June, 2004

The densely populated Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia is highly dependent on agriculture and extremely poor, but significant tracts of agricultural land is under-used. Can it be made productive?

In the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains, more than 300 million people live on less than 35 million hectares. They depend on that land for food, employment, and income. Most farm households produce rice in rotation with wheat, but to reduce the risk of losses in a region where the climate can seesaw from extreme drought to heavy flooding in the same year, they also plant a variety of other crops. A lack of tillage options and appropriate planting techniques has been a major obstacle for these under-used but potentially productive lands.

Farmer management practices and environmental and social conditions all contribute to land under-use and low productivity. Heavy rains, residual moisture from the last crop, poor drainage systems, insufficient irrigation water, alkaline or saline soils, and a lack of alternative cropping practices often make it challenging for farmers to plant winter season crops on time or plant any crops at all.. Some conditions simply exacerbate the problem. For example, in Uttar Pradesh, an estimated 1.2 million hectares are not used because of a high buildup of salts.

In India, the impoverished Ballia District in Uttar Pradesh is representative of conditions throughout the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains. Most land is used for the main economic activity: agriculture. The farming community comprises small-scale and marginal agricultural enterprises that support a large number of landless laborers. Ninety percent of the population lives in rural areas. Cropping systems anchored by rice and wheat occupy most arable land.

Mapping and Understanding Land Use Patterns

A recently completed study by Parvesh Chandna and colleagues used remote sensing and GIS methodology to estimate and map the area of under-used land in Ballia District. The study, “Increasing the Productivity of Underutilized Lands by Targeting Resource Conserving Technologies – a GIS / Remote Sensing Approach,” was sponsored by the Asian Development Bank as one component of the project on “Sustaining the Rice Wheat Production Systems of Asia.” It is a collaboration between CIMMYT and the Rice-Wheat Consortium.

Chandra and his colleagues incorporated satellite images from four different dates that showed land-use patterns in farmers’ fields over time. The time-series satellite data helped to identify areas sown to wheat / barley and rice and to distinguish land in different ways, such as land that was planted late, left fallow, was waterlogged, or was saline. Using GIS tools, researchers aligned the images within the same geographic coordinates to accurately overlay spatial layers such as administrative boundaries. They also looked at in situ field observations and soil samples to ensure that satellite-derived information was accurate.

Chandna and his colleagues estimated that the area of under-used land during 2001-02 was about 76,000 hectares, or 27% of the cultivable area. Late planting was a big problem, particularly with wheat. Experiments have shown that timely wheat planting could increase production by up to one ton per hectare on average, with no additional inputs or changes. In Ballia, this practice could potentially increase wheat production by as much as 75,000 tons. Using these methods, researchers accurately and cost-effectively characterized five major land types that are not reaching their full potential.

More Appropriate Practices

More efficient use of land and other resources could turn one of the poorest regions of South Asia into a granary and help meet future requirements for food and income, but only if researchers know which farmers need which kinds of technology. Information from the Ballia study will allow researchers to match land-use characteristics with agricultural technologies and make land more productive.

Traditional tillage practices often delay planting in excessively wet or waterlogged soils, and sub-optimal management practices often fail to capitalize on limited water resources. Resource-conserving technologies such as zero tillage, surface seeding, and bed planting could help increase production and reduce costs on under-used land throughout the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Zero or reduced tillage for growing wheat after rice has been catching on fast in the region and is helping farmers increase productivity and reduce fallow land area. This crop planting system causes minimal soil disturbance by eliminating preparatory tillage such as plowing or harrowing. The reduction in land preparation time permits timely sowing of winter season crops, plus it allows optimal use of available soil moisture. There are also significant cost reductions and environmental benefits through reduced diesel consumption.

Furrow-irrigated raised bed planting technology allows farmers to intensify crops and saves costs on irrigation water. Farmers use the raised beds to grow crops and the furrows, where they sometimes plant an intercrop, for irrigation. In addition to being highly water-efficient, research has shown that bed systems offer major advantages for saline or sodic soils.

The simplest zero tillage option is surface seeding. Farmers just spread seed on excessively wet soil, on top of crop residues and without any land preparation. The practice is especially suitable for areas that have fine soils and poor drainage or where land preparation is difficult. An evaluation of soil moisture and seeding at the correct time is critical to its success. Surface seeding allows timely sowing in areas where planting machinery is not available, and it saves costs on labor, fuel, and tillage. Even the poorest farmers can adopt this practice.

These technologies could raise productivity in a sustainable manner and improve livelihoods for resource-poor farmers. However, effective promotion requires a well-organized database with information about the distribution of land types and problematic areas. Thanks to this study, scientists have a clearer picture of the problems, their location, and their relative importance. They have a much better idea of where technologies should be targeted to improve land use in a sustainable way for poor communities in the Eastern Indo Gangetic Plains. There are currently plans to scale-up the methodologies developed in this pilot study to cover an expanded area.

For information: Parvesh Chandna

November, 2004

How could a wheat research station in the middle of a maize-growing state become a resource for its neighbors? Campaigning for conservation agriculture and maize hybrids, CIMMYT’s Toluca Station superintendent Fernando Delgado Ramos is changing the way some farmers think about the plow. What started out as a crop rotation for a wheat experiment is now turning heads for its advances in maize yields.

