Rajasthan is one of the most stress-prone dry states of India, where farmers grow maize as major crop for food and domestic consumption. As such, it provided a perfect setting for the 2nd Annual Progress Review and Planning Meeting for the Abiotic Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (ATMA) project. The meeting, jointly organized by the Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology (MPUAT) and CIMMYT, took place at MPUAT in Udaipur, Rajasthan, during 5-6 June 2013.

ATMA is an Asian regional collaborative initiative led by CIMMYT aimed at increasing income and food security of the resource-poor in South and Southeast Asia. The project connects national agricultural research systems, including the Directorate of Maize Research (DMR), India; MPUAT, India; Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, India; National Maize Research Institute (NMRI), Vietnam; Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI); Institute of Plant Breeding at the University of the Philippines, Los Baños (IPB-UPLB), Philippines; and the University of Hohenheim, Germany. The project is supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

During his welcome speech addressing participants representing all ATMA collaborators, R.B. Dubey (MPUAT) highlighted the importance of partnerships between CIMMYT and regional institutions, especially for addressing such complex issues as tolerance to abiotic stresses in maize. The welcome address launched the opening session chaired by vice-chancellor of MPUAT-Udaipur Om Prakash Gill. This session consisted of presentations by MPUAT research director P.L. Paliwal, who focused on the university’s contributions to agricultural development in general and maize improvement for food security and income of Rajasthan farmers in particular, and by B.S. Vivek (CIMMYT) who talked about the importance of abiotic stresses in maize production in Asia.
The session’s chairman added: “Our maize farmers have many choices regarding high-yielding varieties and technologies for optimal conditions, and they are experts in achieving high yields under such conditions. But when it comes to stress conditions they have very few choices, and that is where they need our intervention.”

During a session on annual progress review, the ATMA project leader P.H. Zaidi gave a brief overview of the project, indicating the commitments and milestones. Avinash Singode (DMR), Dang Ngoc Ha (NMRI), Reshma Sultana (BARI), and Ayn Christina (IPB-UPLB) then presented on the project’s progress over the past year, and CIMMYT’s Zaidi and Raman Babu covered the work done by CIMMYT and partners, as well as the status of progress on various outputs of the project. Christian Boeber (CIMMYT) and V.K. Yadav (DMR) jointly summarized the socioeconomic component and provided field survey results, and CIMMYT’s Kai Sonder and Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla discussed spatial analysis with focus on the progress in mapping maize production zones and stress-prone target ecologies in South Asia.

The afternoon session, led by CIMMYT-Hyderabad post-doctoral fellow M.T. Vinayan, focused on work plan creation, assigning tasks to partners, and activities for next year. Opportunities for further research and learning provided by ATMA were also discussed, reflecting upon previous events, including a capacity building workshop on doubled haploid in maize breeding attended by ATMA partners at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, during 12-15 April 2012, and training on precision phenotyping for abiotic stress tolerance in maize during 29 August – 1 September 2012 at CIMMYT-Hyderabad. Furthermore, two interns – one from Bangladesh and one from Vietnam – were trained on the key aspects of breeding for enhancing water-logging and drought tolerance in maize at CIMMYT-Hyderabad from 1 August to 16 September 2012.

On the second day of the meeting, the team visited a nearby village to interact with maize farmers living in a stressprone agro-ecology. Dilip Singh, MPUAT, introduced the participants to farmers of the Fathnagar village where Bhanwar Lal Paliwal, an 84-year-old farmer who still spends four to six hours per day in the field, shared his experience with agriculture and maize. “I have been growing maize since I was a child,” he said, “maize is major part of my daily diet which is why I am still strong and fit even at the age of 84.” Paliwal then shared a famous local saying – Makki ki roti khayege, Rajasthan chhor ke kahi nahi jayege, meaning “we will eat corn bread and never leave Rajasthan” – and added that although there have been many new maize varieties introduced in the region in recent years, they are less stress tolerant in comparison to the old local varieties. “New high-yielding hybrids with tolerance to drought stress are much needed, as rainfall is declining, or becoming more erratic, every year,” he urged the ATMA team to continue their much appreciated work. “I am looking forward to stress resilient maize varieties that will help us harvest good yields even in bad years,” added Paliwal.

