Many of us were celebrating love and friendship on 14 February 2012, and CIMMYT’s online image collection was no exception. Users around the world showed us how much they love CIMMYT’s photos, with the flickr site receiving its 200,000th view since the collection began. If you haven’t yet seen our fantastic photos, join in at: www.flickr.com/cimmyt.

As well as making our photos easier to find and use within CIMMYT, many other organizations are also picking up on our images and using them on their own websites and blogs, spreading recognition of CIMMYT. Some recent examples from 2012 alone include use on the popular blogging site African Seed Network, PreventionWeb (1, 2), which supplies information for the disaster risk reduction community, the Radio Netherlands Worldwide website, and the CCAFS page/blog.

In addition, the CIMMYT twitter feed now has over 2000 followers, illustrating how CIMMYT’s message can also be spread via long texts, photos, or 140 characters!

During 06-10 February 2012, a team of CIMMYT scientists travelled to six communities in Zambia’s Eastern Province to monitor progress on activities implemented under the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume systems for the Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA) project, funded by USAID as part of Barack Obama’s “Feed the Future” initiative. The team was joined by national partners from governmental extension services, field coordinators from Total Land Care, Zambian researchers from Msekera Research Station, IITA, and CIP, and a group of farmers from Monze, in Zambia’s Southern Province. Journalists from two radio stations, one daily newspaper, and Zambian television covered the visit.

The SIMLEZA project began in October 2011 and exhibits a large variety of validation trials using improved maize and legume varieties, in conjunction with conservation agriculture (CA), to sustainably increase productivity on farmers’ fields. The validation trials currently demonstrate maize grown either as a sole crop, intercropped, or planted in full rotation with legumes. Farmers in the Eastern Province are excited about these new ways of farming; they want to shift from traditional, monocropped systems to more profitable crop rotations. In field discussions, farmers commended the other benefits of CA: Reductions in labor, effectiveness of weed control through judicious use of herbicides, increased moisture conservation, and reduced surface run-off and soil erosion. The project also has a strong emphasis on involving women in the extension of new technologies to improve their livelihoods.

Identifying a suitable market for alternative crops such as cowpeas or soyabeans remains a challenge in the Eastern Province, though the SIMLEZA project is addressing this by targeting bottlenecks in the value chain. Through involvement of agro-dealers, the availability of improved seed and markets for produce will be facilitated and processing skills will be enhanced. CIMMYT also collaborates with IITA scientists in this project to make use of their expertise in legume production and processing.

Currently the SIMLEZA project operates in six target communities, but it aims to impact 20,000 households in the Eastern Province by 2014.

Mexico has a network of state and private laboratories with authorization from the Mexican Plant Health Authority (DGSC), an office of the National Service of Agri-Food Health, Safety, and Quality (SENASICA), to examine and identify plant diseases, in order to protect crops in Mexico. It is vital that the technicians at these facilities continue to receive and update their training, in order to ensure the highest levels of competence, and to help deliver the projects of MasAgro.

As part of its component to develop genetic resources and seed multiplication, deliver new technologies, and build capacity, MasAgro funded the second theoretical-practical course on detecting plant pathogens using PCR in real time, during 24-26 January 2012, at El Batán. The course was organized by Mónica Mezzalama, Head of CIMMYT’s Seed Health Laboratory, and lead by Paul Vincelli, Professor at Kentucky State University, USA. The 16 participants came from SENASICA-SAGARPA, Plant Health State Committees, universities, the private sector, and CIMMYT.

“The course was excellent and reached the objectives set,” said Kenia Rodriguez, Technician at the Molecular Biology Laboratory, Morelia. “I learnt a lot about things I do at the National Center of Phytosanitary Reference, particularly on techniques I didn’t know about.” Daisy Fuentes, Head of GeMBio, Science Research Center, Yucatán AC, said that the course will be helpful for her daily activities after being exposed to the PCR techniques in much greater detail.

