An international technical workshop on ‘Bioethanol, maize and wheat: opportunities and risks’, jointly organized by CIMMYT and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), was held on 4–5 November in New Delhi. The meeting was a forum for debate and knowledge-sharing, and will form a springboard to future research and action.

About 40 participants came from across the globe and included researchers, policy makers and managers from the public and private sectors in agriculture, rural development and environment. Attending from CIMMYT were John Dixon, Olaf Erenstein, Raj Gupta, Masa Iwanaga, Rodomiro Ortiz, and Ashish Srivastava.

The focus was on the wide range of potential opportunities and risks, posed by the ongoing expansion in biofuels, for the food security and livelihoods of the poor and for the environment. These are complex and not yet well understood. For example, higher grain prices due to demand for use in biofuels may boost farmers’ incomes, but may also lead to increased hunger and malnutrition.

CIMMYT and IFPRI are conducting a joint assessment of likely effects on food stocks and trade, national and household food security, and farm household livelihoods; John Dixon of CIMMYT and Siwa Msangi of IFPRI presented the workshop with an overview and scenario analysis. Delegates considered specific aspects of using biofuels, including national status and strategies in India, China, and Uganda, technical and environmental issues, and opportunities and risks in different agro-ecosystems. The participants ended by identifying and discussing priority issues for research.

The conclusions and recommendations will be presented to GFAR and to the CGIAR AGM in December, where CIMMYT will lead a side event on biofuels.

A new maize hybrid, INIA 609 Naylamp, which yielded as much as 10 tons per hectare in marginal soils, based on data gathered from trials at 36 locations in the agriculturally rich province of Lambayeque, Peru, was released in the provincial capital of Chiclayo on 06 October. INIA 609 Naylamp is one of several Peruvian hybrids developed using CIMMYT inbred lines—two from population 24 and one from population 36—sent to Peruvian breeders 15 years ago.

“Naylamp” was a mythological character of ancient Peru who arrived from abroad to bring civilization to the region. INIA 609 Naylamp was developed by Pedro Injante Silva, breeder at the Vista Florida, Chiclayo, research station of Peru’s Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Extensión Agraria (INIEA). Injante is an alumnus of CIMMYT training courses on crop improvement and maize agronomy in Mexico and Venezuela.

The release ceremony was attended by more than 250 persons, with the Vice Minister of Agriculture Carlos Luna Conroy presiding and dignitaries of other branches of the Ministry of Agriculture from Lambayeque and Chiclayo, from the Regents Commission, and from farmer groups. Testing and promotion of the hybrid during 2003 and 2005 was funded by the Peruvian MOA program INCAGRO. INIA 609 Naylamp also showed excellent performance in trials under zero-tillage.

CIMMYT staff in Ethiopia recently participated in field days organized by the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) showcasing newly-released highland maize varieties based on CIMMYT materials. The first, held near Ambo on 14 October, was attended by Strafford Twumasi-Afriyie, CIMMYT maize breeder based in Ethiopia. Some 1000 people attended the second field day near Bu’i on 21 October, including Twumasi and Dennis Friesen, agronomist and CIMMYT liaison officer in Ethiopia.

“There is great enthusiasm from farmers, especially those who could not believe that maize could be grown at their altitude [about 2,700 m]. There is strong demand to further expand the technology next year,” says Friesen.

These new varieties are the result of a program of collaborative research begun in 1998 by CIMMYT and EIAR to develop maize varieties suitable for the highlands of Ethiopia and other central and eastern African countries. Considerable investment from both partners led to the release in 2005 of one new hybrid variety, AMH800 (known locally as Arganne), and one open-pollinated variety, AMB02SYN1, known as Hora.

Around 550 farmers have participated with EIAR in scaling up, including around 60 who have planted demonstration plots in the Bu’i area and similar numbers near Ambo.

The field days were held to demonstrate the new highland maize varieties’ performance and potential to help lift farmers out of poverty. Farmers, researchers, cooperative and union members, administrators, educators, and development partners have all attended and shared their experiences. A number of dignitaries, including members of parliament, were also present.

