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Identify key constraints, opportunities for maize production at the farm level and potential maize areas in eastern India and Bangladesh

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Survey data clearly reflected the impact of abiotic stress in terms of poor adoption of improved technologies and resulting low yield of Kharif (rainy season) maize, during which the average yields were 2.5 t/ha and 3.0 t/ha for Udaipur and Samastipur, respectively. However, the Rabi (Irrigated) maize yield of in the same areas was found to be three fold of that of Kharif (10.0 t/ha). Farmers have market access but are constrained from investing in productivity-increasing inputs in rainfed maize production because of low yields during the wet season, highlighting the need for improved germplasm for rainfed production.

 

Project: Abiotic stress tolerant maize for increasing income and food security
among the poor in eastern India and Bangladesh

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: Bangladesh tries maize cropping for feed

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 2, February 2009

feb02Demand for maize has popped up across Asia, but much of the grain is enjoyed by poultry, not people. In Bangladesh, maize is a fairly new crop, yet demand in this country already mirrors that of neighboring nations like China and India. A recent CIMMYT report explores these emerging trends and the efforts to incorporate sustainable and economically viable maize cropping systems into a traditionally rice-based country.

“Simply put, people have more money,” says Olaf Erenstein, a CIMMYT agricultural economist. “Asia’s population growth has slowed and incomes have increased. This means dietary demands and expectations are changing as well.”

With extra money in their pockets, many people across Asia are starting to desire something with a bit more bite. In the past 40 years, increased prosperity and a related meat demand have sent two-thirds of global maize production toward animal feed instead of direct consumption. Currently, 62% of maize in Asia is used to feed livestock while only 22% goes straight to the dinner plate. This is not surprising, as total meat consumption in the seven major Asian maize-producing countries1 rose 280% between 1980 and 2000. Poultry, particularly, plays a large role. During the same time period, poultry production rose 7% each year in Asia, compared to a 5% global average.

The bare-bones reason for this shift is that it takes more grain to produce meat than would be used if people ate the product directly. Grain-to-meat conversion ratios for pork are on the order of 4:1. Chicken is more efficient, requiring only 2 kilograms of grain feed for a kilogram of growth. Either way, when people substitute meat for grain, grain production must increase to meet the demand.

From a farmer’s perspective, this is not a bad thing, and what is occurring now in Bangladesh illustrates how farmers can benefit, according to a recently published CIMMYT study. With a 15%-per-year increase in Bangladesh’s poultry sector since 1991, the feed demand has opened a new market for maize. And since the country’s current average per person poultry consumption is at less than 2 kg a year—compared to almost 4 kg in Pakistan, 14 kg in Thailand, and 33 kg in Malaysia—the maize and poultry industries have plenty of room to spread their wings.

What came first: The chicken or the seed?

The poultry industry in Bangladesh employs five million people, with millions of additional households relying on poultry production for income generation and nutrition. “Only in the past 10 to 15 years, as many people got a bit richer, especially in urban centers, did the market for poultry products, and therefore the profitability of maize, take off in Bangladesh,” says Stephen Waddington, who worked as regional agronomist in the center’s Bangladesh office during 2005-07 and is a co-author of the CIMMYT study.

“Many maize growers keep chickens, feed grain to them, and sell the poultry and eggs; more value is added than by just selling maize grain,” he says. “Most Bangladeshis have no history of using maize as human food, although roasting cobs, popcorn, and mixing maize flour with wheat in chapattis are all increasing.” Waddington adds that maize could grow in dinnertime popularity, as the price of wheat flour has increased and the price of maize grain remains almost 40% lower than that for wheat.

Worldwide, more maize is produced than any other cereal. In Asia, it is third, after rice and wheat. But due to the increasing demand for feed, maize production in Asia has almost quadrupled since 1960, primarily through improved yields, rather than area expansion. Future rapid population growth and maize demand will lead to maize being grown in place of other crops, the intensification of existing maize lands, the commercialization of maize-based production systems, and the expansion of maize cultivation into lands not currently farmed. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that Asia will account for 60% of global maize demand by 2020.

Maize in Bangladesh is mainly a high-input crop, grown with hybrid seed, large amounts of fertilizer, and irrigation. While a successful maize crop requires high inputs, it also provides several advantages. “Maize is more than two times as economical in terms of yield per unit of land as wheat or Boro rice,” says Yusuf Ali.”Maize also requires less water than Boro rice and has fewer pest and disease problems than Boro rice or wheat.” The maize area in Bangladesh is increasing around 20% per year.

Maize-rice cropping challenges

“The high potential productivity of maize in Bangladesh has yet to be fully realized,” says Yusuf Ali, a principal scientific officer with the On-Farm Research Division (OFRD) of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and first author of the CIMMYT study. Bangladesh has a subtropical climate and fertile alluvial soils, both ideal for maize. From only a few thousand hectares in the 1980s, by 2007-08 its maize area had expanded to at least 221,000 hectares, he said.

Maize in Bangladesh is cropped during the dry winter season, which lasts from November to April. The other two crops commonly grown during winter are high-yielding irrigated rice (known in Asia as “Boro,” differentiating it from the flooded paddy rice common throughout the region) and wheat. Adding another crop into the mix and thereby increasing cropping diversity is beneficial for farmers, offering them more options.