The certification ceremony was presided over by Marco Antonio Caballero García, Director of Production Inputs, SAGARPA, with Kevin Pixley, Director of CIMMYT Genetic Resources, and Mezzalama. Congratulations to all the graduates!

Thanks to Peter Kim and the folks at publichealthdegree.com, we now have some lovely new graphics that explain the global food situation quite brilliantly. And they’d love your thoughts on the new graphics, so feel free to post your comment below.
Created by: Public Health Degree

At the launch of the MAIZE and WHEAT CRPs, Undersecretary Mariano Ruiz-Funes Macedo of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) spoke of the challenges being faced by agriculture worldwide. Before the international audience, he highlighted MasAgro as Mexico’s strategy to strengthen food security, combat negative effects of climate change, and promote agricultural in a sustainable and productive way. SAGARPA and CIMMYT are key partners of the MasAgro initiative, which “is a project of Mexico, to the world,” said Karen García, MasAgro’s Executive Director.

“MasAgro is working to increase maize and wheat production and yields in rainfed zones, to benefit small-scale farmers,” said Ruiz-Funes, emphasizing that so far, 21 experimental platforms have been established, with 132 demonstration modules, and 20,790 hectares or extension areas with sustainable technology in the Mexican Highlands, Bajío, Lowland Tropics, and North Pacific regions. CIMMYT’s certified conservation agriculture technician course now has 28 graduates, with a further 180 people registered for future courses, and a collaborative project with the Program of Support to the Productive Chain of Maize and Bean Producers (PROMAF), has trained more than 2000 Mexican technicians.

Ruiz-Funes reminded the audience that Mexico will host the G-20 this year. At this international forum, the Mexican Government will propose four strategic axes for agriculture: Research and technology development and transfer; public and private investment; sustainability and adaptation to climate change; and risk management. This will be an important platform for Mexico and MasAgro, as the G-20 recognizes the need to transfer research and technology to farmers, and has a commitment to strengthening international cooperation.

At the closing dinner of the MAIZE and WHEAT meetings on 20 January 2012, CIMMYT took the opportunity to say farewell to Wilfred Mwangi, Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project Leader, who will soon be retiring.

Mwangi grew up in a rural village in Kenya and completed PhD studies at Michigan State University, USA. Returning to Kenya afterwards, Mwangi eventually became a Professor and Chair of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nairobi. His career also includes stints as Permanent Secretary in Kenya and as a World Bank economist. He said that, despite all his academic expertise and impressive career, his mother still tells him how to farm!

Speaking at the farewell, CIMMYT Deputy Director General for Research and Partnerships, Marianne Bänziger, who worked for many years with Mwangi in Africa, called him “a person who builds bridges” between other people and noted that “…he could have taken other choices, easier choices” than his 24 years of work for CIMMYT. Mwangi, however, didn’t see this as an option: “We have such a noble mission,” he said. “This is a calling; you’re working for the poorest of the poor. CIMMYT is still my best employer.”

Mwangi has made significant contributions both as a principal scientist and distinguished economist with over 150 authored publications, as Country and Regional Liaison Officer, as Associate Director of the Global Maize Program, and as Leader of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project, one of CIMMYT’s most successful and crucial initiatives.

At the ceremony, Mwangi received a plaque thanking him for “dedication, wisdom, unbiased advice, and mentoring of hundreds of young national program scientists; for strengthening partnerships and mutual understanding across institutions, cultures, and countries; for sharp and pointed insights that stimulated us to change, improve, and be ambitious.” We may yet see more of these strengths: “Retiring is not ‘being tired’,” said Mwangi, “I’ll be around.”

Over 23-24 January 2012, CIMMYT’s global maize program received an unprecedented gift: over 2 billion maize marker data points from 4,000 CIMMYT lines. “For each line, we are now able to detect over half a million markers,” said Gary Atlin, Associate Director of the program. “These ‘signposts’ give us great power to do genetic analysis; they are distributed more or less randomly across the 10 chromosomes of maize, so we are able to track very small pieces of chromosome,” he added.

