In an op-ed, Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT, and Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), discuss how higher-yielding, stress-tolerant maize varieties can not only help smallholder farmers combat climatic variabilities and diseases, but also effectively diversify their farms.
A maize ear harvested from a “milpa,” the maize-based intercrop that is a critical source of food and nutritional security for smallholder farming communities in remote areas such as the Western Highlands of Guatemala. (Photo: Cristian Reyna)
The traditional milpa intercrop — in which maize is grown together with beans, squash, or other vegetable crops — can furnish a vital supply of food and nutrients for marginalized, resource-poor communities in the Americas, according to a study published today in Nature Scientific Reports.
One hectare of a milpa comprising maize, common beans, and potatoes can provide the annual carbohydrate needs of more than 13 adults, enough protein for nearly 10 adults, and adequate supplies of many vitamins and minerals, according to the study. The research was based on data from nearly 1,000 households across 59 villages of the Western Highlands of Guatemala and is the first to relate milpa intercropping diversity with nutritional capacity, using multiple plots and crop combinations.
“The milpa was the backbone of pre-Columbian agriculture in North America, Mexico, and Central America,” said Santiago López-Ridaura, specialist in agricultural systems and climate change adaptation at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the article.
“Milpa production anchored around locally-adapted maize is still an essential food and nutritional lifeline for isolated, often indigenous communities throughout Mexico and Central America, and can be tailored to improve their food and nutritional security, along with that of small-scale farmers in similar settings,” he added.
Maize for feed or food and nutrition?
In modern times, some 1 billion tons of maize are harvested yearly from about 200 million hectares worldwide. Much of this output results from intensive monocropping of hybrids that yield an average 10 tons per hectare, in places like the U.S.
This massive world harvest goes chiefly for animal feed, corn starch, corn syrup, ethanol, and myriad industrial products, but in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia, maize remains a critical food staple, often grown by smallholder farmers with yields averaging around 1.5 tons per hectare.
The Western Highlands of Guatemala is among the world’s poorest regions — a mountainous area ill-served by markets and where communities battered by food insecurity and malnutrition sow crops at altitudes of up to 3,200 meters, according to Cristian A. Reyna-Ramírez, a co-author of the study from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, Mexico.
“Fully two-thirds of farmers in this region grow milpas based on maize but varying the intercrops with potatoes, faba bean, and even fruit trees,” Reyna-Ramírez said. “Our study showed that combinations such as maize-common bean-faba bean, maize-potatoes, and maize-common bean-potatoes provided the most carbohydrates, proteins, zinc, iron, calcium, potassium, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, niacin and vitamin C.”
The classic “milpa” intercrop comprises maize, beans, and squash. The bean plant climbs the maize stalk to reach sunlight and its roots add nitrogen to the soil; the squash leaves shade the soil, conserving moisture and inhibiting weed growth. Milpa systems are often grown on steep hillsides at a wide range of altitudes. (Photo: Cristian Reyna)
Better diets and routes out of poverty?
With typical landholdings of less than a quarter hectare and households averaging six members, Guatemala’s Western Highlands inhabitants cannot depend on the milpa alone to satisfy their needs, López-Ridaura cautioned.
“As with many smallholder farm communities, lack of land and general marginalization traps them in a vicious circle of poverty and malnutrition, forcing them to experiment with risky cash crops or for working-age members to undertake dangerous and heartbreaking migrations to find work and send back remittances,” he explains.
According to López-Ridaura, this study points the way for tailoring milpa systems to help communities that still rely on that intercrop or others that could benefit from its use.
Looking forward
Natalia Palacios Rojas, CIMMYT maize quality and nutrition expert and a co-author of this article, notes that calculations of this and other milpa studies consider raw nutrients and that research is needed on the nutritional contributions of cooked food and non-milpa foods such as poultry, livestock, home-garden produce, and purchased food.
“Further work should also address the effects of storing milpa produce on its nutrient stability and how the seasonal availability of milpa crops impacts diets and nutrition,” Palacios said.
The authors are grateful for funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, under the Buena Milpa project, as well as the support of the CGIAR Research Program on Maize.
USAID has started the implementation of a $21.4 million project led by CIMMYT, the International Development Enterprises (iDE), and the Georgia Institute of Technology to support the mechanization of agriculture in Bangladesh.
