Senior management and center scientists welcomed Chris Elias, the new President of Global Development of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to CIMMYT headquarters on 30 March 2012, providing among other things an introduction to major programs. Elias’ background includes experience in the global non-profit health sector and most recently as CEO of PATH, a nongovernmental organization whose portfolio includes solutions for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. David Bergvinson, Senior Program Officer for Science & Technology, for the Foundation accompanied Elias to CIMMYT.

The Foundation is among the center’s major donors and directly funds the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) projects. CIMMYT is also partner to other Foundation recipients for important work like that of developing and deploying wheat that resists the deadly Ug99 strain of stem rust and projects to develop micronutrient rich maize and wheat varieties. In addition to its funding, the Foundation has provided valuable support and guidance to CIMMYT on research management, policy engagement, and in fundraising. Through DTMA, 25,000-30,000 tons of drought tolerant maize is being deployed annually to smallholder farmers across Africa.

The visitors toured the long-term conservation agriculture field experiment, new areas of construction at El Batán, and the germplasm bank. CIMMYT presenters particularly highlighted global food security concerns. “We’ve been able to attract excellent new staff in recent years and combine that with the knowledge and experience of current scientists,” said Marianne Bänziger, deputy director general for research and partnerships. “We have a tremendous team, but if we look at the challenges we are deeply concerned with future food security. The food price peaks we saw in 2008 and 2011 are just a beginning. There is a close alignment of food prices with social unrest. This why we have a very clear strategy.”

Lumpkin voiced CIMMYT’s gratitude for Foundation support. “The improvements happening here are because of donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, major efforts by the government of Mexico, and the hard work of staff,” he said.

Elias thanked his hosts. “It’s been a great learning experience for me,” he said. “I’m sure this won’t be my last visit to CIMMYT.”

During 19-23 March 2012, over 200 researchers, policy makers, donors, seed specialists, and NGO representatives from Africa and Australia gathered in Arusha, Tanzania, for the second SIMLESA (Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa) Annual Regional Planning and Review Meeting. Representation from the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), which generously supports the work, included nine members of the organization’s Commission for International Agricultural Research.

Participants shared lessons from the last two years and discussed better ways to design and implement future activities. Ten sessions addressed issues including project implementation, Australian-African partnerships, program and partner progress and lessons, and communications and knowledge management.

A key message was that SIMLESA had consolidated and strengthened activities across all objectives, maximizing gains from integration, innovation, information, and technology diffusion for greater impacts on livelihoods and agroecosystems. It was noted that the use of integrated systems can foster productive intensification of agriculture and, indeed, the Innovation Platform Framework, supported by science and partnerships, can contribute to productive, sustainable and resilient maize-legume systems. For even greater impact, the program should rely on stronger leadership from agribusiness, while supporting the public sector’s role, and ensure a farm-income focus to reduce poverty.

Another key message was to strengthen Australian-African partnerships through better delivery of research products, capacity building under any of ACIAR’s four thematic areas, bridging research and extension, strengthening policy and socioeconomic research, and building individual and institutional capacity.

Speaking at the SIMLESA’s second “birthday party,” Joana Hewitt, chairperson of the ACIAR Commission for International Agricultural Research, reiterated the Australian government’s commitment to long-term partnerships with African governments. Participants also heard of the new SIMLESA Program in Zimbabwe, focusing on crop-livestock interactions. During the dinner, Kenya and Mozambique were recognized for their efforts in promoting and strengthening local innovation platforms.

In addition to SIMLESA’s program steering committee and the mid-term review team, the event drew representatives from USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program, from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa. SIMLESA is centered in five countries— Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique—with spillovers benefiting Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia. Representatives from all those countries interacted at the meeting.

A SIMLESA “village” and poster presentations allowed partner representatives and researchers to showcase achievements, and visits to Karatu and Mbulu—Tanzanian sites where SIMLESA is present— demonstrated how the project is transforming agriculture.

A training program on wheat participatory variety selection (PVS) was held in Nepal during 28-29 February 2012. Organized by the National Wheat Research Program (NWRP), Bhairahawa, Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and CIMMYT, the event attracted 17 scientists, technical officers and seed technicians from NARC’s research stations and private seed companies. The two-day training program focused on current challenges of wheat breeding and production in Nepal, wheat diseases, and participatory selection of varieties.