The farmer-scientist interaction produced very useful insights into the issues faced by maize farmers in the region and reiterated the importance of stress tolerant maize varieties for their livelihood. To conclude the day, farmers prepared and shared various maize dishes with the delegation.

The International Conservation Agriculture Forum, held at the Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences in Yinchuan during 27-31 May, was attended by a significant number of provincial government officials and private sector representatives who joined to discuss national and international partnerships in farming system intensification, mechanization, nutrient-use efficiency, precision agriculture, and training; gain better understanding of what conservation agriculture is; jointly identify needs, priorities, and constraints to broad adoption of conservation agriculture in China; and explore the Cropping Systems Intensification Project for North Asia (CSINA).

Key academic leaders from across China briefed the international participants, including Bruno Gerard, Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, M.L. Jat, Scott Justice, Dan Jeffers, and Garry Rosewarne from CIMMYT, Wang Guanglin from ACIAR, and Rabi Raisaily, international liaison for Haofeng Machinery. Some key constraints to adoption of conservation agriculture were covered, including the lack of financial, political, and personal incentives; inadequate or unavailable zero-till machinery; inflexible irrigation-water distribution and fixed pricing; narrow approach to research, development, and engineering without linkages to the larger issues of farming and cropping systems; and limited knowledge of rural socioeconomic conditions. Consequently, the participants defined future priorities: a socioeconomic study covering labor, gender, impacts of previous projects, and adoption issues; and mechanization development and plant residue trade-offs and handling, especially of rice/wheat systems.

One of the most important outcomes of the forum was the establishment of new relationships with the China Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University, and others. Similarly, invigorating of old partnerships with the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences is expected to be highly beneficial for future research platform development.

As partnerships with machinery manufacturers are often crucial in driving the uptake of conservation agriculture by creating a push demand for conservation agriculture machinery, the presence of private sector representatives, including the Henan Haofeng Machinery Manufacturing Company (Henan province), Qingdao Peanut Machinery Company (Shandong province), Jingxin Agricultural Machinery (Sichuan province), and the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), was crucial. The importance of such partnerships has been proven before; for example, the research and development activities of the Qingdao Peanut Machinery Company have seen a considerable advancement of the Chinese Turbo Happy Seeder, which has been downsized through a number of iterations to suit tractors with less than 30 hp. Thanks to this public-private interaction, the forum participants learned about preliminary discussions to prototype the two-wheel tractor Happy Seeder specifically for Africa and joint CIMMYT/ACIAR projects. “We are hopeful that one of the companies present at the forum will take up this opportunity to create demand for conservation agriculture machinery for the small landholder,” said CIMMYT senior cropping systems scientist Allen McHugh.

The forum, jointly organized by the Ningxia Provincial Government Foreign Experts Bureau, Ningxia Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, and CIMMYT, was regarded very successful, as it has advanced CIMMYT’s stakes in future funding requests. “Overall, we have had a very good start toward the development of integrated research platforms in three distinct agro-ecological zones. The next step is to consolidate the outcomes from the forum and commence the iterative process of project development,” McHugh added, summarizing the results of the event.

After a year of exchanges, planning, and construction, CIMMYT and CMF, a French company manufacturing greenhouses, inaugurated CIMMYT’s new state-of-the-art greenhouses at El Batán on 13 June 2013. The facility is funded by CIMMYT and the Carlos Slim Foundation and is part of a vast laboratory complex opened on 13 February 2013 in the presence of Bill Gates and Carlos Slim.

It was a good opportunity for the French Ambassador, Elisabeth Beton Delègue, to come and visit CIMMYT, while supporting a dynamic French enterprise working in Mexico and other parts of the world. She was guided through the visit by Kevin Pixley, Marianne Bänziger, Renaud Josse (director of CMF) and his staff, and Guillermo Simon, representing CARSO, Carlos Slim’s conglomerate company.

