This international Women’s Day, March 8, 2022, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) celebrates the essential role that women play in agriculture and food systems, and acknowledges that gender equality is essential to achieve a sustainable future. The burden of climate change impacts women disproportionately, even though we rely on them to drive change in climate adaptation, mitigation and solutions.
For example, in the last year, CIMMYT research found that educating women farming wheat in Bihar, India, increases the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, which, in turn, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and boosts nitrogen productivity, eco-efficiency and yield. Additionally, in Mexico, a CIMMYT study found that women are less likely to default on agricultural credit than men, but seldom receive loans. Connecting women to financial capital to obtain agricultural inputs is an essential step in boosting their decision-making in food production.
Read more about our pathbreaking work in gender research in the collection of stories below!
Gender equality for climate-resilient, sustainable food systems
A farmer weeds a maize field in Pusa, Bihar state, India. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
Gender-responsive and gender-intentional maize breeding
A new paper by CIMMYT researchers takes stock of lessons learnt on gender inclusivity and maize breeding in Africa. Scientists also assess knowledge gaps that need to be filled to effectively support gender-responsive and gender-intentional breeding and seed systems work.
Alice Nasiyimu stands in front of a drought-tolerant maize plot at her family farm in Bungoma County, in western Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Towards gender-transformative research in the CGIAR
Gender scientists from ten CGIAR centers and key partner institutions came together in a hybrid workshop to integrate gender-transformative research and methodologies into the new CGIAR Initiatives. In this series of videos, GENNOVATE partners share their insights on this topic.
Ram Kanwar Malik (center) with his team in Bihar, India, during a field visit.
Today the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) announced the Honorary Member award for Ram Kanwar Malik, senior scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). This award is given every year to a person who has made outstanding contributions to weed science “through their research, teaching, publishing and outreach.”
Malik’s early engagement in agricultural sustainability led to initiatives exploring herbicide resistance evolution and management, zero tillage, and other resource-conservation technologies. At the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) — a regional project led by CIMMYT — Malik and his colleagues helped promote the practice of early wheat sowing to beat terminal heat stress, resulting in increased wheat yield in India’s eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains.
“WSSA’s Honorary Member award is one of the highest recognitions bestowed by the Weed Science Society of America,” said Krishna Reddy, Chair of the WSSA 2022 Award Committee. “[The] Honorary Member is selected for meritorious service to weed science, among non-members from North America or any weed scientist from other countries. Only one person per year is awarded this membership. Dr. Malik’s significant research in weed science and his collaborative effort to deliver solutions for farmers in developing countries like India is inspirational.”
Phalaris minor is a pernicious weed that affects crops like wheat and substantially reduces its yield potential.
Malik has worked extensively in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, leading many initiatives and innovations over the years, in collaboration with national and international partners. The WSSA award highlights Malik’s inspiring work in tackling herbicide resistance problems, first reported in India by his team in 1993. Malik was instrumental in developing a management solution for herbicide-resistant Phalaris minor, a pernicious weed in wheat crops. The integrated weed management system he helped develop raised wheat yield capacity significantly for farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains.
“The WSSA Honorary Member award reiterates the importance of agronomic management for sustained weed control strategies across cropping systems,” Malik said. “CIMMYT and partners, including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), were the first to introduce zero tillage in wheat as part of a strategy to manage weed resistance problems in India. It is an honor that WSSA has recognized this collective work of ours,” he acknowledged.
Malik has devoted more than thirty years to transforming agricultural systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, working closely with farmers and partners, and building the capacity of national agricultural and research extension systems. he is a firm believer in farmers’ participation: “Large-scale adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is possible when we work together to leverage technologies which are mutually agreed by partners and meet farmers’ needs.”
Malik is a fellow of the Indian Society of Agronomy and the Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS), which granted him the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Weed Science Society (IWSS) and the 2015 Derek Tribe Award from the Crawford Fund.
He remains passionate about and invested in changing the lives of farmers through better-bet agronomy and by leading innovative research at CIMMYT.
About the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA)
Founded in 1956, WSSA is a nonprofit scientific society that encourages and promotes the development of knowledge concerning weeds and their impact on the environment.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) mourns the passing of our much respected and admired colleague, agriculture, forestry and global development leader, Barbara H. Wells.
Wells held the positions of Global Director of Genetic Innovation of CGIAR and Director General of the International Potato Center (CIP). She had over 30 years of experience in multiple areas of research and management of innovations in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Barbara also served at several senior executive positions in the private sector throughout her outstanding career.
“We are deeply saddened by the news of Barbara’s passing and send our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and colleagues at our sister center CIP,” said CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts.
CIP’s projects and activities flourished under her leadership, opening new collaboration opportunities with local partners and fellow CGIAR centers, particularly with those based in the Americas.
In their partnership, CIMMYT and CIP have successfully collaborated in several areas of research and capacity building for the benefit of smallholder farmers throughout the region; including:
Building resilience through poverty- and food security-based safety nets, including links to productive programs;
Rural financial inclusion, including different types of savings, loans, and credit instruments, management of risk, and remittances;
New financial arrangements and governance structures in value chains;
Public-policy institutional mechanisms for dialogue on policymaking;
Successful R&D and extension projects funded by local governments at both national and state levels;
A regional approach to agricultural policies and role of sub-national governments and intermediate cities; and
Delivery and monitoring instruments, including use of ICT technology.
“We want our colleagues and friends throughout the world to know that we will honor Barbara’s legacy by redoubling our efforts for those who really mattered to her, the farmers,” Govaerts said.