CIMMYT is currently working with USDA maize geneticist Dr. Ed Buckler at Cornell University’s Institute for Genomic Diversity, whose team produced this data for CIMMYT using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technology. As the operation increases, CIMMYT is partnering with Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd (DArT P/L) to establish a self-sustaining genetic-analysis service in Mexico, which will be based on GBS (“Servicio de Análisis Genético para la Agricultura” or SAGA in Spanish). SAGA will genotype large numbers of genebank accessions for the Seeds of Discovery project, whilst also serving the needs of breeding programs, both at CIMMYT and in Mexican partner organizations.

Using both these data and phenotypic information, researchers will learn how to select lines which perform well under drought, or low soil nitrogen levels, or possess resistance to a particular disease. Previously, CIMMYT was using SSR genotyping, at a cost of around $1 per data point. SSRs span several hundred base pairs, essentially allowing them to detect more alleles and therefore provide four or five times more information than the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) currently being used. However, there are fewer SSR loci and SSR visualization technologies are more expensive; in fact, whilst the current data set cost less than $160,000 to obtain, in 2005, using SSRs, it would have cost around $400,000,000. “It’s a new ballgame,” states Atlin. “GBS genotyping costs us about $40 per line, and will likely drop to around $20 next year. This is about the same cost as evaluating the line for yield in a single field plot. At this price, we can genotype all CIMMYT maize breeding lines entering replicated field testing, and build powerful models to predict performance in the field for traits that are difficult and expensive to measure.” He notes that it will also speed up the breeding cycle, resulting in greater yield gains per year.

Getting the two billion marker data points is just the beginning; next steps include analyzing and converting the data to information. The team plans to generate at least this much data annually henceforth. “It’s a huge job,” says Atlin, “but already a significant achievement.”

The Yaqui Valley is one of Mexico’s main bread baskets and supplies seeds and grain globally. It was the birthplace of the Green Revolution and, as the home of CIMMYT’s primary field station, Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB), it has been a hub of agronomic research for decades, with a wealth of accumulated knowledge, field research, and survey data. However, the region is not without its problems. It faces environmental, resource, economic, and social challenges related to water resources, air and water pollution, policy changes, human health concerns, biodiversity conservation, and climate change.

Twenty years ago, a multidisciplinary team of experts set out to address the issue of how to maintain livelihoods and increase food production, whilst protecting the environment. Led by biogeochemist Pamela Matson, economist Roz Naylor, and CIMMYT agronomist Iván Ortiz-Monasterio, their approach allowed for the investigation of a wide range of variables, and it soon became apparent that they were all connected in some way. Matson described Ortiz-Monasterio as a “lynchpin…serving both as research co-leader and a critical boundary-spanning individual, linking the research community with the farmers and decision makers of the valley.” Together, the team investigated the possibility of win-win-win solutions for economics, agronomics, and the environment in the wheat fields of the Yaqui Valley, and what would be needed to make these a reality.

Seeds of Sustainability is the product of these 15 years of research, analysis, and evaluation in the Yaqui Valley. Edited by renowned scientist and Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, Pamela Matson, with contributions from experts worldwide, all of whom participated in research in the Valley, this book forms an invaluable resource for researchers, policymakers, and students, as it examines new approaches in agriculture that make sense for people and the environment. The development of the Yaqui Valley as a comprehensive case study has already had implications for understanding and managing humanenvironment systems extending well beyond the valley margins. In his comments (published on the book’s back cover), Prabhu Pingali, Deputy Director of the Agricultural Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation noted, “Seeds of Sustainability illustrates the kind of integrative research that will be needed to address the challenges our food systems face, now and in the future.”

To order your copy of Seeds of Sustainability visit the Island Press website and enter code 5SEEDS for a 30% discount.

The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) received another boost this week when the Bihar government pledged to provide 200 acres to the center, at a price of just 1 Rupee (0.02 USD) per acre. This center will be located in Pusa, Samastipur district, with a further two centers in Ludhiana, Punjab, and Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

You can read more about these recent developments in The Bihar Times.

