearance of spot blotch, which was then verified by experts. An interactive session allowed participants to ask questions prior to a graduation ceremony conducted by V.K. Mishra and Pawan Singh

By Alexey Morgounov/CIMMYT

A grant provided by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (CRP WHEAT) has helped improve seed health facilities in Turkey.

The grant benefited the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP), a cooperative program between the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, CIMMYT and ICARDA. IWWIP develops germplasm for Central and West Asia and facilitates the development and spread of global winter wheat germplasm and related knowledge. IWWIP focuses on wheat mega-environments that are home to about 20 million wheat-dependent poor who make less than US$ 2 a day.

IWWIP operates within the framework of Turkish public research institutes, including the Bahri Dagdas International Agriculture Research Institute. Annually, tens of thousands of envelopes containing improved germplasm are prepared for distribution to IWWIP partners globally. Seed sent from Turkey must meet the highest seed health requirements.

With this in mind, the Bahri Dagdas institute applied for a collaboration grant from CRP WHEAT in 2012 to upgrade its seed health facilities; an effort that could not be funded from the regular IWWIP budget. The grant targeted improvement of infrastructure and facilities as well as staff training. For example, staff member Gul Imriz attended an advanced pathology course at CIMMYT-Mexico and a training event on seed health.

By the start of the 2014 season, the new facility will be fully equipped and ready to use for seed cleaning, washing and treatment. IWWIP acknowledges the contributions of Fatih Ozdemir, director of the Bahri Dagdas International Agriculture Research Institute; Mesut Keser, ICARDA representative in Turkey; Monica Mezzalama, head of CIMMYT’s Seed Health Unit; and Victor Kommerell, CRP WHEAT program manager.

By Wandera Ojanji /CIMMYT

Food security in Zambia is negatively affected by postharvest losses, said Chileshe Mulenga, permanent secretary of the country’s Eastern Province, at a training workshop for agricultural extension officers and agro-dealers on hermetic post-harvest technologies in Chipata, Zambia, on 29 January. “It is disheartening that, despite the successful efforts to increase crop production, low household food security and hunger still affect some of our people, due to a lack of effective storage,” Mulenga explained. “We must do everything possible to change this, as food security is a matter of national and regional security.”

Protecting harvested grain rather than using new land and chemical fertilizers to increase production also has economic and environment benefits, he said. “This project and training is therefore very important to us in Zambia because it focuses on the comparatively neglected storage aspect,” Mulenga said. “It is the first one of its kind and I wish it could have come at a much earlier time than now.”

The Effective Grain Storage for Sustainable Livelihoods of African Farmers Project (EGSP) Phase-II organized the workshop in collaboration with the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture. Building on the successes of the previous phase (2008-2011), EGSP-II (2012-2016) is improving food security and reducing the vulnerability of resource-poor farmers – particularly women farmers – in Eastern and Southern Africa through the dissemination of metal silos and super grain bags. The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The goal of the training event was to impart knowledge and skills to extension staff and agro-dealers on managing metal silos and super grain bags, said Tadele Tefera, CIMMYT entomologist and coordinator of EGSP-II. It also raised awareness about the importance of correct post-harvest management of grain, helping extension workers and agro-dealers gain insights into different factors affecting post-harvest management.

Finally, participants learned about traditional and improved post-harvest technologies and their importance for reducing grain losses, and agro-dealers gained a greater appreciation regarding investment opportunities in the market or the technologies. “As agro-dealers, you already know that it is agriculture which is driving the economy of Eastern Province and all your businesses,” Mulenga said. “Your businesses can only grow as the farmers also grow. I therefore implore you, agro-dealers and extension staff, to use the knowledge and skills gained form this training to make these technologies available to farmers.”

The event drew more than 60 participants, including government extension officers, agro-dealers and artisans from Katete and Chipata Districts. Training facilitators included Tefera; Addis Tishome, CIMMYT entomologist; Jones Govereh, CIMMYT policy economist; Ivor Mukuka, EGSP national coordinator from the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute; and Moffat Khosa, of the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Mechanization.

