Wilfred Mwangi, program leader for the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project, presented the DTMA award for best breeding team in southern Africa to the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) on 26 March 2009. Peter Setimela, seed systems specialist, and Bindiganavile Vivek, maize breeder (both from CIMMYTZimbabwe) were among those who attended the ceremony at Mount Makulu Research Station in Chilanga, Zambia.

“I am truly excited to be a part of such an occasion. Awards such as these are very important as incentives for our researchers,” Dr. Watson Mwale, director of the ZARI, told guests.

A day before the ceremony, on 25 March 2009, 20 participants were in a variety release awareness workshop, supported by the DTMA. It was organized to enhance knowledge among researchers and the national variety release committee (NVRC) on variety release guidelines and procedures in Zambia. The researchers were plant breeders from seed companies and the national agricultural research systems (NARS).

During the workshop, variety release procedures and guidelines in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa were compared and NVRC members were updated on new tools for screening and evaluating maize genotypes under drought and low-Nitrogen (N). The workshop also outlined methods for interpreting data for variety release and shared experiences on variety release from a seed company’s perspective.

Dr. Moses Mwale, deputy director of ZARI, said; “The current rise in food prices can be addressed through increased productivity by using improved varieties. I hope that the presentations and discussions made during the workshop will result in speeding up the release of improved varieties and distribution of quality seed.” Mwale also added, “Harmonization of variety release and registration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region will help achieve this goal.”

On 25 March 2009 the Monsanto Company announced a USD 10 million grant to establish the Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program, which will help identify and support young scientists interested in improving research and production in rice and wheat through plant breeding techniques.

The program honors the accomplishments of Dr. Henry Beachell and Dr. Norman Borlaug, who pioneered plant breeding and research in rice and wheat, respectively. It will be administered by Texas AgriLife Research, an agency of the Texas A&M University System, for the next five years.

“This is a welcome investment by the private sector, in an era of increasing food insecurity and decreasing numbers of graduate students in plant breeding,” said CIMMYT DG Tom Lumpkin. “We hope others will follow suit with additional funding and look forward to hosting scholars funded by the program at our center.” Students interested in applying to the program can find more details at www.monsanto.com/mbbischolars. Applications will be accepted until May 31 2009.

ZM 309 and ZM 523 have been a success in Malawi—locals from Balaka District, greeted the new varieties with song, dance, and a poem at the government launch and field day on 20 March 2009. Malawian farmers who planted them on on-farm demonstrations have even given them local names calling ZM 309 “Mkawa sala” (early-maturing) or “Msunga banja” (that which takes care of or feeds the family). About 300 demonstrations of the new open pollinated varieties (OPVs) have been set up in farmers’ fields.

“We are grateful to CIMMYT for technical, financial, and scientific support in developing these new varieties that are suitable for the drought-prone areas and will help the people of Malawi to alleviate poverty and hunger and cope with climate change; which these days is becoming a reality,” said Dr. Andrew Daudi, principal secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Malawi. “ZM 309 is going to be included in the national subsidy program for the 2009/10 growing season.”

Both varieties were developed for drought-prone areas with infertile soils in eastern and southern Africa through joint efforts by CIMMYT and Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. They are also resistant to maize streak virus, gray leaf spot, and other diseases.

“We at CIMMYT are happy to be associated with Malawi and commend the Government of Malawi for boldly supporting its farmers through the national agricultural input subsidy program,” said Wilfred Mwangi, program leader, Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project. “The rest of Africa is going to learn from Malawi.”

Malawi’s green revolution

Malawi is now a net exporter of maize to the region and is being looked to as an African success story due to its food self-sufficiency. This success is owed to the country’s agricultural input subsidy program, initiated by the government in 2005 after Malawi experienced one of its worst harvests in years. Farmers are supplied with improved maize seed and fertilizer at subsidized prices and can choose either hybrid or OPV seed. Seed Co, Malawi, plans to produce enough certified seed of the new varieties for farmers to plant in coming summer seasons. As well, both varieties are OPVs so farmers can save and re-use the seed optimally for up to three subsequent seasons.

Also organizing and participating in the launch from CIMMYT were Peter Setimela, seed systems specialist; Brian Chiputwa, research associate, Socio-Economics Program; and Anne Wangalachi, science writer/editor. CIMMYT is grateful to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Malawi for supporting Innovation Learning Platform (ILeP) activities and the launch of the new varieties. Special thanks also goes to Dr. Andrew Daudi; Dr. Jeff Luhanga, controller of Agricultural Extension and Technical Services; and to Christine Mtambo, chief agricultural officer (crop production).