Rice, the traditional staple cereal crop in Bangladesh, is grown throughout the country year round, often with two to three crops per year on the same land. So as the new crop on the block, maize must be merged with existing cropping patterns, the most common of which is winter maize sown after the harvest of paddy rice. And since rice is the key to food security in Bangladesh, farmers prefer to grow longer-season T. aman rice that provides higher yields than earlier-maturing varieties. This delays the sowing of maize until the second or third week of December. Low temperatures at that time slow maize germination and growth, and can decrease yields more than 20%. In addition, the later-resulting harvest can be hindered by early monsoon rains, which increase ear rot and the threat of waterlogging.

Another problem with maize-rice cropping systems is that the two crops require distinct soil environments. Maize needs loamy soils of good tilth and aeration, whereas rice needs puddled wet clay soils with high water-holding capacity. Puddling for rice obliterates the soil structure, and heavy tillage is required to rebuild the soil for maize. This is often difficult due to a lack of proper equipment, time, or irrigation. Moreover, excessive tillage for maize can deplete soils of nutrients and organic matter. Thus, as maize moves into rice-based cropping systems, agronomists need to develop sustainable cropping patterns, tillage management options, and integrated plant nutrient systems.

Support and supplies vital for success

“For a new crop like hybrid maize to flourish, there needs to be a flow of information and technology to and among farmers,” Waddington says.

In collaboration with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), and various non-governmental organizations, CIMMYT provided hands-on training for maize production and distributed hybrid seed (which tends to be higher-yielding and more uniform, but must be purchased and planted each year to experience full benefits) to over 11,000 farm families across 35 districts in Bangladesh from 2000-06. A CIMMYT report showed that farmers who received the training were more likely to plant their maize at the best times and also irrigated more frequently and adopted optimal cropping patterns and fertilizer use, resulting in higher yields and better livelihoods.

“This training is vital, since the country is full of tiny, intensively-managed farms. Maize tends to be grown by the somewhat better resourced farmers, but these are still small-scale, even by regional standards,” says Waddingon, adding that farm families were eager to improve their maize-cropping knowledge and their fields.

Other efforts include BARI’s development and release of seven maize hybrids largely based on germplasm from CIMMYT. Two of the hybrids consistently produce comparable grain yields to those of commercial hybrids. The Institute is also working on short duration T. aman rice varieties that have yields and quality comparable to traditional varieties and could thus allow timelier planting of maize.

Power tillers seed the future

Another important advancement is the power-tiller-operated seeder (PTOS) created by the Wheat Research Center (WRC) of BARI. Originally for wheat, the machine has been modified and used to plant maize. Additional PTOSs need to be built, tested, and marketed. Another promising piece of equipment in the works is a power-tiller-operated bed former. Because making and destroying soil beds between every rice/maize rotation is not practical or efficient, the WRC-BARI/CIMMYT farm machinery program is working on a tiller that simultaneously creates a raised bed, sows seed, and fertilizes. This is vital since the turnaround time between rice and maize crops is limited. Like the PTOS, further testing and promotion are needed.

Though much work is still required to incorporate maize fully and sustainably into Bangladesh’s cropping systems, it has already spread across the country quicker than anticipated. Even so, scientists believe future production will fall short of demand. This gap provides farmers an additional crop option, and plants maize in a good position for future growth in Bangladesh.

For more information: Enamul Haque, program manager, CIMMYT-Bangladesh office (e.haque@cgiar.org).

1 China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam were identified in a CIMMYT study as Asian countries with more than 100 K hectares sown with maize. At the time of the study, Bangladesh did not meet this maize area requirement and therefore is not included in this statistic.

Body blow to grain borer

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

sep04The 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.

sep06Even 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.”

sep05CIMMYT 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)

Stemming the loss of African soils’ life blood

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

feb04Farmer Hendrixious Zvamarima, of Shamva village, in Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe, saw a neighbor who, instead of cultivating the soil, sowed his maize seed directly into unplowed soil and residues from last year’s crop. “I was wasting my time using the plow,” says Zvamarima, “so I decided to try the new methods.”

Several of Zvamarima’s neighbors had been taking part for as long as three years in demonstrations organized by CIMMYT, Zimbabwe’s Department of Agricultural Research and Extension (AREX), and local organizations like Development Aid from People to People (DAPP). Not wanting to be left out, Zvamarima set up his own “trials” comparing the effects of direct seeding, use of a rip tine to sow and, as a control, conventional plowing. Copying the approach of a university student who visits the area, he took detailed information on all the treatments and, above all, how much labor each entailed. When research team members recently came to Shamva to check progress on the “official” trials, Zvamarima proudly presented his experiment and the fine crop he obtained using direct seeding , keeping crop residues on the surface. As a bonus, it cost him less. “I really liked the labor savings,” he says.

More free time, less drudgery
feb02
Signs of farmer interest and adoption in Malawi
In Malawi, CIMMYT has been working with partners (the Department of Agricultural Research & Technical Services; the non-government organizations Total Land Care and the Livingstonia Synod, Soil Fertility Programme) at seven locations throughout the country, and results are encouraging, according to CIMMYT’s Mirjam Pulleman, a CIMMYT soil scientist who studies the soil quality effects of conservation agriculture in Mexico and Africa and recently visited Malawi: “In central Malawi, for example, we saw that the trials looked good and asked the extension workers if there was any adoption, and they said ‘yes!’ and took us on a tour. Every hundred meters or so there was a field where a farmer had followed conservation agriculture practices.” Referring to conservation agriculture practices he has tested, farmer Thompson Kazambe, of Nkhotakota village, said that: “If this technology came 50 years ago, Malawi would be somewhere else!”

