History was in the making at El Batán last Friday, 30 July 2010. After months of training, studying, and practical application, four ASGROW technicians successfully completed a written and applied test on conservation agriculture (CA), achieving the first-ever CIMMYT-approved CA certifications. This was part of a CIMMYT-led initiative to disseminate CA in central Mexico. For three years CIMMYT has been partnering with SAGARPA-Fondo Borlaug, Fundación Produce Estado de México, and Monsanto to establish sustainable agriculture in the Mexico’s central highlands.

“I never thought I would make it this far,” said Fermín Hernández Méndez, a technical consultant for ASGROW in Hidalgo, Mexico. “Reaching this point has not been easy, so now I am very proud of all the hard work it took to get here.”

Méndez was one of 10 ASGROW technicians who participated in the 2009-10 CIMMYT course “Technical Certification in Conservation Agriculture,” which focused on CA for highland maize in central Mexico (specifically the states of Mexico, Hidalgo, and Tlaxcala), and covered CA techniques for all farming stages. These technicians also supervise CA modules as part of a partnership between CIMMYT and seed company ASGROW, a Monsanto subsidiary.

“This certification for technicians in conservation agriculture is very important for CIMMYT,” said DG Tom Lumpkin. “It is through these technicians that we are able to promote CA dissemination and achieve advances in Mexican agriculture.”

Roughly a week prior, on 22 July 2010, the 10 technicians arrived at El Batán to take the certification test. Most were young, a visual reminder of how young or innovative farmers are usually quicker to adopt CA practices than their traditional elders. The test included an hour-long written exam followed by a two-hour practical exam, during which the technicians rotated between 12 stations where they had to demonstrate their CA knowledge in the field. Only four technicians successfully completed this rigorous examination (César Lorenzo García, Fermín Hernández Méndez, Jesús Cerecero Gutiérrez, and Valentín Reyes Castro), but all were invited to attend the certificate awarding ceremony, designed as an opportunity to praise everyone for their hard work. In addition to the nine attending technicians and their families, the Friday ceremony, which included dinner, was attended by Bekele Shiferaw, director of the Socioeconomics Program; Francisco Magallanes, El Batán superintendent; Carlos Buzio, marketing supervisor for ASGROW-Mexico; David López, highlands distribution channel representative for ASGROW-Mexico; Karen García, representing AGROBIO; and several members of the CA team.

“CIMMYT is an example of what can be achieved through applied science, with dedication, passion, and above all, with intelligence,” Shiferaw said in his speech during the ceremony, on behalf of Tom Lumpkin, who was unable to attend. “But I want to make clear that in order to reach the shared goal of sustainable agriculture, we must all work together: farmers, the private and public sector, and scientists.”

Technicians who did not achieve certification the first time around were still recognized for their efforts with a tool kit suitable for CA machinery work, and were reenrolled for the second certification course in 2010-11, which will be run in collaboration with SAGARPA and other partners.

“Conservation agriculture is becoming a big movement in Mexico, and we hope support for it will continue grow, as other partners like SAGARPA also increase their commitment,” said Bram Govaerts, head of the conservation agriculture team in Mexico and leader of the course, adding that he looks forward to further partnerships to positively impact Mexican agriculture.

On 30 June 2010, a USAID Famine Seed Project meeting was organized at CIMMYT’s South Asia Office in Kathmandu, Nepal. Seventeen participants, including those from the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC), CIMMYT-Nepal, CIMMYT-Bangladesh, and Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) HUB partners in Nepal, attended the meeting. The objectives of the day were to: (1) review 2009-10 crop cycle work and progress, (2) to develop a work plan for the upcoming 2010-11 cycle and, (3) to strengthen collaboration with technology-delivering stakeholders.

Arun Joshi, CIMMYT wheat breeder, opened the event with an overview of the progress and on-going challenges facing the six countries involved in the USAID project (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Nepal). He identified the project’s major activities as: (1) identification of suitable Ug99 resistant varieties and their pre- and post-release seed production, and (2) delivery of seed to farmers and rapid dissemination. CIMMYT, ICARDA, the BGRI, and national wheat programs are jointly implementing these activities.

This year, 2010, marks 25 years of strong partnership between CIMMYT and NARC, a milestone highlighted by NARC Executive Director B. Mishra, who also pointed out that the Famine Fund meeting was the first major NARC-CIMMYT meeting this year. Mishra said that Nepal is doing its best to produce sufficient amounts of Ug99 resistant seed, with a goal of producing enough to replant at least 5% of Nepal’s wheat area within the next two to three years. He happily announced that the new Ug99 resistant variety BL 3063 (GS348/NL746//NL748) has been approved by NARC’s technical committee, and will soon be released for cultivation.