The challenges facing our food system are growing, both in size and in complexity. In order to tackle these issues and meet the needs of our changing world, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) understands the importance of assembling a workforce that is diverse, creative and representative. In addition to encouraging STEM careers and hiring more women in scientific positions, we must also foster a more encouraging scientific community for women whose careers are just sparking.
Whether it is through a school field trip, a first internship or a PhD thesis project, CIMMYT is committed to encouraging young women to step into the lab and the fields, and up to the challenge, as we strive to create a more equitable community. On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are inspired by the words of some of the many brilliant women whose scientific careers are just beginning, lighting the pathway to a more equitable future.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is particularly meaningful to CIMMYT’s new Global Wheat Program (GWP) Director, Alison Bentley. Listen and watch as she tells her story, from her first lightbulb moment on a high school field trip, to a leadership position in the wheat research world.
In celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, CIMMYT is participating in a unique marathon event, carrying a global conversation with CGIAR women scientists that are leading change and creating solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges.
Powered by Women in Research and Science (WIRES), a new employee-led resource group at CGIAR, the event will showcase the many ways women scientists are transforming the way we look at our food, land and water systems around the world. In addition to learning about cutting-edge science, you’ll be able to engage with inspiring speakers in 13 different countries.
Join CIMMYT’s discussion on February 11, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. CST, and learn about the journeys of the 2020 Bänziger Award recipients, an engaging Q&A with four CIMMYT scientists, and our vision for a more equitable workforce. Register for the event.
Evidence of enormity and immediacy of the challenges climate change poses for life on earth seems to pour in daily. But important gaps in our knowledge of all the downstream effects of this complex process remain. And the global response to these challenges is still far from adequate to the job ahead. Bold, multi-stakeholder, multidisciplinary action is urgent.
In addition to exploring the important challenges climate changes poses for plant health, the event explored the implications for the wellbeing and livelihoods of smallholder farming communities in low- and middle- income countries, paying special attention to the gender dimension of both the challenges and proposed solutions.
The event was co-organized by researchers at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe).
The overall webinar series is hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Potato Center (CIP), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is sponsored by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition (A4NH), the CGIAR Gender Platform and the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB).
This is important
The stakes for the conversation were forcefully articulated by Shenggen Fan, chair professor and dean of the Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy at China Agricultural University and member of the CGIAR System Board. “Because of diseases and pests, we lose about 20-40% of our food crops. Can you imagine how much food we have lost? How many people we could feed with that lost food? Climate change will make this even worse,” Fan said.
Such impacts, of course, will not be evenly felt across geographic and social divides, notably gender. According to Jemimah Njuki, director for Africa at IFPRI, gender and household relationships shape how people respond to and are impacted by climate change. “One of the things we have evidence of is that in times of crises, women’s assets are often first to be sold and it takes even longer for them to be recovered,” Njuki said.
The desert locust has been around since biblical times. Climate change has contributed to its reemergence as a major pest. (Photo: David Nunn)
Shifting risks
When it comes to understanding the impact of climate change on plant health “one of our big challenges is to understand where risk will change,” said Karen Garrett, preeminent professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida,
This point was powerfully exemplified by Henri Tonnang, head of Data Management, Modelling and Geo-information Unit at icipe, who referred to the “unprecedented and massive outbreak” of desert locusts in 2020. The pest — known since biblical times — has reemerged as a major threat due to extreme weather events driven by sea level rise.
Researchers highlighted exciting advancements in mapping, modelling and big data techniques that can help us understand these evolving risks. At the same time, they stressed the need to strengthen cooperation not only among the research community, but among all the stakeholders for any given research agenda.
“The international research community needs to transform the way it does research,” said Ana María Loboguerrero, research director for Climate Action at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. “We’re working in a very fragmented way, sometime inefficiently and with duplications, sometimes acting under silos… It is difficult to deliver end-to-end sustainable and scalable solutions.”
Time for a new strategy
Such injunctions are timely and reaffirm CGIAR’s new strategic orientation. According to Sonja Vermeulen, the event moderator and the director of programs for the CGIAR System Management Organization, this strategy recognizes that stand-alone solutions — however brilliant — aren’t enough to make food systems resilient. We need whole system solutions that consider plants, animals, ecosystems and people together.