On 16 January 2012, 300 researchers, policy makers, industry specialists, and NGO representatives from 36 nations gathered in Mexico City to launch the MAIZE and WHEAT CGIAR Research Program (CRP) meetings. In opening the proceedings, Pedro Brajcich Gallegos, representing INIFAP and SAGARPA, on behalf of the Government of Mexico, highlighted the importance of these two CRPs in light of the increasing occurrences of extreme weather due to climate change. Mexico is among the affected countries and Brajcich Gallegos pledged the support of the Mexican Government in achieving the goals set out by these two initiatives.

Led by CIMMYT and ICARDA, the WHEAT CRP is expected to deliver enough wheat for an additional 56 million consumers by 2020, and an additional 397 million by 2030. The MAIZE CRP, lead by CIMMYT and IITA, is focused on delivering enough maize to feed an additional 135 million consumers in 2020, and an additional 600 million by 2030. These goals are particularly pertinent given the recent predictions of a UN report, estimating a world population of 10 billion by 2080.

CIMMYT’s Director General, Thomas Lumpkin, delivered a joint presentation with Molly Jahn, Professor, Department of Agronomy and Genetics for the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This meeting is historic and significant,” declared Jahn, “These two CRPs are a significant development for agricultural research, and people all over the world are watching for the results,” she added.

Representing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Director of Agricultural Development Programs David Bergvinson delivered a presentation focusing on the increasing need for holistic and systems-based approaches to addressing future food security demands. “Never have so many been so dependent on so few for food,” he said, and went on to stress the need for investment by governments and aid agencies: “We’re all here to lift smallholder farmers out of poverty, and agriculture is the engine with which to do that.”

Marianne Bänziger, CIMMYT Deputy Director General for Research and Partnerships, urged researchers to focus on delivering results to the world’s poorest farmers: “Productivity is not just about yields, but what is actually happening in farmer’s fields,” she said. Bänziger also warned that the food riots of 2008 and 2010 would be repeated, and that it is the responsibility of the international scientific community and policy makers to stem food price increases and improve livelihoods for agricultural producers.

Over the subsequent four days, participants attended presentations and formed discussions and focus groups to identify research priorities and coordinate future work among themselves and with farmers. As expressed by seed producer María E. Rivas-Dávila: “I feel I have a role in the CRPs, because they are thinking at all levels, from researchers to farmers, so I am in the middle.”

Coming from such a wide range of institutions, participants had many different experiences to share. “I intended to bring my experience, but also to gather information, because we have not reached the end of the road,” said Argentinean Agronomist-Producer, Roberto Peiretti. “There is always a lot of opportunity to learn more and more, and I knew that this meeting was going to have such a broad base of worldwide participation, so I was extremely glad to be invited,” he added.

The closing session on Friday 20 January was chaired by Salvador Fernández Rivera, coordinator for research, innovation and partnerships, and agricultural research of Mexico’s National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP). Representatives from geographically- and organizationally- diverse partner entities shared impressions and suggestions. Maize breeder James Gethi, of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), said the type of planning that had been done was critical for better impact and for synergies: “We were all here to improve impact in the welfare of smallholder farmers. How can we achieve this with all the bright minds in the room?” He enjoined national organizations, international centers, seed companies, and other actors to share information and knowledge.

Marilia Nutti, biofortification coordinator in Brazil’s Agricultural Research Corporation, EMBRAPA, said teamwork is the only way. “We need to work with the private sector to speed progress…and with the international community, for sustainable technology.”

Kingstone Mashingaidze, maize scientist with South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC), warned that partners should not be left behind in the mastery and use of molecular tools. “I don’t think CIMMYT can afford to run alone with molecular breeding tools,” he said. “For national programs, the challenge is if you want to continue to be relevant, then you’d better change the way you do business.”

