The Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, Hans Braun, visited Syngenta in Basel, Switzerland, on 10 October 2011, to present CIMMYT’s current work towards achieving global food security. CIMMYT and Syngenta began collaborating in April 2010, and have been working together to develop multiple projects focused on Ug99 and wheat research activities.

During the presentation, Braun highlighted the need for increased investment in agriculture to address threats to food security, such as emerging diseases. He also stressed the need to further develop and utilize genetic diversity to feed the growing global population. Braun referred to Ug99 as the ‘Bird Flu’ of wheat, in reference to its devastating impact on wheat crops, and its high virulence. He urged the scientific community to focus on the development of durable resistance in wheat, stating that 50% of CIMMYT’s wheat research is focused on maintaining disease resistance alone.

When asked about the nature of public-private partnerships and CIMMYT’s interaction with Syngenta, Braun said: “Why is CIMMYT here? We don’t want to help Syngenta to increase its production in Germany, but we want to look into how we can work together to use some of the technologies for our clients, which are the poor farmers in developing countries. CIMMYT has some contributions which Syngenta can use so it’s really a win-win situation.”

CIMMYT and Syngenta will be expanding their areas of collaboration by developing new projects on rust control, hybrid wheat, heat tolerance and crop enhancement.

The 11th Asian Maize Conference “Addressing climate change effects and meeting maize demand for Asia” took place during 07-11 November 2011 in Nanning, China. Nearly 375 scientists and resource personnel from 22 maize-growing countries participated, along with representatives of several large seed companies and NGOs.

The conference was jointly organized by CIMMYT and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), and hosted by the Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GXAAS) and the Guangxi Maize Research Institute (GMRI). The choice of location recognizes the increasing demand for maize in China; whilst China grows more maize than any other crop, and produces 180 million tonnes annually, it also imports nearly 14 million tonnes. China’s expanding middle class is eating more poultry, eggs, and pork; meat consumption in China has tripled since 1980 and China currently accounts for half the world’s consumption of pork. Of the total maize produced in Asia, 70% is used to feed animals, whilst just 23% is used for direct consumption.

Maize consumption is also increasing in other Asian countries: in Indonesia, imports of maize are estimated to double from 2010 levels to 3.2 million tonnes this year, and at 16 million tones, Japan is the world’s largest importer of maize. These increases are expected to continue.

The conference was opened by Yangrui Li (President, GXAAS), Ren Wang (Vice-President, CAAS), Thomas Lumpkin (Director General, CIMMYT), and Chen Zhangliang (Vice-Governor, Guangxi Provincial Government). They highlighted the growing importance of maize in the developing world, especially Asia, and the need for strong international collaborations to address challenges in maize-based systems.

Keynote speakers included BM Prasanna (Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT), Shihuang Zhang (Chief Expert, Crop Science Institute, CAAS), Greg Edmeades (retired scientist and former CIMMYT Maize Physiologist), Daniel Jeffers (Maize Breeder, CIMMYT-China), Gary Atlin (Associate Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT), Roberto Tuberosa (University of Bologna, Italy), Kevin Pixley (Director, Genetic Resources Program, CIMMYT), Adrian Johnson (Vice-President, International Plant Nutrition Institute), Bekele Shiferaw (Director, Socioeconomics Program, CIMMYT), and Yiqing Song (CAAS), along with many invited speakers. They covered a range of topics from conservation agriculture systems, to site-specific nutrient management and nutritionally improved maize. Sessions also highlighted recent developments in the CIMMYT-led MAIZE comprehensive research program, including technological advances such as the use of double haploids, phenotyping tools, and the large-scale genotyping initiative, Seeds of Discovery.

Participants also discussed the increasing frequency of natural disasters in Asia, and the effects these have on food production. Floods in Pakistan, droughts in China, and water stress in India have all impacted the ability of Asian maize producers to meet consumption demands.

The conference concluded with a Maize Field Day, organized by Cheng Weidong at the GMRI research station, where landraces and promising hybrids were demonstrated. Participants praised the success of the conference, with Bijender Pal (Senior Maize Breeder, Bioseed) stating: “The conference was very well organized, with excellent lectures by the experts on various key aspects, and a comprehensive treatment of the key issues for maize in Asia.”