Julián Martínez is one of the farmers to have noticed. He has seen tremendous differences in his efforts since adopting hybrid maize seeds and direct seeding methods on raised soil beds, which he started two years ago. Early in the season he was ashamed of his crop, but now smiles with pride when people pass on the nearby road, touching the tip of his hat and grinning. His results last year planting hybrids directly into raised soil beds were so abundant that the landowner increased the rent, which compelled Martínez to shift his efforts to a nearby ejido, or communal land. Small as the area may be, another bumper crop came this year, with not a bit of lodging in his straight and strong stocks of maize. Well-protected, fuller husks are another benefit of the particular hybrid Martínez has chosen. Driving through Toluca, located in a mountain valley, it’s obvious that lodging is a prevalent problem here. Even when leaning maize stocks were no longer Martínez’s problem and his yield doubled to eight tons per hectare, many local farmers have not taken the practices he and Delgado espouse seriously.

“My father thought I was crazy when I started,” Martínez says. “‘What are you doing with this?!’ he asked me. He thought I wasn’t being a good farmer, that I was doing bad work,” Martínez admits, and explains that at first he wasn’t allowed to rent his father’s three hectares. In May and June, when early-maturing local varieties dwarfed his late-maturing hybrids, he was worried, “but not anymore,” he says. By the end of the 2003 harvest, his father and brother were convinced. Martínez’s mentor throughout this process, Delgado sees these experiences as valuable because “if one farmer takes up the technology, I am happy, and the idea will spread itself.” Next year he anticipates helping two farmers in Jalisco convert over 250 hectares to permanent soil beds. Big strides for an idea that has started out small.

An Off-station Sideline Brings Local Benefits

Delgado is a leader among an array of seasoned and experienced field workers at Toluca Station, many who have been working there for over 20 years. Their combined experience and constancy have been enormously beneficial to Toluca’s success developing wheat for acidic soil and high rainfall environments. It has only been in the last few years that Delgado has made progress helping the maize farmers around the station, something he accomplishes as a sort of sideline after completing a full day of balancing office and fieldwork. Farmers gravitate to this tall Mexican, who knows his stuff after working at CIMMYT for 14 years. Educated in agronomy, he started out in a joint program between the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas and CIMMYT, providing Latin America with improved barley strains, and now he has risen to superintendent at Toluca.

After exhausting other sources of information and assistance, it is the serious farmers, bent on improving their harvests, who flock to Delgado. Most Toluca Valley farmers do not fully depend on agriculture; rather, they supplement their day jobs with these side ventures. The ambitious ones want to improve their yields, but most just sow to fill the land and hope for a moderate harvest. Still, each year about 600 farmers attend presentations led by Delgado on conservation agriculture. Although their established methods do not allow them to thrive, local farmers are reluctant to change, he explains. “I put their hand to the land and show them. It’s not impossible to change their minds.”

Putting Aside the Plow

But it is intensive work, conversing, going through all options and strategies of this new idea, sometimes for five hours at a time. The “culture of the plow” is ingrained in Mexican life, and to uproot it is hard work. This is why Delgado works with children as well, going to schools and introducing his ideas. “To change the culture is to put conservation agriculture into the minds of children,” he says, “It is beautiful to explain to children, for they appreciate how they eat, and what they eat.”

Delgado’s movement toward conservation agriculture started as a way to save money in operations at the Toluca Station through use of less water, fuel, and machinery passes. Fifty percent of the station’s land is used for wheat experiments, and the other half is devoted to crop rotations to sustain the land. It was in this section that Delgado started using direct seeding methods on raised beds to rescue money for other projects. After a couple of harvests, 10 tons of grain was recovered per hectare, compared to an average of 5–8 before. Conservation agriculture had captured his attention.

It is obvious that the planet has been disturbed by human existence, and conservation agriculture is “a little bit to support the world,” Delgado says. He feels very passionately about this, his words coming slowly and deliberately. “Conservation agriculture is the future,” he affirms, “It is common sense, it is how we help the environment.” Its goals include preservation, improvement and more efficient use of resources such as soil, water, and fuel for machinery. As well as the environmental benefits, conservation agriculture makes farming more sustainable with better yields. To realize these goals, a permanent soil cover must be allowed to develop, which makes plowing obsolete. This is the detail farmers find most difficult to swallow, because tilling the land is the way they and their parents have survived. They assume that not using a plow to turn the soil allows weeds to overrun a field, and find the idea of planting seeds into a field with last year’s stubble untidy. But using conservation agriculture with well-timed herbicides and proper crop rotations can actually improve yields.

“People visit the station, and the farmers want to be better than CIMMYT,” Delgado laughs. A friendly rivalry has grown out of Toluca’s success, and now the farmers want to better their own yields to exceed the research station’s results. He thinks this is “nice, because the healthy competition has transformed the farmers to better their techniques. A little revolution in Toluca, but a big change in the farmer’s mind. Farmer to farmer to farmer.” he says. The same people who, a few years ago, were saying how crazy the innovative farmers were, are now asking how they can try the new technology.