With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Water and Food Challenge Program and Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), CIMMYT and partners have been testing practices in line with the principles of conservation agriculture—in essence, eliminating plowing and keeping residues on the soil surface. Activities in sub-Saharan Africa focus on Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; countries where small-scale, maize-based farming systems provide food and livelihoods for millions but, year by year, expose soils to severe erosion, degrade soil structure and extract more nutrients than they put back.

Conservation agriculture practices can address these concerns over the medium-to-long term, but the big selling point for most southern African farmers is the dramatic savings in labor and time, which they can then allocate to cash crops, off-farm employment, or other activities.

Other near-term benefits include erosion control and moisture retention: crop residues protect the soil surface from rain and sun; raindrops break down soil crumbs, which blocks pores, and the sun evaporates soil moisture. In a region where periodic, severe droughts can wilt maize plants and bring starvation, crops benefit from more water entering the soil through the pores and less being lost to evaporation.

Will cattle eat what conservation needs?

Challenges to widespread adoption of conservation agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa are many. In most places there is competition for residues: farmers typically feed maize stalks and husks to cattle or other farm animals. Zero-tillage systems also require careful weed control. Herbicides can play an important role, especially during the first few seasons, according to Christian Thierfelder, a postdoctoral fellow from the University of Hohenheim, Germany, seconded to CIMMYT in southern Africa. “But many farmers can’t afford or obtain inputs like herbicides, and they also need the right equipment and knowledge to apply them.”

The bottom line: Sustainable farming systems

In answer to the challenges, Pat Wall, CIMMYT agronomist in southern Africa and leader of the Center’s conservation agriculture work there, points out that smallholder maize systems in the region are currently extractive and unsustainable: “This means working with farmers, researchers, and extension agents to find ways to put the basic principles of conservation agriculture into practice in the community. It also means using our limited resources to catalyze activities among a wide range of stakeholders and partners.”

One such valued partner in the Zimuto Communal Area, southern Zimbabwe, is AREX extension supervisor Monica Runyowa, who serves 6,000 farm households. “The conservation agriculture project has been very useful, especially these on-farm trials. Rather than just telling farmers what to do, we let them try it, and the take-up has been much better.” Zimuto soils are poor and rainfall patchy. “This site has only had 150 millimeters of rainfall so far,” Runyowa says, pointing to nearly knee-high maize plants in a Zimuto field. “You can see that, on the plots with residues and direct seeding, crop germination was quite okay. On the plots sown with farmers’ traditional practice of ox-drawn moldboard plowing and hand seeding, crop establishment is not so good.”

For more information: Pat Wall, CIMMYT Agronomist, Zimbabwe (p.wall@cgiar.org).

The wheat goes on at CIMMYT

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 10, October 2006

oct07CIMMYT puts stem rust resistant seeds into partners’ hands for testing.

While the Global Rust Initiative (GRI) meeting in Alexandria focused on future strategy, preemptive work was well underway at CIMMYT as seeds of stem rust-resistant wheat lines were harvested and prepared for dispatch throughout the world. Ravi Singh, CIMMYT wheat scientist, explains, “This is a dynamic, ongoing process, as we constantly test and retest materials for resistance to stem rust while retaining desirable traits”.

On multiplication plots at CIMMYT’s El Batan headquarters in Mexico, workers have been harvesting wheat lines resistant to Ug99, the new, virulent strain of stem rust. These seeds are now ready to be sent to GRI partners across the area at risk. They will be grown at 30 experimental sites in countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Egypt, India and Afghanistan, and Mexico itself, to test for yield and adaptation to local conditions.

Researchers at CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), together with national partners, will use these trials to decide which lines to send to countries in larger amounts. In Ethiopia, where stem rust infection is already prevalent, ten lines are currently being multiplied on a larger scale, and tests with farmers will begin next year.

The resistant lines have been selected from thousands grown and artificially infected with Ug99 at Njoro in Kenya since 2004. These have included cultivars planted across the world and advanced breeding lines from CIMMYT and many other partners. Some 8-10% showed resistance to Ug99, of which a small number with traits such as high yield potential and resistance to other diseases were selected for multiplication.

oct08CIMMYT is not only distributing existing stem-rust-resistant wheats, but is part of efforts to breed materials that will lead to the release of new varieties. A range of sources, particularly lines that have shown Ug99 resistance in Kenya over two years’ testing, are being used to enhance the diversity of stem rust resistance in elite germplasm and valued cultivars. Singh and his team aim to create wheats with durable resistance to Ug99, by ‘pyramiding’ several minor resistance genes.

CIMMYT is also distributing the first stem rust resistance screening nursery, consisting of seeds of some 100 resistant lines. These will be tested for local performance and used in crosses by national breeding programs and other GRI partners. In response to the urgency of the stem rust threat, CIMMYT staff have worked hard to bring this release forward from 2007.