Echoing Fan’s earlier rallying cry, Vermeulen said, “This is important. Unless we do something fast and ambitious, we are not going to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Cover photo: All farmers are susceptible to extreme weather events, and many are already feeling the effects of climate change. (Photo: N. Palmer/CIAT)
Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Barry O’ Farrell (left), observes the use of drone technology at the BISA experimental station in Ludhiana, India. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT).
Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell, visited the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) in Ludhiana, India, on January 20, 2021 along with his delegation.
O’Farrell acknowledged the historic role of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) sharing the seeds of the most recent, climate-resilient, high-yielding, and disease-resistant wheat genotypes. He also appreciated that this work is being continued with even greater vigor by BISA for the benefit of India and the whole of South Asia.
The High Commissioner was happy to note that wheat germplasm is freely shared with public and private sector national partners under constant guidance and collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE).
O’Farrell emphasized the strong collaboration between Indian and Australian research institutes. He called for even more cross-learning between scientists and other stakeholders for research, policy and capacity development in the areas of land, water, climatic resilience, environmental sustainability and germplasm enhancement for the benefit of farmers of both countries.
Witnessing science in action
Arun Kumar Joshi, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Asia and Managing Director of BISA, welcomed the group and briefed the visitors on CIMMYT and BISA’s collaboration with ICAR and DARE.
H.S. Sidhu, Principal Research Engineer at BISA, and M.L. Jat, Principal Scientist and Systems Agronomist at CIMMYT, presented the major challenges and research outputs related to climate change, the food-energy-water nexus and the overall agricultural sustainability challenges faced by India.
One of the successful examples of collaboration between Australia and India is the Happy Seeder, which addresses these challenges through conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification. O’Farrell saw the expansive wheat fields sown with the Happy Seeder and was impressed by the technology.
The group also discussed the evidence-based policy changes that have taken place, as well as future strategies for accelerated impact through new approaches, like carbon farming. A detailed discussion took place on climate-smart agriculture research, with a focus on precision water and nutrient management using digital agriculture technologies and their complementarity for boosting Happy Seeder uptake.
The High Commissioner and his delegation also visited the wheat breeding program, where CIMMYT researcher Uttam Kumar explained the development of wheat genotypes — in collaboration with ICAR-DARE and the national agriculture research system — for a range of environments, management conditions, and against various stresses, with the ultimate objective of serving the needs of smallholder farmers.
O’Farrell also appreciated the BISA-designed Phenocart for high-throughput precision phenotyping in wheat improvement. O’Farrell highlighted and appreciated that this season, BISA is conducting the largest wheat breeding trial in South Asia: currently more than 60,000 plots are planted at the BISA station in Ludhiana alone.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a new set of elite, improved maize hybrids to partners in eastern Africa and similar agro-ecological zones. National agricultural research systems (NARS) and seed companies are invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release of, and subsequently 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 9 February 2021. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during the following round of product allocations.
Information about the newly available CIMMYT maize hybrids from Eastern Africa breeding program, application instructions and other relevant material is available below.
To apply, please fill out the CIMMYT Improved Maize Product Allocation Application Forms, available for download at the links below. Each applicant will need to complete one copy of Form A for their organization, then for each hybrid being requested a separate copy of Form B. (Please be sure to use these current versions of the application forms.)
Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have identified new genomic regions associated with maize stover quality, an important by-product of maize which can be used in animal feed.
The results of the study, published this month in Nature Scientific Reports, will allow maize breeders to select for stover quality traits more quickly and cost-effectively, and to develop new dual purpose maize varieties without sacrificing grain yield.
The researchers screened diverse Asia-adapted CIMMYT maize lines from breeders’ working germplasm for animal feed quality traits. They then used these as a reference set to predict the breeding values of over a thousand doubled haploid lines derived from abiotic stress breeding programs based on genetic information. Based on these breeding values, the scientists further selected 100 of these double haploid lines and validated the performance of stover quality traits through field-based phenotyping.
The results demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating genomic prediction as a tool to improve stover traits, circumventing the need for field or lab-based phenotyping. The findings significantly reduce the need for additional testing resources — a major hindrance in breeding dual-purpose maize varieties.