Adaptation, to make fit by modification, not adoption, is suggested for the farmers to make a seamless transition to conservation agriculture. Rather than purchasing all new equipment to replace what they already have, Delgado promotes the adjustment of their current machinery. “For the small farmer, to spend USD 1,800 on a new machine is not an option. But to insert a piece that can be bought for half that is practical, and they can afford it.” Delgado says. This enables the small- and medium-sized farmers like Julián Martínez to start off in conservation agriculture. CIMMYT wheat agronomist Ken Sayre applauds Delgado’s efforts. “People like Fernando still believe that improving the crop production situation directly in farmers’ fields is the most valuable way to achieve impact,” he says. His practical initiatives are certainly helping many farmers to increase their productivity and profitability.

Farmers in developing countries typically lose 20-30% of their crop due to poor grain storage facilities. Through a project with roots in Central America, African maize farmers are adopting metal silos to protect their families’ food supply and source of income.

Six mouths are a lot to feed so Pamela Akoth, a 39-year-old Kenyan farmer and mother to half a dozen children, doesn’t want any weevils or borers—two of the most common post-harvest pests—nibbling at her grain supply. Akoth grows maize on 0.7 hectares in Homa Bay, western Kenya. In the past, she stored her grain in a traditional granary: a structure built with mud, branches, and cow dung that allows free entry to the maize weevil and the larger grain borer, the two most damaging pests of stored maize in Africa. Infestation starts in the field and continues after harvest when grain is stored. Losses of 10-20% are reported three months after storage, and this goes up to more than 50% after six months.

On the advice of the Catholic Diocese of Homa Bay and with help from a subsidy program—the Agriculture and Environment Program (AEP) of the Diocese of Homa Bay helps needy farmers to acquire metal silos by providing interest-free loans—Akoth purchased a metal silo able to store 20 bags (1,800 kilograms) of maize; roughly what her land yields. Made of galvanized metal, the silo is airtight, so it keeps out insects and suffocates any that might have snuck in with the stored grain. “I am happy that since I started using the silo I don’t experience any loss of grain,” Akoth says. “I have enough to feed my family and even some left over that I can save and later sell, when there is a shortage in the market.”

Akoth is one of many farmers who has benefited from the Effective Grain Storage Project. Supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the generous unrestricted contributions CIMMYT receives, this effort aims to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa through effective on-farm storage technologies, like metal silos. Participants are promoting the silos and training artisans who build and sell them. “The focus of the project is to ensure that farmers use only well-fabricated, high-quality metal silos,” says Fred Kanampiu, CIMMYT agronomist and former project head. “We are training artisans who will make and sell these silos.”

Local manufactureres cash in on silo demand
The Effective Grain Storage Project has supported two artisan workshops in Homa Bay and Embu, with a total of 37 artisans trained. One of these is Eric Omulo Omondi, a 23-year-old metal worker based in Homa Bay. Along with 29 other artisans, he attended a free training workshop on metal silo construction in 2009. Since then, Omondi has made 15 metal silos and his average monthly income has tripled.

“I was lucky enough to have been selected by the diocese as one of the artisans to be professionally trained,” Omondi says. The training exercise was facilitated by CIMMYT, who contracted a skilled artisan from Central America. There and in South America and the Caribbean, the POSTCOSECHA program (also funded by SDC) had launched the use of metal silos for storing maize grain, significantly reducing post-harvest losses among more than 300,000 families.

To date, the current project is responsible for the construction of 146 silos across Kenya and Malawi. Two strong local partners, World Vision International in Malawi, and the Catholic Dioceses of Embu and Homa Bay in Kenya, host training sessions and promote metal silo use. In Malawi, metal silos have been used since 2007, initially supplied by a private company contracted by the government to distribute silos throughout the country. “Over the past few years, farmers have recorded high maize harvests, and now even request silos of a 7.5 ton capacity,” says Essau Phiri of World Vision-Malawi.

In Mchinji District, Central Malawi, artisan Douglas Kathakamba has benefited from the CIMMYT-World Vision collaboration. He launched his metal works business making ox-carts, door and window frames, and bicycle ambulances, but has found even greater profit since 2007 by building metal silos. As a result of silo income, he has set up a new workshop, sent his five children to school, and even covers the costs of university studies for two adopted children.

From sacks to sheet metal
Douglas is now an ardent supporter of the metal silo and receives many customers through referrals. He also educates rural farmers. In Kachilika Village of northern Malawi, he has recently worked with a farmers’ club that had never heard of metal silos. The 25 members store their grain communally and, after Douglas constructed and donated a silo to them, commissioned him to build four more. With the proceeds from increased grain sales, the members now pay for children’s schooling and purchase items such as clothing, domestic products, and farm inputs for the next season.

“Before the introduction of silos, we were using sacks and nkhokwe (the traditional granary), but we were not able to save much,” says Andrew Kasalika, the club chairman. “Now, we can say that our lives have changed.”

A particularly dedicated safe storage advocate in Kenya is Sister Barbara Okomo, a former Homa Bay teacher and current principal of St. Theresa’s Girls’ Secondary School in Kisumu, roughly a two hour drive from Homa Bay. Since she started working with the Diocese’s Agriculture and Environment Program (AEP), Okomo has had artisans fabricate 40 metal silos at her schools, which include 10 at her current school. The silos are made on-site to cut costs and make it easier for potential adopters.

