In a visit organized with the help of Mexican Senator Javier Castelo Parada, CIMMYT received a delegation comprising Senator Castelo, Deputy Sergio Sandoval Paredes, and staff in representation of several other federal legislators on 24 September 2008. As one result, Javier Peña, Kevin Pixley, and Bram Govaerts were invited to describe CIMMYT’s work to nine deputies, two senators, eight persons representing deputies, and another eight persons (27 in all) in a special, three-hour working session at the Mexican Chamber of Deputies on 01 October. Among other things, this may result in a return visit to CIMMYT by a larger group of legislators in the near future and stronger support from Mexico for the center’s work.

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.”

During 01-05 September 2008, CIMMYT El Batán hosted the ICARDA-CIMMYT wheat improvement program (ICWIP) meetings for Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA). Representatives from the two centers, as well as from regional offices, attended the meetings and discussed the joint research work plan. On Tuesday, the group visited CIMMYT’s Toluca experiment station, and on Friday they had a tour of El Batán facilities.

The ultimate aim of the meeting and project is to provide better products for national agricultural research systems. “CWANA is a highly diverse region where wheat production is constrained by most abiotic and biotic stresses,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program. “The region also includes countries with the highest per capita wheat consumption in the world. Wheat production is of immediate concern for food security.”

“We are looking for ways to complement each other,” said Richard Brettell, director for Biodiversity and Integrated Gene Management at ICARDA. “For instance, ICARDA has a strong insect group and CIMMYT is strong in physiology. As well, joint projects are more attractive to donors.” The group identified priority traits for germplasm improvement. Scientists also split up into ‘working groups’ to iron out the nitty-gritty details of shared projects, said Maarten van Ginkel, Deputy Director General for Research at ICARDA, who felt the meetings had been a great success.

The annual collaborators meeting of the New Seeds Initiative for Maize in Southern Africa (NSIMA), which included the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project, was held in Lilongwe, Malawi, during 13-14 August, 2008; with 35 participants from 9 southern African countries sharing their progress reports on in-country projects supported by NSIMA and DTMA, and being updated on some of the new tools in crop research.

The meeting was opened by the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, A.T. Daudi. He emphasized the need for continued development of the maize sector through facilitating government policies, illustrating this with the advances Malawi has made in improving maize production through government funded input support subsidies. These policies have increased maize yields in Malawi in recent years, and enabled the country to export significant quantities of grain to other southern African countries. Other presentations were “National Agricultural Policies for Advancement of the Seed Sector in Malawi” by J. Luhanga (Controller of Agricultural Extension and Technical Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Republic of Malawi); “Use of Marker Assisted Breeding for Improving Yield Gains in Maize” by Bindi Vivek, CIMMYT Maize Breeder, and “Advances in Drought Breeding in South Africa” by K. Mashingaidze (Department Manager: Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, ARC-Grain Crops Institute, South Africa).

Notably in 2008, the research projects released several new varieties – many of which were CIMMYT open pollinated varieties such as ZM309, ZM523, ZM623, and ZM721. Other outcomes were: basic seed production by national programs for distribution to seed houses and community seed producers; identification of improved varieties from regional and national trials; and training workshops for research associates in Angola and Malawi.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the award of prizes for the best national breeding team and the best technology dissemination team. These prizes are awarded through the DTMA Project and serve to stimulate excellence in breeding and rapid scale-up of improved drought mitigating technologies, such as improved varieties. For 2008, the awards were won by Zambia for the best breeding team, and Zimbabwe for the best technology dissemination team. Our congratulations to the two national teams!

Board of Trustees of CIMMYT
27 August 2008

1. CIMMYT strongly believes that the CGIAR needs to undergo substantial reform if it is to make a significant contribution in the future to pro-poor agricultural development in the world. Business as usual is not an option, and minor changes will result in a damaging wave of frustrated expectations which will further erode the capacity to perform of the CGIAR and of each of the Centers, CIMMYT included.

The current complexity of the CG system results in inefficiency and ineffectiveness. This can be seen, for instance, in the number of system-wide control institutions and structural units which have emerged over time without their true added value being challenged.