Topics included grain storage technologies and practices; on-farm use and handling of metal silos; innovative agriculture extension systems, approaches and methodologies; and opportunity entrepreneurship and business sustainability. Kennedy Kanenga, provincial coordinator of Eastern Province, reminded the extension officers that their main job is to facilitate dissemination of information and appropriate technologies for improved agriculture.

He urged the project partners to take advantage of existing entry points to promote the adoption of the technology through agriculture camp committees, organized groups, lead farmers and institutions. He called for the formation of farmer field schools, holding field days and participation in agricultural shows to increase awareness and adoption of the technologies.

“With these strategies, we expect the adoption rates to improve,” he said. “We would like to see a situation where our farmers are keeping their grains in the metal silos for more than just a season and avoid a situation similar to the 2010-11 season when we had a bumper harvest but lost much of the grain during storage.”

By Brenna Goth/CIMMYT

Check out the Storify recap here.

Speakers addressed visions for the future of wheat and agriculture research and improvement during the final day of the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security.

The challenges related to producing enough food for the global population in 2050 are immense, speakers agreed, but complex solutions are possible. Wheat will play a large role in meeting those goals.

“I believe, in the bottom of my heart, that we do have the tools and capabilities to achieve the incredible goal of doubling food supply in a sustainable way,” said Robb Fraley, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Monsanto.

Fraley spoke about the future of agriculture technology and the partnerships that will make its implementation possible. Changing how to breed and select crops and deciding where they are grown are all ways forward.

Multi-faceted solutions to address ever-evolving problems are key, according to Fraley. Computer-modeled and statistically based data science, for instance, can optimize farm management practices to improve productivity. Advice can be distributed to farmers in most countries using cell phones.

“These tools, which have virtually no barrier to adoption, will be transformational,” Fraley said.

Biotechnology is also changing the way people think about breeding crops, Fraley said. About 17 million farmers in nearly 30 countries are using biotech crops.

Public-private partnerships can help bring this technology to farmers. For example, Water Efficient Maize for Africa – a partnership including Monsanto and CIMMYT – is using genetics from multiple sources to produce biotech and non-biotech maize hybrids.

“I think this kind of model can work for every crop,” Fraley added.

Opposition to genetically modified (GM) crops is a complicated movement with important policy implications, said Robert Paarlberg, professor of political science at Wellesley College. He added that the near future of staple crops is “not particularly bright” because the gene revolution hasn’t reached farmers’ fields.

The gene revolution faces institutional barriers never posed to the Green Revolution, Paarlberg presented. Waning donor commitments in the 1990s tasked private companies with promoting GM crops. Anti-corporation activists then began to speak out against the technology.

GM crops have been reframed from promising to hazardous waste, he said. High regulation barriers – such as requiring biosafety laws, committees and reviews to introduce GM crops – leave developing countries “stuck,” Paarlberg added.

“Even if public opinion changes, how do you relax these regulations?” he asked.

He predicted that, within five years, GM cotton will be grown on every continent and GM feed crops will be used everywhere but food staple crops may not be grown at all.

Other types of agricultural innovations were presented at the conference. Rikin Gandhi, CEO of Digital Green, explained how he is using videos made “by farmers, for farmers” to spread information and encourage new practices in India.

Social networks, such as local extension workers, are particularly effective in disseminating information. Digital Green’s website now has 2,800 videos that can be shown and distributed using technology that is locally available.

Increasing yield – through multiple actors in the agricultural system – is key, speakers agreed.

“The time for wheat is arriving,” said Tray Thomas, founding partner of The Context Network, while addressing the wheat market outlook. “We have the technology; we have the people; we have the demand for it.”

Technology investment is key, he said, as well as advances from hybrid seed, new traits and new systems.

Innovation and research have already helped, said independent researcher Derek Byerlee. Without CGIAR germplasm research from 1965 to 2004, land area used for agricultural purposes in 2004 would have been 18 to 27 million hectares greater. Broad-based investment in crop research and development is the best way to save forests, he said.

Regardless of the technology, partnerships can help.

Steve Jennings, head of programme policy for Oxfam in the United Kingdom, urged people to adopt partnerships when incentives align and research is the solution to a mutually understood problem.