Pragya Timsina interviewing a farmer in Rangpur, Bangladesh. (Photo: Manisha Shrestha/CIMMYT)
Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have studied and witnessed that women, particularly in South Asia, have strongly ingrained and culturally determined gender roles.
While women play a critical part in agriculture, their contributions are oftentimes neglected and underappreciated. Is there any way to stop this?
On International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we spoke to Pragya Timsina about how women’s participation in agriculture is evolving across the Eastern Gangetic Plains and her findings which will be included in a paper coming out later this year: ‘Necessity as a driver of bending agricultural gender norms in South Asia’. Pragya is a Social Researcher at CIMMYT, based in New Delhi, India. She has worked extensively across different regions in India and is currently involved in various projects in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
What is the current scenario in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia on gender disparities and women’s involvement in agriculture? Is it the same in all locations that your research covered?
Currently, traditional roles, limited mobility, societal criticism for violating gender norms, laborious unmechanized agricultural labor, and unacknowledged gender roles are among the social and cultural constraints that women face in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. Our research shows that while these norms exist throughout the Eastern Gangetic Plains, there are outliers, and an emerging narrative that is likely to lead to further bending (but not breaking, yet) of such norms.
Are there any factors that limit women from participating in agriculture?
Cultural and religious norms have influence gender roles differently in different households but there are definitely some common societal trends. Traditionally, women are encouraged to take on roles such as household chores, childcare, and livestock rearing, but our research in the Eastern Gangetic Plains found that in specific regions such as Cooch Behar (West Bengal), women were more actively involved in agriculture and even participated in women-led village level farmers’ groups.
How or what can help increase women’s exposure to agricultural activities?
At the community level, causes of change in gender norms include the lack of available labor due to outmigration, the necessity to participate in agriculture due to a labor shortage, and a greater understanding and exposure to others who are not constrained by gendered norms. There are instances where women farmers are provided access and exposure to contemporary and enhanced technology advances, information, and entrepreneurial skills that may help them become knowledgeable and acknowledged agricultural decision makers. In this way, research projects can play an important role in bending these strongly ingrained gendered norms and foster change.
In a context where several programs are being introduced to empower women in agriculture, why do you think they haven’t helped reduce gender inequality?
Our study reveals that gender norms that already exist require more than project assistance to transform.
While some women in the Eastern Gangetic Plains have expanded their engagement in public places as they move away from unpaid or unrecognized labor, this has not always mirrored shifts in their private spaces in terms of decision-making authority, which is still primarily controlled by men.
Although, various trends are likely to exacerbate this process of change, such as a continued shortage of available labor and changing household circumstances due to male outmigration, supportive family environments, and peer support.
What lessons can policymakers and other stakeholders take away to help initiate gender equality in agriculture?
Although gender norms are changing, I believe they have yet to infiltrate at a communal and social level. This demonstrates that the bending of culturally established and interwoven systemic gender norms across the Eastern Gangetic Plains are still in the early stages of development. To foster more equitable agricultural growth, policymakers should focus on providing inclusive exposure opportunities for all community members, regardless of their standing in the household or society.
What future do the women in agriculture perceive?
Increasing development projects are currently being targeted towards women. In certain circumstances, project interventions have initiated a shift in community attitudes toward women’s participation. There has been an upsurge in women’s expectations, including a desire to be viewed as equal to men and to participate actively in agriculture. These patterns of women defying gender norms appear to be on the rise.
What is your take on women’s participation in agriculture, to enhance the desire to be involved in agriculture?
Higher outmigration, agricultural labor shortages, and increased shared responsibilities, in my opinion, are likely to expand rural South Asian women’s participation in agricultural operations but these are yet to be explored in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. However, appropriate policies and initiatives must be implemented to ensure continued and active participation of women in agriculture. When executing any development projects, especially in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, policies and interventions must be inclusive, participatory, and take into account systemic societal norms that tend to heavily impact women’s position in the society.
On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, CIMMYT speaks to Tripti Agarwal, whose research paper delves into the impact of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) on women and farming households in Bihar, India. CSAPs offer a promising solution to address environmental issues through gender-inclusive technological interventions. As we celebrate the achievements of women in science today, we see CSAPs bridging the gender gap and empowering women.
Hello Tripti, it’s great to talk to you about labor migration and how the adoption of CSAPs ensures household food security. Could you share how this approach influences gender equality in farming households?
My paper istitled “Gendered impacts of climate-smart agriculture on household food security and labor migration: insights from Bihar, India.”Bihar is highly vulnerable to hydro-meteorological natural disasters that cause agricultural production loss. The issue is that the male workforce migrates to other cities to seek different employment opportunities and improve their families’ livelihoods, often leaving the women behind to farm. Women left behind are then responsible for household and farming activities, making them overburdened. Therefore, Climate Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) could play a vital role in safeguarding the loss in production and supporting livelihoods. The concept of Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) links this, acknowledging the gender gap and striving to promote gender-equitable approaches in knowledge enhancement, capacity development, and better practices. CSAPs empower women to support farming decision-making and a better utilization of resources
That is interesting. Would you also tell us how the CSV program addresses climatic risks from technological and social perspectives?
As per the study I mentioned earlier, climatic stress that affects crop production directly impacts a household’s food security and, more severely, women’s food security. The CSV program promotes adopting climate-resilient practices and technologies that mitigate the risk of crop loss and ensure enough food for the household. CSV is a promising solution to address environmental issues through gender-inclusive technological interventions.