Interestingly, the researchers found that increased animal feed quality in maize stover had no impact on grain yield, a concern raised by scientists in the past.
“The main purpose of this study and overall purpose of this CIMMYT and ILRI collaboration was to optimize the potential of maize crops for farm families, increase income, improve livelihoods and sustainably manage the crop livestock system, within limited resources,” said P.H. Zaidi, a maize physiologist at CIMMYT and co-author of the study.
“More than 70% of the farmers in the tropics are smallholders so they don’t have a lot of land to grow crops for grain purposes and separate stover for animal feed, so this is a very sustainable model if they grow dual purpose maize.”
By growing maize simultaneously for both human consumption and animal feed, farmers can get the most out of their crops and conserve natural resources like land and water.
A farmer works in a maize field close to the Pusa site of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), in the Indian state of Bihar. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
Fodder for thought
The findings from this study also validate the use of genomic prediction as an important breeding tool to accelerate the development and improvement of dual-purpose maize varieties, according to CIMMYT Maize Breeder and first author of the study, M.T. Vinayan.
With the demand for animal feed increasing around the world, crop scientists and breeders have been exploring more efficient ways to improve animal feed quality in cereals without compromising grain yields for human consumption.
“Not all maize varieties have good stover quality, which is what we realized when we started working on this project. However, we discovered that there are a few which offer just as good quality as sorghum stover — a major source of livestock fodder particularly in countries such as India,” said Zaidi.
The publication of the study is a fitting tribute to the late Michael Blummel, who was a principal scientist and deputy program leader in the feed and forage development program at ILRI and co-author of this study.
“A couple of years back Dr Blummel relocated from the Hyderabad office at ILRI to its headquarters at Addis Ababa, but he used to frequently visit Hyderabad, and without fail met with us on each visit to discuss updates, especially about dual-purpose maize work. He was very passionate about dual-purpose maize research with a strong belief that the additional income from maize stover at no additional cost will significantly improve the income of maize farmers,” Zaidi said. “Michael was following this publication very closely because it was the first of its kind in terms of molecular breeding for dual purpose maize. He would have been very excited to see this published.”
A handful of improved maize seed from the drought-tolerant variety TAN 250, developed and registered for sale in Tanzania through CIMMYT’s Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, in partnership with Tanzanian seed company Tanseed International Limited. It is based on material from CIMMYT-Zimbabwe, CIMMYT-Mexico, and Tanzania. (Photo: Anne Wangalachi/CIMMYT)
The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) “uniquely fills a gap at the global and regional level, positioning it to continue catalyzing good science across borders,” according to a new report.
In addition to the exceptional quality of the program’s scientific inputs and the overall quality of its outputs, the reviewers note the program’s capacity to mobilize “stakeholders, resources and knowledge to rapidly deliver valuable solutions for a critical need.” The review authors specifically note MAIZE’s efforts towards halting the spread of maize lethal necrosis (MLN).
While, like all CGIAR Research Programs, MAIZE is due to conclude at the end of 2021, much of the program’s pioneering work will continue under new guises, such as the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project.
MAIZE — led by CIMMYT in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) — spearheads international, multi-stakeholder research for development to improve the livelihoods and food security of poor maize producers and consumers. It simultaneously seeks to strengthen the sustainability of maize-based agri-food systems. The program focuses on maize production in low- to middle-income countries — accounting for approximately two-thirds of global maize production — where the crop is “key to the food security and livelihoods of millions of poor famers,” according to the report.
“MAIZE provides a very robust platform for collaboration with our national partners, including private companies, community seed produces and other stakeholders. Through projects such as Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and STMA, research has been able to provide innovative solutions to challenges that smallholder farmers face in their daily lives, such as drought, poor soils, and pests and diseases,” says Nteranya Sanginga, IITA’s Director General.
The review concludes that MAIZE “good management and governance practice are a strong foundation for the remainder of [the program’s] running.” The reviewers also recommend that the “excellent,” participatory application of theory of change thinking in the second phase of MAIZE be mainstreamed at the CGIAR system level moving forward. Key recommendations for the program’s final phase include:
Building on MAIZE’s “strong network of partners” by deepening these relationships into “multidirectional partnerships.”
Building on existing cross-cutting work on capacity development, climate change, gender and youth.