Singh’s goal is to provide farmers with cultivars that are not only resistant to Ug99, but also superior in other traits such as yield potential, grain quality and resistance to other diseases. As he says, “Except in East Africa, the advantage of stem rust resistance is not yet visible. By incorporating rust resistance into the advanced germplasm that we have available, we can provide farmers with tangible livelihood benefits, and we will see a better rate of adoption.”

A World Tour: Program Director Profile

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March, 2005

kpixleyNow that all of CIMMYT’s new program directors have been officially installed, it is time to get acquainted with them, as well as their ideas and plans for the programs. This month we feature Rodomiro Ortiz, director of the Intensive Agro-Ecosystems Program.

What would it take for an accomplished scientist to move to Mexico? For Rodomiro Ortiz, director of the Intensive Agro-Ecosystems Program, all took was a new strategy for CIMMYT. In the new plan he saw a change and a challenge, and he knew that the Intensive Agro-Ecosystems Program could empower research to improve lives. “Science can really impact development—this program interests me because of the relevance it has on livelihoods.” Ortiz comes to CIMMYT, his fourth CGIAR Center, with much experience and a strong tradition for sharing science. “We want to encourage local production in ways that create wealth and reduce risk for farmers and both the rural and urban poor,” he says.

A source of food and income security for rural and urban households in Asia, North Africa, and Latin America, intensive agricultural systems feature large areas of maize and wheat, often accompanied by a combination of other crops. “A large number of the world’s poor live in densely populated, rural areas where their crops sustain local communities and neighboring cities, but they face many problems,” says Ortiz. Production limitations include unsustainable exploitation of water and soils, inefficient use of chemical inputs, and emerging or worsening disease and pest problems. Looking to the future, he says, “While continuing our success in wheat breeding, we want to enhance our maize research and pursue the science behind conservation agriculture.”

Balancing productivity with healthy cropping systems in key areas is a priority for this program. “Enhanced and sustained productivity will help improve human health and rural household food security, and natural resource management is an integral part of this goal,” recognizes Ortiz. With technology such as zero tillage and retained residues, systems can be both productive and ecologically sound. “Together with the Rice-Wheat Consortium, we’ve shared conservation agriculture with over 250,000 farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains who now are saving water and decreasing fuel use, all of this while increasing their yields,” he says. Ortiz would like to mirror this momentum in the Mediterranean littoral (coastal region), the Yellow River Basin, and northwestern Mexico, other focus areas for the program.

A Peruvian national, Ortiz holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in plant breeding and genetics and received his BSc and MSc degrees from UNALM (Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Peru). Having worked abroad in the USA, Nigeria, Denmark, India, and most recently in Uganda as director of Research-for-Development at IITA, he carries knowledge of 15 different food crops, maize and wheat included. This background has given him vast experience in cropping systems and management. Ortiz, with hundreds of publications to his name, loves intellectual discourse and discovering how old problems can be solved using innovative approaches. “This new strategic plan continues in CIMMYT’s tradition to excel serving the resource poor,” Ortiz says.

Quality Analysis for Wheat

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 9, September 2005

quality1CIMMYT’s wheat quality lab expands and upgrades to meet growing demand of wheat for diverse food uses.

If you live in the Middle East or North Africa, you probably eat couscous. Chapati, a type of flat bread, accompanies meals in India. Many have noodles with meals in China. As varied as these foods are, they all come from wheat but require different characteristics to be considered of “good quality”—so that the wheat will mill and bake well for the desired preparation. CIMMYT works to provide farmers worldwide with wheat that will be valued in their area and has recently expanded capacity to meet growing demand, which for developing countries is nearing 300 million tons of wheat per year.

“To make a wheat variety good for both the farmer and the eater, you need to consider yield, disease resistance, and quality,” says Roberto J. Peña, Head of Grain Quality at CIMMYT. Peña works with breeders at CIMMYT and national programs all over the world to test wheat quality. Traits such as yield and disease resistance are obvious at harvest, but examining quality traits such as starch content and elasticity require complex and time-consuming tests. These difficult tasks have become easier with a new laboratory and upgraded technologies.

To reduce the time it takes to screen for quality traits, CIMMYT has equipped a quality laboratory in Ciudad Obregon in northwestern Mexico, in addition to the lab at headquarters. Now thousands of wheat lines can be screened for quality immediately after being harvested in Obregon. CIMMYT wheat breeders can see the results before they plant the next round of wheat lines. Looking at desirable quality traits much earlier in the breeding process will save time, money, and plot size as it will be easier for breeders to plant only wheat with high quality and all of the other traits they are looking for.

Peña intends to make more use of techniques like near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) analysis and marker-assisted selection (MAS) to enhance the efficiency of quality testing. “By screening thousands of lines quite simply, we are able to have a clear vision of what wheat lines aren’t going to be useful—we’re implementing modern technologies for improving end-use and nutritional quality,” he says.

Near infrared spectroscopy can be used to evaluate grain texture, starch, protein, elasticity, and mineral content. By looking into these attributes it is possible to determine whether the environment or crop management influenced the quality—all of this without the effort of milling the wheat into flour, making dough, and finally baking it. When the tests are complete, the same grain can be planted and the breeder knows what to expect.