Ensuring food for the household is the most important thing. We also see that this paper highlighted the knowledge gaps between men and women farmers in terms of CSAPs. What action plan is needed to have a more equitable gender-responsive environment at the policy level?
The paper attempts to drive the concentration of the state/policymakers in providing more opportunities to women in having access to resources. Policies or strategies — driven towards ensuring female education, knowledge and capacity building — are likely to play a significant role in providing access and control of resources to women across their lifetimes in varied areas of work.
As per the research paper,the probability of out-migration is reduced by 21% with the adoption of CSAPs. What factors do you think are the critical indicators of this trend?
The increase in knowledge about CSAPs, both for men and women, supports household decision-making in adopting CSAPs. With the adoption of CSAPs, the increase in agricultural production reduced the compulsion of males to migrate, and better female literacy also had a negative and significant effect on male out-migration
The study also reveals that the farmer’s education has a direct impact on the adoption of CSAPs. Is there any plan to bridge this gap? Or a suggestion for the policy makers to address this issue?
There are two steps to be covered on this front. First, to have gender-equitable knowledge dissemination and to ensure that women receive the required and necessary information about CSAPs. For this, the role of women in society needs to be strengthened and would primarily come from (i) support from the family & society and (ii) right to education. Second, knowledge alone is not enough to contribute to economic activities. Gender-inclusive strategies need to be framed and implemented to provide women the required access and control over resources. For this, multi-sectoral efforts are necessary, like having policies from the government, corporates supporting the cost of efforts, specialized agencies providing the expertise, NGO partners working with the community, and foremost, support from the society.
Very rightly said, and we hope that some strong measures are taken at the policy level. Today, women play a huge role in agriculture; thus, it becomes vital to enhance their capacities, especially in newer technologies. In this context, what approaches can you suggest to strengthening their skills and knowledge to achieve a gender-empowered agricultural domain?
There is no limit to enhancing the skills and capacities of an individual. And when we talk about women, especially in rural/agricultural contexts, we see that support from the family is critical for them. To ensure that, we need ways to educate men on how women can support them in providing better livelihoods. Creating plans and roadmaps for women would help achieve a gender-empowered agricultural domain, but we must also bring behavior change among men towards a more accepting role of women in farming and decision making.
One last question related to this special day. Why do you love your work? And how is science exciting for you?
I was assigned the position of Project Administrator; however, after working for many years with a team of experts, my interest in research slowly ignited. Thanks to the support I received, I decided to work closely on the subject and identify the areas where I may add value. Linking my knowledge and field studies, I started contributing to relevant publications like this one, which is the output of my years of experience at CIMMYT. I received a lot of support from my team, especially from Dr. M.L. Jat, who has been a great mentor throughout my journey of learning and growth.
M.L. Jat is a Principal Scientist at CIMMYT and co-author of the article. Building on this publication, CIMMYT’s gender research will be further strengthened under the One CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative on Transforming Agri-Food Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA), which has a core learning site in Bihar.
Emerging in the last 120 years, science-based plant breeding begins by creating novel diversity from which useful new varieties can be identified or formed. The most common approach is making targeted crosses between parents with complementary, desirable traits. This is followed by selection among the resulting plants to obtain improved types that combine desired traits and performance. A less common approach is to expose plant tissues to chemicals or radiation that stimulate random mutations of the type that occur in nature, creating diversity and driving natural selection and evolution.
Determined by farmers and consumer markets, the target traits for plant breeding can include improved grain and fruit yield, resistance to major diseases and pests, better nutritional quality, ease of processing, and tolerance to environmental stresses such as drought, heat, acid soils, flooded fields and infertile soils. Most traits are genetically complex — that is, they are controlled by many genes and gene interactions — so breeders must intercross and select among hundreds of thousands of plants over generations to develop and choose the best.
Plant breeding over the last 100 years has fostered food and nutritional security for expanding populations, adapted crops to changing climates, and helped to alleviate poverty. Together with better farming practices, improved crop varieties can help to reduce environmental degradation and to mitigate climate change from agriculture.
Is plant breeding a modern technique?
Plant breeding began around 10,000 years ago, when humans undertook the domestication of ancestral food crop species. Over the ensuing millennia, farmers selected and re-sowed seed from the best grains, fruits or plants they harvested, genetically modifying the species for human use.
Modern, science-based plant breeding is a focused, systematic and swifter version of that process. It has been applied to all crops, among them maize, wheat, rice, potatoes, beans, cassava and horticulture crops, as well as to fruit trees, sugarcane, oil palm, cotton, farm animals and other species.
With modern breeding, specialists began collecting and preserving crop diversity, including farmer-selected heirloom varieties, improved varieties and the crops’ undomesticated relatives. Today hundreds of thousands of unique samples of diverse crop types, in the form of seeds and cuttings, are meticulously preserved as living catalogs in dozens of publicly-administered “banks.”
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) manages a germplasm bank containing more than 180,000 unique maize- and wheat-related seed samples, and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen preserves back-up copies of nearly a million collections from CIMMYT and other banks.
Through genetic analyses or growing seed samples, scientists comb such collections to find useful traits. Data and seed samples from publicly-funded initiatives of this type are shared among breeders and other researchers worldwide. The complete DNA sequences of several food crops, including rice, maize, and wheat, are now available and greatly assist scientists to identify novel, useful diversity.
Much crop breeding is international. From its own breeding programs, CIMMYT sends half a million seed packages each year to some 800 partners, including public research institutions and private companies in 100 countries, for breeding, genetic analyses and other research.