The field training was held at Sukaurali Village, Rupendehi District. Participants visited three mother-baby trials of eight wheat varieties, including CIMMYT’s newly-developed Ug99 resistant varieties, and the local check, Gautam. Janmejai Tripathi, wheat coordinator, NWRP, opened the event with an explanation of the importance of new resistant varieties. Touring the wheat plots, the group observed varieties’ qualities and differences, including maturity type, yield potential, and resistance to diseases.

NARC scientists SR Upadhyay and NR Gautam explained the steps of participatory selection and participants scored varieties in the mother trial.

In addition to the technical knowledge gained, there was an increased interest in collaboration among farmers, scientists, and development agencies. The training is also expected to improve the quality of data from research stations and of PVS trials for seed release and multiplication.

CIMMYT-CSISA-Bangladesh organized a field day in collaboration with the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) and the Department of Agriculture and Extension (DAE). In all, 162 farmers from Mymensingh, Bangladesh, attended the field day, held on 21 March 2012. CSISA–BD is a collaborative venture funded by USAID that includes CIMMYT, IRRI, WorldFish, and relevant national research and development partners. Also participating in the field day were other partners who work with CSISA-BD, CIMMYT, and Mymensingh Hub, such as the Directorate of Agricultural Extension and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), and NGOs, such as CARE, ASPADA, POPI, and JABC.

Although cropping intensity in the region is 212%, just one crop (black gram) is grown in the charlands of the Brahmaputra River. Charlands are formed through the sedimentation, over time, of huge amounts of sand, silt, and clay carried by rivers. Growing the preferred crop (Boro rice) in these lands is not feasible for lack of surface water.

CSISA–CIMMYT identified the charlands as a potential area for new wheat and maize hybrids, and organized demonstrations and on-farm participatory research on Ug99 tolerant wheat varieties BARI Gom 26 and BARI Gom 27 (Francolin) and hybrid maize. Farmers were happy to see both wheat and maize growing in demonstrations with limited irrigation. They said this was the first time in history that maize and wheat could be grown in charland areas with this level of success, and expressed an interest in significantly expanding the area sown to these materials next year. It has been estimated that such technologies could impact hundreds of hectares in this region and thousands of hectares across Bangladesh.

During the demonstrations, Dr. DB Pandit, cropping systems agronomist for CSISA-CIMMYT, gave an overview of CSISA-BD activities in the charlands. DAE Adjunct Director Dr. ASM Affazuddin and WRC Director Dr Jalal Uddin Ahmed spoke very highly of these efforts and assured farmers they would establish more wheat and mungbean demonstrations next year. Dr. TP Tiwari, CIMMYT-BD cropping systems agronomist, asked farmers to share the knowledge and skills they have gained so far from CSISA-BD interventions with their neighbors and relatives. He also initiated discussions on improved maize production technologies. All NGO participants expressed their determination to support the implementation of CIMMYT-CSISA activities aimed at achieving sustainable food security and improving the livelihoods of charland farmers. M. Islam, administrative coordinator of the Mymensingh Hub who led the organization of the field day, ended the program by thanking all participants.

A one-day field training on scoring for spot blotch was organized on 17 March 2012 at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) experiment station in Pusa, Bihar. Participants were 16 young scientists and students of Rajendra Agricultural University (RAU) and the Regional Station of Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI). Renowned pathologist Professor Ramesh Chand, Banaras Hindu University, was the main resource person, supported by Dr. Rajeev Kumar (RAU) and Raj Kumar Jat (CIMMYT).

The training program covered spot blotch symptom identification, scoring, and laboratory analysis. Theory sessions on each topic were supplemented by field practicums, and participants were divided into small groups for an exercise on disease scoring. The readings were cross-verified across groups and the data compared. The trainees were also shown the presence of leaf tip necrosis (Ltn) Sr2 symptoms and how to score them. Dr Rajeev Kumar provided laboratory facilities.

The Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Project, a Syngenta/ CIMMYT partnership, held its annual meeting at the ICRISAT-Patancheru campus in Hyderabad, India, on 15 March 2012. Funded by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), the five-year project aims to help smallholder farmers in Asia grow more food and better provide for their families through the development of improved maize varieties. It supports smallholder farmers who lack access to irrigation by developing affordable and accessible drought tolerant maize in partnership with other National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in Asia.

The meeting was attended by 30 representatives of Syngenta, national agricultural research programs, and CIMMYT. BM Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program, began the meeting, M Robinson of SFSA gave an overview on public/ private partnerships in the seed development and distribution industry, and BS Vivek, CIMMYT senior maize breeder, outlined the progress made in the first year of this project. P Zaidi, CIMMYT senior maize physiologist, reported on progress in root phenotyping, and Girish Kumar, CIMMYT maize molecular breeder, summarized advances in genotyping. Other presentations highlighted progress made by Syngenta (RP Singh, AAA lead for Syngenta and M Longrono, Asia corn breeding lead), national program of Vietnam (Van Vang, Vice Director, NMRI), and national programs of Indonesia (M Azrai, maize breeder, ICeRI). The meeting concluded with a visit to the drought trials at ICRISAT.

During this first year, the AAA project and the International Maize Improvement Consortium for Asia (IMIC-Asia) jointly conducted the course “Phenotyping for Drought Tolerance in Maize” held at ICRISAT on 19 December 2011. The course was attended by 70 breeders and technicians from 26 seed companies; PH Zaidi and BS Vivek served as resource persons. Training on all aspects of how to achieve adequate stress in drought trials was included, as well as data recording, analysis, and interpretation.

On 15 February 2012, CIMMYT director general Tom Lumpkin met with his peer, Nteranya Sanginga, at the headquarters of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria. Accompanied by CIMMYT-Regional Liaison Officer, Wilfred Mwangi, Lumpkin also interacted with IITA maize breeders Baffour Badu-Apraku, Abebe Menkir, and Sam Ajala, as well as IITA socioeconomist Tahirou Abdoulaye.

Topics of discussion included governance and management of MAIZE, the CGIAR research program launched in July 2011 and jointly led by CIMMYT and IITA. The initiative aims to meet the annual food demand of an additional 135 million consumers by 2020 and an additional 600 million by 2030.

Lumpkin and Mwangi visited IITA maize trials, including those of maize bred for resistance to the parasitic flowering plant, Striga spp., through crosses with teosinte. Attaching to sprouting maize seedlings, Striga saps nutrients and imparts a toxin that slows growth. It causes damage to Africa’s maize estimated in the billions of dollars and affects as much as 40 million hectares of food crops across the region. Teosinte belongs to the same genus as maize and is considered the crop’s predecessor.

Maize was the main focus of the visit, but wheat in West Africa emerged as an important subject. Nigeria currently imports USD 4 billion of wheat. Now at over 150 million, the country’s population is expected to exceed 400 million by 2050. Regarding increasing populations and their implications for food security, Dr. Sanginga stated: “In the end, we don’t care about IITA, CIMMYT, or what have you. What we do care about is that we solve the problem….CIMMYT is an important ally of IITA. This visit reassures us of CIMMYT’s commitment to delivering improved maize technologies for food security in Africa.”

The call at IITA was one of three recent visits by Lumpkin to CGIAR centers in Africa, including the World Agroforestry Center and ILRI.

All of us who work at CIMMYT have noticed its recent growth—new faces, new projects, and new facilities being constructed at El Batán and elsewhere. All of this means more research is getting done, and, inparticular, the global maize program is using and producing more breeding materials.

Until recently, the question for the maize program was, where to put them? “The old system just didn’t havethe capacity to store any more seed,” says Efrén Rodríguez, head of data processing and seed distribution.

In a smart solution to the space problem, between 07 February and 16 March 2012 a new system of movable shelving units was installed in the genetic resources center. These can be moved sideways using a winding handle, eliminating the need for a permanent passage between each set of shelves.