After the exciting and hectic week of meetings, one shared sentiment was that MAIZE and WHEAT represent precisely that: a chance for everyone to leave behind business as usual and take bold and intelligent action to energize agriculture and meet the global challenges of food security.

A special recognition to Laura Ruíz and the logistics team for their long hours and sleepless nights to make the event the success it was.

On 12 January 2012, the State of Mexico signed an agreement to align its agricultural policies with MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture), an initiative fostered by the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing and Food (SAGARPA, by its Spanish acronym) and CIMMYT. MasAgro aims to sustainably increase the outputs of basic food grains, mainly maize and wheat, deal with climate change effects in rural areas and ensure food security in Mexico.

The ceremony took place in the state capital, Toluca, and was chaired by Eruviel Ávila Villegas, Governor of the State of Mexico. Also in attendance was SAGARPA’s Francisco Mayorga Castañeda, Mariano Ruiz Funes, Undersecretary of Agriculture, Thomas Lumpkin, Director General of CIMMYT, Bram Govaerts, leader of MasAgro’s Take it to the Farmer component, and Heriberto Ortega Ramírez, Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock Development in the State of Mexico.

Secretary Mayorga said that, one year after its launch, MasAgro’s extension covers an area of more than 20,000 hectares in 16 Mexican states, and that the State of Mexico has had a fundamental role in the process. So far, the State of Mexico already has five research platforms, 13 demonstration modules and an extension area of 113 hectares. He added that these results will be presented during the 2012 G-20 meetings in Mexico.

Bram Govaerts highlighted the fact that collaborative research and work by CIMMYT with farmers and scientists from the State of Mexico laid the foundation for MasAgro’s development. More than 40 years ago CIMMYT established its headquarters in Texcoco, and has also an experiment station in Toluca, both important localities of the State. Throughout these years, CIMMYT has multiplied its collaboration with important agricultural research and education centers in the highlands region.

Govaerts added that capacity building is an essential component of the strategy and there are seven agronomists from the State of Mexico taking MasAgro’s 2011-12 conservation agriculture certified technician course. Once graduated, these experts, along with technicians from other programs aligned with the strategy, will provide technical advice to farmers, to increase MasAgro’s extension area in the region.

For more information visit the MasAgro website.

At El Batán on 20 December 2011, CIMMYT staff, family, and friends joined specialists from Mexican universities and national research programs, Second Secretary Shin Taniguchi of the Japanese Embassy in Mexico, and farmers in a gala farewell luncheon for the retiring head of maize genetic resources, Suketoshi Taba, after an illustrious 36-year career at CIMMYT in the study, conservation, and use of maize diversity.

In the opening tribute to Taba, CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin credited his many years of participatory research with farmers to improve landraces for traits like yield and insect resistance, while preserving their grain quality for local food products. “This is work few breeders have done, and it’s greatly appreciated by CIMMYT,” said Lumpkin. Researchers Flavio Aragón, of Mexico’s National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Institute (INIFAP) and Humberto Castro of the Autonomous University of Chapingo—both of whom have worked shoulder to shoulder with Taba and farmers—recalled their long collaboration with the retiring scientist. Castro brought a commemorative plaque from the University and news of renewed funding for the project they had pursued.

A commemorative plaque from CIMMYT was also awarded by Lumpkin at the CIMMYT Christmas party on 16 December 2011. Lumpkin made reference to Taba’s successful coordination of work of national seed banks in 13 Latin American countries to rescue and regenerate more than 15,000 endangered seed collections of native maize races, as well as bringing to 27,000 the number of unique seed samples in CIMMYT’s maize germplasm bank. Staff from the Tlaltizapán research station came personally to present Taba with a plaque of appreciation from station personnel.

In his speech, Taba thanked all present and made special mention of his mentors, his team, and co-workers. “I could not have achieved anything without the hard work and support of colleagues,” he said. “I sincerely hope that CIMMYT will continue to focus on farmers in its work.”