By using MAS data from CIMMYT’s molecular biology lab, Peña and his team can take a glimpse at a particular wheat line’s DNA to determine if particular genes are present or absent. They can also see what genes have a more relevant role in defining quality, as well as tell if wheat carries high or low levels of protein. For example, if wheat has high levels of protein, it will be more elastic. In the future, they hope to start testing for the presence of specific genes associated with milling efficiency and starch properties.

By continuing to select for quality, CIMMYT hopes to enable farmers to grow wheat for quality food, whether it be couscous, chapati, or sliced bread.

For further information, contact Roberto J. Peña (j.pena@cgiar.org).

New Tools Match Wheat Varieties to Growing Environments

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title_newtools

April, 2004

Wheat is grown in about 70 countries, in environments that extend from the Arctic Circle to near the Equator, from sea level to elevations of 4,000 meters, and under very dry and very wet conditions. Wheat researchers may not know that their local growing environment shares key limitations with environments in other parts of the world. They may not know that another scientist, half a world away, is trying to solve the same problem.

A wide-ranging project between CIMMYT and Australian organizations is helping wheat researchers obtain and share information to develop better varieties more efficiently. The project’s tools for analyzing and sharing information will enable many more researchers to work together on common problems.

CIMMYT is working with the University of Queensland (UQ) and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to characterize growing environments and understand how different wheat lines grow there. (Wheat lines can be thought of as experimental, unfinished varieties.) Researchers are creating information tools—including mapping systems, wheat breeding simulation programs, and environmental simulations—that wheat researchers can use to develop more appropriate wheat varieties and production practices for a set of target environments. The project is supported by Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

One reason that CIMMYT and the Australian organizations can benefit considerably from each other’s research tools and partnerships is that Australian wheat growing environments resemble some important wheat-producing environments in developing countries.

Testing the Ground

Part of the information that powers the project comes from the International Adaptation Trial (IAT), which consists of seed of 80 spring wheat lines of bread wheat and durum wheat. Cooperators who receive the trial plant the seed according to specific instructions, collect data from planting to harvest, and return the data to CIMMYT. CIMMYT breeders Wolfgang Pfeiffer, Richard Trethowan, Maarten van Ginkel, and Tom Payne identified cooperator sites, emphasizing sites with low rainfall and susceptibility to drought. They worked with Australian breeders to choose the CIMMYT and Australian lines that were included in the trial.

The IAT contains broadly and specifically adapted lines. Information on the performance of broadly adapted lines indicates their stability across a range of environments and in the presence of various environmental stresses, including diseases, pests, and soil problems. Individual environmental stresses are identified through specifically bred lines called probe genotypes, which have comparative responses that reflect the presence or absence of a specific trait.

In the IAT, most of the comparative pairs have highly similar genetic backgrounds, except for the trait of interest. For example, the Australian lines Gatcher and Gatcher GS50A help detect root lesion nematode. Gatcher is vulnerable to the nematode, but Gatcher GS50A is not. In the presence of the nematode, Gatcher GS50A yields better than Gatcher—more than half a ton better. In the absence of the nematode, both lines yield about the same.

Simulating the Growing Environment

The project also uses extensive sets of weather, climate, and geographical data. Along with the information from the IAT, these data are used to model how wheat lines with particular characteristics are likely to perform in key locations around the world. Running a crop simulation module that works in all types of environments is difficult, says UQ postdoctoral fellow, Ky Mathews. Researchers need good data that cover long periods. Mathews has been using daily weather data, supplied by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from 1973 to the present for 20,000 locations. These data are supplemented with information from cooperators. She is also using an FAO soil map to identify the most likely soil types in different regions.

From the modeling and IAT results, researchers around the world gain a more detailed understanding of target environments. They can investigate stresses at a location based on the IAT probe lines, find data on other wheat-producing locations that have similar stress responses, and evaluate weather patterns and soil information that might indicate a line’s vulnerability or exceptional resistance to a stress. This information will help breeders to make more informed choices about the lines they request from each other, the crosses they make, the genes and traits they use, and ultimately which lines they release as varieties to farmers.

It will also help them to solve shared problems. Preliminary results indicate that root lesion nematode is found at IAT sites in Ecuador, Bangladesh, India, and Mexico. Breeders can see from project maps that they experience the same challenges. “Before, we could never map the nematode sites around the world,” says Mathews. “That had never been done.”

Many Products

The project has several outputs, such as a global prediction model for flowering that defines global planting dates, a database of weather and soil data, a tool that extracts phenotypic data over the Internet from CIMMYT’s large database, and data summary tools. One tool, called QU-Cim, simulates CIMMYT’s bread wheat breeding program.

“The IAT also provides an ‘adaptation filter’ that increases the usefulness of data that CIMMYT and its partners have collected for decades in wheat breeding environments all over the world,” says CSIRO crop adaptation scientist Scott Chapman. For example, the breeders who discover a Boron problem can use CIMMYT’s historical data to identify locations where CIMMYT lines have performed well despite the presence of Boron and use these lines to develop tolerant varieties.

Mathews thinks it is important that cooperators get the project results so they can see the bigger picture. “I would like the breeders around the world to be able to have the tools to interrogate locations around the world to make better decisions about their breeding programs,” she says.

Despite the challenges, CIMMYT wheat researchers believe that the project has demonstrated tremendous potential for adding value to local and global wheat breeding research. CIMMYT is seeking funds to extend this work to more of the world’s important wheat-producing environments.