The previous fixed shelving had a capacity of 2,880 boxes,whereas the new storage system can hold 4,104—an increase in capacity of more than 40%, with further space available on topof the units if needed. It also takes up slightly less space.

Thanks to Gary Atlin, Félix San Vicente, and Natalia Palacios for their support to this project.

The new storage system is an essential step in supporting the Maize Improvement Consortium for Latin America (IMIC-LA),which is a component of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) initiative. Improvements will also be made in on other places such as a second drying room and storage space for Seeds of Discovery materials.

Low soil fertility: Problems and progress

Tunga Silvar grows maize to feed his wife and fourgrandchildren on about 0.5 hectares of land in Mawanga, Zimbabwe, a hilly area some 45 kilometers northeast of Harare. Like otherfarmers in the region, he is acutely aware of the value of nitrogen fertilizer, continually juggles his limited household financesto get it, and is poorer and hungrier when he can’t. “We used to sell maize, but in the last five years we haven’t been able to do so,” saysSilvar. “I had to pay school fees for my grandchildren, so I couldn’t buy fertilizer. Fertilizer is very important, especially in our type of soil. If you don’t apply it, youcan barely harvest anything.”

After water, nitrogen is the single most important input for maize production. In sub-Saharan Africa where fertilizer use is negligible, improved maize with tolerance to low nitrogen (N) conditions could give maize farmers more abundant harvests, greatly improving their food security and livelihoods.

Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID and conducted jointly with the KenyanAgricultural Research Institute (KARI), South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC), and the DuPont Company Pioneer Hi-Bred, aims to overcome theseproblems by developing hybrids with 25-50 % more yield than current commercial seed in low-N soils. The second annual IMAS meeting in Harare in lateFebruary 2012 drew more than 40 scientists from these organizations and CIMMYT to review progress and develop shared work plans for the following year.

Accomplishments to date include establishment of a low N phenotyping network across eastern and Southern Africa and application of cutting-edgemolecular breeding techniques for low N tolerance. Several recently-identified, low-N tolerant inbred lines from diverse genetic backgrounds are being used in new hybrid combinations and to initiate pedigree breeding. New and existing elite hybrid combinations and synthetics are being evaluated inthe regional low N phenotyping network, which now has access to more than 60,000 rows in N-depleted plots of experiment stations region-wide. Over thepast year CIMMYT maize breeders Bish Das and Amsal Tarekegne have engaged several additional seed companies in work on low-N tolerant maize.As part of this, representatives from 11 companies in eastern and southern Africa attended a field day in Harare to showcase the latest products and highlightnew support from the Foundation to scale-up seed production for existing commercial or advanced hybrids and OPVs that perform well in low N fields.

Strengthening Malawi’s seed sector

Seed companies provide the vital link to get improved maize varieties into farmers’ hands. A major focus of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project has been to strengthen small- and intermediate-scale seed enterprises and thereby speed delivery of drought tolerant varieties. The project has provided training and help to develop business plans (“road maps” for seed delivery), improved drought tolerant hybrids, and assistancein seed production. As one example of the benefits of this approach, three years of support in seed production and business planning have helped theseed company Demeter in Malawi go from strength to strength. The company now produces over 2,000 tons of seed, and its portfolio includes the open pollinated varieties ZM309, ZM523, and ZM721 developed under DTMA.

New companies are also appearing on the scene. One example is Funwe Farm, a company that is starting to grow with support from CIMMYT and the Programme for Africa’s Seeds Systems of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA-PASS). John MacRobert, seed systems specialist for sub-Saharan Africa, andAmsal Tarekegne visited Funwe’s seed production fields to smooth out initial teething problems in the production of foundation seed of a CIMMYT hybridreleased by the Malawi government as MH26. “By supporting companies like Demeter and Funwe we are helping to ensure farmers get access to improvedvarieties,” said MacRobert. “Our partnerships with seed companies are really starting to pay off.”

