News – Page 186

CIMMYT–China Wheat Quality Conference Highlights 10 Years of Collaboration

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

June, 2004

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Which food crop is traded in larger quantities than any other in the world? The answer is wheat, and China produces more of it than any other country. With more than 150 participants from 20 countries in attendance, CIMMYT and China held their first joint wheat quality conference in Beijing from 29 to 31 May. The conference focused on progress in China’s wheat quality research, educated participants about quality needs of the milling industry and consumers, and promoted international collaboration.

In recent years, advanced science has been making wheat more nutritious, easy to process, and profitable. Scientists can improve quality characteristics such as grain hardness, protein content, gluten strength, color, and dough processing properties. Quality improvement, however, is not an objective, one-wheat-fits-all-purposes kind of business. Wheat end products vary by region and require grain with different characteristics. For example, 80% of wheat in China is used for noodles and dumplings, but the desired wheat quality for those products might not be appropriate for pasta in Italy or couscous in North Africa.

“You can see a wide variation of wheat use reflecting cultural influences over many centuries,” says CIMMYT Director General Masa Iwanaga, who gave a keynote presentation at the conference about the benefits of adding value to wheat to improve the livelihoods of poor people. Iwanaga says he is impressed by China’s wheat quality research and emphasis on biotechnology in recent years.

Participants from major wheat producing regions such as China, Central Asia, India, the European Union, Eastern Europe, the United States, and Australia presented updates on a variety of topics related to the global wheat industry and quality management. The participants included experts in genomics, breeding, crop management, cereal chemistry, and the milling industry, among others.

The US, Australia, Canada, and the EU see Asia as a good market for their wheat, says Javier Peña, head of industrial quality at CIMMYT. Asian foods such as noodles have been becoming more popular in the west, says Peña, while traditional western wheat-based foods have been gaining popularity in Asia. The milling industry has been growing to meet this increasing demand. “It was evident that globalization is influencing consumers’ preferences,” he says.

Conference participant and CIMMYT wheat breeder Morten Lillemo thinks the organizers did a good job assembling top lecturers to provide information. Chinese wheat breeders have been paying a lot of attention to improving quality, he says, and participants now understand the characteristics that traditional Chinese end products require.

“China is the largest wheat producer in the world, but the quality of their wheat is highly variable, even for traditional products like steamed bread and noodles,” says Lillemo. “For me it was most interesting to learn about the wheat quality work going on in China, which challenges they have, and how they are dealing with them.”

The 10-year-long CIMMYT–China collaboration has been fruitful. Chinese wheat has been used to develop new varieties with Fusarium and Karnal bunt disease resistance, high yield potential, and agronomic traits such as lodging resistance and rapid grain filling. In turn, CIMMYT has helped to improve the productivity, disease resistance, and processing quality of Chinese wheats. It has also developed human resources and helped build research infrastructure.

“The progress China has made in this period has been impressive in the areas of molecular biology, breeding, and food processing,” says Peña, who thought the conference covered a good balance of topics, ranging from genetics to consumer preferences. “The government is really supporting the research. They have new buildings and modern equipment for molecular biology and wheat quality testing.”

The Quality and Training Complex sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and CIMMYT is a new effort. It offers a testing system for various wheat-based foods, facilities for genetic studies and other research using molecular markers, and training for graduates, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists.

Along with improved wheat and better cropping practices that help farmers save money on costly inputs, such as water, Iwanaga believes that more marketable maize and wheat grain will be important for improving the profitability of maize and wheat production in developing countries. He would like to increase the benefits that farmers reap from their harvests by bettering a range of traits, including taste, texture, safety, and nutrition with added protein or vitamins. That way, farmers can earn more money from better quality wheat.

Conference presentations covered a wide range of topics: molecular studies of the evolution of the wheat genome; new tools to assess heat tolerance and grain quality in wheat genotypes; molecular genetic modification of wheat flour quality; the biochemical and molecular genetic study of glutenin proteins in bread wheat and related species; the molecular investigation of storage product accumulation in wheat endosperm; molecular and conventional methods for assessing the processing quality of Chinese wheat; challenges for breeding high-quality wheat with high yield potential; the impact of genetic resources on breeding for breadmaking quality in common wheat; wheat quality improvement by genetic manipulation and biosafety assessment of transgenic wheat lines; and quality characteristics of transgenic wheat lines.

The conference was organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences / National Wheat Improvement Center, the Chinese Academy of Science, CIMMYT, BRI Australia, Limagrain, and the Crop Science Society of China. It was sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Nature Science Foundation of China, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, and Japan International Cooperation Agency.

For information: Zonghu He

Deadly wheat disease hits primetime Australian TV

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

cimmyt-ug99 CIMMYT-led international efforts to identify and deploy sources of resistance to the virulent Ug99 strain of stem rust have received coverage on ABC1, the primary television channel of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Stem rust spores, carried large distances by the wind, are no respecters of borders. The battle against the disease is one which requires global collaboration—and is attracting global media interest. “Wheat is our most important crop and [stem rust] is arguably the most damaging of all the pathogens of wheat, it destroys crops,” explained Professor Robert Park of the University of Sydney’s Plant Breeding Institute in an episode of Catalyst, ABC’s flagship science series, aired on 04 August 2011.

Ug99 is able to overcome the resistance of popular wheat varieties, making this new stem rust a major threat to world food security. In East Africa, where Ug99 first emerged, it has devastated smallholder wheat crops. ABC’s reporter Paul Willis visited the Njoro research station in Kenya, where the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) hosts a large-scale program now screening around 30,000 wheat lines from all over the world each year—including those brought from Australia by Park.

“What we’ve got here is materials that we receive from several developing countries. As you can see there’s Australia, there’s China, Nepal, Bangladesh. So everyone wants to test their material and see if it is actually resistant to Ug99,” said CIMMYT molecular breeder Sridhar Bhavani, pointing out plots of wheat in the field at Njoro.

Working together, scientists have made substantial process in understanding Ug99 resistance and developing new wheats. “So far we’ve characterised close to about fifty genes for stem rust resistance,” said Bhavani. Producing suitable varieties and getting them to farmers is an ongoing challenge, but Willis strikes an optimistic note: “This looks like the hope for the future. It’s a strain of wheat called “King Bird” that was developed by CIMMYT and is now deployed all around the world. And it looks like it’s got very high levels of resistance against Ug99.”

