CIMMYT’s Mexico-based cropping systems management team has developed a plan to set up decentralized learning hubs in different farming systems and agro-ecological zones in Mexico. Each hub will provide a benchmark site for research on the impacts of conservation agriculture (CA) on crops and the environment in the prevalent cropping systems of these regions, furnish a focal point for agro-ecological capacity-building and scalingout of research applications and innovation systems, and foster the emergence of regional CA networks. As part of this, they will engage multiple actors— farmers, scientists, machinery manufactures, decision-makers, and input suppliers, among others.

The hub in the Yaqui Valley, an intensive irrigated commercial farming region in northwestern Mexico, is in full swing. Three seasons ago farmers were using CA practices on only 25 hectares in the Yaqui Valley in Sonora State. One such practices is zero-tillage with residue retention, whereby wheat is sown directly into the residues from the previous crop without plowing. Today the practice is being used on 1,000 hectares. The cropping systems management team has established six CA modules in the region, and is preparing for work in the winter cycle promoting and testing with farmers and farmer unions the practice of cropping on permanent beds, employing a multi-use/multicrop seeding implement designed by CIMMYT. Local media have begun running stories on these efforts and farmers’ responses.

As part of a joint project with ASGROW seed company in central Mexico, CIMMYT research assistants Dagoberto Flores, Adrian Martinez, and Andrea Chocobar, together with Toluca station superintendent Fernando Delgado, cropping systems expert Bram Govaerts, and ASGROW representatives, established more than 20 farmer modules this summer in the Mexican highland states of Hidalgo, Mexico, and Pachuca, as well as organizing several events including the following recent ones:

• (24 Sept) Farmer day at El Batán, involving 35 Texcoco farmers, with help from station superintendent Francisco Magallanes and the cropping systems management team.
• (03 Oct) Farmer day in Toluca, with over 100 farmers from 3 Mexican states.
• (15 Oct) First of several capacitybuilding course modules for ASGROW technicians in Toluca.
• (23 Oct) Discussion day in Toluca with farmers regarding modules for harvesting, winter planting, and fallow preparation.

Team members are regularly visiting a local machine shop in Hidalgo State that is producing the multi-use/ multi-crop direct seeding implement, and will discuss advances with the machine builder and the local ASGROW seed distribution outlet. In addition to the CIMMYTASGROW initiative, the team is interacting with and supporting farmers and researchers in various other states of Mexico, with support from special Mexican production foundations, and is seeking additional funding from public and private partners in the country to further strengthen the effort.

On 8 October, personnel at the Agua Fría research station received Professor Miguel Ángel González and a group of 35 students studying Plant Breeding at Veracruz University, at Tuxpan campus. Station Superintendent Raymundo López, gave an introductory presentation about CIMMYT’s research and the center’s work on maize in Africa and the work being done in Agua Fría to improve this tropical crop.

López, along with Juan Espinoza and Alfredo Bonilla, field assistant and field helper, respectively, from Genetic Resources spoke to students about types of soils, land preparation, application of agrochemicals, and various aspects of breeding for normal and quality protein maize (QPM).

Research assistants, Mayolo Leyva and Manuel López talked to students about the laborious task of selecting lines. The visitors went on a tour of the field plots and saw how single, double, and triple cross hybrids of QPM and normal maize are formed, as well as synthetic materials with tolerance to drought and low nitrogen, and resistance to diseases and insects, among other factors.

Some students showed a lot of interest in the breeding activities and said they had a positive and useful learning experience in terms of their studies. The director of the Agronomy faculty will send a new request for students to observe field work done at the station as the knowledge and practical experience they gain is very beneficial for their professional agricultural careers.

CIMMYT DG Tom Lumpkin had a successful visit to China during 16-17 October, signing agreements with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and China Agricultural University (CAU). Starting in 2009, CSC will sponsor ten postgraduate students and visiting scientists to come to CIMMYT for collaborative research stays ranging from 6 to 24 months.

The scholarship includes international travel costs, insurance, and living allowance, and will increase CIMMYT’s training capacity for China. The agreement with CAU cemented a collaborative maize research program focusing on genomics, transgenics, germplasm exchange, bioinformatics, and conservation agriculture technologies. This collaborative program will create synergies between the two institutions in these five areas and also in agronomy and soil science, since CAU is a leading agricultural university specializing in maize and conservation agriculture.