“I have used the silos for several years now, and I am convinced that this is the best method to store grain,” Sister Barbara says. “With other storage methods, we would lose up to 90% of our stored grain—now we lose nothing.” Schools have been early adopters of metal silos because many grow and store grain year-long to feed their students.

To save you need to spend
A challenge for African farm households is the initial costs of a silo. They are relatively cheap—in Homa Bay, a three-bag silo costs about USD 74 and a 20-bag silo USD 350—and with an effective lifetime of more than a decade, the silos more than pay for themselves, in terms of food security and surplus grain savings. But the average monthly cash income of a Homa Bay farmer ranges from USD 40 to 130. This means that family heads often have to choose between providing basic needs and investing in the silo. “Without support from the Diocese, I wouldn’t have been able to buy a silo,” says Akoth. Representatives of Equity Bank have met with stakeholders in Homa Bay to discuss micro-finance opportunities that would allow many more farmers to purchase metal silos. Micro-financing would also help more artisans enter the emerging silo industry, as current investment capital costs are high.

“Metal silos bring food security to the poor,” says Tadele Tefera, the current EGS project coordinator. “Not only what farmers harvest, but more importantly, what they store over seasons, could make a difference in their livelihoods.”

A recent (June 2010) news feature on metal silos, aired in Kenya, gives testimonials on the success of the silos from local users.

Further information: Tadele Tefera, Project Coordinator, Effective Grain Storage (t.tefera@cgiar.org)

Many of us often underestimate the importance of water on our daily lives – that is until the taps run out of water or the well runs dry. For farmers, their lives are intimately connected to the abundance or lack of water. Many farmers in the developing world produce crops which are dependent on unpredictable patterns of rainfall. For these farmers, water is not only a resource, but truly the source of life.

Many of us often underestimate the importance of water on our daily lives – that is until the taps run out of water or the well runs dry. For farmers, their lives are intimately connected to the abundance or lack of water. Many farmers in the developing world produce crops which are dependent on unpredictable patterns of rainfall. For these farmers, water is not only a resource, but truly the source of life.

When there is a lack of rain, it’s not only the crops that suffer, but farmers’ livestock, incomes, and livelihoods are put in jeopardy. In periods of drought, children are often the most vulnerable segment of the population. Children often suffer from malnutrition, stunting, and starvation as the result of drought, causing long-term effects on their health and well-being.

Episodes of drought have occurred with increasing intensity and frequency in recent months. The drought in the Horn of Africa – which began in July 2011 – has been called the worst drought in the region in over 60 years. The lack of food and grain has resulted in the tripling of prices in some areas. Millions of people continue to suffer from extreme hunger, starvation, and in some areas, famine. The current drought in Mexico has been called the worst drought in 70 years. As a result, farmers have lost over a billion dollars worth of crops since the drought began in October 2011. The effect of these severe droughts will be seen for years to come.

As we reflect on World Water Day, let us not only recognize how important water is to our everyday lives, but also acknowledge those who are developing more efficient solutions for water usage. Today, over 70 percent of the water used globally goes towards agriculture. How we use water for farming is one of the most important issues to address in the management of global water consumption.

In response to this challenge, our scientists are working to develop crops that can produce higher yields with less water. Our agronomists are working to develop systems which conserve water through the management of soils. Our researchers are developing systems which better utilize and apply agricultural inputs – such as pesticides and fertilizer – so that fewer chemicals enter our water sources.

We are all interconnected. Lack of water in one area also impacts other regions through the elevation of food prices, availability of staple foods, and competition for resources. As the world’s population expands to 9 billion – each of us have to take responsibility to address and reflect on how we utilize water. Today, let’s remember just how vitally important water is to our lives, to our planet, and to our future.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 9, September 2007

The larger grain borer is taking a beating from CIMMYT breeders in Kenya as new African maize withstands the onslaught of one of the most damaging pests.

Scientists from CIMMYT, working with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), have developed maize with significantly increased resistance to attack in storage bins from a pest called the larger grain borer. In just six months this small beetle can destroy more than a third of the maize farmers have stored. The new maize varieties, which dramatically decrease the damage and increase the storability of the grain, will be nominated by KARI maize breeders to the Kenya national maize performance trials run by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS). The same varieties will also be distributed for evaluation by interested parties in other countries through the CIMMYT international maize testing program in 2008.

“This is a major achievement and will be of great help to farmers in Kenya and more than 20 African countries, who have had few options to control this pest for nearly 30 years” says Stephen Mugo, the CIMMYT maize breeder who headed the CIMMYT-KARI collaboration, which has been funded in part by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

The larger grain borer, native to Central America, was first observed in Africa in Tanzania in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A particularly severe drought struck eastern Africa in 1979 and there was little local maize. The world responded with large shipments of maize as aid. The borer may well have been an uninvited guest in a food aid shipment.

Even in Latin America, where it has co-evolved with natural predators, losses are significant. In Africa, where there are no similar predators to control the insect, its spread has been most dramatic. Attempts to introduce some of those predators to Africa to control the borer (a technique called biological control) have met with limited success and regionally concerted action is essential if biological control is to be effective across borer-infested areas. Researchers also studied the habits of the borer, hoping to find ways to reduce the damage it does. They discovered that it needs a solid platform, such as that provided by maize kernels still on the cob, before it will bore into a kernel. Unfortunately African farmers often store maize on the cob, increasing the potential for borer damage. By shelling the maize and storing the kernels off the cob, the damage can be reduced by small amounts, but losses are still very high. This is what makes the development of new varieties, where the resistance lies in the seed, so exciting.