The complete video clip, with transcript, is available at: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3285577.htm

Body building for southern Africa’s lean soils: SOFECSA shows the way

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in News.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 5, May 2006

may02 Paul Mapfumo throws his fist into the air and intones, “”Pamberi ne kurima! Pasi neNzara!” Shona for “Forward with agriculture! Down with hunger!” This is the greeting every speaker uses before addressing the gathering of farmers attending a field day in Rusape settlement, eastern Zimbabwe. The 40-odd farmers, young and old, men and women, are united in their desire to learn of ways to rebuild the fertility of their farms’ soils, for better maize harvests. And Mapfumo, the newly appointed coordinator, and members of the Soil Fertility Consortium for Southern Africa (SOFECSA) such as CIMMYT, are determined to help them do just that.

The soils at Rusape are derived from the granite ranges that frame the settlement and are shallow, sandy, and acidic. Their poor water retention capacity makes them prone to waterlogging and leaching during good rains, or drying out completely during the hot season. Maize yields have been falling ever since smallholder farmers were resettled there soon after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1982.

Another recent blow to maize farming at Rusape is the promotion of tobacco farming by the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, through loans for seed and input purchase. Many farmers, frustrated by poor maize yields and the spiraling cost of inputs, have converted their maize farms to tobacco. But even with the money from their tobacco crop, they are finding they still do not have enough to eat. “From whom do you buy maize when everyone is growing tobacco?” asks Vincent Musindikhwa, an extension agent with the Agricultural Research and Extension (AREX) division. “We’ve had a maize shortage for 4-5 years now, and the granaries are empty.”

CIMMYT regional economist Mulugetta Mekuria (left) and SOFECSA coordinator Paul Mapfumo check the status of the soil on a smallholder farm in Zimbabwe.

Soil infertility is a serious and widespread bottleneck to agricultural development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Resource-poor farmers are especially vulnerable, because their plots are traditionally the least fertile, and they lack the money or credit to purchase inorganic fertilizers. Therefore, they stand to benefit the most from the various soil-fertility-improving techniques in SOFECA’s Soil Fertility Management Technologies (SFMT) ‘basket’, particularly those that do not involve a cash outlay, according to CIMMYT economist Mulugetta Mekuria, who assists Mapfumo with SOFECSA management.

The “best bet” soil fertility approaches being promoted—so called because they minimize the risk to farmers—were arrived at by SOFECSA’s predecessor project, SoilFertNet. They include manures (leaf litter, farm, and woodland), inorganic fertilizers, lime, and rotation and intercropping with various legumes and green manure crops (soya bean, sugar bean, sun hemp, mucuna, pigeonpea, groundnut, and cowpea).

Legumes, for example, can fix nitrogen from the air and make it available in the soil. Typical farms in the region have between 3 and 15% of land devoted to legumes. The consortium has determined that increasing the intensity of legume cropping in maize-based systems through systematic rotations and intercrops can provide double the level of nitrogen that is typically provided by the limited use of inorganic fertilizers.

SOFECSA is regional partnership with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and significant in-kind contributions from participants. Its broad membership spans international, national, and regional public and private organizations, including the agriculture ministries of the SADC countries. SOFESCA also works directly with farmers in four southern Africa countries: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. Improved maize production is the primary target of consortium’s work, but once soils are fertile, all other crops—and farmers’ lots overall—will benefit. “Our work is a fulcrum for broader NRM problems, and an entry point to solve a spectrum of livelihood issues in the four countries,” says Mapfumo.

Farmers and researchers at the SOFECSA field days engage on topics ranging from crops, soil fertility improvement options, pests, seed, and even markets and pricing. Already, farmers are finding that manuring pays long-lasting dividends. “Manure is a key resource; its effects last up to 3 years,” says Florence Mtambanengwe, a soil scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, one of the SOFECSA partners. The researchers are also finding that liming is a priority for farmers in these acidic soils, and Mapfumo now wants to start discussions involving farmers, researchers, extension workers, and agro-dealers to design a sustainable way to deliver this option to farmers.

By stimulating farmer experimentation and open discussion, SOFECSA is encouraging what Mapfumo terms ”a sense of ownership in the farmers,” and its field sites are taking improved farming practices forward throughout southern Africa, no matter what local language is spoken.

For more information contact Mulugetta Mekuria (m.mekuria@cgiar.org).

Ravi Singh receives prestigious prize

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in News.

The University of Minnesota recently announced CIMMYT distinguished scientist Ravi Singh as the recipient of its 2010 E.C. Stakman Award. Established in 1955 by plant pathologist E.C. Stakman, a pioneer in combating wheat diseases, the award is given to individuals for outstanding achievements in plant pathology. Stakman was also a former professor of Norman Borlaug.

“I feel extremely honored and humbled to receive this highly prestigious award,” Singh said. “Dr. Stakman was a mentor to Dr. Borlaug and is largely responsible for sending him to Mexico in 1944. You wonder whether Dr. Stakman knew or even guessed that this decision was going to change history and save millions of lives.”

Singh, who has been with CIMMYT for over 25 years, is world-renowned for his efforts to control wheat rusts and has trained over 400 young scientists. With this award he joins a long list of notable scientists, including I. A. Watson, who was dean of Sydney University’s College of Agriculture and a former pupil of Stakman himself, and 2007’s recipient, the late Bent Skovmand, former head of wheat genetic resources at CIMMYT, director of the Nordic Gene Bank, and key player in the development of Svalbard International Seed Bank.

Congratulations, Ravi!

Fostering global food security for wheat: No country is an island

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 10, October 2008

oct03 As the price of wheat goes up, countries such as the Republic of Mauritius are feeling the pinch. A former British colony off the coast of Madagascar, it imports most of its wheat from France and Australia. But with help from CIMMYT, the island has started trials to grow its own wheat—and results to date look promising.

The CIMMYT germplasm bank freely distributes maize and wheat seed to hundreds of partners worldwide each year. In January 2008, Tom Payne, Head of CIMMYT’s wheat germplasm bank (seed bank), received a request for wheat seed from Mala Gungadurdoss, Head of the Mauritanian Agronomy Department at the Ministry of Agro-industry. “The rising price of imported wheat coupled with a scarcity on the international market (made us) revisit our food and agricultural policy,” explains Gungadurdoss, who is also Principle Research Scientist of the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit. “Our food security is at stake, since Mauritius imports most of its staples.”