Next, NARC scientists J. Tripathi, S.R. Upadhyay, and N.R. Gautam presented the specifics of Nepal’s work and efforts from the 2009-10 crop cycle, and outlined a potential 2010-11 work plan. They said that the estimated seed production of resistant lines in 2010–11 will be sufficient to meet 7.3% of the effective seed market, and to cover 2.4% of the total wheat area in Nepal. M.R. Bhatta and Sarala Sharma highlighted the importance of farmer participatory research for successful dissemination of new resistant seed varieties in Nepal.

The following presentation included explanations and deatils about the progress of the field demonstrations overseen by Nepal’s CSISA HUB. D.P Sherchan, CSISA HUB manager, and A.P. Regmi, agronomist, said that field demonstrations are important for the delivery of Ug99 resistant seed and seed resistant to other rusts, and that in large-scale trials, the yield of newly obtained resistant varieties (BL 3063 and Francolin) under zero tillage was significantly superior to the local checks.

Toward the end of the meeting, K.D. Joshi, South Asia regional coordinator for CAZS Natural Resources, part of Bangor University, UK, explained ways to enhance linkages with NGOs and newly emerging private sector companies to promote seed production and dissemination. T.P. Tiwari, CIMMYT-Bangladesh cropping system agronomist, summarized his experiences with particular agronomic interventions that could benefit field trials in Nepal.

The discussion outcomes led to the development of similar agronomic plans for Nepal and Bangladesh to harness the potential of Ug99 resistant lines. The meeting also provided a good update on progress in the USAID seed project, and provided ideas on how to strengthen ties between CSISA, NGOs, and the private sector, as well as providing suggestions on new agronomic innervations that could be integrated into trials in the upcoming crop cycle.

This year, the Conservation Agriculture (CA) Program in Mexico, CIMMYT’s host country, is participating in the 2010 Mexico Initiative. “Iniciativa México” is a venue for individuals, institutions, and organizations currently working for positive social or ecological change in Mexico to share their result-driven projects and initiatives. This is part of a nation-wide government initiative to celebrate the Bicentennial—signifying 200 years of Mexican independence — and to support national pride and social responsibility.

CIMMYT’s participation in this project originated from the passion Mexican farmers feel for their work and their love of the land, as well as their concern for the environment. Several farmers who collaborate with CIMMYT, practice CA, and are involved in CIMMYT’s CA Mexican hub project asked to be part of the Mexico Initiative in order to share the socioeconomic and environmental benefits they have gained by embracing CA crop practices.

The Mexico Initiative is asking the general public to express their support for the projects they prefer. You do this by visiting the website (http://www.iniciativamexico.org/registro.php) and registering some basic information (name, birthday, email). Then, you are given five “hearts” to distribute among the projects you think have the most potential. To find CIMMYT’s CA project, enter the keywords “Nodos de Agricultura Conservación” (Conservation Agriculture Hubs) into the search feature on the left-hand side of the webpage. To donate one or all of your hearts, click the “Detalles” link, and you will then be taken to a page where you can donate your hearts, share the project, send a message, or comment on the project. Projects that receive the most votes will receive the most visibility on the website—so be sure to share this CA project via your own social media networks! Final winners will be announced on 22 August 2010 and will receive funding and training support.

This is how the National Federation of Cereal and Legume Producers (FENALCE) announces on its website that on 30 June 2010 it celebrated half a century of its establishment. CIMMYT’s relationship with FENALCE dates back to the 1980s, with training for Colombian researchers and joint development of improved maize varieties.

Since 2002, CIMMYT has been working with the Federation in a collaborative project to grow maize among coffee trees. To celebrate its anniversary, FENALCE organized various regional events focused on cereal production. Two CIMMYT researchers from Mexico and Colombia, George Mahuku and Luis Narro, attended the official ceremony in Bogotá, which was chaired by Colombia’s deputy agriculture minister Juan Camilo Salazar. Mahuku was invited to present a seminar on “The impact of maize diseases on food production in Latin America,” while Narro was recognized by FENALCE for his support to cereals research in Colombia.

Jairo Manrique and Henry Vanegas, FENALCE officers, gave speeches that included mentions of the maize and wheat varieties resulting from collaboration with CIMMYT that are being sown in Colombia, and the benefits of CIMMYT’s training for their researchers.