“This is a great adventure,” said Beton Delègue. “It is the first time I see a realization of this type, with multiple possibilities allowing a dialogue between researchers and manufacturers and I am proud of our French technology.” CMF has designed a greenhouse of 1,577 m2 consisting of 21 cells that can reproduce different climates. It has its own weather station too. “We work closely with the researchers to define what the real research needs are,” explains Josse. “We try to build the most adequate project. One cell can reproduce a desertic climate, another a tropical climate. We work on the characterization of necessities in terms of temperature gaps and humidity fluctuations among other things.” This precise control of climatic parameters will be of great assistance for CIMMYT’s research on climate change.

The other building to be realized by CMF is a smaller greenhouse of 400 m2 which consists of five sealed cells for biosafety (BSL2 or biosafety level 2). No exchange between indoor and outdoor area will be possible. The project is well underway and should be completed soon.

Marianne Bänziger reflected on the importance of the biosafety guarantee, and appreciated that calling in the experts in the area would certainly lead to higher quality research.

“I am very happy to participate in the inauguration of the greenhouses and to visit CIMMYT,” said Beton Delègue, “and I hope to collaborate with CIMMYT in the future because we have many projects going on which deserve that we meet again.”

For Ravi Singh, CIMMYT distinguished scientist, “the new greenhouses are like a new car model. The good control will help to improve efficiency and obtain better results.”

Agricultural extension service staff members in Zambia have been challenged to be the first adopters of metal silos to help promote the technology for effective grain storage. “I implore you, extension workers, to be the first adopters and users of the metal silo technology. As citizens that live side by side with farmers, go and be the first to practice what you will be preaching. You must lead by example,” stated Bert Mushala, the Permanent Secretary, Provincial Administration, Office of the President, Eastern Province, in a speech read on his behalf by his assistant Beenzu Chichuka at the official opening of the Improved Postharvest Management Training Workshop for Extension and Media Personnel held during 27- 28 May 2013 in Chipata, Zambia. “Farmers learn by seeing. Therefore, before they start using the metal silos, they want to see the chief executives, the business executives, extension workers, journalists, and other opinion leaders in the forefront, zealously storing maize in the metal silos,” he added.

The purpose of the training was to build technical capacity on hermetic grain storage technologies, such as metal silos and super grain bags, among extension and media staff in the project implementation districts of Chipata and Katete. The workshop intended to create awareness on the importance of grain post-harvest management, help gain insights into different factors affecting post-harvest management, and provide a better understanding of traditional and improved post-harvest technologies and their use in grain loss reduction, summarized Tadele Tefera, CIMMYT entomologist and the Effective Grain Storage for Sustainable Livelihoods of African Farmers Project (EGSP II) coordinator. Ivor Mukuka, EGSP national coordinator for Zambia and ZARI chief agricultural research officer, noted that this was part of the process of sharing information on EGSP as a means of promoting effective grain storage and thus helping smallholder farmers safely keep their grains for longer and sell when the time and price are right.

Reiterating the importance of the technology, Mushala noted that self-sufficiency in food grains in the country does not depend only on increased production and productivity, but also on minimizing losses both in the field and during storage. Over the years, supporting organizations and other partners, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, have poured colossal amounts of resources into the production component of the sector. “The resultant improved yield gains, especially in maize, have largely been wasted through post-harvest losses,” regretted Mushala, adding that “this project is therefore unique and outstanding to us in Zambia as it focuses on the comparatively neglected storage aspects. It is the first one of its kind and could not have come at a better time.”

Mushala then reminded the journalists that they had an enormous task of educating the masses on the new form of storage as many citizens, even in urban areas, are engaged in agriculture. “Go and empower the masses with this information so that together, we can reduce on-farm storage losses to zero,” Mushala urged the participants. Eastern Province Agriculture coordinator Obvious Kabinda called for commitment: “You must have confidence and belief in the technology if you are to successfully promote it to others.”

The messages did not get lost on the participants. “I have gained good knowledge of the technology and, like other trainees, will be using it to ensure that farmers are aware of its existence, have access to it, and are able to adopt the metal silos,” said Michelo Lubinda, a producer with the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS), confirming the usefulness of the workshop.