Payne sent a “yield trial” of 49 elite spring wheat lines that he thought might flourish in the climactic conditions and disease spectrum of the island. “In a way, it’s kind of an exploratory experiment,” he says. “I don’t really know their environment and they don’t really know wheat, so I sent them something to see if it fit their conditions.”

Payne’s selection was apparently successful. “I am really satisfied with the yields of above 5 tons per hectare for 13 of the lines,” says Gungadurdoss. “I consider these yields to be very good when I compare them to yields of 1.5-3 tons per hectare obtained in the trials of 1985-1993,” referring to the last period during which the country grew wheat trials. Gungadurdoss admits that recent conditions were conducive to achieving good yields; but the highest yields for this year’s trial ranging from 5.8 to 6.4 tons per hectare are not only vastly superior to the results of previous trials; they are more than twice wheat’s global average of 2.5 tons per hectare.

Wheat’s roots in Mauritius

The Dutch introduced wheat to Mauritius in 1598 and it was grown on a commercial scale in the 1820s. But only about 1,700 hectares were under cultivation by the end of the 1930s, when the island began focusing on growing the more profitable sugarcane and importing wheat, which was far less expensive to buy, according to Gungadurdoss. “Up until three years ago, wheat was very cheap,” says Payne. “It was overproduced in Europe, North America, and Australia. This is one of the reasons the price of wheat and other grains stayed low for long time.”

Most people who live on Mauritius are of Indian origin and eat food staples such as chappatis, pharatas, puris, and bread made from wheat and wheat flour, says Gungadurdoss. In 2007 the island imported around 140,000 tons of unmilled wheat and 9,000 tons of flour. Over the last 5 years the country imported an average of 137,000 tons of unmilled wheat and 9,500 tons of wheat flour costing USD 28 million. The per capita consumption of wheat flour averaged 74 kilograms per year, and this is expected to increase in the future, according to Gungadurdoss.

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Thanks to the wheat breeding lines sent by CIMMYT, agronomists on Mauritius can screen promising wheat lines for high grain yield, early maturity, resistance to major pests and diseases, and good baking characteristics; assess wheat’s economic feasibility under local conditions; identify the main constraints to production and devise corrective measures; and conserve their own elite germplasm (seeds and genetic material).

“Based on whatever results the agronomists from Mauritius send us, we can send them more lines from CIMMYT’s wheat germplasm bank and international nurseries,” says Payne. “These lines will have much broader genetic variation and will be even better suited for the island.”

Homegrown wheat could be within reach

For now, growing wheat in Mauritius is still in the early stages; sowing, weeding, harvesting, threshing and winnowing were done manually at Réduit Crop Research Station. One of the next steps will be to research the economic viability of growing and processing wheat using mechanization which will be tested on a much larger scale, possibly with interested farmers in 2009, according to Gungadurdoss.

“Once the economic feasibility is determined, we can decide on our future move: maybe large-scale production in line with cross border initiatives with Madagascar or Mozambique to substitute part of our imports can be considered.”

“I think Mauritius gets enough rainfall for wheat, and it’s on roughly the same latitude as countries or regions that get good yields, such as Uruguay, Zimbabwe, and northern Mexico, so high wheat yields should definitely be possible,” says Hans-Joachim Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.

For more information: Tom Payne, Head, Wheat Germplasm Bank (t.payne@cgiar.org)

More stories on agriculture in Mauritius (both in French)

Mala Gungadurdoss (Areu) : «Du riz et du blé Made in Mauritius, c’est possible»

Le blé made in Mauritius bientôt à portée de bouche

Quality and quantity: China-CIMMYT wheats take prize

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 12, December 2007

dec03 Three high-quality wheat varieties developed by researchers from the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Science and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), drawing on CIMMYT wheat lines and technical support, were sown on more than 8 million hectares during 2002-2006, according to a recent CAAS economic study. They contributed an additional 2.4 million tons of grain—worth USD 513 million, with quality premiums.

“Improving processing quality has become an extremely important objective for sustainable development of the wheat industry in China,” says Zhonghu He, CIMMYT wheat expert in the country and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS). He was part of a joint research team from CAAS and Shandong Academy of Agricultural Science (Shandong AAS) that combined Chinese and CIMMYT wheat lines to develop three outstanding varieties for making pan breads and noodles—mainstays on Chinese dinner tables.

The three varieties were sown cumulatively on more than 8.0 million hectares in China during 2002-2006, adding an additional 2.4 million tons of grain to Chinese wheat production and some USD 411 million to wheat farmers’ incomes, according to analyses by the Agricultural Economy and Development Institute of CAAS. “Farmers benefited by an additional USD 101 million in quality-based premiums,” says He, “and USD 8 million more was generated through marketing seeds of these varieties. Finally, the improved quality of these wheats has greatly benefited the milling and food industries.”

Award-winning wheat and work

The research team has received two Scientific Progress Awards from China’s State Council, as well as awards from the Shandong Provincial Government (2003) and Beijing Municipal Government (2006). In December 2007, in a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, the team was given the 2007 Award for Outstanding Agricultural Technology in the Asia-Pacific Region of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). “This is the only research team in the Chinese agricultural community that has produced such impact and received such high honors from the provincial and central governments in recent years,” says He.

The wheat quality research team also established methodologies to test for Chinese noodle quality and for applying molecular markers. “A total of 72 scientific papers have been published in refereed journals on this work, including 19 in leading international journals,” says He. “Besides being used throughout China, the molecular marker and noodle evaluation procedures are widely used in Australia and at CIMMYT.”

Decades of strong partnership

Chinese and CIMMYT wheat researchers have carried on joint research since the early 1970s, helping both parties to develop varieties with enhanced disease resistance and higher yields, among other traits. CIMMYT has contributed particularly to the quality of Chinese wheats. Two of the varieties emerging from the work described above were improved for grain quality through cross-breeding with the CIMMYT wheat genotype Saric F74. The breeder who developed them, Liu Jianjun, attended CIMMYT training courses and did his MSc thesis on noodle quality under the supervision of He and of Roberto J. Peña, head of industrial quality at CIMMYT. CIMMYT and China have jointly organized more than a dozen training courses, workshops, and conferences involving at least 1,000 Chinese researchers.