2. We strongly support reform options and decisions that:

a. Streamline and focus our mission. Enhancing through scientific research the contribution of agriculture to sustainable poverty reduction in developing countries is the core of our mission. The three strategic objectives proposed by WG1 fit very well with CIMMYT’s mission and we endorse them. The areas of activities defined so far in the documents emerging from the change process also align well with the on-going activities of CIMMYT and the proposed framework allows for initiation of new activities which may require greater focus.

b. Align CGIAR and Centers’ research programs, missions, and objectives, as well as stakeholder and donor priorities, through a clear, simple, and highly effective system of incentives. The CGIAR Fund and the mechanism of programmatic contracts that has been proposed by WG3 can serve this purpose, and CIMMYT endorses their creation. Establishing a significant Fund would be a potent signal of political commitment by the donors, and would in all probability catalyze further functional and structural reforms. Such a Fund may also provide a much needed vehicle for structurally addressing core funding needs of the Centers’, such as long-term, stable support for the gene banks or for the advanced research needed to sustain a continuing flow of technological and institutional solutions and alternatives.

c. Drastically improve the governance of the CGIAR system, including the establishment of a system-level Board vested with legitimate power and authority to govern the system on behalf of all stakeholders. This board must be able to directly interact and consult with stakeholders and strategic partners; set strategic objectives and priorities, including the allocation of funds, promote mission focus; stimulate alignment of initiatives and synergistic use of the current and future assets of the system; and create healthy levels of competition among alternative research providers. The CIMMYT Board of Trustees endorses the system-level Board proposed by WG3 and the recommendations of the governance section of the draft report of the Independent Review Panel. This may require a new distribution of responsibilities between the System’s and the Centers’ Boards; we welcome the open and positive consideration of concrete and detailed plans for this kind of governance change. The constitutional rules of the new System Board should be such that it can effectively engage the diversity of stakeholders and avoid imbalances of power among members.

d. Revitalize the position of the CGIAR in the global development community and, in particular, in the rapidly changing global science system. This implies a new way of thinking about, and of working in partnerships. CIMMYT has a tradition of working in partnership with many different stakeholders inside and outside the CGIAR system, including such different models as the Challenge Programs, the Alliance with IRRI, the joint program with ICARDA, and new multi-stakeholder initiatives and private-public partnerships supported by the Gates Foundation in Africa. We are particularly concerned with the need to reinvigorate our alliance with the national agricultural research and innovation systems in the developing world, and with tailoring in a better way the work of the CGIAR to the particular needs and conditions of the developing regions of the world. The recommendations of WG2 would allow us to expand and build upon that tradition, and CIMMYT is committed to playing an important role to move forward in this critical component of the CGIAR reform process.

e. Enable the CGIAR’s work to be organized around clear and enforceable agreements that allow the Centers, the scientists and their partners to carry out their work in an environment conducive to top quality, mission-focused and impact-driven research for development. The system of programmatic contracts between the CGIAR Fund/Board and the Centers proposed by WG3 fits this need and we endorse it. Such a system allows the Centers to carry out other activities not covered by the contracts, and clearly defines those lines of work and results for which we are to be held accountable to the CGIAR. This system can also be a very powerful instrument to promote and support work and product-driven alignment and convergence of Centers.

f. Significantly reorganize structures and bureaucracies that are currently ineffective, streamlining all system-level support and administration functions in a single, efficient and small unit under the responsibility of the system Board and its Chair and CEO.

3. In the coming weeks we will hear valid arguments that many details remain unclear, that the changes do not go as far as needed, that the commitment to the change process of some key stakeholders remains unclear, that more time is needed for further reflection and consultation, and so on. CIMMYT welcomes all opportunities for building a solid consensus around a change platform and, in particular, for seeking greater clarity about the specifics of the change process. But CIMMYT clearly and forcefully states that we strongly favor making the key decisions now. There is more than enough analysis to support a decision to move forward with a clear set of concrete, substantial reform goals, and CIMMYT is prepared to move the process forward.

4. This process of change must very soon enter into a new stage of implementation. We urgently need to restore the focus on the challenges that we have in front of us. The CGIAR should not dedicate more resources than are essentially needed to strategize about boards of directors and funding mechanisms, when there is a food crisis on hand.

From 18 August to 4 September 2008, 40 maize breeders drawn from national agricultural research systems and private seed companies are attending a training workshop targeted at the use of modern maize breeding techniques.