Tefera thanked the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) and the Ministry of Agriculture for their commitment in implementing the project in Zambia, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for funding the project.

The training was organized by CIMMYT, ZARI, and the Department of Mechanization, Ministry of Agriculture, and facilitated by Tefera, Mukuka, CIMMYT agricultural economist Hugo De Groote, EGSP policy economist Jones Govereh, and senior mechanization specialist Moffat Khosa and principal agricultural engineer Egbet Munganama from the Department of Mechanization Ministry of Agriculture, Zambia.

“Declining water table, deteriorating soil health, labor shortages, increasing energy prices, and more frequent climate extremes are among the major long-term threats to food security in India,” stated ML Jat, CIMMYT senior cropping systems agronomist, at the Stakeholders’ Consultation on Promoting Resilient Diversification Options through Maize and Climate Smart Practices on 20 May 2013 in Karnal, Haryana, India.

About 300 stakeholders from a range of public and private organizations attended the consultation, including representatives from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, the Indian Maize Development Association (IMDA), the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), the Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), and the State Department of Agriculture, Government of India. After a welcome speech by DK Sharma, CSSRI director, RS Paroda, chairman of the Haryana Farmers Commission at the Government of Haryana and the chief guest of the function, explained the reasons behind the meeting, stressing the criticality of the current situation. “On one hand, we are facing many problems threatening our agricultural system,” he said, “on the other, we are exploring the possibilities of a second Green Revolution for sustainable food and nutritional security in India.” This cannot be achieved without multistakeholder partnerships, as the tasks are numerous: “We need to combine new technologies with active and strategic partnerships, establish an environment in which farmers can easily access markets, and create new business models to make agriculture more attractive to the youth and to women.”

JS Sandhu, agriculture commissioner at the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, and the event’s guest of honor, commented on climate extremes which caused a decline in food production during 2012- 13. He stressed the importance of technologies helping with adaptation to and mitigation of climate change effects, such as zero tillage, direct seeded rice, or tools like GreenSeeker, but also the need to diversify rice with maize and other economically competitive and more water efficient crops in the north-western part of India. “Maize is the queen of cereals,” added Alok K Sikka, the event’s chair and deputy director general of the Natural Resource Management at ICAR, “but there has been a 66% decline in maize growing areas in Haryana since the Green Revolution in 1966.” To achieve long-term sustainable ecological intensification of farming systems, Sikka added, conservation agriculture is crucial. Accordingly, several new research initiatives have begun at ICAR focusing on natural resource management. “Partnerships and synergies with advanced research institutes like CIMMYT, CRPs MAIZE, WHEAT, and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and other research-for-development organizations are critical for impact at scale,” concluded Sikka.

As part of the consultation, panel discussions were held on resilient diversification options through maize (chaired by Sain Dass, IMDA president) and on promoting climate smart practices (chaired by Indu Sharma, DWR director); the discussions were followed by a plenary session chaired by DP Singh (Natural Resource Management expert, Haryana Farmers Commission). The panel discussions reiterated what was said during the presentations and added several new areas of focus, for example the use of information and communication technologies and knowledge networks to provide farmers with real time access to information in an easy-to-understand form.

The event was jointly organized under the aegis of CRPs CCAFS and WHEAT by CIMMYT in collaboration with CSSRI, ICAR, Haryana Farmers Commission, HAU, State Department of Agriculture, Government of Haryana, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and Farmer Cooperatives of Climate Smart Villages.

Three drought-tolerant maize hybrids performing well in drought-prone areas and tolerant of Malawi’s major maize diseases have been released in Malawi. The new hybrids, said a member of the Agricultural Technology Clearing Committee, will contribute to the subsidy program that has seen Malawi become self-sufficient in maize production and even export surplus maize to neighboring countries. They will also be important in mitigating climate change. “Maize accounts for over 70% of cereal production,” maize commodity team leader Kesbelll Kaonga explained the importance of maize for the country, adding that Malawians consume on average about 300 kg per year.