Born on Okinawa just following World War II, Taba grew up on a farm there at a time when, in his words, “…there were no supermarkets, and we ate only what we could grow.” A particularly momentous year in his life was 1975, when he obtained a PhD in plant breeding at Kansas State University, got married, and arrived at CIMMYT as a post-doctoral fellow. After serving during 1977-86 as the center’s maize breeder for the Andean Region, Taba took up an appointment as head of maize genetic resources in 1987.

With wonderful dishes from CIMMYT’s food services unit and a background of spirited music from a local mariachi band, guests saw Taba receive a unique gift from the global maize program: an original watercolor painting by local artist and former CIMMYT staff member Linda Ainsworth. Withal, the fond wishes of those at the event, which went on into the evening with celebration and shared recollections, constitute a souvenir that Taba will take with him wherever he goes.

A frequent visitor to CIMMYT, retired University of Massachusetts at Boston Professor Garrison Wilkes, could not be present at the luncheon but sent Taba a letter which closed with the words: “Never have so many people who plant and consume maize, now and in the future, owed so much to a single person…We value what you have accomplished and future generations of humans will be more food secure because of your service.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of CIMMYT’s biggest supporters. Here we repost their blog about Bill’s annual letter, which highlights the issue of food security, and how we need innovation and investment in agriculture if we are to address these problems

My job is to learn about global health and development—and to travel to poor countries to meet farmers who can’t grow enough food, mothers who can’t keep children healthy, and heroes in the field who are doing something about those emergencies. Very few people can devote the time to really understand these complex problems. Even fewer can actually meet the people who are struggling to overcome them. That is why I write an annual letter every year.

I want people to know about the amazing progress we’ve made. I also want them to see how much more progress it will take before we live in a truly equitable world.

In this year’s letter, I focus on food and agriculture (though I also provide updates about all the global health and U.S. education work we do). When I was in high school, a popular book called The Population Bomb painted a nightmarish vision of mass starvation on a planet that has outgrown its carrying capacity. That prediction was wrong, in large part because researchers developed much more productive seeds and other tools that helped poor farmers in many parts of the world multiply their yields. As a result, the percentage of people in extreme poverty has been cut in half in my lifetime. That’s the amazing progress part of the story, and not enough people know it.

But there’s the progress-yet-to-come part, and people need to know that, too. There are still more than 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty. They are located primarily in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and they live on the edge of starvation. There is an irony in this, because most of them are farmers. We can help these 1 billion achieve self-sufficiency, just like we helped billions before them, but we stopped trying. At a certain point, the sense of crisis around food dissipated, and the proportion of foreign aid dedicated to agriculture dropped from one-fifth to less than one-twentieth.

My hope for my annual letter is that it helps people connect to the choice we all have to make. Relatively small investments changed the future for hundreds of millions of small farm families. The choice now is this: Do we continue those investments so that the 1 billion people who remain poor benefit? Or do we tolerate a world in which one in seven people is undernourished, stunted, and in danger of starving to death?

In times of tight budgets, we have to pick our priorities. It’s clear that in this particular time, we’re in danger of deciding that aid to the poorest is not one of them. I am confident, however, that if people understand what their aid has already accomplished—and its potential to accomplish so much more—they’ll insist on doing more, not less. That is why I wrote my letter. I hope you’ll take the time to read it and share it with your friends and family.

I’ve invited students from around the world to write their own annual letters too. You can send your letter, or any questions you have for me, to annualletter@gatesfoundation.org. I’ll be answering and talking about the ideas in your letters in a live webcast on February 2 on my Facebook page.

Originally published on Impatient Optimists, blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The 20 January 2012 issue of Science features an article by leading international agricultural experts, including Molly Jahn, who delivered a keynote speech with CIMMYT’s Director General Thomas Lumpkin at the opening of the MAIZE and WHEAT meetings in Mexico City last week. Despite the progress made at December’s climate change negotiations in Durban, the authors urge scientists to lay the groundwork for more decisive action on global food security in 2012.

You can find more information on the CCAFS news site, or read the full Science article here.