The Summit ended with new examples of collaboration between researchers, donors and policy makers. Hélène Lucas, international scientific coordinator of the Wheat Initiative, explained how the initiative fosters a vibrant global wheat research community.

Participants also learned more about the newly announced International Wheat Yield Partnership, which aims to increase wheat yield potential by up to 50 percent in 20 years through collaboration between the public and private sector.

By Brenna Goth/CIMMYT

Check out the Storify recap here.

Wheat’s importance in the world was the focus of day three of the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security. Wheat’s history, production needs and methods of improvement were among the topics of discussion.

Wheat has socially evolved from the grain of “civilized people” to a crop for everyone, said food historian Rachel Laudan. Mechanized milling eliminated the need to devote significant time and back-breaking labor  grinding wheat and led to consumption of the grain worldwide.

“Wheat has touched every corner of the world,” Laudan said. Today, tortillas, noodles, breads and other regional products are available in nearly every country.

This global dependence on wheat highlights the importance of its nutritional value, according to Wolfgang Pfeiffer, deputy director of operations for HarvestPlus. The organization is working on biofortification, which can pack crops with minerals at no additional cost, he said.

Current efforts focus on zinc-dense wheat, though biofortication in general requires branding, marketing and advocacy. Biofortified crops have been released in 27 countries, and HarvestPlus is working to demonstrate the viability of biofortification as a global solution.

Apart from improving nutrition, increasing wheat yield to meet worldwide demand is a challenge, said Tony Fischer, honorary research fellow for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia.

However, new agronomy and tools, untapped wheat genetic diversity, non-conventional breeding and intensification on all fronts could lift yields. Conventional breeding is also helping, Fischer said.

“Even in the toughest environments, science can make progress,” he added.

Factors such as water use and climate change challenge wheat production and present uncertainty, said independent scholar Uma Lele and Graham Farquhar, professor at the Australian National University.

Declining water availability is causing discussions, debates and conflicts worldwide, yet research and development on water management and rainfed agriculture is often ignored. This complacency could lead to sudden food shortages or dramatic rises in prices, Lele said.

“We’ll wake up and say that we should have paid more attention to water,” she added.

Farquhar said farmers have faced challenges presented by climate change before but that water use efficiency for drought tolerance is becoming increasingly important. Some grain-producing areas, including Australia, Central America, Chile, Mexico and southern Africa, are projected to become drier.

Summit sessions emphasized that agricultural research offers tools to help.

The use of wheat’s distant relatives – such as rye and triticum – can help improve salt tolerance, biomass, disease and insect resistance, said Ian King, researcher at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. The university works with a UK consortium to increase the gene pool of wheat and the screening of germplasm produced at Nottingham will take place at CIMMYT.

Additionally, genomic selection and precision phenotyping improve breeding efficiency, said Jesse Poland, assistant professor at Kansas State University.

Bruno Gerard, director of CIMMYT’s Conservation Agriculture Program, explained sustainable intensification and precision agriculture principles.  Technological breakthroughs allow for more research that’s better, easier, faster and cheaper.
Not every solution will work in every country. Speakers addressed regional differences with specific presentations on wheat in Mexico, China, India, Central and West Asia and North Africa. After, a panel discussion focused on how private-public partnerships can be used to foster collaboration in addressing these challenges.

A special highlight of the day  occurred during the Summit dinner. CIMMYT was honored with the World Food Prize Foundation Norman E. Borlaug Medallion. CIMMYT is the Foundation’s fifth recipient of the medal, which recognizes organizations and heads of state who are not eligible for the World Food Prize but have made outstanding contributions to improving food security and nutrition.

Summit speakers Sir Gordon Conway, Ronnie Coffman, Per Pinstrup-Andersen (2001 World Food Prize Laureate) and Robb Fraley (2013 World Food Prize Laureate) presented the award, along with Julie Borlaug, Dr. Borlaug’s granddaughter. Marianne Bänziger, CIMMYT’s deputy director general for research and partnerships, accepted the medal on CIMMYT’s behalf.

The Summit ends tomorrow with sessions focusing on the future of wheat and food security.