The hybrids, developed under the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project by the Malawian Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and Chitedze Research Station in collaboration with CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), were also tested in farmers’ fields. “The farmers liked them because of the high grain yield, drought tolerance, and flint grains,” Kaonga said, explaining that Malawian farmers prefer flint maize because its grains store better and provide more flour per kilogram compared to dent maize. The new hybrids can yield up to eight tons per hectare under optimum conditions.

The hybrids—Malawi Hybrids 30, 31, and 32—have been allocated to local seed companies that will start seed production during the coming season. Most of the emerging seed companies depend on germplasm from CIMMYT and the national agricultural research systems, as they do not have their own breeding programs. Variety demonstrations and publicity materials are planned to promote seed delivery in collaboration with seed companies and the Chitedze Research Station. The Department of Agricultural Research thanked CIMMYT breeders and seed specialists Peter Setimela, Amsal Tarekegne, John MacRobert, and Cosmos Magorokosho, who worked closely with them to get the hybrids released.

The CRP MAIZE will be hosting a side event on the role of maize in Africa at the Africa Agriculture Science Week (15-20 July) on 16 July in Accra, Ghana. Join us if you can and follow the AASW Blog and #AASW6 on Twitter.

Covering 2,400 km, a multinational team toured Drought Tolerant Maize in Africa (DTMA) trial and demonstration plots in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe from 21–30 April in a traveling workshop that combined peer learning and project monitoring and evaluation. The team of 17 was made up of breeders from the national programs, DTMA scientists, and DTMA Advisory Board Chair Dave Westphal. Participants had the opportunity to compare notes, gain new knowledge based on the experiences of colleagues in other countries, and gauge themselves against their peers based on practical, real-life results. “Having a diverse group like this is very educational,” said DTMA Seed Systems Objective Leader John MacRobert.

DTMA addresses a real need in the region: “Drought is part and parcel of our farming systems,” said Zamseed veteran breeder Verma Bhoola when he hosted the team at the company’s farm. “Over 90% of maize grown in Zambia is rainfed, so prone to drought,” he said, emphasizing the importance of breeding for drought tolerance not only in Zambia but also in the rest of Africa, where most maize farming depends on rain patterns that are increasingly unpredictable as a result of climate change. “Twenty-five percent of maize production in Africa is threatened by frequent drought, while 40% is affected by occasional drought,” said DTMA project leader Tsedeke Abate during a feedback session at the end of the workshop.

The project is making significant strides. “We are on track in terms of overall production of drought-tolerant maize seed,” said Abate. More than 100 varieties have been released in 13 countries. “Zimbabwe is leading in seed production, with over 7,000 metric tons of drought-tolerant seeds produced by the end of 2012,” he said.

The tour ended with awards for the top-performing teams in breeding and dissemination. Malawi won top honors in both categories, for the trial plots at the research station and a well-managed demonstration plot in Mkanda Village, on the outskirts of Lilongwe, run by the Vibrant Mkanda Women’s Group. “This really demonstrates what DTMA is doing in partnership with the seed companies and national programs,” said Westphal. DTMA aims to produce and market 70,000 tons of seed annually by 2016.

“This project is a rare example of a public-private partnership capable of delivering products to farmers,” said Mike Robinson of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) at the Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Annual Meeting organized by CIMMYT-Asia at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) campus during 20-21 May 2013.

Twenty-seven participants from CIMMYT, Syngenta, and national partners from Indonesia and Vietnam were welcomed by B.M. Prasanna, CIMMYT Global Maize Program director, who elaborated CIMMYT-Asia senior maize breeder B.S. Vivek presented a graphical overview of the project covering its objectives and discussing the progress achieved in 2012. Syngenta’s Naveen Sharma, Srinivasu Bolisetty, and Pathayya Ravindra then reported on the progress made in product development and product testing under managed and targeted stress environments. Future breeding plans were also discussed. Ian Barker, SFSA, discussed plans for delivering AAA products to farmers, Prasanna explained issues related to germplasm export and remedial strategies, and Manuel Logrono of Syngenta elaborated on the plans for testing and seed production. At the end of the first day, Vivek provided an overview of the association mapping project, and CIMMYT-Asia senior maize physiologist P.H. Zaidi gave a talk on the progress in root phenotyping.