A field worker removes the male flower of a wheat spike, as part of controlled pollination in breeding. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
A century of breeding innovations
Early in the 20th century, plant breeders began to apply the discoveries of Gregor Mendel, a 19th-century mathematician and biologist, regarding genetic variation and heredity. They also began to take advantage of heterosis, commonly known as hybrid vigor, whereby progeny of crosses between genetically different lines will turn out stronger or more productive than their parents.
Modern statistical methods to analyze experimental data have helped breeders to understand differences in the performance of breeding offspring; particularly, how to distinguish genetic variation, which is heritable, from environmental influences on how parental traits are expressed in successive generations of plants.
Since the 1990s, geneticists and breeders have used molecular (DNA-based) markers. These are specific regions of the plant’s genome that are linked to a gene influencing a desired trait. Markers can also be used to obtain a DNA “fingerprint” of a variety, to develop detailed genetic maps and to sequence crop plant genomes. Many applications of molecular markers are used in plant breeding to select progenies of breeding crosses featuring the greatest number of desired traits from their parents.
Plant breeders normally prefer to work with “elite” populations that have already undergone breeding and thus feature high concentrations of useful genes and fewer undesirable ones, but scientists also introduce non-elite diversity into breeding populations to boost their resilience and address threats such as new fungi or viruses that attack crops.
Transgenics are products of one genetic engineering technology, in which a gene from one species is inserted in another. A great advantage of the technology for crop breeding is that it introduces the desired gene alone, in contrast to conventional breeding crosses, where many undesired genes accompany the target gene and can reduce yield or other valuable traits. Transgenics have been used since the 1990s to implant traits such as pest resistance, herbicide tolerance, or improved nutritional value. Transgenic crop varieties are grown on more than 190 million hectares worldwide and have increased harvests, raised farmers’ income and reduced the use of pesticides. Complex regulatory requirements to manage their potential health or environmental risks, as well as consumer concerns about such risks and the fair sharing of benefits, make transgenic crop varieties difficult and expensive to deploy.
Genome editing or gene editing techniques allow precise modification of specific DNA sequences, making it possible to enhance, diminish or turn off the expression of genes and to convert them to more favorable versions. Gene editing is used primarily to produce non-transgenic plants like those that arise through natural mutations. The approach can be used to improve plant traits that are controlled by single or small numbers of genes, such as resistance to diseases and better grain quality or nutrition. Whether and how to regulate gene edited crops is still being defined in many countries.
The mobile seed shop of Victoria Seeds Company provides access to improved maize varieties for farmers in remote villages of Uganda. (Photo: Kipenz Films for CIMMYT)
Selected impacts of maize and wheat breeding
In the early 1990s, a CIMMYT methodology led to improved maize varieties that tolerate moderate drought conditions around flowering time in tropical, rainfed environments, besides featuring other valuable agronomic and resilience traits. By 2015, almost half the maize-producing area in 18 countries of sub-Saharan Africa — a region where the crop provides almost a third of human calories but where 65% of maize lands face at least occasional drought — was sown to varieties from this breeding research, in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The estimated yearly benefits are as high as $1 billion.
Intensive breeding for resistance to Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN), a viral disease that appeared in eastern Africa in 2011 and quickly spread to attack maize crops across the continent, allowed the release by 2017 of 18 MLN-resistant maize hybrids.
Improved wheat varieties developed using breeding lines from CIMMYT or the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) cover more than 100 million hectares, nearly two-thirds of the area sown to improved wheat worldwide, with benefits in added grain that range from $2.8 to 3.8 billion each year.
Breeding for resistance to devastating crop diseases and pests has saved billions of dollars in crop losses and reduced the use of costly and potentially harmful pesticides. A 2004 study showed that investments since the early 1970s in breeding for resistance in wheat to the fungal disease leaf rust had provided benefits in added grain worth 5.36 billion 1990 US dollars. Global research to control wheat stem rust disease saves wheat farmers the equivalent of at least $1.12 billion each year.
Crosses of wheat with related crops (rye) or even wild grasses — the latter known as wide crosses — have greatly improved the hardiness and productivity of wheat. For example, an estimated one-fifth of the elite wheat breeding lines in CIMMYT international yield trials features genes from Aegilops tauschii, commonly known as “goat grass,” that boost their resilience and provide other valuable traits to protect yield.
Biofortification — breeding to develop nutritionally enriched crops — has resulted in more than 60 maize and wheat varieties whose grain offers improved protein quality or enhanced levels of micro-nutrients such as zinc and provitamin A. Biofortified maize and wheat varieties have benefited smallholder farm families and consumers in more than 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Consumption of provitamin-A-enhanced maize or sweet potato has been shown to reduce chronic vitamin A deficiencies in children in eastern and southern Africa. In India, farmers have grown a high-yielding sorghum variety with enhanced grain levels of iron and zinc since 2018 and use of iron-biofortified pearl millet has improved nutrition among vulnerable communities.
Innovations in measuring plant responses include remote sensing systems, such as multispectral and thermal cameras flown over breeding fields. In this image of the CIMMYT experimental station in Obregón, Mexico, water-stressed plots are shown in green and red. (Photo: CIMMYT and the Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible)
Thefuture
Crop breeders have been laying the groundwork to pursue genomic selection. This approach takes advantage of low-cost, genome-wide molecular markers to analyze large populations and allow scientists to predict the value of particular breeding lines and crosses to speed gains, especially for improving genetically complex traits.