Warming up to the conference with the MAIZE Asia Interface

As a preface to the Asian Maize Conference, almost 70 scientists, representatives of private sector seed companies, members of the International Maize Improvement Consortium of Asia, and NGOs participated in the MAIZE Asia interface on 07 November 2011. Chaired by CIMMYT’s Director General, Thomas Lumpkin, the meeting aimed to present the main strategic initiatives and vision of the MAIZE project to key Asian partners and stakeholders, outline challenges, promote collaborations, and discuss how to disseminate relevant technologies for the benefit of smallholder maize farmers in Asia.

By 2050, it’s estimated that our global population will exceed 9 billion. How are we going to feed them all? Jon Miller from Marketplace.org visited CIMMYT to learn about the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and how CIMMYT is trying to increase yields and improve sustainability. You can watch and read more about his findings here.

The November-December 2011 issue of the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s (GRDC) magazine, Ground Cover, stressed the importance of continued funding of wheat research, and highlighted the role of Australian institutions such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in advancing CIMMYT’s research.

In 2010, the GRDC and ACIAR contributed over 10 percent of CIMMYT’s annual budget, and CIMMYT’s Director General, Thomas Lumpkin, expressed his gratitude for their sustained support; a reflection of their many shared values in wheat breeding and development, he said. This investment has a significant return: over 90 percent of the wheat currently grown in Australia has ancestry originating from CIMMYT’s genebank.

To read the full story click here.

On 14 November 2011 Thokozile Ndlela and Charles Mutimaamba of Zimbabwe’s Crop Breeding Institute received the DTMA Breeding Team Award for southern Africa. It was presented by Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT Zimbabwe Maize Breeder, at a management meeting of the Department of Research and Specialist Services of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development of the Government of Zimbabwe, at their head office in Harare. The award consisted of USD 3000 and a silver tray that the winners will be able to display until it is reawarded next year.

“We truly appreciate this award, because it recognizes the efforts of all our team and shows our commitment to DTMA,” said Charles Mutimaamba. This is the third consecutive year that the Crop Breeding Institute has won the award in recognition of their outstanding achievements in maize breeding for drought tolerance. The team has consistently maintained a pedigree breeding program at Harare Research Station, using local and CIMMYT germplasm, and has been testing improved hybrids at two drought screening locations in southern Zimbabwe. The Crop Breeding Institute has also regularly submitted hybrids into the CIMMYT regional trials for widespread testing. Two drought tolerant hybrids, ZS263 and ZS265, were recently released and are in the process of seed scaleup with local seed companies.

During 19-23 October 2011, Birsa Agriculture University (BA7U), Jharkhand, India, hosted a short course on “Conservation Agriculture in Rainfed Small Holder Maize Farming Systems”, under the aegis of the IFAD “Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Maize- Livestock Farming Systems in Hill Areas of South Asia” project. The course aimed to provide practical exposure on key elements of conservation agriculture (CA), including calibration and operation of planting machinery, and component technologies of CA-based crop management solutions. Over 25 participants attended, including researchers and extension agents from BAU, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), State Department of Agriculture, NGOs, private sector, and service providers from across Jharkhand.

The course was inaugurated by A. K. Sarkar, Acting Vice Chancellor, BAU, with assistance from D.K. Singh ‘Dron’, Assistant Director of Research, BAU, Ken Sayre, CA Consultant, CIMMYT, and coordination by ML Jat, Senior Cropping Systems Agronomist, GCAP, CIMMYT. The course covered the basics of CA, with particular relevance to smallholder rainfed farming systems, including the calibration and operation of CA machinery, component technologies of residue, nutrient, weed management, and diversification, and how these technologies can be adapted for the region through partnerships with stakeholders, including farmers. A range of CA machinery (manual and animal-drawn, two- and four-wheel tractors), introduced to the region by CIMMYT and particularly suited to rainfed smallholder farmers, was demonstrated. Participants also shared their experiences of IFAD CA projects undertaken so far and discussed strategies for balancing crop-livestock integration, in relation to CA, as livestock is an important factor in rainfed farming systems.

The concept of ‘Basic-Strategic Research-Delivery’ continuums within the hubs concepts of South Asia (CSISA) and Mexico (MasAgro) were explained to the participants. It was highlighted that in IFAD, a similar pattern is being followed for a value chain solution of technology packages to the farmers.