Similar field days will be held in Balaka District to raise awareness and allow farmers to interact freely with researchers, seed producers, and other stakeholders.

The cereal crop triticale was the focus of a four-day meeting in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora State, Mexico, from 23-26 March. CIMMYT started breeding this wheat-rye hybrid in the 1960s for its durability and strong yield performance in marginal wheat areas. The 7th International Triticale Symposium hosted representatives from over 30 countries, including several from developing countries that had been unable to attend previous triticale symposiums due to lack of funding.

Dr. Perry Gustafson, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) delivered the keynote address, focusing on the history of the crop and giving tribute to the late Bent Skovmand, who was a CIMMYT champion of triticale and helped establish the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. One goal of the conference was to gauge interest and advances in the crop; results will help determine the future of CIMMYT’s triticale program, which is in severe lack of funding. Triticale typically performs as well as or better than wheat and has multiple end uses (food, feed, biofuel), yet it is still largely ignored by the agricultural community.

“One of our strategic mistakes is that we have pushed triticale as human food, and that placed it in a market where it competes at handicap with bread wheat. It does not have the bread-making quality of bread wheat; it does not have the pasta-making quality of durum wheat,” said Karim Ammar (pictured top center), head durum wheat and triticale breeder and executive chair of the organizing committee. “But as feed, it has a competitive advantage, both in terms of cost of production and in terms of quality. This is how I think CIMMYT should promote and encourage people to use triticale.” Ammar added that for developing countries to experience the full benefits of the crop, more emphasis needs to be placed on promotion, technology transfer, and education.

A mixture of cultures and crop specialists poured into Ciudad Obregon, Sonora state, Mexico, this week for a four-day conference on a deadly pathogen that, if left unchecked, could threaten global food security. Nearly 300 scientists, agronomists, and agricultural leaders from over 40 countries attended the event, determined to prevent this from happening.

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), created in 2005 to combat wheat rusts, led the 17-20 March meeting. The focus was on Ug99, a particularly dangerous disease that attacks the stem of wheat plants and causes massive yield loss. This pathogen has already been identified in six countries, and threatens dozens more due to its wily ability to mutate and migrate.

“It is a roll of the dice of when it will arrive,” said CIMMYT’s DG Tom Lumpkin during the opening ceremony, referring to the near inevitable spread of Ug99. The disease has overcome previous resistant wheat strands, prompting Lumpkin and others to advocate ready-for-release stockpiles of new varieties that experts believe might stump the disease.

“Our scientists are making incredibly rapid progress, but we should have no illusions: a global food crisis is still a distinct possibility if governments and international institutions fail to support this rescue mission,” said Norman Borlaug, BGRI chair, 1970 Nobel laureate, and father of the Green Revolution.

Throughout the week participants attended lectures, exchanged information, and created new multilateral relationships. “There has never been such an international coordinated effort against rust diseases before. People are working together,” said Harbans Bariana, principal research fellow and associate professor at the University of Sydney’s Cereal Rust Control Program. Participants also visited the Obregon station where they saw Ug99-resistant wheat lines and enjoyed a traditional carne asada.

Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s wheat program, took the opportunity to recognize Dave Hodson, former head of the center’s Geographic Information Systems Laboratory, for his vital work on RustMapper, an interactive program used to track and predict the spread of Ug99. Hodson leaves CIMMYT to continue his work with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “If Dave and his family ever decide that tacos in Texcoco are better than pizza in Rome, they are more than welcome to come back,” Braun joked.

The BGRI consists of a powerful group of organizations including CIMMYT, the Syria-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Cornell University, the FAO, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The importance and international implications of this year’s meeting attracted widespread media attention. Over 100 media outlets printed individual or wire (AP, Reuters, AFP) stories about the event.

Rodomiro Ortiz, CIMMYT director of resource mobilization, gave a presentation titled “CGIAR’s best bet technologies: From lab to farm” on 3 March during the World Bank’s Rural Week 2009 held at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. The session was organized by EijaPehu (senior adviser, Agriculture and Rural Development, World Bank) and chaired by Indira Ekanayake (senior agriculturalist, Latin America and Caribbean Region, World Bank).