Speed breeding uses artificially-extended daylength, controlled temperatures, genomic selection, data science, artificial intelligence tools and advanced technology for recording plant information — also called phenotyping — to make breeding faster and more efficient. A CIMMYT speed breeding facility for wheat features a screenhouse with specialized lighting, controlled temperatures and other special fixings that will allow four crop cycles — or generations — to be grown per year, in place of only two cycles with normal field trials. Speed breeding facilities will accelerate the development of productive and robust varieties by crop research programs worldwide.
Data analysis and management. Growing and evaluating hundreds of thousands of plants in diverse trials across multiple sites each season generates enormous volumes of data that breeders must examine, integrate, and co-analyze to inform decisions, especially about which lines to cross and which populations to discard or move forward. New informatics tools such as the Enterprise Breeding System will help scientists to manage, analyze and apply big data from genomics, field and lab studies.
Following the leaders. Driven by competition and the quest for profits, private companies that market seed and other farm products are generally on the cutting edge of breeding innovations. The CGIAR’s Excellence in Breeding (EiB) initiative is helping crop breeding programs that serve farmers in low- and middle-income countries to adopt appropriate best practices from private companies, including molecular marker-based approaches, strategic mechanization, digitization and use of big data to drive decision making. Modern plant breeding begins by ensuring that the new varieties produced are in line with what farmers and consumers want and need.
Cover photo: CIMMYT experimental station in Toluca, Mexico. Located in a valley at 2,630 meters above sea level with a cool and humid climate, it is the ideal location for selecting wheat materials resistant to foliar diseases, such as wheat rust. Conventional plant breeding involves selection among hundreds of thousands of plants from crosses over many generations, and requires extensive and costly field, screenhouse and lab facilities. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
New improved maize varieties may fall short in meeting the needs of women and the poorest of farmers – a concern that remains a focus of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the wider CGIAR.
Lower than expected adoption rates for some new maize varieties suggest that innovative strategies in breeding and seed delivery are likely needed. There is broad recognition of the need to get new germplasm from the CGIAR and its partners into the fields of more farmers in less time.
CIMMYT research on markets and social inclusion focuses on understanding two related dynamics: the unique preferences, needs and circumstances faced by women and the poorest farmers, and the implications these carry for how breeding programs and seed companies design and market new varieties.
Taking stock of knowledge and gaps in gender and maize breeding
Decades of research on maize preferences have sought to understand if and how men’s and women’s preferences differ. However, existing data provides unclear guidance to maize breeders on gender-relevant traits to prioritize in product profile design. The evidence suggests a lack of meaningful differences in what men and women are looking for in maize—yield, drought tolerance and early maturity—are high priorities almost across the board.
One reason for the similarity in preferences among women and men may relate to how we evaluate them, the authors argue. Preference studies that focus on evaluation of varieties’ agronomic and productivity-related traits may overlook critical components of farmers’ variety assessment and seed choice, including their household and farming context. Ultimately, they say, we need to explore new approaches to evaluating farmer demand for seed, considering new questions instead of continuing to look for gender-based differences in preferences.
A first step in that direction is to figure out how demand for maize seed differs among farmers according to their needs, priorities and resource limitations. Gender is definitely a part of that equation, but there’s much more to think about, like how maize fits into household food security and livelihoods, decision-making dynamics around maize production, and seed accessibility. New tools will be needed for understanding those and how decision-making around seed happens in real-world contexts.
Understanding how farmers make decisions on seed choice
The authors offer several practical suggestions for maize breeders and other researchers in this space:
First, explore tools that allow farmers to evaluate varieties in their household context. Large-scale farmer-managed on-farm trials have gained attention in the CGIAR as tools for more accurate assessment of farmer preferences. These approaches have several added advantages. They enable evaluation of variety performance under realistic management conditions—including under management practices used disproportionately by women, such as intercropping, which is typically excluded from larger researcher-managed trials. These approaches also enable farmer evaluation of maize varieties not only in terms of in-field performance and yield at harvest stage, but in terms of grain quality after harvest. This is particularly important for social inclusion, given women’s disproportionate attention to traits related to processing and consumption.
Second, move beyond gender-based preferences in evaluating seed demand. Gendered preferences matter, but they may not be the sole factor that determines a farmer’s choice of seed. We need to understand market segments for seed in relation to farmers’ aspirations, risk perceptions and tolerance, livelihood priorities, and household context. This also means exploring the intrahousehold gender dynamics of maize farming and seed choice to understand women’s roles in decision-making in maize production, processing, and consumption.
Finally, consider questions related to maize seed systems more broadly. Are maize seed systems capable of delivering gender-responsive and gender-intentional varieties to women and men? What are the barriers to wider uptake of new varieties aside from variety suitability? Innovative marketing and delivery mechanisms may be critical to realizing gains from more gender-intentional breeding.
With the transition to the One CGIAR, sharing tools and lessons learned across crops will be increasingly important. Researchers in the CGIAR community have developed new tools for gender-responsive and gender-intentional breeding. This includes through the Gender and Breeding Initiative, which has published the G+ tools to support gendered market segmentation and gender-intentional product profile development.
While learning from one another’s experiences will prove essential during the transition, recognizing that the gender dynamics of maize production may be very different from sweet potato production will also be key. Here, the new Market Intelligence & Product Profiles initiative and SeEdQUAL initiative on seed systems will both create new spaces for exploring these issues across crops.