An extraordinary session of the ASA/CSSA/SSSA convention in San Antonio, Texas, during 16-19 October 2011, honored researchers who have dedicated their professional lives to understanding and using the diversity of the amazing food crop, maize, and its wild relatives Tripsacum and teosinte. Entitled “The mysteries of maize: A recognition of pillars in maize science,” the session paid tribute to the careers of Major Goodman, Hugh Iltis, Takeo Ángel Kato Yamakake, Wilfredo Salhuana, José de Jesús Sánchez González, and H. Garrison Wilkes, as well as CIMMYT’s own Suketoshi Taba and José Crossa.

The session was moderated by Carolyn Lawrence, assistant professor at Iowa State University and a member of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) team managing the Maize Genetics & Genomics Database (MaizeGDB). Wilkes led off with a presentation about the in-situ conservation of teosinte and its co-evolution with maize. Among the other speakers, Taba talked about the potential for further use of the Mexican maize race Tuxpeño in future breeding work and thanked participants for their collaboration, consultation, and encouragement in developing the CIMMYT maize collection during his career. Closing the session was former CIMMYT molecular biologist and current USDA-ARS research geneticist Marilyn Warburton, who discussed issues around the use and conservation of the Zea gene pool.

Profiles of the pillars. A professor at the Colegio de Postgraduados, Kato is among many distinguished Mexican scientists whose contributions to research on maize evolution and diversity predate the advent of DNA markers; besides elucidating chromosome knob patterns for American maize races, he studied in partnership with late Nobel Laureate and cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock the possible migration and integration of maize germplasm. University of Guadalajara professor the collection and characterization of Mexican maize races and teosinte, the wild relative from which maizedirectly evolved.

During many years as a researcher at Pioneer, Salhuana was instrumental in efforts to identify and transfer useful diversity from tropical to temperate maize. Professor Emeritus of Botany at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Iltis is best known for studies on the domestication of maize, for leading a team of botanists who discovered the Zea diploperennis teosinte species, and for advocating the conservation of teosinte in natural habitats. Director of Maize Breeding and Genetics at North Carolina State University, Goodman helped lay the genetics and breeding groundwork to clarify and synthesize relationships among maize genetic resources, and has strongly supported the conservation of Latin American maize.

In addition to his interest in the evolution of maize, retired University of Massachusetts at Boston professor Wilkes has focused on economic botany, the genetics of domestication, and the promotion of effective gene banks and policies to conserve and use plant genetic resources. A regular visitor to CIMMYT, Wilkes helped improve and strengthen the center’s maize seed conservation systems and its global role as a genetic resource preserver and promoter.

Retired CIMMYT biometrician and distinguished scientist Crossa has helped define key methodologies for conserving and using the center’s maize genetic resources, including proper procedures to regenerate older seed samples or to form representative subsets of large collections. The head of maize genetic resources, Taba has worked at CIMMYT since 1975. His many accomplishments include coordinating the 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. He has also pioneered farmer participatory approaches to improve maize landraces while retaining essential qualities that farmers value, and has developed core subsets of major maize race collections. Finally, his abiding interest in conserving and studying maize wild relatives has expanded CIMMYT’s teosinte collections and lately led to his discovery of a new perennial teosinte in western Mexico.

“Maize’s domestication over 9,000 years from teosinte to a productive food crop is an incredible story,” said Taba. “These scientists have helped bring it to light, as well as defining the diversity that will give maize farmers new traits to meet the challenges of food scarcity and climate change.”

The special session was organized by Tom Payne, head of wheat genetic resources at CIMMYT, and Candice Gardener, research leader / supervisory plant biologist for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS-MWA-PIRU).

As genotyping technologies advance, so do their applications. Genomic selection through genotyping by sequencing can be used for breeding: marker data is produced, missing data is filled in across the genome, and models are run on the data to identify genotypes that express desirable traits and thus should go forward in breeding programs. Combined with field observations, genomic selection can provide a powerful lens for choosing good breeding lines.

Many CIMMYT staff from different areas are working on genomic selection, in partnership with scientists from Cornell University, Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd (DArT P/L; Australia), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and Kansas State University. On 24 October 2011, a meeting coordinated Ky Mathews, CIMMYT Biometrician, with assistance from Geneticist/Molecular Breeder Susanne Dreisigacker, brought to El Batán 24 specialists from CIMMYT and partner institutes to enhance communication, share experiences, and identify challenges associated with genomic selection.