The second day began with a visit to the rhizotronics facility at ICRISAT, followed by detailed presentations on genotyping and genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis by CIMMYT Asia maize molecular breeder Raman Babu, and the progress on Syngenta’s side by Aparna Padalkar. Vivek then took over the stage again to compare the gains made by markers viza- viz conventional approach when talking about CIMMYT’s progress with Marker Assisted Recurrent Selection (MARS) and Genome Wide Selection (GWS). Hu Hung from the Vietnamese National Maize Research Institute and Muhammad Azrai from the Indonesian Cereals Research Institute then reported on the progress made in Vietnam and Indonesia, respectively.

After comparing CIMMYT’s and Syngenta’s approaches to drought phenotyping and the merits and demerits of biparental versus multiparental approaches to GWS, CIMMYT-Asia maize breeder Kartik Krothapalli concluded the meeting with a summary of the action plans discussed during the meeting.

Spot blotch is one of the major diseases in the wheat growing regions of Nepal and the knowledge allowing researchers to identify and understand the disease is thus crucial. A group of 12 wheat technical research staff from Nepal visited Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India, during 18-21 March 2013 with that purpose exactly: to learn more about the spot blotch disease and participatory varietal selection. The training was coordinated by CIMMYT wheat breeder Arun Joshi under the CRP WHEAT Strategic Initiative 5: durable resistance and management of diseases and insect pests. The main resource persons for the training were Ramesh Chand, Vinod Kumar Mishra, and B. Arun; Naji Eisa (Yemen), Conformt Sankem (Nigeria), Chhavi Tiwari, and Punam Yadav (India), all PhD students from BHU, facilitated the program.

The training covered identification of spot blotch pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana in the field and the lab; preparation of Bipolaris inoculum using colonized sorghum grain; understanding the spot blotch disease infection process; creating artificial epiphytotic in the polyhouse and the field; screening wheat genotypes under high humidity and temperature in the polyhouse; recording disease severity in field and polyhouse conditions; and increasing data reliability in research on spot blotch of wheat and barley.

Participants first visited the pathology laboratory in the Mycology and Plant Pathology department, where they learned to identify B. sorokiniana under the microscope and to prepare Bipolaris inoculums from colonized sorghum grain. The infection process was explained using different samples available in the lab, as was a new technique for evaluation of spot blotch resistance in barley and wheat using monoconidial culture of the most aggressive isolate of B. sorokiniana developed at BHU. Participants observed the collection of the blotched portions of infected leaves for the production of conidia by associated fungal hyphae. They were also trained in conidia collection for further multiplication and categorization into different classes based on the aggressiveness of isolates.

On the second day, participants visited the polyhouse and research station to learn about screening wheat genotypes
under high humidity and temperature. They recorded the disease severity a number of times and saw that if inoculation is done properly the susceptible genotypes burn. The variation among genotypes for resistance to spot blotch disease was explained with the help of repeated disease notes and developing area under disease progress curve. Participants also observed the CRP project on spot blotch carried out at BHU in collaboration with the Nepal Wheat Research Program. The visiting team fruitfully interacted with the BHU wheat researchers, especially with Chand and Mishra, as well as with master’s and doctoral students working on spot blotch. A planned one-hour question-and-answer session expanded to three hours due to the visitors’ enthusiasm and wide-ranging questions.

On their final day, the team visited three participatory varietal selection sites where Harikirtan Singh, the lead farmer, demonstrated the performance of the most popular and newly developed lines under different seeding conditions (surface seeding, zero tillage, and conventional tillage) and multiplication of a number of agronomically superior zinc-rich wheat lines selected from the HarvestPlus project.

The training also allowed participants to visit other research experiments and trials associated with the Cereal System Initiative South Asia (CSISA) and HarvestPlus projects, and to learn to identify agronomically superior biotic and abiotic resistant varieties.

The Nepalese team regarded the visit highly successful as it provided an excellent opportunity to work with the most recent tools and techniques in spot blotch and other wheat researches and to enrich their experience on proper data recording and conduct of participatory varietal selection trials.