A worker uses a machine to seal a bag of maize seed at the Sementes Nzara Yapera Lda warehouse in Catandika, Mozambique. Photo: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films.
A newly published special issue in the journal Outlook on Agriculture features views and experiences on seed systems performance in Sub-Saharan Africa and options to drive faster uptake of new crop varieties. The contributions reflect the breadth of perspectives and expertise within CGIAR and beyond and make the case for the need for more demand-oriented variety development and seed delivery.
A seed system refers to the various actors, processes, and relationships that allow for the production, conservation, exchange and use of propagation materials for crops, trees, forages, livestock, and fish. For the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), seed systems involve private seed companies, retailers, and government research agencies, among others, that are involved in the design, testing, production and distribution of high-yielding, climate-resilient, and pest- and disease-resistant maize hybrids.
“A well-functioning seed system is critical for ensuring that farmers have reliable access to the quality seeds that they want. It forms the critical link between breeders and the small-scale farmers responsible for much of the food production in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia,” said CIMMYT Senior Economist Jason Donovan, who co-authored the introductory article.
“The papers in this collection raise important issues which up to now have not received enough attention, to include the strategies, capacities and incentives of the private sector to invest in the distribution of new varieties. The topics discussed have implications for the One CGIAR in its ongoing efforts to develop a coherent and coordinated seed system research program that supports accelerated varietal uptake and turnover through effective seed delivery,” he added.
CIMMYT researchers contributed two papers, one which looks at the role of different types of seed producers and traders in shaping seed systems performance and another which proposes new directions for research on gender and formal maize seed systems. The special edition grew out of the CGIAR Community of Excellence for Seed Systems Development where CIMMYT led the discussion on seed value chains and private sector linkages.
One consensus among the authors is that a wider range of partnerships will be required to reenforce the potential of seed systems to delivery more new varieties to small-scale farmers in less time.
A farmer harvests wheat in one of CIMMYT’s research plots in Ethiopia. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
Five international wheat research teams have been awarded grants for their proposals to boost climate resilience in wheat through discovery and development of new breeding technologies, screening tools and novel traits.
Wheat is one of the world’s most important staple crops, accounting for about 20% of all human calories and protein and is increasingly threatened by the impacts of climate change. Experts around the world are working on ways to strengthen the crop in the face of increasing heat and drought conditions.
The proposals were submitted in response to a call by the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and global partners, made in 2021.
The grants were made possible by co-funding from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and in-kind contributions from awardees as part of a project which brings together the latest research from scientists across the globe to deliver climate resilient wheat to farmers as quickly as possible.
Cutting-edge wheat research
Owen Atkin, from the Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology at the Australian National University, leads the awarded project “Discovering thermally stable wheat through exploration of leaf respiration in combination with photosystem II capacity and heat tolerance.”
“The ratio of dark respiration to light and CO2 saturated photosynthesis is a clear indicator of the respiratory efficiency of a plant,” Atkin said. “We will measure and couple this indicator of respiratory efficiency to the leaf hyperspectral signature of field grown wheat exposed to heat and drought. The outcome could be a powerful tool which is capable of screening for wheat lines that are more productive when challenged with drought and heatwave.”
Hannah M. Schneider, of Wageningen University & Research, leads the awarded project examining the use of a novel root trait called Multiseriate Cortical Sclerenchyma to increase drought-tolerance in wheat.
“Drought is a primary limitation to global crop production worldwide. The presence of small outer cortical cells with thick, lignified cell walls (MCS: Multiseriate Cortical Sclerenchyma) is a novel root trait that has utility in drought environments,” Schneider said. “The overall objective of this project is to evaluate and develop this trait as a tool to improve drought resistance in wheat and in other crops.”
An improved wheat variety grows in the field in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Photo: A. Yaqub/CIMMYT)
John Foulkes, of the University of Nottingham, leads an awarded project titled “Identifying spike hormone traits and molecular markers for improved heat and drought tolerance in wheat.”
“The project aims to boost climate-resilience of grain set in wheat by identifying hormone signals to the spike that buffer grain set against extreme weather, with a focus on cytokinin, ABA and ethylene responses,” Foulkes said. “This will provide novel phenotyping screens and germplasm to breeders, and lay the ground-work for genetic analysis and marker development.”
Erik Murchie, from the University of Nottingham, leads an awarded project to explore new ways of determining genetic variation in heat-induced growth inhibition in wheat.
“High temperature events as part of climate change increasingly limit crop growth and yield by disrupting metabolic and developmental processes. This project will develop rapid methods for screening growth and physiological processes during heat waves, generating new genetic resources for wheat,” Murchie said.
Eric Ober of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in the UK, leads the awarded project “Targeted selection for thermotolerant isoforms of starch synthase.”
“Wheat remains a predominant source of calories and is fundamental to regional food security around the world. It is urgent that breeders are equipped to produce new varieties with increased tolerance to heat and drought, two stresses that commonly occur together, limiting grain production. The formation and filling of grain depends on the synthesis of starch, but a key enzyme in the pathway, starch synthase, is particularly sensitive to temperatures over 25°C. However, there exist forms of this enzyme that exhibit greater thermotolerance than that found in most current wheat varieties,” Ober said. “This project aims to develop a simple assay to screen diverse germplasm for sources of more heat-resistant forms of starch synthase that could be bred into new wheat varieties in the future.”
Breakthroughs from these projects are expected to benefit other crops, not just wheat. Other benefits of the projects include closer interaction between scientists and breeders and capacity building of younger scientists.
How does CIMMYT’s improved maize get to the farmer?