Lumpkin also met Dr Zhai Huqu and Tang Huajun, President and Vice president, respectively, of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, and Ma Xinglin, DDG of the International Collaboration Department from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and discussed the possibility of establishing a regional center for CIMMYT in China. To advance this ambitious plan for a strong CIMMYT-China partnership, Lumpkin is planning a follow-up visit for early 2009.

Professor Lene Lange, CIMMYT Trustee since 2002 and Board Chair as of 2005, has stepped down from the Board, after chairing the meetings in India during 6-10 October 2008. On that occasion she received the best wishes of fellow Trustees and of the center’s Management Committee, and in a small ceremony was given a commemorative plaque signed by incoming Chair Julio Berdegué and by Pedro Brajcich and Tom Lumpkin, with the following text: “The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center wishes to recognize and thank Professor Lene Lange…for her positive and energetic contribution to the role of CIMMYT in working for the resource-poor and her commitment to building a better and more effective Center; for her sincere concern in helping to improve CIMMYT as a place where staff—especially younger scientists—can develop their careers; for her leadership of the Center during a challenging period of change; for her warm and inclusive style of chairing the Board, ensuring that the views and opinions of all Trustees were heard; and, for her vision, clarity of purpose, strength of character, and ability to stimulate debate in the best interests of the Center, the people for whom we work, and the CGIAR.”

Lange has informed CIMMYT that she will pursue two new positions in Denmark: Vice Dean of Research for the Faculties of Engineering, Natural Sciences and Medicine at Aalborg University (AAU), and Professor of Biotechnology in the Copenhagen Institute of Technology, a new branch of AAU, with a new unit on Biotechnology and Bioenergy. All the best, Lene!

The Directors General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and CIMMYT, Mangala Rai (right) and Tom Lumpkin, signed the 2009-2012 joint work plan between the two institutions at a ceremony held at ICAR facilities in Delhi this week, reaffirming a long-standing and productive partnership.

Former CIMMYT agronomist Peter Hobbs received the International Service in Agronomy Award from the American Society of Agronomy during their 2008 annual meeting held in Houston, Texas. Award recipients demonstrated outstanding contributions in research, teaching, extension or administration outside of the United States. Hobbs was recognized for his work at CIMMYT and IRRI in South Asia, where he specialized in conservation agriculture. He promoted the adoption of zerotillage wheat after rice, which results in higher yields, lower costs, and less environmental impact. Hobbs is currently an adjunct professor in the Crop and Soil Science Department at Cornell University.

The National Water Commission of Mexico (CNA) recently approved a proposal to install a new irrigation system at the center’s experimental station near Ciudad Obregón, northwestern Mexico. The CNA will finance half of the MXN 4,216,850 (about U$330,000) project and Patronato, the Agricultural Research and Experimentation Board of the State of Sonora (a group of private farmers) will fund the rest. The new irrigation system will be installed by the end of October.

“The replacement of the underground irrigation system at our research station was a high priority,” says Rodrigo Rascón, Obregón station superintendent. “Some of the pipes are over 30 years old, and there are many leaks that are difficult and expensive to repair. This deteriorated infrastructure represents a constant threat to our research activities, particularly those related to drought or supplementary irrigation.”

The pipes are over five km long and most are made of cement with junctures every 90 cm. On multiple occasions, it has been necessary to make regular unlined canals that carry irrigation water on the soil surface, according to Rascón. Unfortunately, these lead to water losses in infiltration and evaporation, and recurring costs associated with maintenance, he says. Water leaches down into the soil from the unlined canals, and the sun also evaporates part of the water that runs through them.

CIMMYT’s Obregón station is located on Patronato’s land in the Yaqui Valley. Patronato allows the center to use 170 hectares of land for research that generates advanced wheat germplasm for the world. Thanks to both the CNA and Patronato for their generous support for the new irrigation system!

A recent four-day workshop held in Lusaka, Zambia 15-18 September addressed poverty reduction through value chain analysis. The 12 national agricultural research program representatives from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia who attended the workshop learned how maize-based conservation agriculture (CA) can increase productivity and became acquainted with research tools to map key value chain actors and service providers.

The workshop presented integrated soil fertility management technologies (ISFM) and followup activities to improve CA and ISFM. Also covered was how to increase farmers’ access to key input and output markets. In addition, participants heard about current activities of the Soil Fertility Consortium for Southern Africa and visited the Zambian Food Reserve Agency and the National Milling Corporation in Lusaka.

