Seventy-four students graduated Friday, 18 May from an intensive, four-month English course at the Turkish-American Association in Ankara, Turkey. What makes the students and the course special is that they are all agricultural researchers with the government of Turkey and the course was organized by CIMMYT and ICARDA. It’s the second year in a row the course has been given. Turkey requires that its employees have proficiency in English before they can go abroad for advanced training, such as that offered by CIMMYT.

This course was designed to help bring as many young researchers to the required level as possible. Funding for the course was part of Turkey’s contribution as a member of the CGIAR. In addressing the graduates, Alexei Morgunov, the CIMMYT country representative in Turkey, congratulated them on the hard work they had done, pointing out that the knowledge and the friendships they had formed would stay with them throughout their careers. Morgunov was joined at the ceremony by Mesut Keser, the ICARDA country representative and by Masum Burak, the Director General of the General Directorate for Agricultural Research for Turkey. He thanked CIMMYT and ICARDA for their work in organizing the course. Morgunov said he hoped the course would become an annual event.

Ten wheat breeders from national agricultural research systems (NARSs) in Asia, Africa and Latin America have participated in the 2007 Intermediate Wheat Improvement course, which is drawing to a close after three successful months. “This course addresses the strong demand from our partners for comprehensive hands-on training for field breeders, and shows CIMMYT’s ongoing commitment to supporting capacity building in NARS partners,” says Petr Kosina, CIMMYT’s capacity building coordinator.

Course participants have been exposed to all aspects of CIMMYT’s multidisciplinary research approach. In addition to wide-ranging classes, they have spent most of their time in the field at Ciudad Obregón, Sonora State, in northern Mexico, getting involved in many of the activities of the breeding cycle. “Learning about CIMMYT breeders’ methodologies has been very useful,” says Stephan de Groot from South Africa, “and we’ve had the chance to see a wider perspective.” Adel Hagras of Egypt also values the experience of learning how the center works: “CIMMYT is a holy place for wheat breeding!” he says. At Obregón, the trainees selected germplasm that would be particularly valuable for the conditions in their countries and for their own research. They will receive seed of these lines next year, giving them direct and early access to promising materials.

Even more than the tangible benefits, they value the relationships they have built. In working here, the trainees have become part of the broad CIMMYT family and have created and strengthened links with other scientists. Luis Ponce Molina from Ecuador has appreciated the opportunity to share experiences and meet people working in the same area. “It’s important to have a good network,” he says. “The course has created possibilities for me for future collaboration.”

CIMMYT seems to have left a good impression: according to Stephan the highlight of the course was “the general positive mentality of all the breeders and researchers in working together, their professional attitude and their enthusiasm in the field.” There is still plenty to pack in before the trainees return home next week, and they will be leaving with new knowledge, new partners, and new inspiration. The course may be finishing, but their relationship with CIMMYT is just beginning: we’ll be in touch soon!

On Wednesday, 02 May 2007, representatives of the Mexico’s Agrarian Legal Office (La Procuraduría Agraria), Rubén Gallardo Zúñiga, Director of Agrarian Research in the General Direction of Research and Publications, Jaime Alejo Castillo, Director General of Social Communication, Fernando López Rojas, Director of Agrarian Organization, and Nicolás Edmundo Venosa Peña, Director General of Research and Publications, visited El Batán to learn about CIMMYT and explore areas of collaboration.

The Agrarian Legal Office was officially established in 1992 to help advise and protect farmers in affairs of land tenure, but its work builds on legal and administrative precedents of protecting and documenting land use and ownership that date back to when Mexico was still a Spanish colony. The visitors toured and met with staff of the Director General’s office, GREU, ITAU, SIDU, and Corporate Communications, and left enthused and impressed by what they learned of CIMMYT.

In the context of CIMMYT’s long-standing and fruitful partnerships with Chinese researchers and research organizations, CIMMYT wheat scientist He Zhonghu (far left) accompanied six key experts from three Chinese ministries and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) on a visit to CIMMYT and several Mexican research institutions during 20-23 April 2007. Members of the delegation were Liu Xu, Vice President, CAAS (to the left of Masa); Yang Chuan, Deputy Division Chief, National Development and Reform Commission; Zhou Wenneng, Division Chief Ministry of Science and Technology, Wang Jiuchen, Division Chief, Ministry of Agriculture; (not in the photo) Yang Jun, Deputy Division Chief, Ministry of Agriculture; and Dai Xiaofeng, Deputy Director General, CAAS.

Tlaltizapán station supervisor Francisco Magallanes, assistant supervisor Pedro Gálvez, and station staff are accustomed to attending visitors, but 24 April 2007 was one day they’ll not soon forget! That morning, no less than Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Agriculture Minister Alberto Cárdenas Jiménez, Agriculture Undersecretary Francisco López Tostado, numerous other dignitaries, and some 3,000 other visitors descended upon the facility to hear the President announce a new national program for sugarcane producers, processors, and marketers. “

They called us the previous Thursday to say the station was being considered as a site for the event,” says Magallanes, “and on Friday, without further ado, we were informed that they were indeed coming!”

With the able help of station personnel, who assisted the highly professional staff of the agriculture secretariat and the President’s office, the event came off without a hitch. CIMMYT Director General Masa Iwanaga and Director of Resource Mobilization Rodomiro Ortíz were afforded courtesy invitations and front-row seats to greet the President and other dignitaries.

Congratulations to Pat Wall (CIMMYT Zimbabwe). He has just been elected as chair of the international agronomy section of the American Society of Agronomy.