From 01-06 July 2010 two courses took place at the Colombian National Agricultural Research Organization Colombian Corporation for Agricultural Research (CORPOICA) La Libertad Research Center in the city of Villavicencio.

There were more than 30 participants from different public and private sector organizations, including FENALCE, CORPOICA, UNILLANOS, SEMIVALLE, CENICAFE, CIMMYT, and Universidad ICESI. Both courses were possible thanks to the support of the Colombian Agriculture Ministry, as part of the project “Development of maize germplasm tolerant to acid soils for the Oriental Plains of Colombia,” in partnership with CIMMYT.

An advanced maize breeding course covered subjects such as doubled haploid technologies, screening, quantitative genetics, hybridization, molecular markers, and precision agriculture, and was taught by CIMMYT’s George Mahuku and Luis Narro, FENALCE’s José Ever Vargas Sánchez, and Argemiro Miguel Moreno Berrocal of CENICAFE. A statistics workshop, given by Norbey Marín Arredondo, consultant statistician and professor at Universidad ICESI, introduced participants to the use of SAS in experimental design    and analysis.

Both events received favorable reviews from the participants. FENALCE’s Luis Hernando Arévalo said that for him, and for several of his colleagues, the course had been like an “accelerated graduate degree” and that more courses like these should be given. CORPOICA’s Claudia Calderón reported that the new breeding and statistics tools she learned will enable her to work more efficiently. Finally, FENALCE’s general manager Henry Vanegas suggested that similar courses should be organized in more locations in Colombia to benefit more people.

In addition to being a major staple food, maize is important in many indigenous Mexican cultures. Staff at CIMMYT-El Bátan had the opportunity to learn about the relationship between maize and native culture during a fascinating on-campus presentation on 02 July 2010. Anthropologists Carmen Morales of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and Catalina Rodíguez-Lazcano of the National Museum of Anthropology and History jointly presented “Knowledge and festivals around native corn,” which was translated from Spanish into English so everyone could attend.

The seminar drew on the presenters’ studies of three very distinct indigenous groups—the Chen, Mayan descendents who live in the state of Campeche; the Purépecha, who live in Michoacán State; and the inhabitants of Milpa Alta, an entity within the borders of Mexico City. The two experts outlined traditions and festivals based around maize, complemented by color photographs from each location illustrating local settings and customs, grain storage methods, variety types, end-use products, and indigenous nomenclature for the maize plant and its parts. As is common in south-central and southeastern Mexico, farm settings are diverse and challenging, and most producers are subsistence smallholders who grow maize more for tradition and home use than for income.

Among the points highlighted were the close connections between native maize races and local foods and traditions, and the importance of culture in the preservation of those races. In Purépecha villages, the crop cycle coincides closely with the calendar of Catholic religious ceremonies: seed is brought to the church to be blessed before sowing, and on one religious feast day after harvest, seed is thrown to the sky beseeching God to rain bounty back down upon the community. The value of kernel color for the Purépecha was depicted through beautiful and informative photographs of brightly-colored maize cobs from the region.

There were several surprises as well. In northern Campeche, the influence of Menonite immigrants has led many maize farmers to grow commercial hybrids with agrochemicals, bringing them yields as high as seven tons per hectare. It was interesting to learn that part-time farmers in Milpa Alta, a semi-rural, high-altitude zone of the swelling metropolis (18 million inhabitants!) of Mexico City, still conserve the Aztec language Nahuatl and grow native maize races.

The seminar concluded with a question and answer session, and Director General Tom Lumpkin expressed hope of further collaboration between CIMMYT and Mexico City’s Anthropology Museum.

The Chinese Academy of Engineering honored Zhonghu He, principal scientist of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and China country representative, for his work with wheat quality improvement and promotion of China-CIMMYT collaboration. Zhonghu received the Guanghua Award in a ceremony on 09 June 2010 in Beijing. Established in 1996, this award recognizes Chinese scientists who have made signification contributions in applied science and management. To date, only eight scientists with agriculture or forestry backgrounds have received the Guanghua Award.

On 28 June 2010, 15 participants from various CIMMYT units and departments attended a one-day workshop given by the CIMMYT web team. Held at El Batán, the event covered the basic uses of Joomla—a content management system for websites and Intranets. Content management systems are designed primarily for interactive use, potentially by a large number of contributors.

With the new CIMMYT website, interior pages will be maintained by unit-selected managers and administrators with support from Corporate Communications. Additionally, the Intranet is now integrated within the new CIMMYT website and will be accessible to those with CIMMYT credentials.

