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.

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.

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-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.

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.