A key concern is managing and sharing the huge volumes of data that the approach is expected to generate. “The datasets will grow and grow as the technologies progress,” says Mathews. “CIMMYT and other organizations will need infrastructure and resources to store, analyze, and interpret results. Communication will also be vital, with maize and wheat researchers receiving data for analysis at slightly different times, and with a turn-around time shorter and faster than anything we’ve dealt with before.” Genotyping by sequencing can produce many markers across the genome (order of thousands to millions), but still as much as 70% of marker scores may be missing, so scientists are applying a technique known as “imputation” to fill in the rest. The technique involves estimating what the values might have been using information available in the dataset. José Crossa and his team have been working on developing imputation methods for genotyping by sequencing. He warns that the methods are still in development, and their accuracy and feasibility for imputing biological missing data are as yet unknown.

For now, CIMMYT researchers are running an initial, testing cycle of genomic selection that should conclude in about eight weeks. Further meetings at that time will look at results, analyze mistakes, and identify learning points on all aspects, including imputation.

Following World Food Week in October, and the recent arrival of the world’s seventh billion citizen, Kristi York Wooten published an article in the Huffington Post on 05 November 2011, bringing together the thoughts of an expert panel on how to feed the growing population.

Cherae Robinson, CIMMYT Development Officer, highlighted the importance that women play in agriculture: “women produce nearly 90 percent of food on the African continent,” she said. Robinson also emphasized the need for innovation, with systems such as conservation agriculture becoming increasingly important for increasing yields and creating buffers against climate change. Whilst these issues might have the greatest impact in the developing world, it is vital that the rest of the population takes action in advocating policy changes, through lobbying, social media, and publicizing initiatives like ‘Feed the Future‘, added Robinson.

Other contributors also spoke of the need to assist smallholder famers, who produce much of the world’s food, and the importance of not only increasing the amount of food produced, but making sure that it is nutritious. The potential positive influence of the private sector was also highlighted as a method of increasing global food security.

Read the full article here.

During 26-27 October 2011, seed policy experts met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a workshop on “Maize seed sector development in eastern and southern Africa”, to chart the way forward for the regions’ seed systems. The workshop was organized by CIMMYT as part of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, and brought together permanent secretaries of agriculture ministries, members of parliament, seed companies, seed traders associations, heads of research organizations, scientists, and seed regulators from eight of the project countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).

The experts reviewed the results of the 2010/2011 CIMMYT seed sector survey, and assessed the progress made since the last regional policy workshop in 2008, and the survey of 2007/2008. Among the noteworthy achievements was the regional harmonization of seed laws as well as an increasing evidence base to inform policy. Lively discussions focused on five themes: variety development and release; seed production; seed marketing, distribution and storage; farmer adoption and seed use; and seed laws and private sector participation.

To increase effectiveness and productivity of the seed sector, the experts made several policy recommendations:

• International and regional seed laws should be domesticated and harmonized, and embedded within existing legislation.
• To reduce trade in fake seed, competition commissions should be set up and anti-trust laws enacted, including Kenya’s Anti-counterfeit Act, and holograms should be used for seed packaging.
• Smart subsidies with a clear exit strategy, in conjunction with services such as extension education and good agronomy, would be effective in increasing farmers’ access to new drought tolerant maize varieties.
• Seed availability could be increased through irrigated seed production on more land, and credited finance guarantees through national governments.
• The liberalization of seed production, certification, and trade would improve the efficiency of seed sectors and ensure that farmers have access to the best varieties for improved farm incomes and food security.

Summing up the outcomes from the workshop, Hon. John Mututho, Kenyan Member of Parliament and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Agriculture Committee said: “The experts at this meeting have accurately coined the policy issues dealing with seed production, marketing and trade. These policy recommendations should be adopted by the [Kenyan] Executive and Parliament as the basis for developing the Kenyan Seed Act, to be passed in 2012.”