Diversifying and expanding MAIZE’s knowledge dissemination efforts to more deeply engage with include multiple and non-scientific audiences.
The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind (left) and the Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (right) announce the award to Ravi Singh. (Photo: Ministry of External Affairs, India)
Ravi Singh, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Global Wheat Improvement at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has received the highest honor conferred by the Government of India to non-resident Indians.
The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award recognizes outstanding achievements by non-resident Indians, persons of Indian origin, or organizations or institutions run by them either in India or abroad. Awardees are selected for their support to India’s causes and concerns by a committee led by the Vice President and the Minister of External Affairs of India. The awardees, according to the awards website, “represent the vibrant excellence achieved by our diaspora in various fields.” The online award announcement ceremony took place on January 9, 2021, with India’s President Ram Nath Kovind as a chief guest.
Ravi Singh, whose career at CIMMYT spans 37 years, was recognized for his invaluable contributions to wheat research and the development and training of scientists that have increased food production and nutritional security in Mexico, India and numerous other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
“The award recognizes and values many years of wheat breeding at CIMMYT, where I had the opportunity, privilege and satisfaction to have contributed and made impacts through our invaluable partners in India and many other countries,” Singh said. “By continuously providing superior varieties, we increased wheat production and incomes of millions of smallholder farming families.”
Singh’s nomination cited his contribution to the development, release and cultivation by national partners worldwide of over 550 wheat varieties over the past three decades. These national partners include the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and its affiliated institutions in India. These varieties, sown annually on over 40 million hectares by as many farmers, add over $1 billion annually to farmers’ incomes through increased productivity and built-in disease resistance, thus reducing chemical dependence to a negligible level.
Ravi Singh (left, in striped shirt) shows students how to score the seed of freshly-harvested wheat lines at CIMMYT’s experimental station near Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, during the international Wheat Improvement Course in 2007. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“Great teamwork leads to breakthroughs — and is the only way to achieve a common goal. Dr. Ravi Singh’s work alleviating hunger is a great service to mankind,” said Gyanendra Pratap Singh, director of the ICAR Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (ICAR-IIWBR). “We are proud to have him on our team.”
“This award recognizes Dr. Ravi Singh’s important contribution to CIMMYT wheat breeding, delivering major impacts to wheat production and smallholder livelihoods in India, and around the world,” said Alison Bentley, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.
Over his career, Singh has nourished and further expanded an already strong partnership between CIMMYT, ICAR and various agricultural universities in India by developing and sharing each year new, diverse wheat varieties possessing increased grain and straw yields, resistance to diseases such as rusts, spot blotch and blast, climate resilience, and processing and nutritional quality.
Over the past decade, Singh’s team developed about half of the wheat varieties released in India through the ICAR network. These include the country’s first high-yielding biofortified varieties, WB-2 and PBW1-Zn, released in 2017 to benefit India’s zinc-deficient population.
Millions of farmers in India continue to grow CIMMYT wheat varieties or their derivatives developed by Indian institutions, to ensure safe and abundant harvests and better nutrition.
Ravi Singh’s numerous recognitions include membership as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Phytopathological Society (APS), the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and India’s National Academy of Agricultural Science (NAAS). His awards include the Outstanding CGIAR Scientist Award, the CSSA Crop Science Research Award, the University of Minnesota E.C. Stakman Award, and the China State Council’s Friendship Award, among others. He has been included among the top 1% of highly cited researchers according to Clarivate Analytics-Web of Science every year since 2017. Singh also serves as Adjunct Professor at Cornell University and Kansas State University.
A new publication in Virus Research shows that these second-generation MLN-resistant hybrids developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) offer better yields and increased resilience against MLN and other stresses.
Scientists are calling for accelerated adoption of new hybrid maize varieties with resistance to maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in sub-Saharan Africa. In combination with recommended integrated pest management practices, adopting these new varieties is an important step towards safeguarding smallholder farmers against this devastating viral disease.
A new publication in Virus Research shows that these second-generation MLN-resistant hybrids developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) offer better yields and increased resilience against MLN and other stresses. The report warns that the disease remains a key threat to food security in eastern Africa and that, should containment efforts slacken, it could yet spread to new regions in sub-Saharan Africa.
The publication was co-authored by researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and Aarhus University in Denmark.