On-farm performance: the definitive challenge of breeding

Late and erratic rainfall in Zimbabwe has many farmers facing the prospect of poor harvests. The current hardships from drought though may furnish some hopefor farmers. New drought tolerant varieties are being tested in on-farm trials under farmer management. Many of the trials are experiencing drought stress—aperfect opportunity to identify the best varieties for such harsh conditions. A recent visit to on-farm trials in the Murewa District of Zimbabwe showed many new drought tolerant products performing well. Local farmer Sailas Ruswa is growing a trial and was enthusiastic about what he saw: some varieties showedsigns of severe drought stress, but a few were holding up well and were expected to produce good yields.

On 13 March 2012, the first field day of the International Maize Improvement Consortium–Asia (IMIC-Asia) was held. The meeting, organized by CIMMYT-Asia and held at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), welcomed 50 participants from 26 national, regional, and multinational seed organizations.

B.S. Vivek, CIMMYT-Asia senior maize breeder, started the day with a warm welcome and a brief overview of the field demonstrations of maize materials. The participants then made field selections of those that interested them. The afternoon session started with Vivek detailing the progress made in IMIC-Asia since the consortium began in 1 July 2010. P.H. Zaidi, CIMMYT-Asia senior maize physiologist, then coordinated a discussion on priority traits and locations for IMIC hybrid evaluations. The meeting concluded with members giving their impressions of the field day and suggestions to further strengthen IMIC activities. They expressed their appreciation of CIMMYT’s efforts and the progress already made. They were confident that it would serve as a platform for strengthening their maize breeding programs and their product portfolios.

The consortium approach has been adopted to enable partnerships between CIMMYT and private seed companies to facilitate the development and testing of inbred and hybrid maize, and for training of maize breeders. Some of the underlying principles include client determined research prioritization; a more focused, demand-driven approach; and an engagement where partner accountability is better defined. This mode of operation with partners is expected to have a targeted impact on agricultural productivity and poverty.

For some attendees, the unveiling of the new Norman E. Borlaug statue at CENEB was particularly poignant. It was a young Pakistani researcher who, in 1961, selected the variety that later became known asMexipak; a high-yielding, white grain wheat that became one of the mega-varieties that launched the Green Revolution. In 1966, Pakistan imported 41,000tons of Mexipak seed from Mexico – one of the biggest seed imports in history. Quarantine restrictions would make this a difficult task today, but it is estimated thatthis large-scale mission saved one million people from starvation and famine during the Green Revolution.

Norman Borlaug continued his relationship with Pakistan, though CIMMYT had to close it’s office there in the 1980s. This office was reopened in 2010,and during this year’s Visitors Week at CENEB, Ciudad Obregon, CIMMYT was delighted to welcome a delegation of eight Pakistanis, representing thePakistani Agricultural Research Council (PARC), the Ministry of Food Security and Research, the Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture, and the Directors General of Agriculture Research from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Sindh, two of Pakistan’s fourprovinces. Rick Ward, Head of CIMMYT’s office in Pakistan, accompanied the delegates, who joined four Pakistani Borlaug Fellows currently conducting research at CENEB.

Syed Ghanzanfar Abbas, Director of Mechanization, PARC, said that visiting CIMMYT-Mexico was “a dream come true”. The delegates were delighted to see the research that CIMMYT is conducting at CENEB, and enjoyed hearing the presentations and meeting CIMMYT staff.

On 25 March 2012, CIMMYT celebrated what would have been Norman Borlaug’s 98th birthday with the unveiling of a new statue at CENEB, Ciudad Obregón, Mexico. CIMMYT Director General, Thomas Lumpkin, presented this tribute to the “Father of the Green Revolution” in front of a crowd of over 100 people from 34 countries, which together produce 97 percent of the world’s wheat.

In his speech, Lumpkin paid tribute to the legacy left by Borlaug, both in Ciudad Obregon and around the world, and emphasized how important it is that this statue by Katharine McDavitt represents Borlaug in the field, in his prime. The bronze statue, sponsored by the Patronato, took hundreds of hours to make, and replicates are being planned for the CIMMYT headquarters at El Batán, and in Borlaug’s home state of Iowa.

Borlaug’s daughter, Jeanie, also spoke at the commemoration. Jeanie acts as the chair of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), which aims to continue Borlaug’s work by reducing the world’s vulnerability to stem, leaf, and yellow rusts of wheat. The BGRI was well represented at the event, alongside many of Borlaug’s other colleagues.