“Having the solution in the seed itself makes adoption much easier for farmers,” says Marianne Banziger, the director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program. “There is no added workload or expense to the farmer, no longstanding practices or habits to change.” But Banziger cautions that resistant maize is not a silver bullet solution to the grain borer problem. “We strongly encourage the use of the new varieties in combination with other measures,” she says. “The varieties are more resistant but as time progresses there will still be some damage, though much less than before.”

CIMMYT researchers found resistance to the borer in the Center’s germplasm bank, in maize seed originally from the Caribbean. The bank holds 25,000 unique collections of native maize races. By using conventional plant breeding techniques, crossing those plants with maize already adapted to the conditions found in eastern Africa, Mugo and the breeding team were able to combine the resistance of the Caribbean maize with the key traits valued by Kenyan maize farmers. The maize was tested for resistance at the KARI research station in Kiboko, Kenya. Larger grain borers were placed in glass jars with a known weight of maize. Weight changes to the maize and a visual assessment of damage were recorded, allowing researchers to select the best lines. The result is new maize varieties that will benefit farmers in Kenya and help reduce Kenya’s dependence on imported maize for national food security.

Testing by Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services and by national seed authorities in other countries is expected to take 1-3 years, after which seed of the new maize hybrids and open pollinated varieties will be available to seed companies for seed production and sale to farmers.

For more information: Stephen Mugo, Maize breeder (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 2, February 2007

At an agricultural research station in Kenya, ingenuity, improvised tools, and a small group of talented, dedicated researchers and technicians using good science, are on the front line of the battle to prevent a potential multi-billion dollar crop disaster for the world.

Peter Njau has a look of concern on his face and a sense of urgency in his voice. “Be very gentle,” he says. “You don’t have to separate each seedling from the others.” Njau, KARI-Njoro’s wheat breeder, is teaching technicians at the Njoro Agriculture Research Centre of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to transplant thousands of extremely delicate winter wheat seedlings. The seedlings have been kept in a cool environment to simulate a temperate winter and now they are ready for what they will interpret as springtime.

The technicians are using a new transplanting method for the very first time. It should be more efficient but the team only has one chance to get it right. All day they have been preparing the plot, wetting it down and cooling the soil using a new sprinkler irrigation system; making small furrows in the damp soil and putting in beads of fertilizer; carefully marking and labeling the location for each plant. The transplanting has to take place just before sunset so the seedlings will have cool soil and a cool night to start establishing their young root systems. Any mistake and they will die and the opportunity to test them for resistance to the new stem rust will be lost until the next season.

Speed and precision are vital since the airborne fungus that was discovered in Uganda in 1999 has now spread beyond the African continent. It is following a path that will take it to the great wheat growing areas of south Asia where farmers grow wheat eaten by a billion people. In the last great stem rust outbreak in North America in 1954, the fungus destroyed as much as 40% of the spring wheat crop.

The Njoro station is in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, not far from the city of Nakuru and very close to the Equator. The new stem rust spores have been present in the air at the station for at least three years, making it the perfect location for testing wheat to see if it can resist the fungus. Called Ug99, the new stem rust is such a large threat to wheat around the world that scientists dare not transport the spores themselves to other test locations. Instead as part of the CIMMYT-ICARDA Global Rust Initiative, which also includes national partners like KARI and the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research (EIAR), the world’s wheat comes to East Africa. Similar work is being conducted at several sites in Ethiopia by EIAR. “We are committed to work with international partners to fight the looming threat of stem rust,” says Dr. Bedada Girma, leader of EIAR’s Stem Rust Task Force.

Njau works for KARI and manages both his KARI assigned research as well as the GRI wheat nurseries (plots of different wheat plants) at the station. In one area the team grows three different kinds of wheat that are known to be easily infected with Ug99. The three wheats mature at different times so there is always a source of infection to challenge the wheat being tested. An adjacent field has over 3,000 samples of spring wheat in nurseries designed to confirm what appears to be resistances found in previous seasons. Those nurseries also include CIMMYT and KARI breeding populations from which breeders hope to extract high performance, Ug99 varieties for Kenya and the world.

Not far from the plots, inside a small building, sheets of polyethylene shroud a makeshift innoculum chamber. Plastic garbage bags act as blinds to keep the room dark. On the floor are two old plastic spray bottles for water to keep the leaves of the host wheat plants damp. It is here where the fungus is grown and multiplied for use later on test plants. “We improvise a lot here,” says Miriam Kinyua, the Director of the station and overall coordinator of Kenya wheat research, including GRI activities. “The world needs this work to be done.” She also expresses gratitude to the Canadian International Development Agency for providing funding that let the station put in a good irrigation system. “We can now grow wheat in the off season and ensure that if the rains fail, our testing won’t,” she says. She is also pleased that the research station is now connected to the rest of the world via a satellite dish and the internet, another result of the CIDA contribution. New contributions from USAID are adding to the support for GRI work in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

Back at the transplant plot each group of seedlings is hand watered. Early the next morning the team will put small tree branches in the ground around the plot as stakes to hold up some old canvas sheets. The canvas will shade the fragile seedlings from the hot equatorial sun for another three days. Perhaps under the flapping canvas is a seedling that holds the key to durable resistance to the Ug99 fungus.