CIMMYT technician Janet Kimunye (right) shows visitors a plant with MLN symptoms at the MLN screening facility in Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Stemming the panic
The first reported outbreak of MLN in Bomet County, Kenya in 2011 threw the maize sector into a panic. The disease caused up to 100% yield loss. Nearly all elite commercial maize varieties on the market at the time were susceptible, whether under natural of artificial conditions. Since 2012, CIMMYT, in partnership with KALRO, national plant protection organizations and commercial seed companies, has led multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary efforts to curb MLN’s spread across sub-Saharan Africa. Other partners in this endeavor include the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), non-government organizations such as AGRA and AATF, and advanced research institutions in the United States and Europe.
In 2013 CIMMYT established an MLN screening facility in Naivasha. Researchers developed an MLN-severity scale, ranging from 1 to 9, to compare varieties’ resistance or susceptibility to the disease. A score of 1 represents a highly resistant variety with no visible symptoms of the disease, while a score of 9 signifies extreme susceptibility. Trials at this facility demonstrated that some of CIMMYT’s pre-commercial hybrids exhibited moderate MLN-tolerance, with a score of 5 on the MLN-severity scale. CIMMYT then provided seed and detailed information to partners for evaluation under accelerated National Performance Trials (NPTs) for varietal release and commercialization in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Between 2013 and 2014, four CIMMYT-derived MLN-tolerant hybrid varieties were released by public and private sector partners in East Africa. With an average MLN severity score of 5-6, these varieties outperformed commercial MLN-sensitive hybrids, which averaged MLN severity scores above 7. Later, CIMMYT breeders developed second-generation MLN-resistant hybrids with MLN severity scores of 3–4. These second-generation hybrids were evaluated under national performance trials. This led to the release of several hybrids, especially in Kenya, over the course of a five-year period starting in 2013. They were earmarked for commercialization in East Africa beginning in 2020.
Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) sensitive and resistant hybrid demo plots in Naivasha’s quarantine & screening facility (Photo: KIPENZ/CIMMYT)
Widespread adoption critical
The last known outbreak of MLN was reported in 2014 in Ethiopia, marking an important break in the virus’s spread across the continent. Up to that point, the virus had affected the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. However, much remains to be done to minimize the possibility of future outbreaks.
“Due to its complex and multi-faceted nature, effectively combating the incidence, spread and adverse effects of MLN in Africa requires vigorous and well-coordinated efforts by multiple institutions,” said B.M. Prasanna, primary author of the report and director of the Global Maize Program at CIMMYT and of the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE). Prasanna also warns that most commercial maize varieties being cultivated in eastern Africa are still MLN-susceptible. They also serve as “reservoirs” for MLN-causing viruses, especially the maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV), which combines with other viruses from the Potyviridae family to cause MLN.
“This is why it is very important to adopt an integrated disease management approach, which encompasses extensive adoption of improved MLN-resistant maize varieties, especially second-generation, not just in MLN-prevalent countries but also in the non-endemic ones in sub-Saharan Africa,” Prasanna noted.
The report outlines other important prevention and control measures including: the production and exchange of “clean” commercial maize seed with no contamination by MLN-causing viruses; avoiding maize monocultures and continuous maize cropping; practicing maize crop rotation with compatible crops, especially legumes, which do not serve as hosts for MCMV; and continued MLN disease monitoring and surveillance.
L.M. Suresh (center-right), Maize Pathologist at CIMMYT and Head of the MLN Screening Facility, facilitates a training on MLN with national partners. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Noteworthy wins
In addition to the development of MLN-resistant varieties, the fight against MLN has delivered important wins for both farmers and their families and for seed companies. In the early years of the outbreak, most local and regional seed companies did not understand the disease well enough to produce MLN-pathogen free seed. Since then, CIMMYT and its partners developed standard operating procedures and checklists for MLN pathogen-free seed production along the seed value chain. Today over 30 seed companies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania are implementing these protocols on a voluntary basis.
“MLN represents a good example where a successful, large-scale surveillance system for an emerging transboundary disease has been developed as part of a rapid response mechanism led by a CGIAR center,” Prasanna said.
Yet, he noted, significant effort and resources are still required to keep the maize fields of endemic countries free of MLN-causing viruses. Sustaining these efforts is critical to the “food security, income and livelihoods of resource-poor smallholder farmers.