Lumpkin also used this opportunity to express his pleasure that one of Borlaug’s last wishes, his desire to rebuild CIMMYT’s links with Mexico, has been fulfilled.

Collaboration with Mexico inspired Borlaug’s work in wheat research, and ultimately led to the Green Revolution and the saving of approximately one billion lives through improved wheat varieties. On Borlaug’s birthday we are reminded of what CIMMYT is capable of, and why our work is so important; he “believed that no child deserved go to bed hungry, and that all children deserved an education,” said Jeanie, “with all these challenges ahead, a hungry world depends on you.”

By: Chris Cutter

There was a spirited debate here at the Planet Under Pressure conference in London on the possible uses of social media. The session, moderated by BBC journalist Richard Black, provided plenty to think about concerning the utility of platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Held in London during 25-29 March 2012, Planet Under Pressure is a conference dedicated to using science to better influence policymaking decisions. The conference is attended by government officials, scientists, researchers, academics, and NGOs who are all looking to social media as a tool to better advance the shared goal of creating a more sustainable future.

Recently, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece in the New Yorker that provided a context for this growing debate www.newyorker.com. Gladwell’s argument was that social media provide excellent tools for organizing and communicating but their use takes the personal courage of individuals who are willing to risk harm or even death to stand up against injustice. As an example he cited the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s and pointed out that although social media had its coming out party during the Arab Spring, it still took countless acts of physical bravery to affect the remarkable changes that transpired across the Middle East.

Just as Gladwell’s article sparked a debate across the Internet, the session hosted by Mr. Black brought forth several points of view. Mr. Black pointed out that traditional styles of communication have not enabled science to inform public policy and, therefore, social media offer new opportunities. He also noted the concern that social media may be dangerous to the scientific community, eventually becoming a tool for scientists to expend a tremendous amount of energy to talk to themselves.

On one side of the debate was New York Times journalist Andrew Revkin, who pointed out that debates over difficult issues such as climate change are not simply arguments of fact but there are Nobel Laureates who disagree on fundamental issues related to climate change. Social science shows us clearly that even if the facts were laid out, unadorned and accepted by the public, there would still be tremendous disagreement. Revkin, however, was optimistic about the future of social media. He noted that we are in a time where the ways in which we have traditionally communicated are unraveling and re-raveling in new ways. We are in flux and should expect confusion and disagreement. We are all still figuring it out. Uncertainty should not be taken as failure. Revkin used the analogy of a pen pal, referring to the letters many of us traded as children with peers around the world. Social media are now enabling those same connections continually, daily, and serendipitously. People are using social media platforms to connect to each other and solve problems.

An alternative point of view was articulated by Amy Luers of the Skoll Global Threats Fund. Luers pointed out challenges that social media present to the scientific community. She noted that the scientific community is largely a closed community requiring a PhD for entry, and that most scientific journals are closed to the general public (or costly) in ways that other periodicals are not. Finally, she pointed out that articles that run in scientific journals are peer reviewed — essentially signed off by colleagues — rather than consensus driven. All of these factors reinforce the closed nature of the scientific community. Luers pointed out additional statistics concerning scientists in the United States, such as the fact that only 20% of Americans know a scientist and most scientists live clustered in college towns.

Likewise, scientists have not adopted social media at the same pace as the rest of society. For instance only 15% of scientists use LinkedIn compared to 85% of the general population. Luers, however, was not a pessimist. Despite making a convincing argument that the scientific community is a closed society of sorts and that social media may in fact, as Mr. Black pointed out, result in scientists talking to themselves, there are other trends that can be leveraged to open and extend the scientific community into the general public. One such trend is the growing number of citizen scientists who are increasingly doing field research and providing this information in an open source form for the web. Bird watching is one such example. Luers also noted that the more scientists can extend their networking to these kinds of bridging communities and boundary organizations, the better the likelihood that the very important work being done by scientists all over the world can contribute to the conversation regarding the problems we face as global citizens.