For more information Rick Ward, Coordinator, Global Rust Initiative (r.w.ward@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 12, December 2006

Wheat lines that resisted virulent stem rust last season have now succumbed.

Observations from wheat rust screening trials in Kenya indicate even more of the world’s wheat is at risk from a stem rust attack than originally thought. Scientists from CIMMYT and its partners, studying wheat planted at the Njoro Agriculture Research Centre, report that more than 85% of sample wheats, including cultivars from the major wheat producing regions of the world, have succumbed to the stem rust known as Ug99. Most importantly some wheat lines which showed resistance to Ug99 stem rust a year ago now appear to be susceptible to the disease.

In August, 2005 an expert panel raised the first alarm about the new, virulent form of stem rust that could devastate world wheat crops. These new observations could mean the threat to the global wheat harvest is now significantly greater.

The Njoro Research Centre is in an area of Kenya where the virulent form of stem rust fungus is endemic. For the past three years scientists have used the station to expose wheat to the disease to see which is susceptible and most importantly, which is not. In March of 2006 more than 11000 different types of wheat and relatives of wheat from all over the world were planted and exposed to the fungus.

Studies are still underway to clarify the situation but it appears that at least one of the major stem rust resistance genes that has protected many of the world’s wheats for decades is no longer effective against the rust fungus at Njoro. This new development enhances the significance of what is already recognized as a dangerous threat to future global wheat harvests.

Wheat grows on more than 200 million hectares in both the developed and the developing world and the new data indicate that very little of that area is planted to varieties which resist the stem rust found at Njoro. Though stem rust may not be able to thrive in all parts of the world, scientists estimate that well over half of the total wheat area could suffer rust epidemics if susceptible varieties planted there are exposed to the pathogen.

“I was shocked at what I saw this season,” says Rick Ward, coordinator of the CIMMYT-ICARDA led Global Rust Initiative. “Essentially we have to find a way to replace all of the world’s wheat.”

Stem rust is one of the most dreaded of all plant diseases. In the mid-1950s it wiped out up to 40% of the North American spring wheat crop. Thanks in large part to the wheat breeding work of Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Dr. Norman Borlaug and those who followed him, the disease has not been a significant threat for almost half a century. Breeders combined several sources of resistance to the fungus into new varieties of wheat. Unfortunately, over time, the rust pathogen evolved and mutated and in 1999 scientists found a strain in Uganda (Ug99) that could bypass much of that resistance. The spores of the Ug99 fungus can travel great distances on the wind. The pathogen has already spread from Uganda into Kenya and Ethiopia. An outbreak of yellow rust originated in the same region of eastern Africa and eventually spread across the Arabian Peninsula and into the major wheat-growing areas of India and Pakistan. Studies of wind patterns in the region have led scientists to conclude that the new pathogen will eventually threaten wheat crops on a global scale.

CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), together with partners such as the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) are leading a global effort to characterize the rust pathogen; to track its spread and to find new sources of resistance to the disease and breed them into new wheats. This is especially important to farmers in the developing world who have little access to fungicides that could help reduce the damage.

“The good news is that some samples at Njoro did resist the fungus,” says CIMMYT wheat scientist, Ravi Singh. “That has given us a good place to start.” In fact Njoro is also the site where potential resistant breeding lines are now undergoing test.

For more information, Rick Ward (r.w.ward@cgiar.org)

June, 2005

A new study reports on the extensive use and benefits of CIMMYT wheat.

The advantage is clear: the use of CIMMYT wheat creates enormous benefits for those who grow them. Even by conservative estimates, every US $1 invested in wheat research by CIMMYT generates at least US $50 for those involved in growing CIMMYT-related wheats. According to the publication, Impacts of International Wheat Breeding Research in the Developing World, 1988-2002, farmers sowed CIMMYT-improved varieties on 62 million hectares in 2002.

“This report reaffirms the major contributions of CIMMYT wheat around the world, including areas of smallholder, resource-poor farmers,” says John Dixon, director of CIMMYT’s Impacts Targeting and Assessment Program. Farmers in developing countries yield 14 million more tons of wheat per year because of international wheat breeding research. In addition, 80% of wheat grown in developing countries has CIMMYT wheat in its family tree.

Because this report documents the successful adoption of modern wheat lines, policy-makers will be able to assess progress and set priorities for future research investment. Its conclusions support those found in two earlier studies, and the coverage extends to include many countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, more than 75% of wheat marketed by private companies has CIMMYT ancestry. Widespread adoption of CIMMYT lines reflects the extensive use of partnerships and networks with other breeding programs to reach farmers with relevant varieties. This adoption and the subsequent higher on-farm yields generate enormous benefits for farmers, enhancing their food security and livelihoods (see box)—a central part of CIMMYT’s mission.

Check out our website to order this publication and click here to view a research summary of this report. (PDF)

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 11, November 2005

Kazakhstan and Siberia connect with CIMMYT to improve their wheat.