New CAAS-CIMMYT effort to confront climate change and killer strain of wheat disease

On 04 December 2007, CAAS and CIMMYT launched a three-year joint breeding initiative worth USD 1 million per year to develop new wheat varieties that tolerate heat and drought—helping farmers face climate change—and that resist major diseases of the crop.
“Of particular concern is the new, virulent strain of stem rust, Ug99, which appeared in eastern Africa eight years ago but has since moved on prevailing winds to the Middle East and could soon threaten the vast wheat lands of Asia,” says He. “One of the varieties, Jimai 20, developed by the CAAS-Shandong team, was the only wheat cultivar from China to show high resistance to Ug99 in field screening in Kenya.”

For more information: Zhonghu He, wheat breeder (zhhe@public3.bta.net.cn)

Borlaug: The commitment continues

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 4, April 2007

Having just celebrated his 93rd birthday, the man who was at the heart of the creation of CIMMYT, Dr Norman Borlaug, visits the Yaqui Valley to meet his old friends: the farmers with whom he worked 60 years ago, the first beneficiaries of what we call the Green Revolution in agriculture.

Until you visit Ciudad Obregón, Sonora State, in northwestern Mexico, it is hard to understand the depth of feeling the citizens of that region have for Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Norman Borlaug. Though an American, he lived in the Yaqui Valley of Sonora State, where Ciudad Obregón is located, for many years starting in 1947. He and a small research team worked with the government of Mexico and the Rockefeller Foundation to improve the nation’s agricultural capacity. Borlaug’s responsibility was wheat. The Yaqui Valley farmers were poor and wheat a marginal crop, succumbing regularly to rust diseases; Mexico had to import 60% of its wheat. Under Borlaug’s leadership, researchers overcame the rust problem and pioneered the development of short-statured wheat. Nearly half the new plants’ weight was grain, and the stems were short and strong enough to stay erect until harvest. By the 1960s farmers in the valley had improved food security and incomes.

In recent years, Borlaug’s visits to the Yaqui Valley have been much less frequent, but the bond between Borlaug and Valley inhabitants has not diminished. In Ciudad Obregón a major street is named Avenida Norman Borlaug. He is depicted in a historical mural in City Hall as a pioneering father. Area hotels have meeting rooms named after him. When he stepped off the plane from Texas, where he had undergone medical treatment, airport staff, fire fighters, and ground crews formed a line from the steps of the aircraft toward the terminal building. “It wasn’t quite a red carpet, but it was red carpet treatment,” said Chris Dowswell, Borlaug’s Special Assistant.

Clearly the people of the Yaqui Vally have never forgotten. For decades the farmer organization of Sonora State (known locally as the Patronato) has provided rent-free land for experimentation to CIMMYT and INIFAP, the national agricultural research program of Mexico. The institutes have side-by-side facilities close to their experimental fields.

A meeting of green-seekers

apr02 Borlaug, still a consultant with CIMMYT, is also the President of the Sasakawa Africa Association, which is devoted to improving the lives of the rural poor in sub-Saharan Africa. One of his reasons for visiting Obregón this time was to see and learn about a technology developed by Oklahoma State University (OSU) and CIMMYT. The approach allows farmers easily and cheaply to determine the optimum application of fertilizer for a developing wheat or maize crop. Fertilizer resources are scarce in much of Africa, so timely application of the correct amounts can save farmers money and help produce a better crop.

The technology, known as GreenSeeker, uses a special sensor to measure infrared and near-infrared light reflected from the leaves of growing plants. A hand-held computer, programmed with the data about the crop and location can calculate the nitrogen status of the plant. Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, who leads CIMMYT’s research in nitrogen efficiency, says many Yaqui Valley farmers can recover the cost of the sensor in a single season through savings in fertilizer use, but acknowledges the economics on smallholder farms in Africa are quite different. OSU researchers are now taking on the challenge of producing a less expensive model that will work for the rural poor in Africa.

Research: The icing on agriculture’s cake?

In a speech to the farmers, extension workers, and researchers, Borlaug explained the plight of the resource poor in Africa and how a technology like the GreenSeeker might make a difference. In one farmer’s field he was given a demonstration and explanation of the device and how to use it. One of the messages that came through loud and clear was this: without research in agriculture, there would be no progress.

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That was what the farmers of the valley learned from Borlaug and his team more than half a century ago, and they heard it again when he came back. Today the farmers have passed down their pride in the original work done at Obregón, first to their children and now, their grandchildren. At a luncheon at the CIMMYT research station, students from Colegio Teresiano de la Vera Cruz in Ciudad Obregón presented Borlaug with a birthday cake. They had just completed a project for the school’s cultural week that focused on Borlaug and his work in the Yaqui Valley. From Borlaug to the people of the Yaqui Valley, and from the people themselves, it is clear that the commitment made 60 years ago continues.

For more information: Christopher Dowswell (c.dowswell@cgiar.org).

Turning on radios, tuning in to resource-conserving farm practices

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 8, August 2006

aug05 A radio program in Nepal brings information to farmers in a language they understand.

It’s Monday, 6:30 pm on Radio Birgunj, the voice of the plains in Southeastern Nepal. Fans for kilometers in all directions huddle by their radios to listen—not to a soap opera or pop music, but to a show about bed planting, horticulture, and zero-tillage. The weekly radio show on farming, targeted specifically to rural inhabitants, is one component of a project funded by CABI to introduce and promote resource-conserving technologies to the region’s rice and wheat farmers.

Radio is often the best way to reach rural families in developing countries, and farm shows broadcast from small community stations are not unusual. But Radio Birgunj broadcasts to a population of five million Nepalese, nearly all from farm families, and the station’s only “competition” is the region’s government radio network.

Ganesh Sah, head of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) Agricultural Implement Research Center in Birgunj and long-time CIMMYT partner, is responsible for 70 programs since the show’s launch in January, 2005. “It’s been difficult coming up with a different topic each week, but we’ve managed with just a couple repeats,” he says. The program uses a question-and-answer format, with the station’s Anita Kumwar usually putting questions to an expert guest on behalf of farmers. The show uses the region’s indigenous language and music, attracting listeners and ensuring that messages are clearly understood.