The workshop was designed to equip these persons with the knowledge and tools to manage their unit’s information. Exercises covered uploading or updating information, inserting images and documents, creating links, and editing existing information. Participants also learned how to keep the website running smoothly by only uploading “clean” text and images of appropriate size.

Several participants said that the knowledge gained will allow them to manage web information in the future. A few requested additional training on menu and table management. To address these and other issues, more training sessions will be scheduled, including events for web section administrators outside of El Batán. The web team offered their ongoing assistance.

United for sports: this was the theme of Sports Day held at CIMMYT’s El Batán campus on 18 June 2010. Teams from the Mexican CIMMYT stations (Agua Fría, Obregón, Tlatizapán, Toluca, El Batán) congregated for a day of team competition in volleyball, soccer, and basketball. Individuals also competed in a 5 km walking race, a mini-marathon, cycling, and swimming. A tennis tournament was also held, with the double sets displaying CIMMYT’s multicultural nature at its best.

Away from the mainstream sports, there were recreational games: wrap the mummy, egg and spoon race, pop-the-balloon, sack race, egg-tossing, a dizzy race, and an interesting twist on the three-legged race using a four-man team. The competitors in these games formed international teams and united in silly fun. Aerobics and zumba (a type of dance) performances were held in the gymnasium, cheered on by an animated audience.

Even cleaning up was fun! Environmentally aware two-member teams competed to see who could fill up a sack with plastic bottles in the shortest amount of time. The winning team was awarded, and everyone else was a winner for contributing to the impromptu clean-up campaign.

After all that activity, everyone was hungry and enjoyed a provided lunch, which was accompanied by an award ceremony for the winners of the day’s events. Dancing followed dining. There were various performances, including salsa and Los Chinelos, a traditional dance from the state of Morelos, Mexico. Then it was time for everyone else to take to the dance floor, where they grooved to the beats of the band Adrián y sus teclados (Adrian and His Keyboard), which featured CIMMYT’s very own Ricardo De La Rosa (head of audiovisuals) on the bass. And at the end of the day, there was more dancing, accompanied by a live Cuban band, at El Rincón.

Norman Borlaug may be gone, but his teachings and spirit live on. On May 21 2010, Ohio State University (OSU), USA, dedicated its “Scarlet and Gray Ag Day” to the late CIMMYT agronomist and hero. “Scarlet and Gray Ag Day” (named after the university’s colors) is designed to educate local fourth and fifth graders about agriculture and its importance to society. It is one of the university’s largest outreach events.

This year, over 600 students descended upon OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences campus for hands-on activities designed to teach them about wheat production, the Irish potato famine, plant diseases, and many other agriculture-related topics.

Julie Borlaug, the granddaughter of Norman Borlaug, was a guest of honor and spoke to the children during lunch. “It’s been fabulous to see fourth and fifth graders who are so far removed from agriculture experience it and enjoy learning about it,” she said. “My grandfather felt it was important to invest in today’s youth, who will be tomorrow’s leaders. I know that my grandfather would be proud of this amazing program.”

With the words “congratulations for the good work of your teams,” on 18 June 2010 the Consortium Board returned its feedback on the MAIZE and WHEAT Mega-Program proposals recently-submitted by CIMMYT, in conjunction with IITA and ICARDA. Consisting of comments from three external reviewers and the Board itself, the critiques praise the proposals but lay out suggestions for improvement that include clarifying impact pathways and interactions and boundaries with other CGIAR initiatives; elaborating on partnership strategies; further analyzing gender issues; finalizing management approaches; and defining how the Mega-Programs will be monitored and evaluated.

One reviewer of the MAIZE proposal said: “The strategic vision presented in the proposal’s 10 Strategic Initiatives (SIs) is admirably comprehensive…. the conceptual structure of the presentation under each SI is excellent, and represents a model that could be followed in other Mega-Programs.” In the opinion of another: “The outcomes of the proposed work are clearly described and highly relevant…. the SIs concerning breeding and genetic diversity are highlights in excellent science.” The Board characterized WHEAT as an ambitious Mega-Program: “Its major strength is the relevance and…complementarity of the SIs. Together, they appear to work on achieving a common goal of boosting farm level wheat production while building resilience into the system.”

The MAIZE and WHEAT draft proposals were built on diverse partner feed-back, as expressed in direct day-to-day interactions and communications. For further refinement, the proposals went out for comment to more than 700 representatives in over 350 institutions, including national agricultural research programs, universities, advanced research institutes, non-governmental organizations, donor agencies, private companies, and farmer associations. To date, CIMMYT has received several dozen offering support or suggestions for improvement. Center staff have also taken advantage of individual visits and meetings like the International Wheat Conference held in St. Petersburg, Russia, during 01-04 June 2010, or the establishment of the Asia Hybrid Maize Consortium, to seek partners’ engagement and feedback.