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a new set of elite, improved maize hybrids to partners for commercialization in eastern Africa and similar agro-ecological zones. National agricultural research systems (NARS) and seed companies are invited to apply for licenses to register and commercialize these new hybrids, in order to bring the benefits of the improved seed to farming communities.
The deadline to submit applications to be considered during the first round of allocations is February 11, 2022. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during the following round of product allocations.
Information about the newly available CIMMYT maize hybrids from the Latin America breeding program, application instructions and other relevant material is available in the CIMMYT Maize Product Catalog and in the links provided below.
India has conferred posthumously upon Sanjaya Rajaram, 2014 World Food Prize laureate and former wheat breeder and Director of the Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), its prestigious 2022 Padma Bhushan Award in “Science and Engineering” in recognition of “distinguished service of high order.”
Among the most successful crop breeders in history, Rajaram, who passed away in 2021, personally oversaw the development of nearly 500 high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties that were grown on at least 58 million hectares in over 50 countries, increasing global wheat production by more than 200 million tons and especially benefiting hundreds of millions of the resource-poor whose diets and livelihoods depend on this critical crop. In India and the neighboring South Asian nations of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, inhabitants consume more than 120 million tons of wheat and wheat-based foods each year.
“Dr. Rajaram was a true titan of wheat breeding and an inspiration for young researchers, training and mentoring more than 700 scientists from developing countries worldwide,” said Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT director general. “He was also a complete gentleman, comporting himself with modesty and grace despite his many honors and accomplishments; his first priority was helping and crediting others. Rajaram is an example today for all of us to keep working with the final stakeholder — the farmer — in mind.”
The rise from rural beginnings
Born on a small farm in District Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1943, Rajaram studied genetics and plant breeding at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, he joined CIMMYT in 1969, working as a wheat breeder alongside Nobel Prize Laureate and CIMMYT scientist Norman Borlaug in Mexico. Recognizing his talent and initiative, Borlaug appointed Rajaram as head of CIMMYT’s wheat breeding program at just 29 years of age.
The Padma Bhushan Award was announced by President Ram Nath Kovind of India on the country’s Republic Day, January 26. In 2015, Rajaram received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award, the highest honor conferred on Indians overseas. In 2001 he accepted the Padma Shri award from the government of India and, in 1998, the Friendship Award from the government of China.
Sanjaya Rajaram (Photo: Xochil Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Though a plant breeder and scientist by profession, Rajaram used the platform of his 2014 World Food Prize to promote an expansive, integrated vision for agricultural development. “If we want to make a change, research won’t do it alone; we need to work directly with farmers and to train young agronomists, ensuring they have a broad vision to address the problems in farmers’ fields,” Rajaram said at a news conference in Mexico City in 2014.
Rajaram also served as Director of the Integrated Gene Management Program at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) before formally retiring in 2008. In his retirement, he continued as a special scientific advisor to CIMMYT and ICARDA.
Longstanding partners pushing forward for farmers
“India’s agricultural research community is proud of the distinguished achievements of Dr. Rajaram,” said Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), of India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. “ICAR greatly appreciates its valuable collaborations with CIMMYT to help farmers grow better crops and conserve resources under increasingly challenging conditions.”
The partnership of India with CIMMYT harks back to the 1960s-70s, when Indian farmers tripled national wheat yields in a few years by growing Borlaug’s high-yield wheat varieties and adopting improved farming practices.
In 2011, India and CIMMYT jointly launched the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) to improve cropping systems and food security, helping farmers to confront climate change and natural resource scarcities, among other challenges.
S. Ayyappan, former ICAR Director General who signed the joint declaration of intent for BISA’s establishment in India, has been honored with the 2022 Padma Shri Award.
CIMMYT is a non-profit international agricultural research and training organization focusing on two of the world’s most important cereal grains, maize and wheat, and related cropping systems and livelihoods. Wheat varieties derived from CIMMYT and ICARDA research cover more than 100 million hectares — nearly two-thirds of the area sown to improved wheat worldwide — and bring benefits in added grain worth as much as $3.8 billion each year.
Genomic selection identifies individual plants based on the information from molecular markers, DNA signposts for genes of interest, that are distributed densely throughout the wheat genome. For wheat blast, the results can help predict which wheat lines hold promise as providers of blast resistance for future crosses and those that can be advanced to the next generation after selection.
In this study, scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners evaluated genomic selection by combining genotypic data with extensive and precise field data on wheat blast responses for three sets of genetically diverse wheat lines and varieties, more than 700 in all, grown by partners at locations in Bangladesh and Bolivia over several crop cycles.
The study also compared the use of a small number of molecular markers linked to the 2NS translocation, a chromosome segment from the grass species Aegilops ventricosa that was introduced into wheat in the 1980s and is a strong and stable source of blast resistance, with predictions using thousands of genome-wide markers. The outcome confirms that, in environments where wheat blast resistance is determined by the 2NS translocation, genotyping using one-to-few markers tagging the translocation is enough to predict the blast response of wheat lines.
Finally, the authors found that selection based on a few wheat blast-associated molecular markers retained 89% of lines that were also selected using field performance data, and discarded 92% of those that were discarded based on field performance data. Thus, both marker-assisted selection and genomic selection offer viable alternatives to the slower and more expensive field screening of many thousands of wheat lines in hot-spot locations for the disease, particularly at early stages of breeding, and can speed the development of blast-resistant wheat varieties.