QU-Cim: Improving the local relevance of CIMMYT’s global wheat breeding programCIMMYT’s wheat breeding program has more than five decades of accumulated breeding data and has been highly successful. That makes it an excellent testing ground for QU-Cim, a tool that simulates wheat breeding processes and outcomes.

QU-Cim is a module of QU-GENE, a simulation platform developed at the University of Queensland by Mark Cooper and Dean Podlich.

QU-GENE can integrate enormous amounts of genetics-based data from widely different sources, produce realistic scenarios that help breeders compare potential outcomes without expensive field trials, and determine the best way to achieve the results they want. Only the approaches that are most likely to succeed will be used in the field.

Together with UQ programmers, CIMMYT Associate Scientist Jiankang Wang wrote the QU-Cim module and worked with CIMMYT researchers to parameterize it for CIMMYT’s breeding program.

Starting with the genetic characteristics of wheat breeding lines, QU-GENE can simulate the performance of their descendents in a given field environment over many breeding cycles. The resulting information should help breeders devise the crosses that will deliver desirable traits, even traits determined by the interaction of many genes. QU-GENE can also reduce breeding costs by reducing the number of crosses breeders make to reach a particular goal, identifying the best breeding method to use, or determining the most cost-effective, efficient time to use it.

A copy of QuCim 1.1 can be obtained by contacting either Jiankang Wang or Maarten van Ginkel.

Traditional Farmers in Kazakhstan Evaluate New Technologies and Varieties

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September, 2004
farmers_kazakhs_01farmers_kazakhs_02

The introduction, testing, and promotion of bed planting technologies in Kazakhstan is one aspect of a project between CIMMYT and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation. Partners also aim to create a regional network in Central Asia and to identify, multiply, and promote high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties that will increase productivity and profitability in farmers’ fields.

At first, some traditional farmers told farmer Alexander Merzlikin he was wasting his time experimenting with planting on raised soil beds. New technologies might seem risky to poor farmers who are afraid of losing yields. Merzlikin, who began farming in 1996 to feed his family, bites off the end of a green wheat stalk he is holding, chews it, and spits it out. These cautious farmers have short-term goals, he says, while he is looking to the future and to a sustainable harvest.

“They’re afraid to takes risks,” says Merzlikin, a former driver with light blue eyes, a sunburned face, and gray buzz-cut hair who lives near Almaty, Kazakhstan. He is wearing a yellow and red baseball cap and a blue striped polo shirt with sweatpants. “When land is the only source of income, you have to be sure.” He wants to show cautious farmers that planting with CIMMYT is fruitful, he says.

Merzlikin is excited about the results he has seen after growing wheat on permanent beds for three years. Making fewer passes with machinery in the field saves him almost 50% in fuel, he says. Also, his yields increased from about 2 tons per hectare to almost 4 tons per hectare in 2003. With bed planting, farmers might plant about half as many seeds as they would with conventional planting. In 2002, the project bought five bed planters from Turkey, and five more are being engineered and manufactured in Almaty. Merzlikin says the bed planting furrows allow for even water distribution, help prevent lodging, and make the usually difficult and labor-intensive process of water channeling unnecessary.

Increasing Productivity and Profitability

Merzlikin’s experience with beds is just one aspect of the project “Regional Network for Wheat Variety Promotion and Seed Production,” a collaboration between CIMMYT and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). Participants are aiming for a regional network in Central Asia to identify, multiply, and promote high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties. As part of this, they have encouraged communication and collaboration in variety testing among breeders. At institutes in Central Asia, CIMMYT provided training for researchers and breeders, along with courses on agronomy and farm management. Farmers, agronomists, and administrators also attended field days where they learned about new varieties and soon-to-be available technologies. In 2003, 250 participants from 22 countries attended the first Central Asian Wheat Conference, which helped establish and strengthen links between scientists in the region and around the world. Also, the 40 scientists from Central Asia who have had training in wheat breeding and agronomy at CIMMYT’s headquarters in Mexico since 2000 currently contribute to the development and adoption of new varieties and technologies in their home countries.

Promoting Varieties and Seed

In collaboration with regional research institutions, project partners supported the testing of 5,750 experimental varieties between 2002 and 2003. Of those, they selected 790 that are tolerant to lodging and resistant to stem rust, which is the most common disease in the region. A small number of those varieties have already been released for farmer use.

One of the project’s objectives was to strengthen regional institutions that work on wheat breeding, research, and seed production. The partners helped establish private seed companies and supported the creation of a company that provides consulting services to farmers, sells seed, tests and promotes technologies, and submits varieties for official testing. Working with the project and bed planting technologies, this company supported five small-scale farmers in 2003 and 10 farmers in 2004, and it will support 15 farmers in 2005.

Driving a Road Far from Poverty

Economist Toni Rogger, who is funded by the German Development Agency and GTZ to work on the project’s poverty alleviation component, would like to get an overall picture about the constraints farmers in the region are facing and provide information to combat these problems. He also hopes that farmers see the benefits of new technologies and would like them to become more aware of all the components of farming, from A to Z, from soil to sales.