Organized by CIMMYT economist Mulugetta Mekuria and CIMMYT poverty specialist Jon Hellin, the workshop complemented the center’s efforts to develop CA practices for smallholder farmers in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The aim is to improve farmers’ linkages with input suppliers (seed, equipment, knowledge of crop/land management) and their access to markets where they can sell anticipated surpluses resulting from the adoption of CA. The Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) hosted the workshop with financial support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Soil Fertility Consortium for Southern Africa Challenge Program (SOFECSA-SSA CP) project.

Several CIMMYT scientists were recently honoured for their achievements in Mexico and abroad. Carlos Martínez, biotechnology assistant, and Mijail Javier, laboratory assistant, of the Applied Biotechnology Center (ABC) won first place awards for two CIMMYT posters at the 22nd National and 2nd International Phytogenetic Conference of the Mexican Phytogenetic Society, held at the University of Chapingo from 21-26 September 2008.

Bacilisa Luna, Mijail Javier, and Carlos Sánchez.

Martínez shares the recognition for his poster with Shibin Gao, Alan F. Krivanek, Jonathan H. Crouch, and Yunbi Xu, while Javier shares the award for the second poster with Marilyn Warburton, María Zaharieva, Claudia Bedoya, and Susanne Dreisigacker. ABC personnel also extend thanks to Jonathan Crouch, Susanne Dreisigacker, Yumbi Xu, and Maria Zaharieva for supporting their participation in the Conference, and to Moisés Cortés, CIMMYT Principal Researcher, for his help in preparing the posters.

“The judges evaluated the posters based on content and graphic presentation, but above all based on the way the authors presented their subject matter,” said Bacilisa Luna, biotechnology assistant, who also attended the Conference.

Meanwhile, across the globe, a team of scientists from CIMMYT, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) attended the Generation Challenge Program (GCP) Annual Research Meeting 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand from 16-20 September. The team received the best poster prize in theme 2: Genomic resources and gene/pathway discovery. Their poster, titled “Identification of orthologous regions associated with tissue growth under water-limited conditions,” represented GCP work to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling tissue growth under drought stress in rice (IRRI) and maize (INRA and CIMMYT). Congratulations to all who participated!

Jubilant poster winners (left-right, back rowfront row) Trushar Shah (CRIL, based in CIMMYT)Claude Welcker (INRA), Mauleon “Mau” Ramil (CRIL), Genevieve “Jemi” Aquino (CRIL), Jill Cairns (CESD), and Andreas Hund (ETH).

On Friday 19 September, 115 farmers from Sombrete, Zacatecas, Ocampo, and Guanajuato visited CIMMYT’s Toluca field station in Mexico. They came to see wheat, maize, oat, bean, canola, sunflower, and alfalfa harvests done under conservation agriculture. Yann Manes, CIMMYT wheat breeder, also spoke to farmers in the field about wheat crosses for selecting resistant plants. He placed special emphasis on droughttolerant plants, as many of the farmers were from dry areas. Karim Ammar, CIMMYT wheat breeder, (right in the photo), presented his work on triticale and showed farmers a soon-to-be released line. He also highlighted the excellent potential of this crop for fodder.

During the past 10-15 years, CIMMYT, as part of the Rice- Wheat Consortium, has worked to improve use of the two-wheel tractor—the preferred implement for farmers in Bangladesh. CIMMYT has developed a seeder that allows farmers to efficiently seed their crops using conservation agriculture (CA) and resource-conserving technologies (RCTs). This seeder provides a dramatic reduction in tillage on flat or permanent raised beds during seeding and reduces turn-around time between crops.

Farmers in West Bengal, India, an area very similar to Bangladesh, have started to buy two-wheel tractors to assist with conventional tillage. In response, CIMMYT arranged a traveling seminar from 16-23 September 2008 to show how these two-wheel tractors can be used with CA-based RCTs in West Bengal. Six scientists and technology transfer agents from West Bengal traveled to Bangladesh where they visited key CA locations where two-wheel tractors are used and met with Bangladeshi scientists.

Ravi Gopal Singh, CIMMYT CA agronomist based in Begusarai, Bihar, India, organized the traveling seminar and is in charge of CIMMYT’s collaborative CA-based activities in the eastern IGP of India. He was assisted by Enamul Haque, CIMMYT Senior Program Manager in charge of coordinating CIMMYT’s CA-based field activities in Bangladesh, and Anton Adhikari, CIMMYT administrator in Bangladesh. Participants met with farmers in Rajbari to discuss reduced seed tilling using power tiller operated seeders (PTOS) and visited the Regional Wheat Research Center in Rajshahi to observe long-term permanent raised bed trials and investigate various raised bed planting systems.