Grigoriy Sereda, Head of the Breeding Department at the Central Kazakhstan Agricultural Research Center, is nothing if not direct. “The future of our breeding program relies on KASIB. Without it, germplasm exchange would be nonexistent. And without germplasm exchange, crop breeding cannot move forward.”

KASIB, the Kazakhstan-Siberia Network for Spring Wheat Improvement, was established in 2000 as the brainchild of CIMMYT regional representative Alexei Morgounov. In the former Soviet Union, there was considerable seed exchange among the republics and interactions among breeders and crop research institutes. But after the break-up of the U.S.S.R., many scientists found themselves isolated professionally and with little access to breeding lines from outside sources. Through KASIB, CIMMYT, with modest funding from GTZ, a German development agency, and the International Cooperation for Agricultural Research in Central Asia and the Caucasus, endeavored to rectify the situation

The principles of the network are simple: participants share breeding lines and data and abide by a Wheat Workers Code of Ethics (a declaration by the U.S. National Wheat Improvement Committee). Aside from active exchange and evaluation of experimental lines, the network publishes trial results and proceedings from an annual meeting where scientists from participating institutions present and discuss their work.

Each of the 17 participating institutions submits 2-4 recent varieties or breeding lines to CIMMYT’s Kazakhstan office, where seed for the trials and the field books are prepared and distributed to cooperators in April, prior to planting. The trials are grown at the diverse sites with three replications. Data from trials are submitted to CIMMYT, where they are summarized, published in Russian and English, and distributed to cooperators and others. The trials are a key source of lines and varieties carrying important traits such as drought tolerance, disease resistance (primarily to leaf rust and septoria leaf blotch), and improved grain quality.

Illustrating the point, in 2000 northern Kazakhstan and Siberia suffered a leaf rust outbreak, Morgounov recounts. None of the 80 modern varieties and lines being tested showed resistance to the pathogen. This clearly indicated a pressing need for the breeders to address, and one for which CIMMYT was well equipped to assist.

Another facet of KASIB is an innovative shuttle breeding program between the network and CIMMYT-Mexico. Following several years of trials, says CIMMYT wheat breeder Richard Trethowan, scientists in the network select elite local lines and varieties with promising agronomic or quality traits and send seed to Mexico to be crossed with CIMMYT materials that possess leaf rust resistance and other locally-desirable traits, such as a tall profile and photoperiod sensitivity. The lines are crossed with a Kazakh parent or to another Kazakh or Canadian line and returned to Kazakhstan and Siberia for additional breeding to ensure adaptation to local environments.

Once adapted, Trethowen continues, the line can then be sent back to Mexico for further crossing and improvement, hence the term shuttle. The system not only allows incorporation of traits not found in the region’s wheat, but accelerates breeding by allowing multiple cycles per year. The first full cycle of the shuttle was completed in 2004, with the first advanced lines reaching Mexico. Trethowen credits KASIB for enabling the approach to be applied in Central Asia and for benefits that accrue to CIMMYT wheat research through the added genetic diversity introduced from Kazakh and Siberian lines—diversity that may well serve farmers elsewhere in the developing world.

For Sereda, KASIB has breathed fresh life into his work: for example, he has received more than 200 entries to plant through the network and has selected about 60 for crosses. He is particularly enthused about the experimental wheats from CIMMYT’s wide-cross research—derived from crosses with wild relatives of wheat—received through the KASIB-CIMMYT shuttle. After 35 years of plant breeding, the wide-cross collection brings an entirely new tool on which to focus his vast experience. And he thanks KASIB meetings and publications for providing a forum to share his knowledge and more quickly move improved wheats to the farmers of Kazakhstan.

For further information, contact Alex Morgounov (a.morgounov@cgiar.org).

June, 2005

What role do farmers play in the evolution of maize diversity? How extensive are the farming networks and other social systems that influence gene flow? These and other questions are helping researchers to combine knowledge of the genetic behavior of plants with information on human behavior to understand the many factors that affect maize diversity.

Outside a straw and mud-walled house in rural Hidalgo, Mexico, with chickens walking around and the smell of the cooking fire wafting through the air, CIMMYT researcher Dagoberto Flores drew lines with a stick in the red earth as he explained to a farmer’s wife how maize seed should be planted for an experiment. Along with CIMMYT researcher Alejandro Ramírez, Flores was distributing improved seed in communities where they had conducted surveys for a study on gene flow.

The movement of genes between populations, or gene flow, happens when individuals from different populations cross with each other. CIMMYT social scientist Mauricio Bellon is leading a study that aims to find out the impact of farmers’ practices on gene flow and on the genetic structure of landraces. It will document how practices differ across farming systems, analyze their determinants, figure out how much farmers control gene flow, and explore gene flow’s impacts on maize fitness and diversity and on farmers’ livelihoods.

The farmers visited by Flores and Ramírez in early June near Huatzalingo and Tlaxcoapan, Hidalgo are from just 2 of 20 study communities spanning ecologies from Mexico’s highlands down to the lowlands. Six months earlier, when farmers in these communities responded to researchers’ survey question, they asked some questions of their own: What does CIMMYT do? How can we get seed?