“The CGIAR can assist with technological backstopping and participate in relevant development organizations’ meetings that deal with agriculture,” said Ortiz, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of CGIAR centers.“Such interactions will help to build the needed impact pathways with a wide range of partners to succeed in this endeavor,” he added.

“Best bets” are promising approaches, practices, or technology that have been tested through experimental and on-farm research. They may include results from quasi-experimental research and wisdom from practitioners working in the field, according to Ortiz. Josette Lewis, director, Office of Agriculture, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), contextualized the discussion in a broader research and development continuum. She pointed out that this information was critical in the USAID response to the soaring food price crisis of last year, and invited other development investors to consider supporting the CGIAR “best bets” through their funding.

Ortiz also stressed the need for investments in national capacitybuilding (e.g. on strengthening national agricultural research and extension systems); infrastructure (on roads, markets, irrigation); promotion of institutions (e.g. farmers’ groups and cooperatives); support of local small and medium enterprises; and investment in agri-businesses as well as providing an enabling environment through a national government policy for agriculture.

During debate follow-up, some CGIAR members indicated that they were pleased to hear about the potential use of the ‘best bets’ for boosting crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa, said Ortiz. Some participants also indicated their support for the CGIAR’s ongoing change management process. Maria Iskandarani, CGIAR secretariat, will follow up with Pehu to explore institutional mechanisms to better link CGIAR research-for-development with World Bank operations; the goal is to make technical assistance more effective and improve collaboration between the two organizations.

From 28 February to 3 March, the Global Maize Program (GMP) team and participants from the Socioeconomics and Genetic Resources programs (forming ‘GMP Plus’) were in Harare, Zimbabwe for their annual review and work planning meeting. It was a good time for old colleagues to reunite and for the many new colleagues to become better integrated—finally putting faces to Bish Das, Yoseph Beyene, Kassa Semagn, Sarah Kibera, and Héctor Sánchez.

For four days the participants critically reviewed on-going and proposed projects. Presentations on activities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia set the stage for lively discussions and clearly-defined follow-ups. Covered topics included the germplasm bank, molecular breeding, new germplasm, seed systems, more effective product communication, and socio-economic approaches for various projects. Project scientists also identified and listed points of interaction with other units such as corporate communications, administration, and human resources to ensure broad support for project activities.

“Last year was a great year for maize research at CIMMYT and our funding base has become stronger,” said Marianne Bänziger, GMP director. “But let’s also face the challenges by scaling up molecular breeding so that it indeed accelerates our breeding progress by getting the best germplasm more rapidly through varietal release and to more farmers, and by being clever in how we interact in a patchwork of multidisciplinary projects that span the globe. I won’t tell you the solutions are easy, but we have the right skills and let’s be open to learning new ones to effectively tackle these challenges.”

Teamwork and cooperation were recurrent themes in the meeting. “I have only been with the GMP for four years, but I find the sense of teamwork truly outstanding,” said Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara, who leads the Hill Maize Research Project in Nepal.

Participants also got a taste of reality in Harare. The meeting was held in a beautiful location about three kilometers from the CIMMT Zimbabwe station where Internet access was slow and daily life was affected by a generator which ran out by 9:00 p.m.

“We salute our Zimbabwe colleagues for keeping our commitment to the development of maize in Zimbabwe and to the uplifting of poor farmers within the region despite challenging circumstances,” said Wilfred Mwangi, leader of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project. “We also thank CIMMYT management for having faith in and continuing to support the GMP work in Zimbabwe.”

On the last day, Héctor Sánchez and Anne Wangalachi gave a presentationon web interaction tools that focused on CIMMYT’s Wiki, Maize Trials Reporter (which is in final testing stages before commercial release), Maize Doctor, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) module. The last three are hosted on the DTMA Project website (http://dtma.cimmyt.org). Sarah Kibera, GMP program advisor, presented a proposed Program Management System, developed in Nairobi by Aaron Pesa with assistance from Kibera, Kimani Kamau, and Bänziger. The system (also in final testing) is expected to assist in more effective planning, better use of resources, and increased ease of interaction. “This will improve project communications since, with just a few clicks, you can access information on teams’ work plans, reports, and timelines all across CIMMYT,” said Kamau.