The First International Workshop of the Global Rust Initiative (GRI), 9-11 October, ended in Alexandria, Egypt, with agreement that a tremendous coordinated effort is needed to combat the resurgence of wheat stem rust, a fungal disease that could place the entire world’s wheat production in serious jeopardy.

Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and former Chairman of the CGIAR, made the library’s conference facilities available to the workshop. Fifty-six participants from 21 countries attended the three-day consultation to exchange research results to date and map out priority areas for the GRI activities.

“This is a global threat, and no single country can provide a solution; only by working together can we tackle it,” CIMMYT Director General Masa Iwanaga told the meeting.

“We have the world’s leading rust scientists here saying that we have a potentially explosive situation on our hands,” said the GRI Coordinator, CIMMYT wheat scientist Rick Ward. “And we basically have to replace all the wheat in the world.” “The caliber of scientists present and the terrific sense of urgency enabled us to address a great array of critical issues during the workshop. I believe all participants felt the event was a success,” said Ward.

The management committee (MC) met in Nairobi, 28-29 September, prior to the Board of Trustees meeting, and had an excellent discussion on research planning, resource allocation, and budgeting processes in CIMMYT. The CGIAR Science Council requires centers to plan, budget, and implement all research activities within the context of the medium-term plan (MTP) Projects. For this and other reasons, the MC agreed in Nairobi on some new policies and procedures with regard to research priority setting, research planning, resource allocations, and budgeting.

The previous portfolio of 11 MTP Projects has been reduced to 8, with each director responsible for two:
P1: Genetic resources (GREU, Jonathan Crouch)
P2: Breeding tools (GREU, Jonathan Crouch)
P3: Abiotic and biotic stress maize (Marianne Bänziger)
P4: Quality and specialty maize (Marianne Bänziger)
P7: Water use efficient wheat (Hans Braun)
P8: Wheat yield and quality (Hans Braun)
P10: Maize and wheat systems (John Dixon)
P11: Impacts and targeting (John Dixon)

The regional maize Projects (Africa and Latin America/ Asia) have been rolled into trait-based Projects. The wheat Projects have been aggregated along with the core aspects of conservation agriculture applicable to both maize and wheat systems. The latter will be managed as a cross-cutting Project, similar to the impacts and targeting Project. The numbering for the Projects retained is the same as in the MTP, following CGIAR requirements. Directors will explain in greater detail the implications of the changes, particularly with respect to restricted projects that may be re-allocated. Apart from bringing CIMMYT in line with Science Council requirements, the changes more closely align our flagship products with the Projects that deliver them.

The CIMMYT Board of Trustees will hold its second full meeting of the year in Nairobi from 2-6 October. In addition to regular business, the Board will spend a day visiting CIMMYT and KARI work in the field and will discuss the mini-reviews of two projects (P3-Stress tolerant maize and P5- African livelihoods). The Nairobi session will be followed by a joint meeting between the CIMMYT and IRRI Board Executive Committees in Dubai on 7 October.

Parliamentarians from World Bank member countries spent the first two of a four-day mission to Kenya visiting and interacting with CGIAR scientists, partners, and stakeholders. The dozen members of the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank (PNoWB) joined Senior CGIAR scientists on 11 and 12 September to debate three issues of major global concern: sustainable agricultural development in sub- Saharan Africa, avian influenza (bird flu), and climate change.

Marianne Bänziger, Wilfred Mwangi and Stephen Mugo participated in the panel discussion of September 11, led by Director of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Ephraim Mukisira, John Lynam of the Kilimo Trust, and three other scientists. The debate covered an array of issues, including fertilizer prices, water use efficiency in agriculture, HIVAids, regional trade within the COMESA and East African Community blocs, national and regional rail and road infrastructure, land holding sizes, producer organizations, biotechnology, and African-womanfriendly farming implements, and explored the complex interrelations among these factors, as well as their impacts on agricultural development and poverty reduction. Kenyan MPs were well represented, contributing vigorously to the plenary discussions, at which several Kenya-based UN and NGO staff also participated.