On 19 August 2011, a workshop was hosted by CIMMYT-Colombia for maize producers, association representatives, and educators and students from various local universities, among others, on the advances of a project to increase maize production in Colombia through the development of improved germplasm adapted to the production systems in the Orinoquía region (East Plains). The Orinoquía is an area of plains, covered by pasture and interspersed with rivers and forests; all the rivers terminate in the Orinoco river. The project is coordinated by CIMMYT-Colombia, with support from the Colombian Agricultural Research Cooperation (CORPOICA), Colombian Growers Federation of Cereals and Legumes (FENALCE), International Center of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia. The workshop took place at the CORPOICA Research Center in Villavicencio, Del Meta District.

As part of the workshop, attendants visited the field and observed the results of trials of maize with tolerance to acidic soils. For this component of the project, 1,000 acidity-tolerant hybrids are being tested in four locations of the Colombian high plains (C.I. La Libertad in Villavicencio; Menegua in Puerto López; and Taluma and Carimagua in Puerto Gaitán) in the Meta District. They are also being evaluated for yield potentialand other important agronomic traits which help to increase production and profitability. Workshop participants observed that the yields of the best hybrids evaluated in C.I. La Libertad exceeded 7 tons per hectare, and it is hoped that yields in Carimagua will reach almost 10 tons per hectare. Based on harvest data, from the 1,000 hybrids a 10% subset of those with the best performance will be selected for evaluation in an increased number of locations from 2012. The goal is to make the best five hybrids available to Orinoquía farmers within 3-4 years. This would make an important contribution to a region where there are enough resources to widen the agricultural frontier and duplicate the current area sown (5 million hectares).

The same project also trialed maize lines known to be susceptible or tolerant to acidic soils. At aluminum saturation levels of 60%, the susceptible lines died during the seedling stage, long before the flowering stage. These results are particularly relevant given that the percentage of aluminum saturation in a native savannah from the Orinoquía is over 90% and only a few plant species survive.

A course on biotechnology applications to plant genetic breeding was held during 26-30 September 2011, at La Molina Agricultural University, Lima, Peru. Over 100 scientists from Peru’s National Institute of Agricultural Innovation and Peruvian universities attended the course, which focused on modern concepts and procedures of biotechnology as applied to plant breeding.

The instructors covered many topics. Myriam Cristina Duque, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), gave a presentation on biometrics applied to plant breeding, with an emphasis on experimental designs for non-balanced trials. Gary Atlin, CIMMYT, then focused in on heritability, mixed models theory and its application to plant breeding, as well as current uses of sequencing and genomics. Association mapping and analysis of plant genomes using molecular markers and QTL mapping was the subject of a presentation by Marilyn Warburton, USDA, and Luis Augusto Becerra, CIAT, also discussed molecular markers, as well as demonstrating the use of MapMaker and conducting a session on plant gene-based mapping. Luis Nopo, Arkansas State University, spoke about transgenic plant transformation and Raúl Blas, La Molina Agricultural University, conducted a practical session on extracting DNA from plants.

Unanimous positive feedback was received from the participants, who suggested that similar courses be held in other locations in order to better disseminate knowledge on current technologies. Resources for the course came from Peru, whose partnership with CIMMYT dates back 10 years, with the objective of developing profitable and environmentally-friendly maize technologies.

CIMMYT looks to further partnerships with Peru

Following the course on biotechnology for plant genetic breeding in Peru, Gary Atlin (Associate Director, CIMMYT Global Maize Program) and Luis Narro (Coordinator, CIMMYT-Columbia) met with Juan Rheineck Piccardo, Peru’s Vice-Minister of Agriculture on 27 September 2011, to discuss possible further partnerships between CIMMYT and the Peruvian government.

It is hoped that further collaborations would increase maize production in Peru, which currently produces just 40% of its national grain demand. Piccardo expressed interest in the proposals, suggesting that a project should be implemented at the National Institute of Agricultural Innovation (INIA) to select water-efficient maize genotypes. Atlin and Narro then visited the INIA site at Paiján, in the north coastal zone of Peru, to assess it’s characteristics. The area has no rainfall, allowing researchers to control the amount of water the plants receive during development, and the water table is more than 8 meters below ground-level, therefore avoiding interference between underground water and irrigation systems. Dialogues will continue once the selection trial has been established.