The workshop is jointly organized by CIMMYT, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) through cofunding by the DTMA, QPM-D and NSIMA projects. The participants were selected from among applicants in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The training will mainly take place at CIMMYT offices in Nairobi with visits to Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa (BecA) laboratory and CIMMYT-KARI’s stress screening field sites at Kiboko and Embu.

The thematic and interactive training course comprises lectures, demonstrations, and discussions. Group work and field and laboratory visits will cover theoretical and practical aspects of maize breeding, including both classical and advanced technologies, for topics such as: breeding maize for increased yield and tolerance to stresses (drought, insect pests, diseases, Striga weed, low nitrogen); improving maize nutritional quality; use of advanced technologies in maize breeding, including marker assisted selection and doubled haploids; and evaluation and release of improved maize varieties, including seed production. Complementary to this, the participants will be introduced to biometric and information technology tools, including those developed by CIMMYT: Fieldbook, Maize Finder, and Seed Book. During the “networking and training” session, participants will receive information on support for regional and sub-regional maize breeding initiatives and for training.

While opening the course, CIMMYT Global Maize Program Director Marianne Bänziger challenged the breeders to deliver on the promise of increased yields to farmers through breeding for improved resistance and tolerance to the prevailing stresses: “Your work determines the future; the results will be seen in years to come. I challenge you to make history by developing maize varieties that will have better adoption rates and improve the livelihoods of Africa’s farmers.” Participants are keen to rise to the challenge. “To increase farmer adoption of improved maize varieties, breeders have to go an extra mile; private seed companies should establish an extension department that will promote the new varieties through demonstrations to farmers,” said y Olumide Ibikunle of Premier Seed Company, Nigeria. Saleem Esmail of Western Seed Company, Kenya, added: “For a new maize variety to be well promoted and adopted, it needs to be completely outstanding from other varieties, and if a seed company is keen on remaining profitable then it has to invest in promoting it.”

The course is coordinated by CIMMYT Maize Breeder Cosmos Magorokosho, assisted by resource persons from CIMMYT, IITA, KARI, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and private seed companies. The CIMMYT team comprises Marianne Bänziger, Alpha Diallo, Stephen Mugo, Dan Makumbi, Hugo De Groote, Fred Kanampiu, John MacRobert, Bindi Vivek, and Peter Setimela. The IITA team includes Abebe Menkir, Serah Hearne and Baffour Badu-Apraku. AGRA’s contribution is by Jane Ininda. Javier Betran of Syngenta Europe will give insights into the private sector perspectives and strategies.

A group of eight students from the University of Wisconsin visited CIMMYT the week of 16-24 August, along with their professor, Shawn Kaeppler. The visit was designed to encourage students to consider a career in plant breeding and to educate them about germplasm resources and how plant breeders can help address world hunger. The visit was sponsored by a USDA-funded project (part of which deals with genetic modifiers of endosperm in sugary maize) and students were also introduced to breeding techniques for quality protein maize (QPM).

Mary Ann McGill, a fourth year PhD student who majors in plant breeding and plant genetics said she hadn’t realized the extent to which CIMMYT is involved in “feeding the world and projects that directly apply to small-scale farmers, subsistence farmers, people in Africa.” McGill was also impressed by how the plant breeders and the molecular biologists work together.

During their visit, students received presentations from CIMMYT staff of the germplasm bank, the Seed Health and Distribution Unit, ITAU, ABC, Maize, and Corporate Communications, and also visited the Tlaltizapán and Agua Fría research stations. “We’ve gotten talks from people from different parts of the world; it really emphasizes to me what a global initiative this is,” said McGill.

During August 10-20 2008 CIMMYT El Batán is hosting a group of 16 students from Texas A&M University, accompanied by Ronald Cantrell, former Director of the CIMMYT Maize Program and Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and Steve Hague, Professor in Cotton Breeding at A&M’s Faculty of the Soil and Crop Science Department. This is the second time a group of A&M students has come to CIMMYT, following a successful visit in July 2007.

The trip is intended to introduce students to international agricultural research and the CGIAR and develop their understanding of the challenges and opportunities in developing country agricultural systems. Their first two days were spent at El Batán, but their packed schedule also includes trips to CIMMYT’s Toluca and Tlaltizapán experimental stations and interactions with subsistence farmers, as well as visits to Mexico’s National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Animal Research (INIFAP) and their CEVAMEX.