The meeting included a party to honor Augustine Langyintuo, outgoing CIMMYT economist, and meeting participants expressed thanks for their CIMMYT-Zimbabwe colleagues who provided logistical support to make the meeting successful under challenging national circumstances, especially Mulugetta Mekuria, Bindi Vivek, Irene Gwabi, Tsungai Gumbo, Simbarashe Chisoro, Fred Sikirivawu, and Mafiyo Wadi.

Former MSc student Eliel Martínez Cruz, now a PhD student at the Colegio de Postgraduados, received a Pan-American Nutrition, Food Science and Technology Award from Grupo Bimbo. He won recognition in the “young scientist category” for zone 2 (the four zones represent the US, Mexico, Central-, and South America), for his work on the effects of diverse Glu-1/Glu-3 glutenin alleles on dough rheology and the bread-making quality of wheat. This research is part of the INIFAP-CIMMYT wheat quality collaborative project. Martínez Cruz conducted his research in CIMMYT’s Cereal Chemistry and Quality Laboratory, under the supervision of Roberto J. Peña.

With a full-house in the auditorium at El Batán, on Wednesday 25 February 2009, Director General Tom Lumpkin addressed Mexican national staff in person and via simultaneous Skype conference call also personnel of the 4 research stations – Agua Fría, Ciudad Obregón, Tlaltizapán, and Toluca.

Among other things, he took advantage of the occasion to introduce Scott Ferguson, new Deputy Director General for Support Services, who spoke briefly about changes he would like to bring about in the Center and its activities.

Talking in from Agua Fría, station superintendent Raymundo López provided input on several topics, including partnerships with Mexican state governments. María Teresa Rodríguez, of the Global Wheat Program and speaking in her capacity as representative of the Grupo de Representación de Personal Nacional (GRPN), summarized and responded to 10 questions that staff had sent to the DGs office and the GRPN for the occasion.

There were thoughtful comments and criticisms from others of staff attending. The GRPN will soon circulate minutes of the meetings, and a full audio recording of the event is on the Intranet in the right bar under the title “Messages from the DG.”

“We have the same amount of land but we need it to yield more, because every day there are more of us; we need a livelihood and we’re sad to see that our children, our brothers, and our family are leaving as farming’s not profitable for us.” said Maria del Carmen Puga Quezada, who was among 22 farmers who came to El Batán for an introduction to conservation agriculture (CA) course.

Two farmer organizations (El Surco de Nopalucan and Soñadores del Maíz de Coronango) from the state of Puebla learned about basic CA principles during 23-24 February 2009 in a course led by Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT crop systems management specialist.

“Four of the farmers will implement on-farm CA modules with the help of contracted extension services,” said Govaerts. “This reflects our hub concept for coordinated action and sustainable impact, and specifically to support farmers who help develop and disseminate the technology. These farmers can then train other farmers on how to implement CA.” CA techniques have been shown to improve soil structure, save water, and reduce labor and energy costs. “Farmers lack information, but somehow we’re getting it to them and opening the way for those with the resources and materials to use their imaginations to modify their machinery for CA.” said CIMMYT research assistant Adrián Martínez Barrera, who taught part of the workshop.

Participants learned about managing crop residues, advantages and disadvantages of CA, calibration of CA machinery, proper crop rotations, pest and weed control, and permanent beds, among other topics. “It’s not so much teaching the farmers, but rather showing them how CA works so they themselves can adapt the system to their needs and communities,” said Francisco Magallanes, El Batán station superintendent, who also gave part of the course.

A global team of researchers that includes CIMMYT scientists has uncovered the molecular basis of a “wonder” gene that, in tandem with other resistance genes, has helped protect wheat from three deadly fungal diseases for more than 50 years, providing farmers benefits in excess of USD five billion in harvests saved.

Since the 1970s farmers have used wheat varieties that are resistant to leaf rust, a major fungal crop disease. Without these rust-resistant varieties, wheat farmers would have lost USD 5.36 billion in harvests. [Economics Program Paper 04-01] Now, a study in this month’s issue of the renowned Science journal has reported the sequencing of Lr34—a key gene underlying this “durable” resistance in wheat to leaf rust and to two other major diseases of the crop: stripe rust and powdery mildew. Until now, no one knew much about Lr34‘s physiological action. Uncovering its DNA sequence allowed the scientists to understand how the gene works.