CIMMYT is revising the proposals and will return the new versions to the Consortium Board in July 2010. Budgets, arrangements, and many operational details are under development, and in many cases implementation will be defined with partners when work gets underway.

Some 600 scientists from 77 wheat-producing nations gathered in the historic city of St. Petersburg for the 8th International Wheat Conference (IWC), 01-04 June 2010. The IWC is held every five years, the last conference taking place in La Plata, Argentina, in 2005. Opening sessions included a presentation by Hans-Joachim Braun, director, Global Wheat Program. The famous Vavilov Institute—one of the oldest and most comprehensive collections of germplasm—was also the focus of the introductory papers. CIMMYT was very well-represented, with presentations in different sessions by Tom Lumpkin, Susan Dreisigacker, Matthew Reynolds, Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, Tom Payne, and retired CIMMYT wheat agronomist Ken Sayre, as well as poster presentations from many other global wheat program staff. “Every major wheat-producing country was represented and there was a strong private sector presence,” says Braun. “This really showed that wheat is back on the research agenda.”

Scientists join to combat new threat to world wheat crop.

Just prior to the IWC, leading wheat experts from Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas gathered for two days in St. Petersburg to address the threat of four new mutations of Ug99 wheat stem rust which are virulent against two important stem rust-resistance genes—SR24 and SR36—used widely in the world’s wheat breeding programs. “Most wheat varieties of the world are vulnerable to the original form of Ug99,” says CIMMYT distinguished scientist Ravi Singh. “We will now have to make sure that every new wheat variety we release has resistance to both Ug99 and the new races.” Participants included specialists from CIMMYT, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), which organized the event.

Recent meetings in Bangladesh about collaboration for improved food security focused on two new CGIAR mega programs for maize and wheat. Global Maize Program director BM Prasanna and Global Conservation Agriculture director Pat Wall met with scientists at the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and members of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) in late May, and received positive feedback on partners’ desire to help implement these programs in Bangladesh.

After talking with CIMMYT representatives, Wais Kabir, BARC’s executive chairman, expressed his satisfaction about the comprehensive nature of the two megaprograms and thanked CIMMYT for the long-term functional partnership with BARI under BARC in various research projects in Bangladesh. He said that BARC would like to be a key partner in the maize and wheat mega programs. Other consulted organizations in Bangladesh included the International Rice Research Institute, WorldFish, and USAID.

The “Second Week of Conservation Agriculture (CA),” in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, which ran from 28 May to 03 June 2010, consisted of a series of activities coordinated by the CA-Mexico team to encourage communication among farmers who have adopted CA techniques, authorities, and members of organizations that support CA.

Communication panels with farmers and tractor drivers, an awareness event about the negative effects of burning field residues, and a day of maize harvesting were all designed for participants to share experiences and learn more about CA. There was also an official ceremony that included farmers, various authorities, engineers, researchers, and representatives of the private sector.

Bram Govaerts and María Cárdenas of the CA program both gave presentations on sustainable agriculture. Govaerts explained the basics of CA and the results obtained so far from using it, while Cárdenas gave a report on the use of the GreenSeeker technology. These presentations were followed by a day spent at local modules, which are plots owned by farmers who have adopted CA. Participants also saw experiments that compared CA productivity and profitability with traditional agricultural practices.

The events were covered by local press and television channels. One topic that generated a lot of interested was stubble burning. The demonstration burning was performed at the Norman E. Borlaug Experiment Station (CENEB) in long-term, experimental plots to show the negative effects this practice has on the environment. This activity was made possible with the permission of the Environmental Management Department of Ciudad Obregón. CA team member Jesús Mendoza gave several interviews on this subject.

The “Second CA Week” was an initiative of CIMMYT; the Mexican National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock (INIFAP); Mexico’s national wheat marketer’s organization (CONATRIGO); Patronato for Research and Agricultural Experimentation of the State of Sonora (PIEAES); the Association of Agriculture Organizations of Southern Sonora (AOASS); the CIMMYT-ASGROW project; and several other institutions interested in promoting sustainable farming techniques.

During the week, Antonio Gándara Aztiazarán, president of the PIEAES southern zone, announced that for the 2010-11 crop cycle his organization will begin to use CA in one of their seed multiplying plots. The plan is to start in an experimental area, and then expand after gaining experience.