A collaboration between 31 partner organizations, with 83 expert scientists, the Wheat Yield Consortium (WYC) aims to increase wheat yield potential 50% by 2030. This unprecedented project was established by CIMMYT in 2009, and during 13-15 March 2012, 69 stakeholders from 11 countries met at the Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, for the 2nd International Workshop of the WYC. The aim of the meeting was to present the progress made so far and how to raise the funding required to reach the target.

In order to speed the delivery of new wheat genotypes to farmers, the WYC strategically integrates three scientific themes into a synergistic approach for increasing wheat yields: Theme 1 looks to increase total plant biomass by improving photosynthetic capacity whilst the research in Theme 2 simultaneously optimizes partitioning of assimilates to yield in diverse environments whilst increasing the strength of the plant to avoid the risk of lodging. These themes feed into Theme 3, which is focused on incorporating improved yield potential traits into elite breeding lines adapted to wheat agro-ecosystems worldwide.

On the first day, CIMMYT Wheat Physiologist Matthew Reynolds presented an overview of the science and Steve Visscher from the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) addressed the criteria by which such an ambitious project will be reviewed by the science and development assistance community. Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, Hans Braun, then addressed scenarios by which the WYC might become fully funded. The WYC currently operates mainly with Mexican Government funds (through the MasAgro initiative), while the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and other WYC affiliated organizations, including CIMMYT, make substantial in-kind contributions. One of the main focuses of the workshop was to finalize the WYC Business Plan, which will shortly be submitted for peer review, before being presented to potential donors in order to attract the first installment of funding in what is expected to be a 20 year endeavor. “The meeting was a lot of hard work for everybody but team spirit was excellent and we are all optimistic about the WYC,” said Reynolds.

Participants also had the opportunity to visit the Mexican Phenotyping Platform (MEXPLAT), which is playing a vital role in many of the sub-projects. Whilst there, they had the opportunity to witness the launch of CIMMYT’s new blimp. MEXPLAT is based at CENEB and provides laboratory and experimental field facilities, as well as the provision and/or distribution of shared germplasm panels (including the CIMCOG set, which has been used in much of the WYC research conducted so far and is currently being grown at 20 sites worldwide).

On the final day, Undersecretary of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), Mariano Ruiz-Funes, took time to visit the workshop and reiterate the support of the Mexican Government. “Mexico is fully committed with this project,” he said, before expressing how the Mexican Government plans to use their presidency of the G20 this year to promote agricultural research.

On 15 March 2012, Mexican producers and representatives of INIFAP, Patronato, the Sonoran Government, representatives of different dependencies of SAGARPA, CIMMYT and numerous local collaborators gathered at the Centro Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, to discuss technologies currently being developed as part of the MasAgro initiative. The meeting was led by SAGARPA Undersecretary for Agriculture, Mariano Ruiz-Funes Macedo, Hans Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, and Bram Govaerts, leader of the Take it to the Farmer component of MasAgro.

As a state, Sonora has embraced MasAgro. It currently has 11,875 hectares of impact including conservation agriculture (CA), crop diversification and the use of infrared sensors for wheat. Govaerts explained that, apart from CA techniques, producers in the region are already using calibrated technologies for precision agriculture, such as the GreenSeeker or SPAD, for calculating the optimal levels of required fertilizer, this as a result of the intense work Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio has been developing together with local farmer unions. CENEB has been the cradle for the development of most of the wheat varieties available worldwide, said Braun, who also highlighted the important role of Mexico, through MasAgro, to identify more varieties resistant to drought, diseases, and pests.

During the visit, Govaerts demonstrated the MasAgro machinery platform, and explained the importance of Mexico being able to manufacture crop machinery and implements that can be used in the different agro-ecological zones of the country. Govaerts stressed that these technology transfer processes must impact farmers, technicians, researchers, and companies which develop this type of machinery in the different regions.

Ruiz-Funes also visited the Patronato facilities where, through the SAGARPA Genetic Resources program, and the Patronato’s own funds, they have strengthened their capacities for multiplying seed as part of MasAgro, according to Patronato leader, Antonio Gándara. The linkage with Patronato is a perfect example of researchers working hand in hand with farmers said Ruiz-Funes. We should replicate this effort in other states, he added.