“Combined with other minor-action genes, Lr34 does occasionally permit the pathogen to colonize and grow on the plant,” says Ravi Singh, CIMMYT wheat geneticist/pathologist and co-author of the Science report, “but it causes the disease to develop so slowly that yield losses are negligible. Lr34 has proven so useful that it’s been bred into wheat cultivars sown on more than 26 million hectares in various developing countries.”

Researchers from the University of Zurich and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization of Australia (CSIRO) worked with Singh and co-author Julio Huerta-Espino, a rust scientist from Mexico’s national agricultural research institute, INIFAP, to sequence Lr34 and conduct combined molecular and field tests to uncover the gene’s resistance action. Among other things, they found that it behaves in a way unique from so-called “major” resistance genes.

The Lr34 gene encodes an adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) binding cassette transporter, according to CSIRO scientist Evans Lagudah, also a co-author on the Science report. ATP is a multifunctional “nucleotide”—a type of molecule that comprises the structure of DNA. It typically transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism. “In mammals, for example, ATP binding cassette transporters underlie resistance to chemo-therapeutic drugs in cancer treatment, where the transporters can pump out the drugs from the cancer cells,” says Lagudah. “In plants, certain transporters can inhibit or reduce pathogen colonization in infected tissues.”

Science in a deadly “arms race” against rust

In early research to breed rust-resistant wheat lines, scientists depended heavily on resistance genes showing “major” action; that is, completely blocking the entry or development of specific races of the rust fungus. This approach resulted in varieties that would yield well for some years—there was no predicting how long—but which would eventually fall to new, more virulent rust strains. “The major genes typically include a protein that ‘recognizes’ a protein in the pathogen, triggering the resistance reaction,” says Singh. “But with even a minute mutation in that pathogen protein, the resistance gene would no longer ‘detect’ an infection, no plant defense would be triggered, and the pathogen would thus regain virulence.”

Because of this, the wheat fields where farmers have sown varieties protected only by major resistance genes can be hit with sudden, potentially disastrous rust epidemics, as occurred in a large wheat-growing area in northern Mexico in the late 1970s. “The government and research organizations of the time were forced to undertake an expensive, military-like operation to quickly import and apply enough fungicide to avoid a total crop failure,” says Huerta-Espino.

To address such breakdowns in resistance, CIMMYT adopted a breeding strategy that entailed searching among diverse sources for resistance genes which, like Lr34, have small, additive effects that work across rust races. Researchers then would breed several such genes into high-yielding wheat varieties, according to Singh. “When CIMMYT wheat breeder Sanjaya Rajaram first implemented this strategy, it sounded good in theory, but there was no guarantee it would work,” says Singh. “The decision seems obvious now, but back then it was so risky that few breeding programs were willing to undertake it.”

The upshot for breeders

In addition to elucidating Lr34‘s cell-level action, the benefits of the new study include the development of a precise DNA marker for Lr34‘s presence in wheat varieties. This tool will allow breeders to manipulate the gene better in crosses or, according to Singh, focus on slow-rusting genes from other sources. “There are genes that appear to behave similarly to Lr34, but are different and are located elsewhere on the chromosome,” he says. “Because Lr34 is so common in our breeding materials, it’s hard to isolate these other genes. With the new marker, we can select against Lr34 to develop experimental wheat lines from which we’re sure it’s absent.” The lines can then be used in research on other slow-rusting genes and perhaps to create a wholly distinct type of resistance

Singh says CIMMYT is involved in additional work on other slow-rusting genes, similar to that reported in Science. “Collaboration is crucial in such studies,” he says. “No single group can handle the required lab and field work on its own.” He also hopes the Science report will prompt other groups to analyze slow-rusting genes, instead of the more-easily-studied major race-specific genes: “With demand going up and rising grain prices, and higher temperatures possibly favoring the emergence of new pathogen strains in developing country cropping areas, farmers need all the help they can get from research on disease resistance in staple cereals.”

Farmers in Lesibovu, Swaziland, are delighted; their new seed company “Lesibovu Community Seed Company” is completing its registration. This is a big step for the small community, because thanks to The New Seed Initiative for Maize in Africa (NSIMA) Project, the farmers will now be able to produce their own seed and buy it at a lower cost than if they were to import it. The farmers of Lesibovu could not celebrate their success without thanking Nelson Mavuso, seed quality control specialist from Department of Agricultural Research and seed services, Swaziland, as well as CIMMYT seed systems specialists, Peter Setimela, and John MacRobert, and maize breeder, Cosmos Magorokosho, with whom they collaborated to make their dream come true. To complement this development, a training workshop for about 20 farmers on community seed will be conducted by March 2009.