The research was conducted by scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), the Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF) of Bolivia, the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in India, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Alnarp), and Kansas State University in the USA. Funding for the study was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office of the United Kingdom, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Swedish Research Council, and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
Cover photo: A researcher from Bangladesh shows blast infected wheat spikes and explains how the disease directly attacks the grain. (Photo: Chris Knight/Cornell University)
In nature, plants are simultaneously exposed to a complex system of biotic and abiotic stresses that limit crop yield. The cereal cyst nematode Heterodera filipjevi and dryland crown rot, caused by Fusarium, are important diseases facing cereal production around the world that cause significant yield loss. Yield loss accelerates when those diseases coexist with other abiotic stresses, such as drought.
Hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an essential staple food for a large part of the world’s population, covering around 20% of daily caloric intake in the human diet, with global production at about 670.8 million tons per year, produced over 215.4 million hectares of land worldwide. Therefore, the program studying soil-borne pathogens at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)’s Turkey office initiated a study to investigate the effect of soil borne diseases (H. filipjevi and Fusarium culmorum) individually and in combination with drought on some morphological and physiological traits in wheat germplasm with different genetic tolerances to the three studied factors.
In this study, yield components included thousand kernel weight, spike weight, seed per spike and total grain yield. Morphological parameters, including plant height, final plant number (seedling emergence), relative water content, leaf chlorophyll content, H. filipjevi cyst number and presence of crown rot, were studied under greenhouse conditions in Turkey.
The main findings of the study showed that the interaction among water stress, F. culmorum and H. filipjevi increased the damage on the wheat parameters studied when compared with each stress applied alone. One of the most significant damages was seen in high seedling mortality under the three combined stresses (56% seedling death rate), which indicates the damage on wheat yield might occur at the seedling stage rather than later stages. This reduces plant density per area, which was ultimately responsible for low grain yield produced. The known dryland disease, crown rot, caused by F. culmorum, was significantly pronounced under water-stressed conditions.
In all studied parameters, the lowest damage was found among the resistant cultivars to biotic or abiotic stresses. This underscores the importance of wheat breeding programs to develop resistant germplasm, and reminds farmers to replace their old, susceptible varieties with new, resistant ones.
Based on our intensive experience in the CWANA region, most wheat growers basically do not recognize soil borne pathogens as a problem. In fact, most of them do not know that what nematode or soil fungal species are in their fields affecting yield. The term “hidden enemy” perfectly applies to the problems in the region and beyond. Integrated pest management (IPM) is, however, not practiced in the entire region and soil borne pathogen-induced yield losses are simply accepted.
We can conclude from this study that yield reduction in wheat due to soil borne pathogens could be lessened by improving and understanding the concept of IPM in the region where the practice of winter mono-culturing of wheat is the norm. Management of cereal soil-borne pathogens, especially cereal cyst nematode and crown rot, could involve an integrated approach that includes crop rotation, genetic resistance, crop nutrition and appropriate water supply.
Cover photo: Four different test crops show different stresses: T1V8 = Drought, T2V8 = Drought and Nematodes, T3V8 = Drought and fungus, T4V8 = Drought and nematode and fungus together. (Credit: CIMMYT)
At the same time, climate change has likely slowed breeding progress for high-yielding, broadly adapted wheat, according to the new study, published recently in Nature Plants.
“Breeders are usually optimistic, overlooking many climate change factors when selecting,” said Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and co-author of the publication. “Our findings undermine this optimism and show that the amplified interaction of wheat lines with the environment due to climate change has made it harder for breeders to identify outstanding, broadly adapted lines.”
What do 10 million data points tell scientists?
Each year for nearly half a century, wheat breeders taking part in the CIMMYT-led International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) have tested approximately 1,000 new, experimental wheat lines and varieties at some 700 field sites in over 90 countries.
Promising lines are taken up by wheat breeding programs worldwide, while data from the trials is used to guide global breeding and other critical wheat research, explained Wei Xiong, CIMMYT crop modeler/physiologist based in China and lead author of the new paper.
“To date, this global testing network has collected over 10 million data points, while delivering wheat germplasm estimated to be worth several billion dollars annually in extra productivity to hundreds of millions of farmers in less developed countries,” Xiong said.
Xiong and his colleagues analyzed “crossover interactions” — changes in the relative rankings of pairs of wheat lines — in 38 years of data from four kinds of wheat breeding trials, looking for the extent to which climate change or breeding progress have flipped those rankings. Two of the trials whose data they examined focused on yield in bread wheat and durum wheat, while the other two assessed wheat lines’ performance under high temperatures and in semi-arid environments, respectively.
In addition to raising yields, wheat breeders are endowing the crop with added resilience for rising temperatures.
“We found that warmer and more erratic climates since the 1980s have increased ranking changes in global wheat breeding by as much as 15 percent,” Xiong said. “This has made it harder for breeders to identify superior, broadly adapted lines and even led to scientists discarding potentially useful lines.”
Conversely, wheat cultivars emerging from breeding for tolerance to environmental stresses, particularly heat, are showing substantially more stable yields across a range of environments and fostering wheat’s adaptation to current, warmer climates, while opening opportunities for larger and faster genetic gains in the future, according to the study.
“Among other things, our findings argue for more targeted wheat breeding and testing to address rapidly shifting and unpredictable farming conditions,” Reynolds added.
Indian agricultural researcher Pooja Bhatnagar-Mathur, a Principal Scientist at CIMMYT, says aflatoxin, a toxin produced from soil fungus and found in groundnuts like peanuts, is a serious public health and food safety problem around the globe.