And Marilyn Warburton (GREU) is now the ANABAF/ REDBIO Mexico representative as CIMMYT is now part of RedBio Mexico. RedBio is a network for technical cooperation in agricultural biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean. It works under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

After a lengthy and very detailed inspection process, the Seed Health Lab at CIMMYT has become the first in the CG system to receive International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification. The Mexican Accreditation Entity (EMA) for the ISO was very thorough, said Monica Mezzalama, head of the Seed Inspection and Distribution Unit (SIDU). “It was sometimes tense, but I knew our procedures were already at a high level, so I wasn’t really worried,” she said.

Seed can carry pathogens— viruses, bacteria, or fungi—that reduce the viability of the seed itself or prevent the plants from growing well. When seed is consumed directly as food or feed, seed-borne organisms may cause chemical changes, degrade seed contents, or release powerful toxins that can harm humans and livestock. In the best of cases, food is simply wasted; in the worst, famine or poisoning can result. Certain seed-borne pathogens are endemic to specific areas of the world; great efforts are made to confine them.

Until recently, seed health standards at CIMMYT were self-imposed, in cooperation with the government of Mexico. The implementation of free trade agreements between Mexico and other countries—particularly the USA and Canada—brought a commitment from Mexico to ensure that all seed originating from the country conformed to international norms.

Congratulations to all who helped the Seed Health Lab achieve this important goal!

Ever heard of the terms “carbon trading” or “carbon inventories?” They are now routinely bandied about by governments seeking to balance economic development with reduced impacts on global climates. In the context of today’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which mentions agriculture as a key factor for mitigating climate change, this week CIMMYT hosted eight international experts as part of the workshop “New Technologies to Assess Soil Carbon Levels,” organized by wheat agronomist Ken Sayre and held at El Batán on Monday, 30 April 2007. After the workshop, participants spent the remainder of the week running tests on the station.

“CIMMYT’s long-term trials on conservation agriculture, which feature a range of practices and residue levels, provide a valuable platform for testing our instruments and methods for measuring soil carbon,” says Charles Rice, Professor of Soil Microbiology at Kansas State University, USA, and US National Director of the Consortium for Agricultural Soil Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases.

Also participating were César Izaurralde, leader of the USAID project on advanced soil carbon technologies, and Jorge Etchevers, Professor of Soil Fertility at the Colegio de Postgraduados, Mexico, who with former CIMMYT wheat director Tony Fischer helped launch the long-term conservation agriculture trial at El Batán.

Juan Izquierdo, Senior Crop Production Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, FAO, visited CIMMYT’s El Batán research station on Thursday 19 April 2007. His discussions with center management and staff focused on the Drought Research Consortium of REDBIO, a technical cooperation network for agricultural biotechnology in Latin America and the Caribbean launched in 2005 with participation of CIMMYT. He expressed particular interest in the application of plant breeding and biotechnology tools within integrated plant breeding programs, work that CIMMYT is intensively pursuing at present. Among other things, Izquierdo extended a broad invitation for center staff to the upcoming REDBIO symposium, “VI Encuentro Latinoamericano de Biotecnologia Agropecuaria,” to be held in Viña del Mar, Chile, 22-26 October 2007.

On 7 March 2007, Jesús González, of CIMMYT’s Agua Fría research station, talked of CIMMYT’s aims and achievements to an audience of 400 during the traveling exhibition “No maize, no country,” organized by the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares of CONACULTA, Mexico’s public agency for cultural promotion. The exhibition, held in Huauchinango, Puebla, this year, is designed to foster reflection and discussion regarding the importance and potential of maize in Mexico, as well as the challenges and opportunities of globalization.

This is not the first time that Agua Fría colleagues have publicized CIMMYT’s work to outside audiences: like staff at CIMMYT research stations worldwide, for years they have taken part in promotional activities and attended visits from representatives of academic institutions, community support organizations (like the Fundación Miguel Alemán), and farmer associations from the states of Veracruz and Mexico. Agua Fría is located in Puebla State near the border of Veracruz, and is an ideal location to test and demonstrate maize of humid, lowland tropical adaptation.

Inaugurated formally in 2000, Agua Fría has grown and developed significantly. Those who work at the station are grateful for the contributions of CIMMYT management and the enormous dedication of staff who contributed to station development, including Raymundo López, Philippe Monneveux, Dan Jeffers, David Bergvinson, and Alejandro López. Up until 2002, for example, the station had only provisional offices, no telephone service, and no connection to Internet. The 3.5 kilometer road leading to the station from the highway was nearly impassible in the rainy season, making the station accessible only on foot, or by having the bus towed in with a tractor. Today, the access road is paved and facilities are fully functional for staff and visitors.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced Thursday that it would join CIMMYT and ICARDA in the Global Rust Initiative (GRI). “Global wheat yields could be at risk if the stem rust spreads to major wheat producing countries,” said FAO Director-General Dr Jacques Diouf. The statement also said that FAO had confirmed the findings announced in January by CIMMYT, ICARDA and the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) that the virulent wheat stem rust strain known as Ug99 had moved from Africa into the Arabian Peninsula. FAO went on to say that FAO, ICARDA and CIMMYT would support countries in developing resistant varieties, producing their clean quality seeds, upgrading national plant protection and plant breeding services and developing contingency plans. FAO urged countries in the potential path of the airborne fungus to increase their disease surveillance.

The FAO announcement follows close on the heels of the publication of two major stories about the wheat stem rust problem, one in Science and another in New Scientist and on visits to FAO by GRI coordinator, Rick Ward and by DG Iwanaga.