During 1-3 February 2009 Setimela and Magorokosho visited Swaziland to view this and other developments for themselves. “We are planning to plant two hectares of breeder and foundation seed of ZM 309 in April and May,” Victor Semelane, a maize breeder, Department of Agricultural Research and seed services from Swaziland, told them proudly, as they passed by. “There is also a lot of interest from a number of NGOs in the multiplication of certified seed of the OPV.” ZM 309 is a new open pollinated variety (OPV) suitable for drought-prone areas that was released in Swaziland in 2008.

T. Gama, a Swazi extension officer department of extension Cereals Promotion Unit, said: “Nineteen of the twenty maize demonstrations we planted in November are doing very well and we’re planning fifteen field days around February or March, to demonstrate these varieties to farmers.”

Setimela and Magorokosho, as well their collaborators, recommendreplacing ZM 421 and ZM 611 with some newer drought tolerant OPV’s. “We are very much encouraged by all this progress in Swaziland,” confirmed Setimela and Magorokosho.

A national coordination unit (NCU) meeting was also held, where it was recommended that a course on managing maize trials would be organized for June/July 2009 and new proposals were to be made in accordance to the NSIMA vision and mission.

Dr. John Dixon, Director of the Impacts Targeting and Assessment Unit (ITAU), left El Batán in mid-November 2008 and moved back to Australia. John will work with CIMMYT part-time from there until the end of March 2009, after which he will take up a new position with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). On behalf of the entire CIMMYT community, I’d like to thank John for his hard work and dedication to CIMMYT and wish him well in his new endeavors. We look forward to working with him in future partnerships.

Since late 2006 CIMMYT Projects 10 (Maize and Wheat Cropping Systems) and 11 (Knowledge, Targeting and Strategic Assessment of Maize and Wheat Farming Systems) have been part of ITAU. The projects will now become two new programs, tentatively the Conservation Agriculture Program and the Socioeconomics Program. Recruitment of directors for the new programs is under way.  Meanwhile, agronomist Pat Wall will serve as Interim Director of the Conservation Agriculture Program and poverty specialist Jonathan Hellin as Interim Director of the Socioeconomics Program. You can contact them regarding queries or comments you have on their respective areas of research.

Finally, the name of the former Genetic Resources Enhancement Unit (GREU) has been changed to Genetic Resources Program, reflecting the importance to CIMMYT’s mission of effectively conserving and using maize and wheat genetic resources.

Biometrician Dr. José Crossa has recently been named a CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist. He is the sixth CIMMYT researcher to receive the honor. “Crossa is recognized and respected worldwide for his contributions in the classification and conservation of crop genetic resources, and his methods are used by specialists around the world,” says Jonathan Crouch, director of the Genetic Resources Program.

Other Distinguished Scientists are former director of Wheat Porgram Sanjaya Rajaram, former wheat cytologist, Mujeeb Kazi; retired maize breeder, Surinder K. Vasal; current wheat geneticist/pathologist, Ravi Singh; and retired maize breeder, Hugo Cordova.

 Rodomiro Ortiz, CIMMYT Director of Resource Mobilization, participated in a live debate on genetically modified (GM) foods at the British Science Museum’s Dana Center on 22 January 2009. The event was webcast live as part of a CGIAR sponsored exhibition on “future foods” that opened in December 2008 and will run through May 2009. There will also be two other public debates on issues related to sustainable seafood and agriculture and climate change.

“A lot of opposition to GMOs stems for fear of the unknown, the fear that something might go wrong,” said Rodomiro Ortiz. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned about potential risks, but we need to balance the risks and the benefits. And this is a decision society as a whole needs to discuss,” said Ortiz.

The panel of experts participating also included Bob Watson, DEFRA Chief Scientific Adviser; Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, City University, London; and Ian Sample, Science Correspondent, the Guardian, who acted as facilitator.

The Museum’s website raised some debate topics such as the potential need for GM technology to help feed the developing world and consumers’ right not to buy GM food and whether or not this ultimately contributes to world hunger.

For more information on the “food” events or to watch an online video of the debate visit: http://www.danacentre.org.uk/events/2009/01/22/482#videos