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“The program has been very effective,” says Paras Thakur, a farmer in the nearby village of Tripeni. He leads a community group that is experimenting with zero-tillage, a practice whereby crops are seeded directly into field residues without plowing. “I especially liked the show about vegetables.” Eight out of ten farmers in the group have radios and listen to the broadcasts. In areas where radios are not so common, many people gather around a single radio for the show.

The program’s popularity has led the government of Nepal launch another radio farm show in the region. Is Sah worried about the competition? “Of course not: the more messages, the better,” he says. “Besides, the government program is in Nepalese, which is not the first language of Birgunj farm families.” The last show funded by the CABI project has been aired. But the project team has saved a small amount of money, so Sah hopes he and researchers from his center can hit the airwaves again soon with information to improve the livelihoods of thousands of farmers they could never meet in person.

Zero-tillage for growing wheat after rice saves water, diesel, and other inputs, and allows earlier sowing of wheat, which raises yields. The practice has been adopted by farmers on more than 2 million hectares in South Asia over the past six years. This is largely a result of work to test and promote zero-tillage and other resource-conserving practices by the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains, which includes the national agricultural research systems of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan; several centers of the CGIAR with leadership from CIMMYT; and various advanced research institutes.

For more information contact Raj Gupta (r.gupta@cgiar.org)

Bidding to Balance Color with Quality

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 8, August 2005

auction1 Experimental auctions in Kenya gauge farmer interest in vitamin A-enriched maize.

Kenyan farmers bid for color or quality in experimental auctions to determine how well maize with enriched vitamin A will catch on. Traditionally, East Africans prefer white maize, but vitamin A maize, being developed by CIMMYT and HarvestPlus, the CGIAR Biofortification Challenge Program, will be yellow because of the increased beta-carotene content. Will the nutritional value of the yellow maize overcome East Africans’ color bias?

CIMMYT researchers tried to answer this question in a series of novel experimental auctions held in Vihiga and Siaya, western Kenya. By giving consumers real money to bid for real maize meal, they hoped to properly estimate a customer’s willingness to pay for vitamin A-enriched maize. The highest bidders won the auction and exchanged their bag of maize for their choice of white, yellow, or white vitamin-enriched maize, after paying the money. By creating an active market, researchers found a way to determine how much demand there would be for maize with perhaps an unpopular color but superior quality.

The HarvestPlus Challenge Program, an international consortium of collaborative partners that includes CIMMYT, aims to produce new crop varieties to reduce micronutrient malnutrition, also known as “hidden hunger.” They are working to develop maize that will have higher levels of vitamin A available to those who eat it. Vitamin A deficiencies plague over 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. According to HarvestPlus, this deficiency damages the eye and severely weakens the immune system.

auction2 Determining how consumers will balance their desire for nutritionally superior maize while sacrificing the color to which they are accustomed sheds light on whether or not biofortified maize will be readily adopted. “Despite a need for this knowledge, very few consumer studies of the rural poor in sub-Saharan Africa have been done,” says Hugo De Groote, CIMMYT economist.

“The results from the maize auctions agree with our previous consumer surveys of city dwellers,” says fellow scientist Simon Kimenju, “The auction was very realistic—these prices are similar to those found in Kenyan markets and grocery stores.” Although the auction was found to be the most realistic compared to other methods, it was also more expensive and took more preparation and training time.

In addition to discovering an accurate way to gauge consumer preferences, researchers found another upside of the auctions: “The one-on-one interactive nature of the auctions, using real products, and real money makes it great fun for the participants!” exclaims De Groote.

A full paper on this topic was presented at the African Econometric Society Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, 6–8 July 2005. It is available in PDF form here (270 kb).

For further information, contact Simon Kimenju (s.kimenju@cgiar.org) or Hugo De Groote (h.degroote@cgiar.org).

Wheat warriors: The struggle to break the yield barrier

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 6, October 2009

nov01 In 2009, out of a global population of 6.8 billion people, more than 1 billion regularly woke up and went to bed hungry. By 2050 the population is expected to grow to 9.1 billion people, most of whom will be in developing countries. Unless we can increase global food production by 70%, the number of chronically hungry will continue to swell. To help ensure global food security, a new research consortium aims to boost yields of wheat—a major staple food crop.

There is no easy fix for world hunger. Any improvement will require complex collaborative efforts and funding to support them. With this in mind, wheat scientists and agricultural experts from diverse private and public institutions are joining to form a Wheat Yield Potential Consortium (WYC). This group will strive to improve wheat yields, which must increase 1.6% annually to meet a projected demand of 760 million tons by 2020.
The unofficial launch of the WYC happened in November 2009, when over 60 world-renowned experts gathered for a USAID-sponsored symposium at CIMMYT’s Mexico headquarters to integrate various research components into a common breeding platform for improving wheat yields.

“Over the past year we’ve been pulling together experts in photosynthesis who have ideas on how to raise the overall biomass of the crop, as well as other experts in crop adaptation to make sure that increased biomass will also translate into better yields,” says Matthew Reynolds wheat physiologist and initiator of the WYC.

In recent decades, wheat yields have increased nearly 1% each year, but global population is growing roughly 1.5% annually. Climate change, unsustainable cropping practices, and changes in diet preferences further challenge wheat’s ability to meet the demands of a global population that relies on the crop for more than one-fifth of its caloric intake.

Meeting of the minds

“The international wheat community recognizes that each of us has different skills and that, though individually we cannot solve the problem of insufficient wheat yields, collectively we can,” said Richard Richards chief research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Plant Industry, who has been commissioned to review a WYC project proposal under development.

The Consortium will pursue advanced approaches to increase wheat yields, including increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis, improving the plant’s adaption to target environments, and using physiological and molecular breeding. To date, selective, conventional breeding has been the main force behind yield improvement. Scientists breed a large number of high-yielding wheat plants, select early generations with good agronomic traits, populate trial fields with the offspring, and move the best forward in the breeding program. The cycle is then repeated. This system has been successful, but precedent suggests it will not be fast enough to overcome the combined challenges of population growth and climate change. “Instead of going straight to the end product —yield—we must look at every yield-determining physiological process and improve the efficiency of the limiting ones,” Richards said.