The World Food Day was established in 1979 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to raise awareness of the global food problem and strengthen solidarity against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. To commemorate World Food Day 2011, an international forum on “Food Security and Price Volatility: Scope, Perspectives, and Recommendations” took place during 17-18 October at the Sevilla Palace Hotel, Mexico City. The event was convened by FAO’s representatives in Mexico, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the Latin American Economic Commission (CEPAL), and the Inter- American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

Over two days, participants from national and international policy and research organizations, public and private sector, and scholars and representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, and the United States, exchanged experiences on the causes and effects of food price volatility, an issue which has an important impact on food security. They also explored options for public policy to reduce volatility, and identified elements to prepare a shared or coordinated agenda among countries and international organizations. Presentations ranged from the FAO outlining the establishment of a more efficient way to track fluctuating food prices, to details on the Brazilian government’s support of production at a family farm level.

Jonathan Hellin, Value Chain and Poverty Specialist for CIMMYT’s Socio-economics program (SEP), gave a presentation highlighting the importance of research and extension provision in meeting the challenges of increasing agricultural production and enhancing farmers’ access to markets. With the forum’s focus on policy issues, Hellin cited MasAgro, a coordinated initiative between CIMMYT and SAGARPA, as an example of integrated efforts between the public and private sectors to sustainably boost crop productivity. There are already visible, positive results from this project, such as increased interactions between scientists and small-scale farmers, and the benefits of MasAgro will be measurable in terms of Mexico’s wheat and maize production, added Hellin.

SAGARPA Undersecretary Mariano Ruiz-Funes reiterated the potential of MasAgro. “It starts from the plot, fosters commerce through contract farming, and adds value to products —with support of the Postharvest Management Program— allowing the development of a local market,” he said. Ruiz-Funes added that MasAgro is the most important program of recent years because it provides support directly to small farmers to promote higher crop yields, particularly in rainfed regions.

Congratulations to the joint program of CIMMYT and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), which was recently awarded the Innovation Research Program Award from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, in recognition of it’s outstanding contributions to wheat quality research and it’s impacts in China.

The CIMMYT-CAAS program was established in 1997 and has achieved significant progress in establishing quality testing protocols for traditional Chinese products, molecular marker development and application, QTL mapping for resistance to yellow rust and powdery mildew, documenting yield progress, variety development and extension, and HR development through collaborations with Chinese institutes and those overseas, including Murdoch University, University of Sydney, and USDA-ARS. The team is led by Zhonghu He, CIMMYT Principal Scientist and Country Representative, and includes seven CIMMYT-trained senior scientists, 15 graduate students, and ten support staff. Highly regarded both in China and internationally, the project also received CGIAR’s regional award in 2007, and a First Class Award in Science and Technology Progress from the Chinese State Council.

CIMMYT welcomed H.E. Hussein M. Alassiri, the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Mexico, to the El Batán headquarters on 20 October 2011. During his visit, the Ambassador was greeted by Director General Thomas Lumpkin, who highlighted the global challenges facing food security as well as describing CIMMYT’s programs which have been particularly successful in arid to semi-arid regions; Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA), Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), and Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA). In addition to describing the history and mission of CIMMYT, Lumpkin also presented the Borlaug Institute for South Asia as CIMMYT’s newest initiative to tackle growing food insecurity.

The visit proceeded with a tour of the seed bank and a presentation by Iván Ortiz-Monasterio on developments in nitrogen use efficiency technologies, followed by Roberto Javier Peña who provided the Ambassador with a background of CIMMYT’s work on wheat quality. Hans-Joachim Braun was also present to give an overview of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.

Saudi Arabia is ranked 19th in the world’s wheat importers, currently importing nearly 2 million metric tons of wheat, primarily from Germany, Canada, and the USA. Average estimated annual consumption of wheat by Saudi inhabitants is currently 110 kg per person. Although self-sufficient in wheat throughout the 1980s, Saudi Arabia announced in 2008 that domestic wheat production will cease in 2016, in order to conserve the country’s dwindling water resources. Over the next five years, wheat production will reduce at a rate of 12.5% annually.

The Ambassador’s visit to CIMMYT focused on areas of mutual interest including advances in research and development of wheat productivity, water use efficiency, and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Initiative which supports investment in low-income countries with a high potential to increase agricultural productivity. CIMMYT will be working with the Ambassador to send samples of seed collected in the Arabian Peninsula to Saudi researchers for further testing.