The PNoWB members asked the CGIAR centers and national agricultural institutions to provide them with clear messages they could use in making policy decisions, and also to spell out the long-term impacts of the requested investments. Lynam put it to the meeting that given the 70% agrarian population in sub-Saharan African countries, “in order to get these economies going, you’ve got to get agriculture going.”

CIMMYT and the other CGIAR centers each mounted individual poster exhibitions on Day one. The CIMMYT stand featured several activities, including the Global Rust Initiative, our work on Conservation Agriculture, the Africa Maize Stress Project, IRMA, QPM and Striga research. We received a good level of traffic and interest, in particular from the Kenyan MPs who browsed the CIMMYT flyers displayed and took away copies. The parliamentarians visited a mixed smallholder farm in Thika, a small agro-industrial settlement about 80 km northeast of Nairobi that afternoon.

Day two (September 12) was devoted to bird flu and climate change discussions, held at ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) headquarters, and led by Director Carlos Serè and ICRAF Deputy Director Jan Laarman. A field visit to pastoralist communities in the outskirts of Nairobi wrapped up the 2-day interaction with the CGIAR.

A radio program in Nepal brings information to farmers in a language they understand.

It’s Monday, 6:30 pm on Radio Birgunj, the voice of the plains in Southeastern Nepal. Fans for kilometers in all directions huddle by their radios to listen—not to a soap opera or pop music, but to a show about bed planting, horticulture, and zero-tillage. The weekly radio show on farming, targeted specifically to rural inhabitants, is one component of a project funded by CABI to introduce and promote resource-conserving technologies to the region’s rice and wheat farmers.

Radio is often the best way to reach rural families in developing countries, and farm shows broadcast from small community stations are not unusual. But Radio Birgunj broadcasts to a population of five million Nepalese, nearly all from farm families, and the station’s only “competition” is the region’s government radio network.

Ganesh Sah, head of the Agricultural Implement Research Center in Birgunj and long-time CIMMYT partner, is responsible for 70 programs since the show’s launch in January, 2005. “It’s been difficult coming up with a different topic each week, but we’ve managed with just a couple repeats,” he says.

The program’s popularity has led the government of Nepal launch another radio farm show in the region. For the whole article, go to staging.cimmyt.org, under Enews/August 2006.

Facilitation skills are strategically important in the CGIAR, as staff are increasingly called upon to manage teams and participatory processes involving people from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, nationalities, and cultures. To address the challenges for effective communication and decision-making that arise in participatory processes, 21 researchers and team leaders from CIMMYT and other CGIAR centers gathered at El Batán during 5-8 September in a workshop led by Sam Kaner, a leading expert on consensus decisionmaking and senior author of the book The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. Activities aimed to build essential knowledge, attitudes, and skills for participatory decisionmaking. Participants came from Philippines, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Italy, USA, and Mexico.

Participant Grant Singleton, IRRI researcher and Coordinator for Irrigated Rice Research Consortium, came away with very positive impressions: “Wow! What an action-packed workshop! We learned and role-played many useful facilitation techniques. Two highlights were the superb teaching skills of Sam and the great camaraderie among course participants. It was an excellent opportunity for me to meet many new CGIAR colleagues. Finally, I thank Petr Kosina and his CIMMYT colleagues for being most generous hosts.”

We’re pleased to announce the compiling and publication of “Laboratory Protocols: CIMMYT Applied Molecular and Genetics Laboratory.” The manual is intended for use by scientists, researchers, and students from national agricultural research systems, universities, and small private companies in developing countries, as well as advanced research institutions in the developed world and CIMMYT staff.

Now in its third edition, this manual incorporates feedback and suggestions from diverse users. Since its first edition, more than 1,000 copies in English and Spanish have been distributed. The main protocols described are for molecular marker technology and can be used in mapping, molecular marker assisted selection, or studies on genetic diversity, and many protocols are useful for crops other than maize and wheat. The Spanish version is of particular importance in Latin America, where it is difficult to find a comparable work. Versions in either language can be viewed and downloaded from CIMMYT’s web page, under “Publications/Manuals.”