To keep up with the disease’s changing dynamics, CIMMYT and its partners are moving ahead with novel techniques to achieve MLN resistance more quickly and cheaply. Some of these innovative techniques include genomic selection, molecular markers, marker-assisted backcrossing, and gene editing. These techniques will be instrumental in developing elite hybrids equipped not only to resist MLN but also to tolerate rapidly changing climatic conditions.
Cover photo: Researchers and visitors listen to explanations during a tour of infected maize fields at the MLN screening facility in Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A farmer in the Ara district, in India’s Bihar state, applies NPK fertilizer, composed primarily of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)
An international team of scientists, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has demonstrated how better nutrient management using digital tools, such as the Nutrient Expert decision support tool, can boost rice and wheat productivity and increase farmers’ income while reducing chemical fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Reported today in Nature Scientific Reports, the results show how the farmer-friendly digital nutrient management tool can play a key role in fighting climate change while closing the yield gap and boosting farmers’ profits.
The researchers tested the Nutrient Expert decision tool against typical farmer fertilization practices extensively using approximately 1600 side-by side comparison trials in rice and wheat fields across the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India.
The study found that Nutrient Expert-based recommendations lowered global warming potential by 12-20% in wheat and by around 2.5% in rice, compared to conventional farmers’ fertilization practices. Over 80% of farmers were also able to increase their crop yields and incomes using the tool.
Agriculture is the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in India. To tackle these emissions, crop scientists have been working on new ways to make farming more nutrient- and energy-efficient. Of the many technologies available, improving nutrient-use-efficiency through balanced fertilizer application — which in turn reduces excess fertilizer application — is key to ensuring food security while at the same time contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on climate change.
The work was carried out by CIMMYT in collaboration with farmers, and funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Scientists from the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and the former International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) also contributed to this study.
Researchers tested the Nutrient Expert decision tool against typical farmer fertilization practices extensively using approximately 1600 side-by side comparison trials in rice and wheat fields across the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India (Graphic: CIMMYT).
Precise recommendations
Nutrient Expert, which was launched back in 2013, works by analysing growing conditions, natural nutrients in the soil, and even leftover nutrients from previous crops to provide tailored fertilizer recommendations directly to farmers phones. The tool also complements the Government of India’s Soil Health Cards for balanced and precise nutrient recommendations in smallholder farmers’ fields.
Each farmer’s field is different, which is why blanket fertilizer recommendations aren’t always effective in producing better yields. By using nutrient management tools such as Nutrient Expert, farmers can obtain fertilizer recommendations specific to the conditions of their field as well as their economic resources and thus avoid under-fertilizing or over-fertilizing their fields.
“While efficient nutrient management in croplands is widely recognized as one of the solutions to addressing the global challenge of supporting food security in a growing global population while safeguarding planetary health, Nutrient Expert could be an important tool to implement such efficient nutrient management digitally under smallholder production systems,” said Tek Sapkota, CIMMYT climate scientist and first author of the study.
Sapkota also argues that adoption of the Nutrient Expert tool in rice-wheat systems of India alone could provide almost 14 million tonnes (Mt) of extra grain with 1.4 Mt less nitrogen fertilizer use, and a reduction of 5.3 Mt of carbon (CO2) emissions per year over current practices.
However, technological innovation alone will not achieve these positive outcomes.
“Given the magnitude of potential implications in terms of increasing yield, reducing fertilizer consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, governments need to scale-out Nutrient Expert-based fertilizer management through proper policy and institutional arrangements, especially for making efficient use of the nearly 200 million Soil Health Cards that were issued to farmers as part of the Soil Health mission of the Government of India,” said ML Jat, CIMMYT principal scientist and co-author of the study.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) has developed new maize hybrid varieties showing promising resistance to the destructive fall armyworm pest, which has been causing huge crop losses ever since the pest was first reported in Africa in 2016.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) was awarded a $5 million grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) to develop climate-resilient wheat.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a new set of elite, improved maize hybrids to partners in eastern Africa and similar agro-ecological zones. National agricultural research systems (NARS) and seed companies are invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release of, and subsequently commercialize, these new hybrids, in order to bring the benefits of the improved seed to farming communities.