The visitors are enthusiastic about what they’ve seen and agree that their visit has given them a wider perspective on the process of getting improved crops to farmers. “I’ve been very impressed with the diversity here at CIMMYT,” says Payne Burks, an undergraduate student in agronomy who plans to pursue plant breeding. “You have people from all over the world, but they all share the same goals in improving staple crops for the future of our world.” Estela Cardenas, a master’s student in public health, says she is learning a lot. “My background is not in agronomy so I’m taking the nutrition side, for example the work on vitamin A, tryptophan, and so on, and relating it to my studies. It’s very relevant to solving world hunger.”

Tim Merta is studying agronomy but already sees himself as a farmer “It’s neat to see all the people behind the scenes—it’s given me more of an appreciation because I know the efforts that have gone into what we’re growing,” he says. “I’m more willing now for our government to give more funding.”

On 15 August 2008, 40 agrobiotechnology students from the Universidad Tecnológica de Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Mexico, visited CIMMYT along with three professors. The visit was intended to complement the students’ academic studies in plant genetics and basic crops, and to introduce them to plant biotechnology. Students went on a tour of the germplasm bank, the applied biotechnology lab, and visited field plots. GREU staff Bibiana Espinosa, Principal Research Assistant, Alfredo Serna, Lab Manager, and Marcial Rivas, Principal Field Assistant, facilitated these tours. For the first time during a student visit, and under Serna’s supervision, they also had the opportunity to try some molecular biology techniques in the lab, such as loading gels, pipetting, and taking samples.

Professor Jorge Sevilla Díaz organized the visit for his students and sent a thank-you note on behalf of the group and the director of the faculty of the university saying, “…the students were very impressed by the work the center does, so much so that some asked if it would be possible to establish working partnerships with CIMMYT in the future.” Díaz also attained new information on his area of interest, and he and his students praised the quality of CIMMYT’s publications.

El Batán hosted four distinguished scientists from Texas A&M University (TAMU) during 5-7 August 2008, here to explore options for new partnerships involving the two institutions. Visiting from TAMU were Edward C.A. Runge, renowned agronomist and Senior Advisor for TAMU’s Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture; David D. Baltensperger, Professor and Head, Soil and Crop Sciences; Amir Ibrahim, Associate Professor, Small Grains Breeding/Genetics; and Piya Abeygunawardena, Associate Director of the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Professor.

As a result of the team’s tour and extensive meetings with center management and staff, Baltensperger sees particular potential for interaction in research on heat and drought stress for wheat, the introgression of genes from tropical maize, conservation agriculture crop management systems, and training for students, to name several areas. “I now feel I can link specific faculty and scientists with CIMMYT counterparts,” he says. Training was an area of interest identified by Runge, who is working to launch a Borlaug International Scholars Program in which he hopes CIMMYT will play a role. “Norm Borlaug had many interns from developing countries, but in the last 15 years funding has ebbed for production agronomy training,” he says. “The idea would be to send people home [after the training] with a relevant knowledge base they can apply directly to benefit their country and region.”

“Trainees were the life of CIMMYT, and I remember seeing more,” remarks Ibrahim, who as a visiting scientist in wheat physiology at the center during 1995-96 worked directly with Sanjaya Rajaram and Matthew Reynolds. “But I feel good enthusiasm here now, and am particularly impressed by the work in association mapping and genetics.”

Abeygunawardena was pleased to find in-house expertise in socioeconomics: “We are interested in the economic analysis of food and fuels—how bioenergy and crop production interact.”

An American Phytopathological Society (APS) Student Travel Award has been established in honor of H. Jesse Dubin, former CIMMYT wheat pathologist.

Dubin has dedicated the award to the Peace Corps because of the significant role that it played in his life and career as a plant pathologist: “My Peace Corps time convinced me that I wanted to continue to do international work, especially in food production.” Dubin joined CIMMYT in 1975 and worked as a pathologist and breeder in Mexico, the Andean Region of South America, and South Asia. By the time of his retirement in 1999, he was Associate Director of CIMMYT’s Wheat Program. The Travel Awards help students with the cost of attending APS Annual Meetings, with preference for those working on diseases of food crops with an international focus. (See http://www.apsnet.org/, under “APS Foundation.”)