Merzlikin, who has an education in mechanics, epitomizes awareness. He found out that bed planting could be a cost-saving option while attending a CIMMYT-organized course that taught farmers how to calculate production costs. He and two partners combined each of their four hectares with land rented from other people to farm a total of 200 hectares. Even some cautious farmers have asked Merzlikin to help them introduce bed planting on their land, he says. For example, one poor farmer who needed a crop that would be easy to grow independently wanted to grow wheat instead of tobacco. Merzlikin helped him cultivate bed planting and says the resulting wheat looks good.

“To renovate a bicycle is an unnecessary job,” says the translator quizzically, uncertain if the expression the farmer used makes sense in English. Merzlikin thinks that because research and experiments have proven the success of certain farming methods, farmers do not need to reinvent the wheel to improve yields. He waves and chops his hands for emphasis as he talks. “I already knew when I was a driver that science was good and that scientists would help and give advice,” he says.

Metal silos lock out maize pests in Africa

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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.

june07Six 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.”

jun08Local 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.

jun09“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)

AMBIONET: A Model for Strengthening National Agricultural Research Systems

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 6, June 2006

june03A USAID-funded study by Rutgers economist Carl Pray concludes that present and future impacts of the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET)—a forum that during 1998-2005 fostered the use of biotechnology to boost maize yields in Asia’s developing countries—should produce benefits that far exceed its cost.

Organized by CIMMYT and funded chiefly by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), AMBIONET included public maize research institutions in China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. “Despite the small investment—about US$ 2.4 million from ADB and US$ 1.3 million from CIMMYT—the network was successful in increasing research capacity, increasing research output, and initiating the development of technology that should benefit small farmers and consumers,” Pray says.

Benefits already seen in the field, with more to come

Pray estimates that farmers in Thailand and Southern China are already gaining nearly US$ 200,000 a year by sowing downy-mildew-resistant hybrids from the project. Pray’s future projections are much more dramatic. An example is drought tolerant maize: if such varieties are adopted on just a third of Asia’s maize area and reduce crop losses by one-third, farmers stand to gain US$ 100 million a year. Furthermore, in India AMBIONET has improved knowledge, capacity, and partnerships with private companies; a 1% increase in yield growth from this improvement would provide US$ 10 million per year, according to Pray.

Emphasis on applied work pays off

AMBIONET’s applied approach stressed formal training and attracted Asian researchers to work on maize germplasm enhancement and breeding. This included graduate students, scientists who switched from an academic to an applied-research focus, and advanced-degree scientists with experience in DNA markers and mapping for maize. Many noted that the partnering of molecular geneticists with breeders strengthened their interactions and the exchange of expertise. The project also boosted funding for maize breeding research. Several AMBIONET labs used project money to leverage significant institutional and government grants. Major research programs emerged from AMBIONET in India and China.

In a 2003 interview, Shihuang Zhang, leader of a project team at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ (CAAS) Institute of Plant Breeding, said: “AMBIONET came along at the ideal time for us. We were able have some of our young people trained and start our lab. Then in 1998 and 1999, China changed the way research was funded. We
were able to get big projects for molecular breeding.” The CAAS group used the initial money, equipment, training, and advice from AMBIONET to start the fingerprinting, mapping, and a markers lab, as well as to hire leading national maize breeding and molecular genetics experts. According to Pray, this eventually converted the group into China’s major maize molecular breeding and enhancement program.

Region-wide sharing

Benefits were not confined just to individual labs, as groups shared knowledge and resources across borders. The Indonesian team, for example, sent two young scientists for extended training in the laboratory of B.M. Prasanna, at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. Veteran Indonesian maize breeder Firdaus Kasim reported this to be extremely useful: “Prasanna showed our scientists how to do downy mildew and genetic diversity research. He was a very good teacher. After they came back they made a lot of progress.” Prasanna also provided lines that the Indonesian trainees fingerprinted in diversity studies and 400 primers (markers) for downy mildew resistance.

Lines, data, and markers from AMBIONET are in use region-wide. For example, sugarcane mosaic virus was identified as a serious constraint in several countries, and partners are using resistant lines developed under AMBIONET. Based on information from diversity studies conducted under the project, Vietnamese researchers are developing hybrids that resist lodging and are drought tolerant.

A regional program that worked

Research projects provided the focal point for AMBIONET, with training activities, annually meetings, and the technical backstopping contributing to the programs’ success. “The combination of collaboration, cooperation, and competition
was impressive,” says Pray, in the study’s closing statement. “This is the way good, collaborative research is supposed to work.”

For more information contact Jonathan Crouch (j.crouch@cgiar.org)

Bulk-segregant analysis (BSA) for large-effect QTL detection

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A population of 228 lines from a tolerant x susceptible cross has had DNA extracted and a polymorphism scan is underway.  High and low phenotypic tails for vegetative waterlogging stress tolerance have been identified, and genotyping is underway.  We expect to have identified any large-effect QTL segregating in the population and have initiated fine-mapping by the end of March 2010.

Project: Abiotic stress tolerant maize for increasing income and food security among the poor in eastern India and Bangladesh

Genetic modification—yes or no? London Science Museum stages global debate

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 1, January 2009

 

They draw fierce criticism from environmental groups, are hailed by some companies and scientists as a solution to global hunger, and chances are you’ve eaten them. Released commercially more than a decade ago, genetically modified (GM) crops and food products still cause controversy. In an attempt to set the record straight and generate productive discussion, the Science Museum in London recently hosted a debate on the pros and cons of GM technologies in the context of the global food price crisis. Rodomiro Ortiz, CIMMYT scientist and director of resource mobilization, took part with viewpoints from a science and development perspective.