The team made it a priority to give the farmers what they requested for free. They drove around in a pick-up truck with seed they had acquired from CIMMYT scientists. They brought black, white, and yellow varieties that were native to the area and had been improved with weevil and drought resistance, and they also brought three CIMMYT varieties that were well adapted to a similar environment in Morelos, Mexico. They explained to the farmers how each variety should be planted in separate squares to facilitate pure seed selection.

“It’s a way to thank them, to bring something back to the communities,” says Bellon. Bringing improved germplasm for experimentation to interested small-scale farmers also allows researchers to get feedback in a more systematic way. The farmers will produce the maize independently, and they can save or discard seed from whichever varieties they choose. The team also distributed seed to farmers in Veracruz, and they plan to return after flowering and at harvest time to see how the improved seed fares compared with native varieties. That component of the project could be the beginning of further research in collaboration with farmers.

Farmers in the survey area of rural Hidalgo grow maize on the poorest, most steeply sloping land and struggle with soil diseases, low soil fertility, leaf diseases, low grain prices, and limited information about the use of chemical herbicides. Strong wind, rain, and hurricanes damage crops. Landslides cause erosion. Some farmers have access to roads and can transport their harvest by vehicle, but some farms located far from the communities have no highway access. The paths to farmers’ fields can be so narrow that not even cargo animals can maneuver on them with loads, so farmers must carry the harvest on their backs. Some walk 10 kilometers up and down slopes with heavy bags on their backs.

Many people grew coffee around Huatzalingo until about 10 years ago when the price plummeted. A kilogram of coffee used to fetch a price of about 20 pesos, or US$ 2. Now it fetches about five pesos, or 50 cents, per kilo, and even less during harvest time when the crop is abundant. Coffee producers in the area receive average government subsidies of between 125 and 300 pesos, or between US$ 10-30. One effect of the price drop has been increased immigration to Mexico City, to the city of Reynosa near the US border, and to lowland areas where orange cultivation is booming.

Partly in response to the crisis, farmers have started diversifying into alternative crops such as vanilla, citrus fruits, bananas, sugar cane, sesame, beans, chayote, chili peppers, and lentils, but the poor soils do not favor more lucrative crops. Maize is still the most important agricultural product in people’s diets in this area, and farmers grow it primarily for family consumption. They exchange seed with friends, neighbors, and producers in nearby communities, and they have conserved diverse native varieties.

In Mexico, maize has such great genetic diversity because farmers’ practices encourage the further evolution of maize landraces. Maize was domesticated about 6,000 years ago within the current borders of Mexico. Farmers created a variety of races to fit different needs by mixing different maize types, and they still experiment like that to this day. They save seed between seasons and trade seed with each other, and the wind carries pollen between different cultivars to create new mixtures.

“They are not artifacts in a museum,” Bellon says about landraces. “They are changing, they are moving.” Seed selection has a great impact on gene flow. Poor farmers typically exchange seed with each other, but little has been documented about the social relations that drive seed systems. With growing concerns about a loss of crop genetic diversity and a need to conserve genetic resources in recent years, it is important to understand the social principles of seed flow (and ultimately gene flow) in Mexico. The study findings will assist in exploration of the potential impact of transgenes. The researchers will develop models to try to predict how a transgene would diffuse and behave after it has been in a population for 10 or 20 years.

By learning about the relationships between farmers’ practices and gene flow, researchers hope to promote more effective policies regarding the conservation of diversity in farmers’ fields, the distribution of improved germplasm, and transgene management. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the study combines social science with genetics to connect social and biological factors in maize varieties. Molecular markers will help show how much gene flow has occurred over time between the Mexican highlands and lowlands.

Researchers used geographic information systems to choose varied environments for the survey. Starting in October 2003, they sampled maize populations and interviewed the male and female heads of 20 households in each community for a total of 800 intensive interviews in 400 households. They asked about topics such as principal crops, planting cycles and methods, maize varieties, machinery and tools, infrastructure, language, seed selection, fertilizer, pest and weed control, plant height, harvest, transportation, production problems, maize uses, the sale and demand of different varieties, knowledge about maize reproduction, husk commercialization, and level of migration.

Preliminary findings have already surprised Bellon. A growing market for maize husks, which are used to wrap traditional foods such as tamales, is changing the economics of maize production. Owing to increasing demand from the US, husks have become more commercially important and profitable than grain in some communities. Facing abysmally low grain prices, the success of husk production has caused some producers to seek maize varieties with high quality husks, almost regardless of grain quality.

Bellon was also surprised at the lack of improved varieties in the areas they studied. Farmers tended to seek out and plant native varieties instead of hybrids. Some farmers thought hybrids were expensive, produced poor quality husks, and required good land, chemicals, and fertilizer, but they thought native varieties adapted easily to marginal local conditions.

The study grew out of a six-year project in Oaxaca that examined the relationship between farmers’ practices and the genetic structure of maize landraces and seed flow among farmers. It also explored the implications of transgenic technologies. However, while the Oaxaca project examined a few communities located in one environment, the idea with this follow-up study was to examine many locations in the same and different environments. In that way researchers can find out if gene flow is localized or if it crosses between regional environments. “It’s the same research model on a broader scale,” says Bellon.

For information: Mauricio Bellon