At the Wheat Research Center near Dinajpur, the West Bengal participants interacted with farmers who had adopted various CA technologies. They were introduced to various CA-based implements for reduced, strip, and zero-tillage seeding as well as to service providers who assist their clients with the adoption of these CA-based technologies. Other locations included the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute in Gazipur, and the Regional Agricultural Research Station in Jamalpur. CIMMYT hopes to help interested parties in West Bengal obtain prototypes of these implements to be tested and used in local farming.

More than 200 Mexican university students visited El Batán on 19 September 2008. They came from nine universities–some from as far away as Saltillo, Coahuila, from the Autonomous Agrarian University Antonio Narro, while others traveled from Puebla, Hidalgo, and Querétaro very early on the day of the event.

“The day was designed to present CIMMYT’s research and the global scope of its work to students in plant breeding, molecular biology, and agriculture,” said Petr Kosina, knowledge sharing and capacity building coordinator at CIMMYT. “We want to show students real examples of how CIMMYT and Mexico are contributing to reducing poverty and hunger and impacting on the livelihoods of poor farmers around the world—hopefully this will be motivating for them.”

“I’ve realized the important role CIMMYT play as an international facilitator in response to the need to feed people…” said Judith Ortiz Martínez, a rural development student at the Colegio de Postgraduados. “Up until now, we’ve only had partial information [from our studies] and today after seeing the presentations we had lots of questions but the schedule was very tight. But I think today has been very enriching for us as students.

Oscar Raúl Manilla Villa, a hydroscience student, also from the Colegio de Postgraduados said: “Despite all the research to increase productivity and improve maize and wheat varieties, we still have 800,000 people who are hungry… So there’s more work to be done.”

CIMMYT maize physiologist José Luis Araus received the prestigious China Friendship Award on 27 September 2008. A subsequent official reception took place with the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The award is given every year since 1991 to foreign experts in diverse disciplines contributing to China development. Araus has worked for several years in a consultancy for a Chinese Seed Company based in Henan Province (Center of China, in the Yellow River Valley) to increase cereal yield potential.

José Luis Araus (left) with Ji Yunshi, DG State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

CIMMYT-El Batán hosted 10 students from Japan’s Yokohama City University (YCU) from September 12-22, in a visit organized by Tomohiro Ban, formerly a CIMMYT senior scientist and leader of the Japan- CIMMYT Fusarium head blight project, currently a professor in the Division of Plant Genetic Resource Science at YCU. The program included visits to Texcoco, Teotihuacán, and Xochimilco, as well as numerous educational presentations and tours.

For many of the students—8 are undergraduates enrolled in general education courses— CIMMYT provided their first introduction to genetics, breeding, and other aspects of agricultural research. Equally important, the students experienced a new culture and language which helped them conceptualize how big picture issues—such as global food supplies, global warming, and international standards— cross country lines.

“Many of the students have not decided what to study, and this experience will influence their education choices,” said Sayaka Niwa, a Masters student studying wheat breeding. Niwa, who has used CIMMYT seeds in her research, said she especially enjoyed the group’s visit to Toluca and the opportunity to see fields where research data originates.

Jo Taguchi, a first-year Masters student, cited Javier Peña’s presentation on wheat quality as one of his favorite events. Since Taguchi studies durum wheat and previously lived in Mexico, he found the opportunity to visit CIMMYT doubly appealing.

El Batán received diplomats and high-level representatives from the Mexican embassies of 16 countries, as well as from the European Commission, the Mexican foreign affairs secretariat (SRE), the World Bank, FAO, and the Inter-American Development Bank on 26 September 2008.

CIMMYT DG Tom Lumpkin spoke to the visitors about CIMMYT’s history and how its work addresses global climate change, food security, and migration. Afterwards, the group toured the germplasm bank and biotech labs, and visited demonstration plots for maize, wheat, and conservation agriculture. On hand during the visit and gala luncheon were CIMMYT staff and spouses from many of the countries represented. The visitors were impressed with what they saw and heard, and were encouraged to participate in the future as “ambassadors” for CIMMYT. Followups planned should enhance support from and partnerships with the countries represented.