Powering up photosynthesis

Under favorable conditions, yield is a function of the interception, conversion, and distribution of solar energy. To increase yield, one or more of these components must be improved. Thanks to years of wheat improvement, the efficiency of solar energy intercepted is nearly 90% and energy distribution results in an almost optimal proportion of total biomass to grain, roughly 50%. “This leaves the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy—mainly controlled by photosynthesis—as the main yield component left to improve,” said Xinguang Zhu, group leader of Plant Systems Biology at the CAS-MPG Partner Institute of Computational Biology.

One way to do this is to increase carbon-fixing efficiency during photosynthesis. Plants that thrive at moderate temperatures, like wheat, tend to use C3 carbon fixation, a slow system that accepts both carbon dioxide and oxygen. The fixation of oxygen, called photorespiration, reduces the efficiency of photosynthesis. Plants that inhabit warmer locations, like maize, tend to use C4 carbon fixation, which increases chloroplastic CO2 concentration, reduces photorespiration, and improves energy-use efficiency.

The fact that the C4 system has evolved many times in nature has inspired scientists to look for ways to introduce parts of it into wheat, so that the plant can thrive at relatively high temperatures. This will be essential as temperatures in tropic and subtropic regions continue to climb. Studies show that for every 1°C of warming, wheat yields in these areas will fall 10%. Given that 95% of the world’s malnourished people live in these regions—which also have the highest rates of population growth—high-yielding wheat that can beat the heat could make a world of a difference.
For more information: Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist (m.reynolds@cgiar.org).

CIMMYT-KARI Project Takes Historic Step in Kenyan Agriculture President Mwai Kibaki Opens First Biosafety Greenhouse in East Africa

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

August, 2004

biosafe2 The official opening on 23 June 2004 of a level-two biosafety greenhouse in Nairobi, Kenya was marked by happy fanfare, but more importantly, a serious commitment from the highest levels to use biotechnology to help solve Africa’s pressing agricultural problems.

The biosafety greenhouse, constructed as part of the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa. A biosafety greenhouse is very similar to a normal greenhouse except that it has special features to prevent the transfer of pollen, seed, and other plant material from transgenic plants to the outside environment.

The first order of business for the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute’s (KARI) new biosafety greenhouse will be the continued development of maize that resists stem borers and is environmentally friendly. This is the IRMA project’s primary objective. Stem borers typically inflict losses of about 15% annually to the Kenyan maize crop, and IRMA’s farmer surveys indicate that their control is a high priority for both small- and large-scale farmers.

biosafe The President of Kenya, his Excellency the Hon. Mwai Kibaki, officially launched the facility. He was joined by Masa Iwanaga, CIMMYT’s Director General; Romano Kiome, Director of KARI; Andrew Bennett, Executive Director of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, which provided funds for the new facility; Shivaji Pandey, Director of CIMMYT’s African Livelihoods Program (ALP); and the Hon. Kipruto Arap Kirwa, Minister of Agriculture.
“We must embrace and apply modern science and technology in farming,” President Kibaki said. “Indeed, there is evidence that countries that have embraced modern agricultural technologies have improved economic performance, reduced poverty, and ensured greater food security for their people.”
“In embracing biotechnology, I am fully aware of the ongoing debate on biotechnology and its products, particularly genetically modified organisms,” President Kibaki added. “We in Kenya have resolved to apply biotechnology in line with the existing biosafety frameworks, national statutes, and international obligations. The newly constructed Biosafety Greenhouse Complex symbolizes that effort and will provide the internationally required containment for genetically modified material at the experimental stage. This will facilitate high-tech research in support of current and future agricultural endeavors.”

Speaking to more than 500 dignitaries, scientists, and representatives of farmers’ and civic organizations, CIMMYT Director General Iwanaga clearly laid out the case for using high science to meet the needs of resource-poor farmers. “What we now need, as with the first Green Revolution, is technology that is well-suited to the economic and physical circumstances of the region’s farmers and the political will to support development of that technology and create conditions conducive to its adoption,” says Iwanaga. “With this greenhouse opening and the training of competent staff to manage it, Kenya and KARI have positioned themselves to be leaders in sub-Saharan Africa in using the tools of biotechnology to meet the rapidly growing need to increase food production.”

In addition to constructing the biosafety greenhouse, the IRMA project is a pioneer in several other respects. To date, the project has focused on using Bt genes produced by the public sector and on using “clean genes” by removing antibiotic and herbicide resistant marker genes from the final products. Considerable effort has gone into collecting and characterizing the organisms typically found in maize fields in order to assess possible environmental impacts from the Bt maize. They have conducted extensive farmer and field surveys, which enable scientists to develop strategies that smallholders can employ to prevent the Bt resistance buildup by stem borers.

“We’ve set high goals for ourselves in terms of environmental safety, public awareness, farmer and stakeholder participation, developing human capacities where needed, and in developing effective products for farmers,” says IRMA coordinator Stephen Mugo. “It’s not often you see an international agriculture project moving forward successfully on so many fronts at one time.”

biosafe3

For more information: Dr. Stephen Mugo

Resistant wheats and Ethiopian farmers battle deadly fungus

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

When a devastating stripe rust epidemic hit Ethiopia last year, newly-released wheat varieties derived from international partnerships proved resistant to the disease, and are now being multiplied for seed.

Wheat farmers and breeders are embroiled in a constant arms race against the rust diseases, as new rust races evolve to conquer previously resistant varieties. Ethiopia’s wheat crop became the latest casualty when a severe stripe rust epidemic struck in 2010. “The dominant wheat varieties were hit by this disease, and in some of the cases where fungicide application was not done there was extremely high yield loss,” says Firdissa Eticha, national wheat research program coordinator with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). “This is a threat for the future because there is climate change—which has already been experienced in Ethiopia—and the varieties which we have at hand were totally hit by this stripe rust.”

Ethiopia is not alone; stripe rust has become a serious problem across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, with epidemics in 2009 and 2010 which many countries have struggled to control. What’s new is the evolution of stripe rust races that are able to overcome Yr27, a major rust resistance gene that many important wheat varieties rely on. Although recent weather conditions have allowed the new rust races to thrive, they first began to emerge more than a decade ago, and CIMMYT’s wheat program, always looking forward to the next threat, began selection for resistance to Yr27-virulent races in 1998.