The Striga Control Project of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) is supporting widespread demonstrations in western Kenya of a promising method to control Striga, a highly invasive parasitic weed that infests 200,000 hectares of Kenya’s farmland and causes crop losses worth an estimated US$ 50 million each year. Targeting more than 40,000 households in that region in 2008, the initiative includes training farmers in good crop management practices, promoting use of grain legumes to suppress Striga, and distribution of small sample packs for demonstration purposes. Enough to sow 100 m2, the packs contain seed of StrigAway® maize (Ua Kayongo), fertilizer, and user instructions in English and Kiswahili.

Ua Kayongo—“kill Striga” in the local vernacular—was developed jointly by the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), BASF The Chemical Company, and CIMMYT, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and BASF. Researchers used a natural mutation and conventional breeding to create the maize variety. It resists imazapyr, an active ingredient in imidazolinone group of herbicides, so seed comes coated with a low dose of herbicide. The chemical kills Striga sprouts as they seek to attach to maize seedlings. The maize crop grows healthy and, over several years of using the practice, fields are rid of residual Striga seed.

The demonstrations are being coordinated by the Forum for Organic Resource Management (FORMAT), the lead NGO in the AATF Striga Control Project in western Kenya, in collaboration with the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, local NGOs, farmer associations, community-based organizations and Maseno University. FORMAT is also introducing a new system by which farmers may access Ua Kayongo seed and fertilizer on credit. “The credit system will confirm CIMMYT’s previous findings on farmers’ willingness to invest in this technology to manage Striga,” says CIMMYT maize agronomist Fred Kanampiu, who has contributed significantly to the work on Striga.

On July 28, 2008, more than 60 senior policy makers from agriculture ministries, private seed companies, seed trade associations, regional trade blocs from 13 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries met in Nairobi, Kenya during the Regional Policy Workshop on Maize Seed Sector Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Key participants included the Kenya Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Japheth Mbiuki; Kenya Agriculture Permanent Secretary Dr Romano Kiome; Tanzania Agriculture Permanent Secretary Peniel Lyimo; the Assistant Secretary General of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Ambassador Nagla El-Hussainy; the Secretary General of the African Seed Traders Association (AFSTA), Justin Rakotoarisaona; CEO’s of seed trade associations, and heads of agricultural research institutions and seed services. The meeting was organized jointly by CIMMYT and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), through the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project.

The experts discussed the challenges and opportunities for maize seed sector development in Africa, as identified in a 2007 maize seed sector survey – “An Assessment of the Institutional Bottlenecks Affecting the Production and Deployment of Maize Seed in Africa,” – conducted by Augustine Langyintuo, CIMMYT Economist and Diakalia Sanogo, IITA Economist.

In his remarks, the Kenya Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Japheth Mbiuki, lauded CIMMYT and IITA on conducting the maize seed sector report and organizing the stakeholder workshop to discuss its policy recommendations. He said, “The Kenya government is supporting the maize seed sector through initiatives such as increasing investments in agricultural research and extension; training of agrodealers and developing the National Seed Industry Policy.”

CIMMYT Global Maize Program Director, Marianne Bänziger emphasized the need to increase improved maize seed supplies beyond the current 28% levels: “Droughts and national production fluctuations are realities. Effective trade between countries and risk insurance strategies that better buffer seed supply within countries are at the core of stabilizing and increasing maize production.”

The meeting identified cumbersome seed policies, inadequate access to credit, a weak producer base, slow access to the best germplasm, and uncompetitive prices in local grain markets as the main issues hindering a more rapid development of the maize sector. “60% of seed companies’ investments go into seed production. They therefore need affordable credit over the mid to long term for them to produce enough seed to meet farmers’ needs,” said DTMA Project Leader, Wilfred Mwangi.

“Specific actions and commitments by national governments include committing increased funds (at least 10% of their national budgets) for agricultural development and harmonization of regional seed regulations which will improve rates of variety release, lower costs in dealing with regulatory authorities, increase trade in seed of improved varieties and ultimately (their) adoption by famers” said Ambassador Nagla El-Hussainy, COMESA Assistant Secretary General. Obongo Nyachae, CEO of STAK said “The national seed policies in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are at various levels of development and we are pushing for harmonization.”