Centers like CIMMYT and its partners in developing countries have achieved enormous success using conventional breeding methods to improve maize and wheat varieties. Farmers in developing countries grow seed derived from these efforts on nearly 100 million hectares worldwide, which has increased yields and helped lower the price of main staple crops.

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The genetic revolution continues at CIMMYT

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 8, August 2007

Faster, cheaper, more efficient: gift from DuPont helps CIMMYT scientists look for genes in wheat and maize—and gives breeders an affordable tool to help select the best.

aug07A quiet revolution is taking place in CIMMYT’s biotechnology labs. The team has just received a new generation of genotyping machines. These semi-automated work-horses will make it much easier to determine whether breeding lines contain specific useful genes. It is hoped that this will help maize and wheat breeders—through a process known as marker-assisted selection (MAS)—to make breeding more effective and get crop varieties with valuable traits to poor farmers more quickly.

Traditionally, the only way to find out whether the offspring from a particular cross have inherited useful characteristics, such as drought tolerance, disease resistance, or grain quality, has been to grow them in the field and evaluate the adult plants. MAS can speed up the breeding process, since it makes it possible to track the presence of desired genes in every generation. This does not bypass the need for field evaluation, but can greatly improve the efficiency of the process. “Field screening takes time, space, and resources, and our capacity is limited,” explains CIMMYT maize breeder Gary Atlin, “but with MAS we could use resources more effectively, zeroing in on the best lines to test in the field and filtering out those that haven’t inherited the characteristics we need.”

When researchers want to find out whether a particular line of wheat or maize has the useful version of a gene (for example, disease resistance rather than disease susceptibility), they use nearby, identifiable sections of DNA known as markers, labeled with a fluorescent dye. Different versions of markers and genes are called alleles. DNA that is close together on the chromosome tends to stay together over generations, so a specific allele of a marker will be routinely inherited alongside the desired allele of a nearby gene. Using the new capillary electrophoresis genotyping machines, the sample is forced along a narrow capillary tube under the influence of an electric current. A laser at the end of the tube detects the different alleles of the fluorescent markers, indicating to the scientist whether the sample contains the allele they want.

aug08The two ABI 3700 machines have been generously donated to CIMMYT by DuPont through its Pioneer Hi-Bred seed business, reflecting a fruitful collaborative relationship of more than a decade’s standing. Until now, CIMMYT has run most of its marker-assisted selection work on manual, gel-based electrophoresis apparatuses. In addition, analyses of genetic relationships between different wheat or maize lines have been run on older ABI genotyping machines, including two based on the previous, much slower generation of gel-based machines. The new machines can handle many more samples—96 each at a time—but it’s the savings in hands-on time that makes the real difference. “There’s no comparison,” says Marilyn Warburton, Head of CIMMYT’s Applied Biotechnology Center. “It will take us ten minutes to load one of these new machines, whereas it takes about four hours to make and load a manual electrophoresis gel.”

As well as being much quicker and less labor-intensive, capillary electrophoresis makes it possible to test for more than one marker and run more than one sample at once in each tube. By using different colors of fluorescent dye for each sample, markers for each can be distinguished, like teams of runners wearing different-colored jerseys. For maximum efficiency, scientists can also set up groups of samples to run at slightly different times, like runners set off in a staggered start. CIMMYT will even be able to develop a new type of marker, known as SNPs, which allow numerous traits to be tested simultaneously, providing more information per sample.

All of this means that the new machines have a much higher throughput capacity, and can process many more samples for the same labor input, drastically reducing the per-sample cost—currently the major constraint on use of MAS. “If MAS were significantly cheaper, I would certainly use it in maize breeding,” says Atlin. “Effectively, it lets you quickly transfer the genes you want into improved varieties. If you’re doing a backcross between a donor with a desired trait and an improved parent with good agronomic performance, you’re trying to select for one characteristic from the donor, but against all its other genes. With a number of markers, MAS makes it possible to determine exactly which progeny combine the desired gene from the donor with the good genes from the other parent. You can get results in two generations, compared to four or five normally.”

The challenge for MAS is finding genes with substantial effects, especially for complex traits such as drought tolerance in maize. Atlin believes such genes are still to be found. “In the past, donors with a single useful gene or trait but otherwise poor agronomic qualities were very difficult to use in breeding, as they introduced so much bad material. We can get rid of that useless material through MAS. That opens up the field to look for useful genes in a wider range of parents. And genotyping technology is getting cheaper and better at finding genes all the time.”

In wheat, the hunt for useful markers at CIMMYT is more advanced. “We’re working with new markers to select for nematode resistance, leaf and stem rust resistance, boron tolerance, Fusarium resistance, and grain quality,” says Susanne Dreisigacker, CIMMYT wheat molecular biologist. “Our current work is all gel-based, which means running tests sample by sample and marker by marker. Being able to run many samples at the same time will make a huge difference.”

For more information: Marilyn Warburton, molecular geneticist (m.warburton@cgiar.org)

A place called Njoro

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

feb06At 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.

feb08
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.

feb09

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.

feb07

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)