“CIMMYT has a number of wheat lines that have shown good-to-excellent resistance to stripe rust without relying on Yr27, in screening in Mexico, Ecuador, and Kenya,” says Ravi Singh, CIMMYT distinguished scientist and rust expert who leads the breeding effort in Mexico. Many of these are also resistant to the stem rust race Ug99 and have 10-15% higher yields than currently-grown varieties, according to Singh. The current step is to work with national programs to identify and promote the most useful of the resistant materials for their environments—a process that was underway in Ethiopia when the epidemic struck.

Eticha is leading his country’s fight against stripe rust. Reflecting on the disease, he says: “For me it is as important as stem rust. I find it like a wildfire when there is a susceptible variety. You see very beautiful fields actually, yellow like a canola field in flower. But for farmers it is a very sad sight. Stripe rust can cause up to 100% yield loss.” There is no official figure yet on the overall loss to Ethiopia’s wheat harvest for 2010, but it is expected to be more than 20%.

Stripe rust symptoms in the field in Ethiopia. | Photo: Firdissa Eticha

The other common name for stripe rust is yellow rust. Severely-infected plants look bright yellow, due to a photosynthesis-blocking coating of spores of the fungus Puccinia striiformis, which causes the disease. These spores are yellow to orange-yellow in color, and form pustules. These usually appear as narrow stripes along the leaves, and can cover the leaves in susceptible varieties, as well as affecting the leaf sheaths and the spikes. The disease lowers both yield and grain quality, causing stunted and weakened plants, fewer spikes, fewer grains per spike, and shriveled grains with reduced weight.

Epidemic flourishes with damp weather

Normally, Ethiopia has two distinct rainy seasons, one short and one main, allowing for two wheat cropping cycles per year. However, 2010 saw persistent gentle rains throughout the year, with prolonged dews and cool temperatures—perfect weather for stripe rust. Most wheat varieties planted in Ethiopia were susceptible, including the two most popular, Kubsa and Galema, so damage was severe. Under normal conditions, the disease only attacks high-altitude wheat in Ethiopia, but last year it was rampant even at low altitudes. This could reflect the appearance of a new race that is less temperature sensitive, or simply the unusual weather conditions; Ethiopian researchers are currently waiting for the results of a rust race analysis.

There was little Ethiopia could do to prevent the epidemic; imported fungicides controlled the disease where they were applied on time, but supplies were limited and expensive. Newly-released, resistant varieties provide a way out of danger. In particular, two CIMMYT lines released in Ethiopia in 2010 proved resistant to stripe rust in their target environments: Picaflor#1, which was released in Ethiopia as Kakaba, and Danphe#1, released as Danda’a. Picaflor#1 is targeted to environments where Kubsa is grown, and so has the potential to replace it, and Danphe#1 could similarly replace Galema. Both varieties are also high-yielding and resistant to Ug99.

CIMMYT scientists Hans-Joachim Braun (left) and Bekele Abeyo visit the fields of the Kulumsa Research Station where CIMMYT materials resistant to stripe rust are being multiplied for seed supply to Ethiopian farmers.

Seed multiplication of resistant CIMMYT varieties

As soon as the situation became clear, EIAR and the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (the state-owned organization responsible for multiplication and distribution of improved seed of all major crops in Ethiopia) worked together to speed the multiplication of seed of these varieties, using irrigation during the dry seasons. This is happening now, with almost 500 hectares under multiplication over the winter—421 of Picaflor#1 and 70 of Danphe#1. Financial support from this project came from the USAID Famine Fund. Two resistant lines from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) were released in Ethiopia in 2011, and will add to the diversity for resistance.

Eticha does not foresee any difficulty encouraging farmers to adopt the new varieties. In 2010 they were grown by 900 farmers on small on-farm demonstration plots, as part of EIAR’s routine annual program, so they have been seen—free of stripe rust—by thousands of farmers, and there will be more demonstration plots as more seed becomes available. However, “farmers are at risk still even if the varieties are there,” he says, “the problem is seed supply.” Some seed will reach farmers this year, but the priority will be ongoing multiplication to build up availability as fast as possible.

Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, visited Ethiopia in 2010. “The epidemic was a real wake-up call,” he says. “Researchers have known for more than ten years that the varieties grown are susceptible. Farmers are not aware of the danger, so it is the responsibility of researchers and seed producers, if we know a variety is susceptible, to replace it with something better.”

Exploring rust solutions in Syria

The ongoing fight against the wheat rust diseases is an international, collaborative effort involving many partners in national programs and international organizations. CIMMYT works closely with ICARDA, which leads efforts against the wheat rust diseases in Central and West Asia and North Africa. At the International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium, organized by ICARDA in Aleppo, Syria, during 18-20 April 2011, global experts developed strategies to prevent future rust outbreaks and to ensure the control and reduction of rust diseases in the long term.

Other participating organizations included CIMMYT, the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the UN, the International Development Research Center (IDRC, Canada), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). More than 100 scientists from 31 countries presented work and shared ideas on wheat rust surveillance and monitoring, development and promotion of rust-resistant wheat varieties, and crop diversity strategies to slow the progress of rust outbreaks.

CIMMYT was represented by Hans-Joachim Braun and Ravi Singh. “Wheat crops and stripe rust like exactly the same conditions,” says Braun, “and they both love nitrogen. This means that where a farmer has a high yield potential, stripe rust takes it away, if the wheat variety is susceptible. In addition to the really devastating epidemics, the disease is very important because even in bumper years, farmers who grow susceptible varieties still can’t get a good yield.”

One thing all the attendees agreed on was the immediacy of the rust threat. New variants of both stem rust (also known as black rust) and stripe rust (or yellow rust), able to overcome the resistance of popular wheat varieties, are thriving under the more variable conditions caused by climate change, increasing their chances of spreading rapidly. Breeders in turn are quickly developing the varieties farmers need, with durable resistance to stem and stripe rust, as well as improved yield performance, drought tolerance, and regional suitability.

Other major areas of focus are the development of systems for monitoring and surveillance of rust to enable rapid response to initial outbreaks, and overcoming bottlenecks in getting resistant seed quickly to farmers. There is much to be done, but Singh is confident: “If donors, including national programs and the private sector, are willing to invest in wheat research and seed production, we can achieve significant results in a short time.”

“Ethiopian scientists responded quickly to the epidemic”, says Braun, “but there were heavy losses in 2010. What we need is better communications between scientists, seed producers, and decision makers to ensure the quick replacement of varieties.”

Building on a strong partnership

The value of the collaboration between CIMMYT and Ethiopia is already immeasurable for both partners. CIMMYT materials are routinely screened for rust at Meraro station, an Ethiopian hotspot, in increasing numbers as rust diseases have returned to the spotlight in recent years. CIMMYT lines are also a crucial input for Ethiopia’s national program.

“The contribution of CIMMYT is immense for us,” says Eticha. “CIMMYT provides us with a wide range of germplasm that is almost finished technology—one can say ready materials, that can be evaluated and released as varieties that can be used by farming communities.” Ethiopia has favorable agro-environments for wheat production, and the bread wheat area is expanding because of its high yields compared to indigenous tetraploid wheats. “Wheat is the third most important cereal crop in Ethiopia,” explains Eticha, “and it is really very important in transforming Ethiopia’s economy.”

Bekele Abeyo, CIMMYT senior scientist and wheat breeder based in Ethiopia, works closely with the national program. CIMMYT helps in many ways, he explains, for example with training and capacity building, as well as donation of materials, including computers, vehicles, and even chemicals for research. “In addition, we assign scientists to work closely with the national program, and facilitate germplasm exchange, providing high-yielding, disease resistant, widely-adapted varieties.” Speaking of the stripe rust epidemic, he says, “last year, the Ethiopian government spent more than USD 3.2 million just to buy fungicides, so imagine, the use of resistant varieties can save a lot of money. Most farmers are not able to buy these expensive fungicides. During the epidemic, fungicides were selling for three to four times their normal price, so you can see the value of resistant varieties.”

“I think East Africa is colonized by rust. Unless national programs work hard to overcome and contain disease pressure, wheat production is under great threat,” says Abeyo. “It is very important that we continue to strengthen the national programs to overcome the rust problem in the region.” With Yr27-virulent stripe rust races now widespread throughout the world, Ethiopia’s story has echoes in many CIMMYT partner countries. The challenge is to work quickly together to identify and replace susceptible varieties with the new, productive, resistant materials.

For more information: Bekele Abeyo, senior scientist and wheat breeder (b.abeyo@cgiar.org)

Fighting drought in Kenya

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

East Africa is struggling with the worst drought in more than half a century. In Kenya, a lack of supply has pushed food prices to dangerously high levels.

In June 2010, a 90-kilogram bag of maize – the primary food for most Kenyans – cost $16. By July 2011 the same bag was $44 – a 160% increase.

Half of the people in the region live on less than $2 a day and spend about half their income on food. The rising price of staple foods has tragic consequences for the poor who must simply make do with less, or do without.

There is hope for East Africans, even in the midst of drought. CIMMYT (The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) has developed varieties of maize seed bred specifically for dry conditions.

Meet Philip Ngolania, an ex-schoolteacher and current maize farmer who planted the new seeds this February.

Other resources on drought tolerant maize:

Big Bang from World Wheat Breeding Bucks

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in News.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 5, May 2006

may01 Global, collaborative wheat research brings enormous gains for developing country farmers, particularly in more marginal environments, according to an article in the Centenary Review of the Journal of Agricultural Science.

Forty years of worldwide, publicly-funded collaborative research to improve the yield potential and stress tolerance of wheat, along with efforts to extend the outputs of this science in developing countries, has lowered food costs for the poor, allowed food supplies to meet the demands of rising populations, brought harvest surpluses worth US$ 3-6 billion each year to farmers, and saved 1.8 billion hectares of natural ecosystems from conversion to farmland, to name a few results.

These and other findings appear in a recent review article by CIMMYT wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds and 1970 Nobel Peace Laureate Norman E. Borlaug—one of a series of papers to celebrate 100 years of publishing by the Journal of Agricultural Science. The review traces how international wheat breeding over the last five decades has evolved into “…a global agricultural strategic and trouble-shooting network that plays a central role in providing food security in the developing world.” Led initially by CIMMYT and later with the partnership of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the network for wheat and related crops provides a forum “…whereby institutional linkages are fostered and maintained globally, not only through exchange of germplasm, but also through knowledge sharing, training programmes, international visits and development of extended partnerships…” According to the article, centers like CIMMYT and ICARDA have also played a key role in collecting and conserving the landraces and other genetic resources that improved varieties have replaced, making those resources available worldwide and, more recently, ensuring that useful diversity is rechanneled into improved cultivars.

“Given its importance and accomplishments, it’s somewhat surprising that global wheat breeding struggles to find investors,” says Reynolds. Also noted by Reynolds and Borlaug was the fact that most of the increased area of adoption of improved wheat varieties since 1977 has occurred in more marginal, rainfed areas, rather than favored irrigated farmlands, and that yield increases from these varieties during 1979-95 were greater in semi-arid and heat-stressed environments (2-3% per year) than in irrigated areas (just over 1% per year).

“Considering the issue of food security and its positive influence on the livelihoods of poor people, it’s clear that publicly-funded international centers provide a continuity in agricultural development that would otherwise be lacking for many countries where economic, political, and social instability are commonplace,” the authors say.

A companion Centenary Review by Reynolds and Borlaug discusses the future of collaborative wheat improvement, in which, according to Reynolds, researchers will apply technology-assisted methodologies and powerful information tools to identify and breed value-added traits into wheat varieties. “At the same time, however, we’ll continue to seek farmer input to increase the amount of useful genetic diversity in the field and the local adaptation of varieties, as well as in testing and promoting conservation agriculture practices.”

Regarding the future, the authors say: “Policy-makers need to balance the appeal of high-risk investments in the latest technologies with the realities of resource-poor farmers, for whom tried and tested technologies offer immediate and reliable solutions.”

To access abstracts or full-text versions of the articles:

Impacts of breeding on international collaborative wheat research

Applying innovations and new technologies for international collaborative wheat improvement

For more information contact Mathew Reynolds (m.reynolds@cgiar.org).